Risk Factors for Human Breast Cancer (3a): Weight and Height

Stand / Letzte Aktualisierung durch Elisabeth Rieping 2004/07/27

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The connection between obesity and breast cancer has been studied in many societies and is well established [i],[ii],[iii],[iv],[v],[vi],[vii],[viii],[ix],
[x],[xi],[xii],[xiii],[xiv],[xv],[xvi],[xvii].

On the contrary, the link between overweight and artificial feeding has only in the seventies started to attract the attention of scientists [xviii],[xix],
[xx]. May be, because until recently raising a big, fat baby was a goal, achieved by many loving mothers and pediatricians, not a problem.

In the beginning of artificial feeding it was probably not anticipated that many overfed baby might keep their eating habits for all their life giving
rise to overweight and its implications.

The mode by which bottle feeding induces the development of obesity seems to be the following: The breast fed baby sucks as long as it is hungry
and thereby learns when it is satisfied.

By bottle feeding the mother controls the amount of food the infant has to take in, and, influenced by the former ideal of a big, quickly weight-
gaining baby, she often tries to give the quantity prescribed by pediatricians and infant food industry, weather the child is hungry or not.

In this way she deprives her yougster of learning to control its weight.

Artificially fed children grow quicker than their naturally fed couterparts and they are fatter[xxi],[xxii],[xxiii],[xxiv],[xxv],[xxvi],[xxvii],[xxviii],
[xxix],[xxx],[xxxi].

From longitudinal studies, which follow the life of the overfed infant, the adults seem to keep the habit of overeating [xxxii],[xxxiii]. That
overeating is a habit that is difficult to change, many people will be able to confirm by their personal experience.
Longitudinal growth data on children who developed obesity during childhood reveal a distinct tendency for height gain to accelarate coincident
with or after the onset of excessive weight gain. The magnitude of the relative height increment is related to the degree of overweight. Overnutrition
accelarates growth, just as undernutrition retards it [xxxiv].

A further hint to the time during which the diet exerts its influence can be seen in the increased height of breast cancer patients [xxxv].

While overweight might be acquired by overeating as an adult, it is not possible to explain tallness by events taking place lately during individual
life.

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