Mar 11, 2014 04:56 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Obesity, which has been tied to health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, may increase a woman's ovarian cancer risk, according to a recent study Counsel and Heal reported.

Researchers found that excess fat is a "probable" increase ovarian cancer risk by 6 percent per five points increase in body-mass index (BMI), report author Elisa Bandera said in the study.

Women with a BMI over 30 have the highest risk of developing ovarian cancer.

"What this means for cancer prevention is that prevention efforts need to target the life course, not just adulthood, and families, not just individuals," Bandera said according to WebMD. "Because we also have evidence linking obesity to other cancers and other chronic diseases, maintenance of healthy weight through a healthy diet and regular exercise is a safe bet to live a healthy life."

Body fat increases the risk for ovarian cancer and other cancer in complex ways. Fat tissue produces hormone-like compounds that promote inflammation and specific proteins that can affect cell growth and turnover, "thus increasing the risk of some forms of cancer," Ricardo Uauy, a professor of Public Health Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, explained in the study.

Ovarian cancer afflicts around 22,400 American women with more than 14,000 of them dying from the illness, according to the American Cancer Society.

 The study was released by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund.

"This finding is significant for two reasons. Firstly, ovarian cancer is both difficult to detect and often deadly, with the chances of the cancer recurring quite high. Secondly, maintaining a healthy body weight offers women a way to reduce the risk of getting the disease," Uauy said on his blog at World Cancer Research Fund International.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit