American women are very much aware that they stand in the middle of a veritable epidemic of breast cancer. There are many reasons for this including the longest period between puberty and menopause ever seen in human history, low rates of childbearing, environment exposure to chemical estrogens and the simple risk of living too long. As of today the statistics show that 2 in 9 American women will develop breast cancer during some point of their life. In fact around 200,000 American women get this ailment yearly and as much as 50,000 may die due to this disease. Worldwide around 1.5 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and 500,000 die every year.
There is another interesting fact about this disease. It is one of the cancers whose incidence changes dramatically when people migrate and change their dietary habits. Asian women – those from Japan and China are known to have a very low incidence of breast cancer. This is generally attributed to their much higher levels of consumption of soy, seafood and tea. When they move from their native countries to America they acquire the high American levels of cancer occurrence within one generation itself. It is believed that when Asian women move to America they consume high levels of animal fat and low levels of soy, seafood and tea. Continue reading ‘American Women Standing in the Middle of a Breast Cancer Epidemic – Can Soy Be of Help?’ »