Health
Men face higher cancer risk with this specific body fat measurement
Obesity has long been established as a risk factor for cancer, particularly when it’s stored in certain areas of the body.
Now, new research suggests that a larger waist circumference is a bigger risk factor than body mass index (BMI) for obesity-related cancers — but only for men, not for women.
The findings, which were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, will be presented in May at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain.
BMI IS WRONG WAY TO MEASURE OBESITY, RESEARCHERS SAY
The study was led by Dr. Ming Sun, Dr. Josef Fritz and Dr. Tanja Stocks from Lund University in Sweden.
New research suggests that a larger waist circumference is a bigger risk factor than body mass index for obesity-related cancers — but only for men, not for women. (iStock)
The researchers analyzed data from 340,000 Swedish people averaging 51 years of age whose BMI and waist circumference assessments were performed between 1981 and 2019, according to a press release.
They then compared those statistics to cancer diagnoses pulled from the Swedish Cancer Register.
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Over a period of 14 years, there were 18,185 diagnoses of obesity-related cancers among the patients in the study.
For men, an increase in waist circumference of around 11 cm resulted in a 25% higher risk of obesity-related cancer.
This was a bigger risk factor than having an increased BMI, which increased the chances by 19%.
For men, an increase in waist circumference of around 11 cm resulted in a 25% higher risk of obesity-related cancer. (iStock)
For women, an increase of about 12 cm in waist circumference and an increase in BMI were both linked to a 13% greater cancer risk, the study found.
Obesity-related cancers include cancers of the oesophagus (adenocarcinoma), gastric (cardia), colon, rectum, liver/intrahepatic bile ducts, gallbladder, pancreas, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium, ovary, renal cell carcinoma, meningioma, thyroid and multiple myeloma, the release stated.
“BMI is a measure of body size, but does not provide information on fat distribution, whereas waist circumference is a proxy more closely related to abdominal adiposity.”
Overall, the researchers found waist circumference to be a more accurate cancer predictor than BMI.
“BMI is a measure of body size, but does not provide information on fat distribution, whereas waist circumference is a proxy more closely related to abdominal adiposity,” they wrote.
“This distinction is crucial because visceral fat, which accumulates around the abdominal organs, is more metabolically active and has been implicated in adverse health outcomes, including insulin resistance, inflammation and abnormal blood fat levels. Consequently, individuals with similar BMIs may have distinct cancer risks due to differences in fat distribution.”
Why the difference between men and women?
One potential reason for the gender discrepancy, according to the researchers, is that men are more likely to store fat viscerally (in the belly), while women generally accumulate more subcutaneous fat (under the skin) and peripheral fat (in the arms and legs).
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“Consequently, waist circumference is a more accurate measure of visceral fat in men than in women,” the researchers wrote.
“This may make waist circumference a stronger risk factor of cancer in men, and explain why waist circumference adds risk information beyond that conveyed by BMI in men, but not women.”
The researchers suggested that combining hip circumference with waist circumference in women could give a more accurate estimation of visceral fat. (iStock)
Excess body fat is also linked to higher insulin levels in men than in women, the researchers noted, which could be a factor in waist circumference being more strongly linked to men’s cancer risk.
“The divergence in how waist circumference and BMI relate to cancer risk between men and women underscores the complexity of the impact of adiposity (excess body fat) on cancer development,” the researchers wrote.
“It suggests that considering biological and physiological differences between the sexes might be helpful when assessing cancer risk. Further research is needed to explore these sex differences.”
They also suggested that combining hip circumference with waist circumference in women could give a more accurate estimation of visceral fat.
“Waist circumference is a more accurate measure of visceral fat in men than in women,” the researchers wrote. (iStock)
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, was not involved in the study, but reinforced that BMI is a “good indicator of obesity, but is not the only one.”
“Belly fat contains a lot of the inflammatory chemicals that act as carcinogens.”
“Obesity leads to inflammation, and inflammation correlates with many kinds of cancer, including breast and prostate and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract,” he told Fox News Digital.
“It is not surprising that waist circumference in men could be a more precise indicator if measured properly, because belly fat contains a lot of the inflammatory chemicals that act as carcinogens,” the doctor noted.
