Blogger Martha Edwards wrote about it on June 4 -- the fact that cancer cases are soon to explode in Asia, despite the obvious health benefits of Asian-based diets. It's not the Asian diet influencing rising cancer rates, though. It's the bad Western habits Asians are adopting that will inevitably lead these folks down a dangerous road.
Smoking, drinking, and consumption of unhealthy foods -- all contributors to various cancers -- will drive Asian cancer rates up by 60 percent by the year 2020. Larger aging populations and lack of prevention and treatment in developing countries will also drive this trend.
According to the World Health Organization, about 40 percent of cancers worldwide can be prevented by engaging in exercise, eating healthy foods, and not using tobacco. But more and more people in Asia are becoming inactive and obese. They are trading fruits and vegetables for fatty meals full of meat and salt. And smoking is on the rise in Asian countries.
This problem is so huge experts don't know where to start.
"It's staggering," says one doctor in Malaysia about the lack of resources for prevention, screening, early detection, and treatment in Asia. "Every day I see a patient with breast cancer -- I just hold my own and say a prayer."
1. Here's "globalization" of the worst kind--the export of unhealthy habits.
Regards,
Richard Day Gore
Posted at 1:16PM on Jun 7th 2007 by richard day gore