Women’s health management to prevent ovarian cancer is an element that is surprisingly easy to miss. Weight management is considered an important factor in preventing ovarian cancer. What is the relationship between ovarian cancer prevention and obesity?
Ovarian cancer, along with pancreatic cancer, has few early symptoms enough to be called ‘silent cancer’, and once it occurs, the mortality rate is high at 47%. For this reason, experts recommend that people of a certain age or older start taking care of their health through regular checkups.
In particular, body fat management is an important factor for women’s health management. Although the cause of ovarian cancer has not been clearly identified, ‘obesity’ is considered one of the main causes. In addition, most diseases that occur in women’s uterus, ovaries, and breasts have one thing in common: they are affected by excessive fat cells. I heard about the relationship between women’s health and obesity with the help of Kyu-hee Chae, CEO of 365mc Nowon Branch.
Obesity, not only causes ovarian cancer, but also affects ‘metastasis’
Studies have shown that obesity not only affects the incidence of cancer, but also increases the risk of metastasis. The Harper Cancer Research Institute in the US revealed in the international scientific journal ‘Cancer Research’ that skin cells and ovarian cancer tumor cells easily combine in an environment with fat.
Also, as a result of injecting ovarian cancer cells into obese and normal mice, it was confirmed that the possibility of ovarian cancer metastasis to obese mice was high. Considering that more than 90% of cancer patients die due to metastasis, it can be seen that obesity treatment is closely related to cancer treatment.
Breast cancer, the number one cancer among women, increases the incidence rate as fat accumulates
Breast cancer is the number one cancer incidence in women with 20,000 to 30,000 cases each year in Korea alone, and is closely related to the female hormone estrogen. If there is a lot of visceral fat, the insulin concentration in the body is high and estrogen is produced excessively, and this situation becomes the basis for the development and growth of breast cancer. High concentrations of estrogen make it difficult to treat most female cancers as well as breast cancer and increase the likelihood of recurrence. Periodic check-ups are recommended for women with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.
Adverse effects on uterine diseases common in women
Even if it is not a major disease like cancer, obesity causes hormonal abnormalities and disturbances in the autonomic nervous system, leading to various female diseases. A typical example is polycystic ovary syndrome. The main symptom of this is that ovulation does not occur regularly and the menstrual cycle is prolonged or irregular.
CEO Chae said, “When nutrients in the body are excessive, the sympathetic nerve is depleted, which results in the failure to protect the cells that produce eggs. There is a lot of research going on,” he said.
In addition, ‘uterine fibroids’, which is common enough to experience about half of women over the age of 35, is also related to obesity. Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that exist in the uterus. It is different from uterine sarcoma, a form of cancer, and the probability of becoming cancerous is extremely rare. However, it is a disease that requires follow-up and management because it is accompanied by symptoms such as irregular bleeding or infertility.
CEO Chae said, “The incidence of uterine fibroids has nearly doubled in the past five years, and this is not related to the trend of an increasing number of obese people. For that, weight management is essential.”
The key to managing women’s diseases is body fat management
CEO Chae emphasizes that the basic rules for preventing female diseases are regular checkups and body fat management. He pointed out that “the main source of estrogen is adipose tissue.
This also applies to women who are skinny and obese. Director Lee added, “Even if the forearms and thighs are thin, if visceral fat accumulates due to abdominal obesity, the insulin concentration in the body increases as well.”
Managing body fat is no different from other health management rules. Maintaining a high-protein, low-carb diet is fundamental. In particular, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day is helpful by reducing estrogen secretion and preventing visceral fat.
Studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise before menopause reduces the risk of breast cancer after menopause. According to a study by Dr. McCullough at the University of North Carolina in the United States, regular exercise from childbearing to menopause reduced the risk of breast cancer by a third. In particular, regardless of exercise intensity, regular exercise was found to lower the risk of breast cancer.
Another alternative that can be considered when fat accumulation is excessive is medical treatment. According to CEO Chae, the medical treatment of fat management is not a direct treatment to improve women’s diseases, but it is positive in that it can reduce the possibility of diseases caused by fat cells.