The World Heart Federation reports that physical inactivity increases the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%, and the American Heart Association found moderately overweight women in one study had a 50% increased risk of coronary heart disease.

To such reports, no one ever adds, “But that 50% doesn’t mean anything. So just sit on your couch all day and eat Twinkies.”

And yet … when researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle recently found that women who had taken certain birth-control pills within the past year faced a 50% increased risk of breast cancer compared to women who hadn’t taken the pills, some doctors seemingly couldn’t wait to discredit the findings. The National Cancer Institute-funded study was published Aug. 1 in the journal Cancer Research.

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