AACR Logo Weight gain leads to inflammation, which subsequently causes diseases like cancer. The idea is to break the cycle right from the beginning. A study by the American Association of Cancer Research has shown that shedding kilos could lower the number of inflammatory markers in the body.

For the analysis, about 439 women underwent weight loss interventions for a span of 1 year to reduce almost 10% of their body weights. Some of them engaged in aerobic exercises while a few of them did not. Something to note in this study found in the journal, Cancer Research, is that losing even a few pounds seemed to result in fewer inflammatory markers.

“Both obesity and inflammation have been shown to be related to several types of cancer, and this study shows that if you reduce weight, you can reduce inflammation as well,” commented Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash.

The scientists calculated the proportions of inflammatory substances like neutrophil, leukocyte, serum amyloid A, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein in the trial participants. After the weight loss program got over, it was observed that 36.1% of women who changed their diets alone seemingly experienced 36.1% reduction in C-reactive protein levels.

The group involved in exercise and diet control encountered almost 41.7% drop in the protein. Alternately, amounts of interleukin-6 appeared to reduce by 23.1% in the group which modified its diet alone and 24.3% in those who exercised as well.

Even in case of a 5% weight loss, a noticeable reduction in inflammation was seen. However, exercising in the absence of dietary changes did not have a considerable effect on inflammatory markers. As mentioned above, inflammation is the root cause of cancers and other severe conditions. This makes it very clear that obesity needs to be tackled by any possible way.