Highly overweight teens have doubled risk of having colon cancer when they reach their middle-age, a recent research revealed.
A Swedish study was conducted to determine the linked of being overweight to having an increased risk of having bowel inflammation and cancer, as per Science Daily. It involved 240,000 Swedish men aged 16 to 20, who had been recruited in the military in 1969 to 1976.
During the conscription of the subjects, factors such as height, weight, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels have been recorded. Up to year 2010, the subjects were monitored for colon cancer with the help of the data from the national cancer registry.
Nearly 12 percent of the subjects were underweight during the time of enrollment in the military. Eight-one percent of the subjects were of normal weight, 5 percent were moderately overweight, 1.5 percent was very overweight, and 1 percent was obese.
Study findings revealed that 885 subjects developed colon cancer and 348 cases of which were rectal cancers, or cancer of the final portion of the large intestine. The trial also revealed that the subjects who were very overweight had an increased risk of developing colon cancer. In addition, obesity in young adulthood was linked with a higher risk of having the disease.
With regard to the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, the subjects with higher sedimentation rate had an increased risk of developing colon cancer, as compared to those with lower sedimentation rate.
The research team also said that the study had some limitations, as per Medical News Today. The study did not cover the association between adulthood obesity and risk of having colon cancer as they did not determine the subjects' body mass index (BMI) and inflammatory status during their adulthood.
Adult obesity and inflammation have been linked an increased risk of having colon cancer. While this type of cancer is known as the third most common form of cancer among men, not much is known on the effects of obesity and systemic inflammation during the late adolescence stage.