On the Internet, it is popular statement that among Muslims, oncological diseases are less common, and fight them (supposedly very effective) by refusing food for several days. We decided to check if this is confirmed by statistical and scientific data.
In the viral text Reported (spelling and punctuation are preserved): “A disease such as cancer in Muslim countries is not considered a dangerous disease and is easily treated for several days with the help of starvation. But in Russia, a lot of money is made on this disease, and treatment methods are not announced. The fact is that Muslims call this disease not cancer, but a beast that absorbs several times more energy than ordinary body cells. It breeds and multiplies (metastases), and then, when it multiplies and he does not have enough energy, he, in the end, absorbs all the resources of the body, after which the death occurs. And with the deprivation of the beast of nutrition, he quickly dies. Professors of Algerian University say that cancer is dying when starving from 3 days to a month, and at any stage. Fasting means that there is nothing and drink only clean water. As soon as a person’s firm black feces come out of a person naturally, this means the disease has passed. ” Further, the author talks about the benefits of using fruits on an empty stomach, and in the end calls to send the text to ten people.
Some sites, Publics And Bloggers illustrate the statement of the rarity of cancer in Muslim countries graphs and statistics, and also note the beneficial influence of the post in the Holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Such a connection of Islam and a reduced probability of getting cancer is said in publications On the ISLAMNEWS website, and on the ISLAM-TODAY website placed Interview with academician Leonid Kitaev-Smik, who claims that low cancer in Muslim countries is explained by cultural features, in particular the wearing of hijab.
The verified text began to spread through the Russian -language segment of social networks in 2019. Then his origin Interested The popularizer of science, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Semyon Esilevsky. He noticed that the text consists of two fragments that are not related in meaning: about cancer and starvation in Muslim countries and about a certain doctor Stephen Mack, who recommends eating on an empty stomach for the treatment and prevention of many diseases, including oncological ones. Esilevsky almost does not understand the first part of the text, only noting that there is no evidence of the effectiveness of starvation for the treatment of cancer. This fragment, unlike the second, is written without grammatical errors. The section on the benefits of fruits, as Esilevsky notes, was created using low -quality machine translation from English - for example, so “gray hair” appeared in the text instead of “gray hair” (English Grey Hair). The original English -language text with the mention of Dr. Mac appeared no later than 2010 and spread by e -mail. How I found out The Skeptic’s Dictionary project, in the earliest versions of the newsletter, its author calls Mac "a friend that he met at the Bible Study Course." Later, an unknown compiler combined the story about the Protestant activist and thoughts about the increased immunity of the inhabitants of Muslim countries to cancer.
Is it true that in Muslim countries, cancers are less common?
At first, we will deal with the assertion that people in Muslim countries are allegedly less likely to suffer from cancer. The freshest at the time of writing the analysis of the generalized networks of the World Cancer Research Foundation dates 2022. Given that the viral text appeared no later than 2019, it will be quite relevant to verify its truthfulness. According to these data, in the first place in the number of cancer patients in 2022 was Denmark (334.9 per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by Ireland, Belgium, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Norway, New Caledonia and Slovenia. That is, among countries from the first dozen there really is not one where the Muslim population prevails. The first such state in the list is located only in 50th position-this is Türkiye (225.6 per 100,000 people). Close the rating just in many ways Muslim countries; In the last ten - Sudan, South Sudan, Djibuti, Tajikistan, Gambia and Niger (76.4 per 100 thousand).
It would seem that these data already confirm the first part of the verified statement. However, such a conclusion would be hasty. Take the five most common Cancer types: neoplasms of various nature in the lungs (12.4%of all oncological diagnoses in the world), breast cancer (rumes; 11.5%), colorectal cancer (9.6%), prostate cancer and stomach cancer (4.6%). By data The National Institute of Cancer (USA), the median age for the diagnosis of lung cancer (that is, half of the patients detected the disease earlier, and half - later) is 71 years old, breast cancer - 62 years, colorectal cancer - 67 years old, 66 years old, cancer stomach - 68 years.
At the same time, life expectancy, for example, in Niger It is Only 53 years for women and 52 for men. The share of the population over 65 is also extremely low - only 2%. That is, the country is in last place in the number of cancer patients simply because most of its inhabitants simply do not live to cancer. In Gambia, the share of the elderly is the same, in Tajikistan it is slightly higher - 3%.
