At 09.04 97-05-16, Andrew Millard wrote:
>> "Diseases of affluence" such as heart disease and strokes are killing
>> more people in the developing world than in richer
>> countries........
>>
>> By 1990, therefore there were already 50% more cancer deaths in less
>> developed countries than in developed countries........
>>
>> I feel this study dispells the myth that these disorders are found
>> mostly in our decadent western societies (see NeanderThin review).
>
>These facts do not surprise me.  The population of the developing world is
>so much greater than the richer countries (especially if the latter is
>narrowly defined) that to have more deaths of any disease in the former is
>not unlikely.  ... What is of more interest is the proportion of deaths in the
>different parts of the world, ...

In developing countries there is an emerging epidemic of cardiovascular
disease which in many parts now outnumber infectious and parasitic disease
[5]. In 1993 some two-thirds of the estimated 14 million annual
cardiovascular disease deaths occured in the developing world [6]. The
progressive aging of populations, better medical facilities and the decline
in infectious disease are only partial explanations for this trend, and
several studies strongly indicate that urbanization plays an important role
[7, 9-17]. It is also well known that urbanization, irrespective of ethnic
origin of a population, leads to an increased mean level of blood pressure
[13, 44, 57, 58, 75, 81, 91, 93, 100, 101, 138-150] and body mass index
[12, 13, 47, 57, 58, 81, 105, 139, 142, 146-148, 150-154], and that both of
these cardiovascular risk factors only then start to increase with age.

Substantial evidence indicates that most cases of cancer are caused by
environmental factors (Doll R, Peto T. The causes of cancer: Quantitative
estimates of avoidable risks of cancer in the United States today. J Natl
Cancer Inst 1981; 66: 1192-1308), and the Swedish Cancer Committee
has suggested that the proportion is more than 80 per cent. The incidence
rates of many cancers differ tenfold, and sometimes hundredfold, between
different countries in the world (Muir C, Waterhouse J et al. Cancer
incidence in five continents. IARC Sci Publ 1987; no 88).

The question is not if but how much atherosclerotic heart disease and
cancer can be prevented.

Best regards, Staffan

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Staffan Lindeberg M.D. Ph.D. Dept of Community Health Sciences, Lund
University, Mailing address: Dr Staffan Lindeberg, Primary Health Care
Centre, Sjobo, S-22738 Sweden, +46 416 28140, Fax +46 416 18395
http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/paleodiet/sl1.shtml
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