Obesity-related cancers include cancers of the oesophagus (adenocarcinoma), gastric (cardia), colon, rectum, liver/intrahepatic bile ducts, gallbladder, pancreas, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium, ovary, renal cell carcinoma, meningioma, thyroid and multiple myeloma. (American Cancer Society/Getty Images)
For women, where fat distribution is somewhat different, Siegel agrees that it “makes sense” to consider both waist and hip circumference, as the Swedish study suggests.
“The study looks at over 300,000 people and is an important new reference, but it is observational, so it shows an association, but not proof,” the doctor added.
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Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurosurgeon and longevity expert, also detailed the different ways in which men and women store fat.
“While women accumulate more subcutaneous fat — on the hips, thighs and buttocks — men pack it around the waist, deep inside the abdomen,” Osborn, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“This is visceral fat, and it’s metabolically toxic. It’s not just sitting there. It’s active, like a gland, secreting inflammatory chemicals (cytokines), raising insulin levels, disrupting hormones and laying the groundwork for cancer cell growth.”
Strength training three times per week is ideal, one doctor advised, adding, “Resistance training reduces visceral fat and inflammation.” (iStock)
Osborn reiterated that BMI is limited in its ability to accurately measure excess fat.
“First, BMI doesn’t factor in muscle mass, so a short, stocky individual with a low body fat percentage may be categorized as overweight or obese, when in fact quite the opposite is true,” he said.
“Second, BMI doesn’t tell you where the body fat is, and as it turns out, that’s what’s critical — at least in men.”
Minimizing risk
To reduce cancer risk, Osborn recommends that men measure their waistlines to ensure they’re in a healthy range. People can also track their visceral fat score on a medical-grade anthropometry scale, he said.
“Understand that belly fat isn’t just cosmetic — it’s carcinogenic.”
“Anything above 40 inches (102 cm) is a red flag,” he told Fox News Digital.
Strength training three times per week is ideal, the doctor advised, adding, “Resistance training reduces visceral fat and inflammation.”
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Proper nutrition is also important, he said. “Eat like your life depends on it — because it does. Stop feeding your cancer risk.”
“Understand that belly fat isn’t just cosmetic — it’s carcinogenic,” Osborn added. “You may not feel it now, but the clock is ticking. Visceral fat is silent, aggressive and deadly — and it’s doing damage even if your BMI is ‘normal.’”
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One woman’s uncomfortable reaction to alcohol led to a grave discovery.
Hollie Thursby, 28, a mother of two from the U.K., told Kennedy News and Media that after giving birth to her second son, Jack, she began experiencing unusual symptoms.
At a checkup for her son, who was a couple of months old, Thursby mentioned that she was experiencing “unbearably itchy skin,” which is known to be a post-partum symptom. The doctor suggested it was due to changing hormones.
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Thursby added that she occasionally drank a couple glasses of wine. Although she kept the drinking to a minimum, she described having “a lot of pain” down the side of her neck.
“Really quite painful and uncomfortable,” she said, according to the report.
A U.K. mom reported experiencing pain in her neck after drinking a glass or two of wine, which turned out to be one of the first signs that she had cancer. (Kennedy News and Media)
The mother also reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day.
“I also felt like when I got to bed that someone was sitting on my chest,” she shared.
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In July 2025, Thursby discovered a lump on the side of her neck that she described as “really quite big,” but wasn’t painful, Kennedy News and Media reported.
“It was hard, it didn’t move, but it was there,” she said. “When I turned my neck to the side, you could see it.”
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy for Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby’s symptoms turned out to be a form of blood cancer — Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma, which means it is in two or more lymph nodes, according to Cancer Research U.K.
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Common symptoms include swelling of the lymph nodes, heavy sweating, weight loss, itching, persistent cough or shortness of breath, high temperatures, and pain in the stomach or lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.
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“Pain when you drink alcohol is actually a known side effect of Hodgkin lymphoma,” she said, per the report. “It’s something about the acidity in the wine and not when you drink other alcohol.”
While alcohol-related pain in Hodgkins lymphoma patients has been “an accepted scientific consensus” since the 1950s, cases are rare, Healthline confirmed.
Hollie Thursby, 28, and her two sons are pictured above. The mother reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy in November, noting that the hardest part is not being able to care for her kids after losing her own mother to a blood disorder called myelodysplasia.
“I grew up without a mum, and it was horrendous. I can’t do that to the boys,” she told Kennedy News and Media. “We’re all devastated, but we all know now, and we’ve got a treatment plan, which is what we need.”
