High insulin levels may trigger breast cancer in women
POSTED December 31, 2008 - 14:18 | POSTED BY Harleen Kaur
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on December 31, 2008 - 15:07
The research also makes it clear that obesity makes women more vulnerable to develop breast cancerdefine because overweight women have high levels of insulindefine. Insulin significantly stimulates production of estrogen, a hormone that triggers the risk of breast cancer.
Earlier, it was believed that extra oestrogen produced by fat is the reason for increased risk of breast cancer. However, the latest studies have found that raised insulin levels due to obesity play a significant role.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that women with highest blood sugar levels were one and a half times more prone to developing breast cancer as compared to those with lowest levels.
The findings of the Women’s Health Initiative Study were based on a comparative analysis of insulin levels in 835 women who developed breast cancer with that of 816 women without the disease. It was further revealed that women with highest fasting insulin levels were 1.5 times more prone to risk of breast cancer than their counterparts with lowest fasting insulin levels.
Obese postmenopausal women are 30 percent more likely to suffer from breast cancer than those having a normal weight. Overweight women had 7-15 percent increased risk of developing the disease.
Women with highest insulin levels, who were not on hormone therapy for the menopause, had an even greater risk of the fatal disease. They had 2.4-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer than those with the lowest levels.
The findings of the study concluded: “These data suggest that a high level of insulin is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and may have a substantial role in explaining the obesity-breast cancer relationship.”
The study is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
