How Japan’s Health Level Helps With Cancer Prevention

ByPrimary Researcher

Executive Summary

  • The US leads the world in cancer research dollars spent per year, but it has some of the worst outcomes for cancer.
  • Japan is a country that does a good job of helping to maintain its population’s health level.

Introduction

Japan is an interesting country to study how their general health level influences cancer outcomes.

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Why Do People in the US Progress to Cancer More Than People in Japan?

This interesting fact about how cancerous tumors are far more likely to stay dormant in people in Japan than in the US. This quote is from the book Anticancer.

If we all have a potential cancer lying dormant in us, each of us also has a body designed to fight the process of tumor development. It is up to each of us to use our body’s natural defenses. Other cultures do this much better than ours. The cancers that afflict the West—for example, breast, colon and prostate cancer—are seven to sixty times more frequent here than in Asia. Nevertheless, statistics reveal that relative to men in the West, just as many precancerous microtumors are found in the prostates of Asian men who die before fifty from causes other than cancer.

Something in their way of life prevents these microtumors from developing. On the other hand, the cancer rate among Japanese people who have settled in the West catches up with ours in one or two generations. Something about our way of life weakens our defenses against this disease.

First, the Japanese diet contains far less sugar, which is necessary for tumor growth. Cancer cells have a very inefficient metabolism that uses much more sugar than healthy cells. Second, obesity is far lower in Japan than in the US. Obesity increases inflammation, and inflammation is a major promoter of cancer.

Therefore, by looking at just two factors, we can see where the Japanese are better off than Americans concerning developing cancer.

Details About The “Healthiest Country in the World”

The healthier the society, the better their immune systems