It was once assumed that obesity had often been a determining factor between the risk of cancer in post-menopausal women. Now, there’s an even greater risk that affects the opposite group of women. While still the group was still post-menopausal, what researchers determined was that the chances increased as height did.
According to Reuters:
Cancer involves the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in processes having to do with growth, so it follows that hormones or other growth factors that influence height may also influence cancer risk, [Dr. Geoffrey] Kabat said in a telephone interview with Reuters….
Even after adjusting for such factors as body mass index – a ratio of weight in relation to height – the women’s risk of developing any cancer rose by 13 percent for every 10-centimeter increase in height (about 4 inches), the researchers say.
With every extra 10 centimeters, researchers found, women’s risk for cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid or blood rose by 23 to 29 percent, and their risk of melanoma and cancers of the breast, ovary, endometrium or colon rose by 13 to 17 percent.
