A friend of mine recently said to me, “Studies have shown that the Chinese have a lower incidence of cancer,” presumably when compared with Americans or Europeans. She does not know what studies these are, but she is convinced that this is evidence for the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Are there really studies out there that show that there is a lower incidence of cancer in China than in the “western” world? Are there studies out there that show no difference, or a higher incidence of cancer in China? And if there really is a lower incidence of cancer in China, are there explanations for this phenomenon (Traditional Chinese Medicine or otherwise) for which there is good evidence?
I don’t know a bout the Chinese, but I remember seeing a study that Japanese (in Japan) had lower rates of some forms of cancer than Americans, Europeans and Japanese-Americans. The theory was it was diet related, which could also apply to Chinese.
As doreen implies, speaking of “lower rates of cancer” is basically meaningless: there are many types of cancers, which have many different causes. It is perhaps worth noting that the Japanese (and other Oriental cultures) also have higher rates of some types of cancer, notably stomach cancer, which is generally attributed to the high amounts of fermented foods in the diet.
It should also be noted that the traditional means of avoiding cancer is to die at age five of typhoid fever. China is probably a bit past this point, but health and longevity are, understandably, not yet on a par with that the Western world.
Whilst I will not claim to have my finger on the pulse of the world, I know of no study that, correcting for age of death, shows a significantly lower rate of cancer, or death by cancer, in China.
However, similar to this, Dr Dean Edell mentioned studies that show that Japanese have high incidences of stomach cancer and low incidences of breast cancer–exactly the opposite of what is found in the US.
However, Japanese-Americans’ cancer rates (for those two, anyway) are much closer to the general American population.