Obesity in adults is linked to increased risks of esophageal cancer, a nasty disease that’s on the rise in the US, Europe and Israel. Researchers have now discovered that being overweight earlier in life may also influence cancer risks.

Changing characteristics of people in the last century in the western world have had some unlikely effects. Rising levels of gastric cancer, for example, caused one researcher to examine whether obesity could be the cause. A group from North Ireland's Queen's University Belfast published an overall analysis of obesity and digestive tract cancers, looking at cancers both in the stomach and throat. Ask your doctor about how to get started on long term, effective weight loss. Researchers concluded that absolutely obesity indicated higher chances of both forms of cancer, but surpris...