Healthy Lifestyle Deters Development of Metabolic Syndrome in Childhood Cancer Survivors

Childhood cancer survivors are at risk of developing metabolic syndrome later in life and research shows that the possibility can be avoided by adopting a healthy lifestyle.

According to the researchers, it is imperative that childhood cancer survivors be made aware of the health benefits of a healthy lifestyle and its long-term benefits.

Researchers said that childhood cancer survivors were at increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that raise the possibility of getting heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and stroke.

For the study, the researchers examined around 1,600 childhood cancer survivors. They conducted interviews and tests on them to assess if they followed the healthy lifestyle guidelines issued by cancer research bodies. The results showed that metabolic syndrome was present in 31.8 percent of the participants while 27 percent of them followed healthy lifestyle guidelines.

"These findings are important because they indicate that adults who were treated for cancer as children have the opportunity to influence their own health outcomes," Kirsten Ness, PT, PhD, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis said in the press release.

"Cancer survivors should not smoke. In addition, adopting a lifestyle that includes maintaining a healthy body weight, regular physical activity, and a diet that includes fruits and vegetables and that limits refined sugars, excessive alcohol, red meat, and salt has potential to prevent development of the metabolic syndrome," Ness said.

According to a recent World Health Organisation report, by 2015 an estimated 70 million children will be obese or overweight. The report stated that developing countries have a larger number of obese children. The rate of increase has been more than 30 percent higher than that of developed countries.

The current study was published online in CANCER.

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