It used to be all about estrogen. It was postulated that obese women, and there are too many of us, synthesized estrogen in adipose tissue. Now there is some thought that insulin is also part of the problem, due to high carb diets we are all following to keep fat levels low.
But we know now that that's all bunk, right, and we should be following a "plant-based, Meditteranean, low carb, right oil and fat" diet.
Anyway, an article of interest is "Insulin, Insulin-like Growth Factor-I, and Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women." Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol 101, Issue 1, Jan 7/09.
The multitude of authors conducted a study and looked at 835 subjects who were nondiabetic. They looked at their various blood profiles and concluded that insulin levels were positively associated with the risk of breast cancer but with a few caveats, like hormone use. Obesity was also associated.
The conclusion was "these data suggest that hyperinsulinemia is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and may have a substantial role in explaining the obesity=breast cancer relationship."
They observed "strong positive association" between risk of breast cancer and high fasting insulin levels in postmenopausal women who weren't diabetic and weren't on hormone therapy.
This means that women who are obese have to lose weight, get their insulin levels down and get active. It also mentions high estradiol levels but I'm not sure what women can do about that, other than lose the adipose tissue that produces too much estrogen.
I'd love to hear some medical comments on this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Please tell your readers to help people with diabetes using carb restriction by signing the Metabolism Society's petition to the NIH. Here's the link:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/get-the-nih-to-acknowledge-the-existing-science-and-fund-more-research-by-the-experts-who-have
Thank so much!
Laurie
Post a Comment