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“I’m just doing everything I can to get better for them. I keep telling myself this is only temporary, I just need to keep going.”
Anyone experiencing pain or other concerning symptoms after consuming alcohol should consult a doctor for guidance.
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Red light therapy has been shown to reduce brain inflammation, protecting people who experience head trauma from long-term health consequences, a University of Utah study has shown.
Brain damage from repeated impact over the years is known to cause cognitive symptoms, ranging from memory issues to full-blown dementia, particularly affecting soldiers and athletes.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts rather than a single injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
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More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Other research has shown that military personnel in active combat suffer from similar issues, as do first responders and veterans.
The treatment was administered three times a week for 20 minutes using specialized headsets and intranasal devices designed to penetrate the skull. (iStock)
In the new study, the researchers recruited 26 current football players to understand more about the impact of red-light therapy on brain injuries.
The participants received either red light therapy delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips into the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that doesn’t produce light. Players self-administered the therapy three times a week, 20 minutes each time, for 16 weeks.
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“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this can be real,’” said first author Hannah Lindsey, Ph.D., in the university press release. “That’s how striking it was.”
Specific wavelengths of light are believed to enter the brain and reduce molecules that trigger inflammation, potentially halting the path toward dementia and other cognitive conditions. (iStock)
Players using the placebo treatment experienced increased brain inflammation over the course of the season. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than at the beginning of the season, the study found.
For players who used red-light therapy during the season, their brain inflammation didn’t increase at all.
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Previous studies have shown that red light, if powerful enough, can penetrate the skull and reach the brain, where it may reduce inflammation-related molecules.
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“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D., the senior author on the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
Study limitations
The study was conducted using a small sample size, which led to different levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups, the researchers acknowledged.
While the placebo group showed increased brain inflammation during the football season, those receiving red light therapy showed no increase in inflammatory markers. (iStock)
Future large randomized clinical trials will be “crucial to back up the results” in larger populations, they noted.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they’re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,” Carrie Esopenko, Ph.D., second author of the study, said in the release.
“And this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we’ve been searching for.”
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The team plans to recruit 300 people with persistent symptoms from TBI or concussion for a randomized controlled trial in 2026, with a focus on first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
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Drinking heavily and consistently over an adult’s lifetime could lead to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The study analyzed 20 years of data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults to determine how long-term drinking impacted the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) or precancerous colorectal adenomas (polyps).
The participants reported their average weekly intake of beer, wine and liquor intake during four age periods — 18 to 24, 25 to 39, 40 to 54, and 55 and older.
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“Heavy drinkers” were identified as having more than 14 drinks per week and “moderate drinkers” had between seven and 14 drinks per week.
The observational research revealed that consistent heavy drinking over adulthood was linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancer.
Researchers found a major association between colorectal cancer diagnosis and heavy lifetime drinking. (iStock)
Heavy lifetime drinking was associated with a 25% higher overall CRC risk and nearly double the risk of rectal cancer. Moderate lifetime drinking had a lower overall CRC risk.
Compared to light drinkers, the consistently heavy drinkers had about a 91% higher risk of CRC.
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For colorectal adenomas (precancerous polyps), higher current lifetime drinking did not show a strong pattern, although former drinkers showed a significantly lower risk of non-advanced adenoma compared to current light drinkers.
Out of the 88,092 participants, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Out of the 88,092 participants in the study, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. (iStock)
The authors noted that the research was limited, as it was observational and not based on a clinical trial. It also hinged on self-reported alcohol use.
The findings suggest that consistently heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime consumption “may increase CRC risk, whereas cessation may lower adenoma risk,” the researchers stated. Associations “may differ by tumor site,” they added.
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The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts.
In a recent episode of the podcast “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health in California, detailed how even moderate drinking can impact “nearly every organ system in the body,” due to metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and its effect on hormones.
The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts. (iStock)
Drinking has been found to increase the risk of many cancers, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins, Hyman said.
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“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” he warned.
Reducing or eliminating alcohol can lower the risk of several cancers, according to medical experts. (Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, shared that taking a break from drinking alcohol for longer periods of time can “reshape health more profoundly.”
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“Over months to a year, we see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
Chiang added, “Reducing or eliminating alcohol lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast and colorectal, over time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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