Last year The Cancer Council Victoria ran a TV and radio advertising campaign to raise awareness of the proven links between being overweight and cancer, and to encourage all Victorians to maintain or develop a healthy lifestyle.
Our advertisements revealed that a waist measurement of over 100 cm for men, and over 85 cm for women can significantly increase the risk of cancer, including breast, bowel and aggressive prostate cancers. This information may have surprised many people, perhaps because being overweight has been proved to be a major contributor for many other serious diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, but the link to cancer is relatively new.
We are concerned that many people do not know they are overweight, and consequently, at risk of cancer. So we are now encouraging Australians to identify whether they are overweight and to take appropriate steps to manage their situation.
The first step is for people to measure their waist. People who exceed these measures (100 cm for men and 85 cm for women) should look at implementing changes to reduce their cancer risk. Our obesity information pack provides some useful information to help you get started. It also contains a tape measure which you can use to measure your waist regularly and track your progress.
Updated June 2008
