Around 100 women per every 100 000 are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in United States. About 20 of them die. It is by far the most common cancer in U.S. women.
U.S. is is also the country with by far most new diagnosis of breast cancer in the world. Fallowed by France, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Argentina.
The least amount of diagnoses of breast cancer per year are in China, India, and Japan. Only about 20 women from 100 000 are diagnosed with BC per year from which about 7 die.
That is a huge difference! The interesting thing is, that when Asian women move to America, they immediately loose this advantage and become part of American sad statistic. It is clearly mainly a lifestyle issue.
So what do Asian women living in Asia do different than women living in western world?
A lot of it is not fully explained, but there are clear differences in:
Weight
To Asian woman, one of the worst things that can happen is to become obese.
It’s unusual for American women to weigh the same as they did at age 20, which is absolutely normal for Asian women. Asian women are skinny and they don’t gain extra weight during adulthood. A big part of it is a simple diet and extra physical labor. People in poor parts of China and India don’t have extra food to indulge in so they eat only the minimum they need to survive. Which ultimately works as a benefit – calorie restriction is a powerful preventive mechanism against breast cancer.
Alcohol consumption
Women in Asia don’t drink as much alcohol as women in America and other western countries. And the evidence is strong that alcohol even in moderation is a risk factor. Even one drink a day is associated with about 10 % increase in risk and 2 drinks a day with 25 % increased risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. But it is not clear how alcohol influences the breast.
Exercise
Maybe Asian women don’t exercise that much, but they usually have to work physically in warriors physically laborious jobs. Which actually really is kind of exercise. They are not sitting on their buts all day, but moving constantly working in the factory making shoes, assembling cars or in other kinds of always moving jobs.
Women in Japan don’t have to work that laboriously, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find them in gyms everyday considering the discipline that comes from their culture. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know.
Diet
I know, Chinese food here in America is terrible. But I doubt it’s the same in China. The whole family probably survives for a week from Chicken and vegetables cooked on Monday. And even if the diet is terrible (too much white rice, rice noodles) they just have a little and than they stop eating before they’re full. Majority of them don’t binge on food like Westerners do.
In other parts, they have a chicken once or twice per year if they are lucky and eat what they can find, which is probably not much but it is rich in green vegetables and fruits. Red meat is too expensive and not that accessible as it is in U.S.
Again, calorie restriction and consumption of unprocessed foods, with lots of vegetables and fruits is a major protectant against cancer.
Soy
Asian women eat more soy than their U.S. counterparts. Could that explain the lower breast cancer rates in Asian women? Probably not. There are some well known protective benefits of soy but research doesn’t show much of evidence of less breast cancer with more soy consumption.
You shouldn’t overeat on soy products just because it could protect you from breast cancer, but adding it into your diet occasionally would be a great idea.
I wish more women in western world would adopt a kind of lifestyle Asian women lead. Even if part of becoming diagnosed with breast cancer is genetics, we can do a lot to prevent it.