'Obesity increases risk of cancer, heart-related diseases, diabetes'

 7 crore Indians are morbidly obese with obesity prevalence rate of 12-30 percent

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Ahead of International Cancer Day on 4 February, NURA, Sustained Health with AL Screening, has initiated an awareness campaign on the issue of 'Obesity leading to Cancer' and research in the field. Obesity and Cancer are India’s two forefront epidemics. Dr Tausif Ahmed Thangalvadi, Medical Director NURA gave his insights into the research on the subject on Thursday here in a Virtual briefing.

Quoting World Health Organisation, Cancer Research, United Kingdom and NURA data on the matter he explains that about seven crore Indians are morbidly obese with an obesity prevalence rate of 12-30 per cent. This is followed by central obesity which increases the risk of heart-related diseases, diabetes and cholesterol. This further has heightened the risk of acquiring 13 different types of cancers.

"It was also found that obesity amongst the rich was more compared to people from economically backward sections. He underlined the fact that one in ten obese children globally will be from India by the year 2030 which is an alarming figure. The clinical implications of obesity are Type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, mood disorders, degrading reproductive health, Liver diseases, Hypertension and risk of cancer," Dr Tausif Ahmed said.

“Early detection is rather difficult and only 20 percent of such cases have been detected. The symptoms for these cancers are harder to detect and that is why 80 percent of cancer cases have been detected at a later stage," he said. ”However this can be bantered with regular screening and a healthy lifestyle. It is more important to focus on what time you are eating other than what you are eating that makes a lot of difference.

One should consider taking an obesity and cancer screening, especially ones who are in the age group of 35 years and above, younger than that can take it in alternate years,” the doctor said. He also explained that Indian food leads to visceral fat.

In a research conducted by him, he found that the Japanese have 15 percent of Visceral fat on average but when they adapt to Indian food culture, the percentage grows. Men are more prone to the accumulation of visceral fat and women with visceral fat have a higher risk of getting dangerous cancers, he pointed out.

NURA used advanced Japanese A L Health Screening tools for the detection of cancer at an early stage. They have a wide range of screening like Mammography, Bone scans, Oral scans, and Liver and Kidney scans.

For women, they have the facility for conducting 13 scans which have been successful in the early detection of cervical and Breast cancers. They will be completing two years of providing their services in India and their counterparts in Japan on 4 February. The organisation has three centres across India - in Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurugram.