Who and where is most likely to get cancer?
Despite the fact that cancer is a disease that has been studied for a long time and thoroughly, it still contains a lot of mysteries. Why, having the same living conditions, some people get cancer and others do not? Why, if cancer is not contagious, are viruses one of the most likely causative agents? Why are some types of cancer more common in adults and others in children? Why does the immune system, designed to rid the body of "broken" cells, sometimes miss the atypical cells that give rise to tumor growth? Why are some areas more likely to get cancer than others? The epidemiology of cancer is one of the most interesting and important areas of study, since finding out why people in some countries are more susceptible to cancer than in neighboring countries, why some are more vulnerable than others, it may be possible to discover more effective means of preventing this dangerous disease.
Why different parts of the world have different rates of cancer
Oncologists associate the incidence of cancer in different countries with the influence of many factors: cultural, climatic, nutritional traditions, soil and water composition, and so on. It is often possible to identify patterns that explain why some types of cancer in a given location are more common than others. For example, it is known that stomach cancer occurs in Japan, Korea, Iceland, Great Britain and Russia more often than in other countries, which is directly associated with the food traditions of these countries, which are replete with carcinogens. Colorectal cancer often affects US residents, which is also associated with malnutrition, the predominance of fatty and refined foods in the diet. In countries where there are many smokers, the percentage of lung cancer cases is high, such as Russia and the UK.
However, such patterns are not always found. For example, Hungary has the highest cancer incidence and death rates. 313 out of every 100,000 people die from cancer here every year. At the same time, in Macedonia, a country that has much in common with Hungary and is located relatively close, cancer mortality, on the contrary, is one of the lowest in the world - only 6 people per 100,000. an incidence rate of more than 50 times is very difficult to explain by differences in diet, cultural customs and location of these countries.
One more example. Chinese and Japanese men are the least susceptible to prostate cancer, which was previously associated with their traditional lifestyle. However, when they move to other countries, the statistics change dramatically, and they suffer from this type of cancer to the same extent as local men. Nutrition presumably plays a leading role in this mechanism, as a diet high in animal fats is known to have a direct effect on the formation of prostate cancer. Nevertheless, it is rather difficult to assume that when moving to another country, Japanese and Chinese men change their eating habits so dramatically, especially taking into account today's realities, namely the availability of a variety of products in different parts of the world.
The incidence of various types of cancer in different countries
The most common cancer in women is breast cancer. The inhabitants of Foggy Albion and the United States are most susceptible to it, the least of all are women of those countries where families with a large number of children are traditional, namely in Asia and West Africa. This type of cancer is directly related to the number of births and the duration of breastfeeding.
Cervical cancer is widespread, but its incidence is higher in countries with free morals with respect to sexual activity. This is because the human papillomavirus, the causative agent of cervical cancer, is sexually transmitted.
Italians are more likely to suffer from bladder cancer, kidney and oral cavity cancers - the French living in the Rhine basin, Australians are the leaders in the incidence of skin cancer, in Hong Kong, for some reason, nasopharyngeal cancer is more common than in other places. France is the leader in esophageal cancer, and Israel is at the very tail of the list for this type of tumor. Colon cancer, as mentioned, is rampant in North America, while Indians are the least susceptible to it - there it is 30 times less common than in the States. Liver cancer is common in Thailand and extremely rare in Paraguay.
Is there a relationship between the incidence of cancer and a person's character?
For a long time, this question remained on the conscience of representatives of all sorts of paramedical movements that advocate positive thinking for cancer treatment. However, not so long ago, a group of psychology researchers confirmed what practicing doctors have already guessed when observing their patients: character is not only fate, character is also disease, or their absence. No one doubts the connection between a certain way of life and the diseases it provokes, but the way of life is chosen by the person himself, depending on his preferences. But after all, preferences are also associated with the mental makeup of a person, and therefore, the latest discoveries in this area did not cause much surprise in the scientific world.
So, according to the researchers, cancer often affects people who are lonely, withdrawn and hostile towards the world around them, as well as those who love to cherish their grievances. It turned out that aggressive, angry women are more susceptible to breast cancer, and men, whose character others describe as "severe" or "nasty", are at risk for colorectal cancer.
Reliability of incidence rates
Of course, everything written above has statistical confirmation, each of these statements was verified by scientists who collected and processed a large amount of data. However, these values, in contrast to the absolute ones, show trends. This means that cancer can be and is atypical, and its occurrence is not always amenable to explanation at the current level of knowledge. In no region of the world there is a complete absence of any type of cancer, there are only rates that are lower than in other regions. It happens that both funny people and those who are mobile and active get sick with cancer - however, in this case, the risk of the disease, though not zero, is still much lower.
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