Obese people at increased risk of life-threatening disease even if they appear medically healthy

OBESE people face an increased risk of getting cancer — even when they appear medically healthy, a study says.

Normal blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels were no assurance in those carrying too much weight.

The findings are further evidence against the idea people can be “fat but fit”, experts said.

Researchers at Lund University in Malmo, Sweden, studied health data on almost 800,000 Europeans.

They discovered that obese people with “metabolic complications” were most at risk.

Study author Dr Ming Sun said: “A significant number of cancer cases could potentially be prevented by targeting the co-existence of metabolic problems and obesity.”

Metabolically healthy men with obesity had a 67 per cent increased risk of kidney cancer, and a 42 per cent increased risk of bowel cancer, researchers said.

But the relationship with both pancreatic cancer and rectal cancer was no longer statistically significant.

Being overweight but not obese raised risk of the blood cancer multiple myeloma by 50 per cent.

But, surprisingly, neither metabolically healthy or unhealthy men with obesity were any more prone than peers of normal weight.