Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark have found a 12 percent risk associated with being dangerously overweight.

The researchers in their new study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that being overweight or obese increases the risk of several common cancers.

The team of researchers raised concern that the rising rates of obesity and severe obesity will increase the rates of cancers across the board, as well as take a toll on healthcare costs and see more people dying prematurely.

The team looked at cancer data in Denmark over a 40-year period, from 1977 to 2016 and found 20,706 cancers among 313,321 adults who were clinically diagnosed as being overweight or obese.

By comparison, there were 18,480 cancers diagnosed among the general Danish population over the same time period, which means that weighing above average increased the risk of all cancers by 12 percent, according to their findings.

According to the researchers, the heightened risk was the same for cancers previously identified as obesity-related, such as kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer, and for blood and neurological cancers.

Explaining reasons obesity is linked to an increase in cancer risk, the scientists found that obesity is associated with a rapid rise in the number of cells, as well as the secretion of high levels of proteins and hormones that are pro-inflammatory such as estrogen – all of which is linked to cancer.

The authors wrote in the study: “Given the increasing obesity epidemic, our findings have contributed much needed recent data on the overall burden of cancer among patients hospitalized for overweight and obesity.”

Obesity is known as a risk factor for several chronic health conditions aside from cancer including type 2 diabetes, strokes and heart attacks.

The United States health officials say that addressing the obesity epidemic will not only lead to better health outcomes but also reduce medical costs.

Meanwhile, in 2012, a study from Cornell University in New York found obesity to account for about 21 percent of total US healthcare costs, approximately $190.2 billion per year.

Obesity, however, continues to plague more than one-third of adults in the US, and experts have warned that the proportion will only grow as younger generations do.

Also, researchers from Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health predict that nearly half of all Americans will be obese by 2030.

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Researchers have found that students who use their smartphones five or more hours a day are prone to higher risk of obesity and likely to have other lifestyle habits that increases the risk of heart disease.

According to a study, researchers analysed 1,060 students (700 girls and 360 boys) of Colombia with an average age of 19 years and 20 years, respectively.

“It is important for the general population to know and be aware that, despite being undoubtedly attractive for its multiple purposes, portability, comfort, access to countless services, information and entertainment sources, mobile technology should also be used to improve habits and healthy behaviours,” said study lead Author Mirary Mantilla-Morron from the Simon Bolivar University in Colombia.

The study found that the risk of obesity increases by 43 per cent if a smartphone was used for five or more hours a day, as participating students were twice as likely to drink more sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, snacks and have decreased physical activities.

According to researchers, 26 per cent of the students who were overweight and 4.6 per cent who were obese spent more than five hours using their device.

Spending too much time using the smartphone facilitates sedentary behaviours, reduces the time of physical activity, which increases the risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease and different types of cancer, the study said.

According to Rajesh Kapoor, surgical Gastroenterology, Jaypee Hospital, Noida, using smartphones today is not a mere choice, rather it has become a necessity. But using it for too long may risk your healthy life.

“The best way out is to encourage yourself to reduce the duration of time being used on phones and other related gadgets at the same time, to indulge in physical activities like yoga or any other sports or exercise pattern, and by not becoming a couch potato,” Kapoor told IANS.

“It is not a question of five or more hours on the phone. It is a question of how much activity level we are able to build into our life,” Achal Bhagat, Senior Consultant, Psychiatry at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Delhi told IANS.

“And if we are not able to build it to an adequate level, then it increases the chances of obesity and related health risk factors. Phone is one of the ways of exhibiting that we are not doing enough physical activities in our life,” he added.

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