Perhaps something here might actually be a cause for the stage four breast cancer I live with. Perhaps if we knew more we could do more?
Are we researching this? No.
Much easier to simply blame fat people for getting sick. *correlation is not causation!! Also – fuck the O word. I hate it, it medicalizes and shames bodies and is no help in this discussion. BMI and those who think it’s a valid measure can also rot in hell IMHO.
Now, a bit about me. I received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2011, stage 2, full treatment – cut, poison, burn and all was well. I’ve fought fat phobic docs “well you’re not exactly Twiggy” for all my life however cancer treatment really brought out the worst at times.
I have a terrific, non-shaming oncologist. She came with a stage four metastatic breast cancer diagnosis a year ago. The cancer had spread to my bones- diffuse and widespread. Bone cancer truly sucks. Thankfully I’m receiving excellent care that is turning this diagnosis away from a death sentence into a lifetime of a chronic illness.
All this to say, I’ve got a lot of fat skin in this game and I am tired as shit if this lazy correlation being dragged out. It’s so easy to blame everything on fat. The problem lies in the fact that nobody has done truly unbiased research because fat bias and weight stigmas are seen as acceptable parts of our culture. So we don’t know the truth.
When we look at shame, trauma, starvation and malnourishment, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, bullying, sub-par medical treatment, and socioeconomic impacts we see how huge their impacts can be on health. Perhaps they are also a impactful enough to have caused cancer?
Now for me, it’s no matter, it is my life, I will live it and love it in the beautiful body I’ve been given. And I recognize the toll it’s taken on me, and I’d like others to not have to suffer with this crap as much.