Why even bother to lose weight?

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KimbytheSea
KimbytheSea Member Posts: 84
edited June 2015 in HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer

So this study came out....http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/846285

Women past menopause who are or ever were overweight are like, a zillion times more likely to get breast cancer. And even if we lose weight, it doesn't lessen our risk.

"The damage may already have been done."

Great. Just great. I feel as if I did this to myself. I'm overweight and I feel as if I'm screwed forever. (Trying to lose it, but this was a real blow).

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited June 2015

    Breathe.

    From the study:

    • We found that overweight and obese postmenopausal women have a significantly increased risk for invasive breast cancer, particularly for estrogen receptor–positive cancers. The risk is greatest for women with a body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) greater than 35.0, in whom the risk is 1.58 times the risk for women of normal weight.

    That's not a large increase in risk. Nowhere near a zillion . Meanwhile, there are plenty of other good medical reasons to work for weight in a healthy range.

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  • KimbytheSea
    KimbytheSea Member Posts: 84
    edited June 2015

    I'll have to re-read that. I thought i read a zillion...

    I will lose it for other good medical reasons, but it was still a blow. I read 86 percent up at the top of the article and just about melted down.

    Hard to keep perspective....

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  • KimbytheSea
    KimbytheSea Member Posts: 84
    edited June 2015

    OK, I read it and I'm still bummed...Here's a passage: And it goes onto say that losing weight doesn't decrease risk, but there needs to be more studies done.

    "Women with BMIs of 35 and up were about 56 percent more likely to be diagnosed with any type of invasive breast cancer during the study, compared to normal-weight women.

    When the researchers looked at specific breast cancer subtypes, they found the most-obese women were 86 percent more likely than normal-weight women to be diagnosed with breast tumors that are fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone."

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited June 2015

    The key phrase is "more likely." The absolute likelihood is still pretty low.

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