This hypothesis is confirmed by data on the prevalence of cancer types by countries. So, in Niger in the first place of breast cancer, which in general does not get out of global statistics, but on the second - liver cancer, which in the world is not even in the five most common. This is a disease characteristic For people over 60 years old, but in patients with hepatitis C it usually develops at the age of 30 years and older. According to different ones estimates (Medicine is not very well developed in Niger, which makes it difficult to obtain accurate data), up to 7% of the country's population is sick with hepatitis, therefore, are predisposed to the early development of liver cancer. From global statistics, the prevalence of cervical cancer and ovary cancer is also knocked out (5.4% and 4.8% of all cancer patients, respectively). The main reason for the cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus (HPV), its oncogenic strains are responsible for the development of this type of cancer in 95% of cases. WHO He emphasizesthat the fight against HPV and, therefore, the prevalence of cervical cancer is especially acute for countries south of Sahara, this is associated with "inequality in access to vaccination, screening and treatment, risk factors, including the prevalence of HIV, as well as social and economic factors, such as gender, gender prejudices and poverty."
However, if we analyze the data on the most prosperous countries with the predominance of the Muslim population (Saudi Arabia, the UAE) and compare them with mainly Christian (Poland and Croatia), the picture will change. As a selection criterion, proximity was chosen by the expected life expectancy (OPG) and the index of human development (Ichr), which is the World Cancer Research Fund Related To one of the most important predictors of oncological incidence.
At first glance, the data confirm the thesis that in Muslim countries, cancer is much less common. However, this statistics do not take into account an extremely important parameter - the median age of the population. As indicated above, the risk of oncological diseases grows with age. Median The age in Saudi Arabia is 32.4 years, in the UAE - 35.8, in Poland - 42.9, in Croatia - 45.1. That is, analyzed Christian countries on average noticeably older than Muslim. You can also look at what percentage of the population in each of the countries Older 65 years: if in Saudi Arabia there are only 3%of such residents, and in the UAE - 2%, then in Poland - 19%, in Croatia - 22%.
Demographic features are also reflected in the prevalence of different types of cancer. So, in the five “most popular” types of cancer in Saudi Arabia and the UAE include leukemia and non -Kindkin lymphoma - they are much “younger” of lung cancer, chest, prostate, intestines and stomach. Among the leukemia Select Five types, one of them usually occurs in very young people (median age 20 years), two are characteristic of patients aged about 50 years. Among the types of non -Rhodkhkinsky lymph also There is Those that amaze mainly youth.
Let's check this hypothesis on another sample. We will find such a country in which there are as few elderly as in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but the vast majority of the population is Christians (unfortunately, to choose so that this hypothetical country also has a high level of the ICR). So, in the Central African Republic (CAR; 89% population - Christians) The share of the population over 65 years old It is 3%, and 100,000 people account for 99.2 patients with cancer (for comparison, in Saudi Arabia - 95.2, in the UAE - 104.8). At the same time, according to the index of the human development of the TsAS (0.385), more than two times behind these rich Middle Eastern monarchies. Not a single country with a significant predominance of the Muslim population and the share of people over 65, comparable to Poland and Croatia, is simply not, the most “age” of Muslim countries - Turkey, 9% of people over 65 years old lives there (that is, about two times less than in Poland or Croatia) and 225.6 out of 100,000 are sick of cancer. In Poland, this indicator is 260.4, and in Croatia - 284.1. A similar share of the elderly, as in Turkey, in Panama (more 80% of the population professes Christianity), only the prevalence of cancer there is almost twice as lower - 148.2.
You can also see the limits of the dichotomy of Islam and Christianity. In Nepal share People over 65 years old is 6% (twice as much as in Saudi Arabia, and three - than in the UAE), but it is recorded there all 80 cases of cancer per 100,000 inhabitants. In Japan share people over 65 years old - 30%, and the prevalence of cancer It is 282.9 per 100,000.
It turns out that formally, the statement that in Muslim countries there are fewer patients with cancer is relatively true, but the reason is by no means especially healthy, associated with the lifestyle of these people professed by religion. The whole thing is part of the population - in Muslim countries there are more children, youth and middle -aged people, and in Christian, the share of the elderly population is significant. Since cancer is more common among the elderly, there will be more people with oncological diagnosis in such countries.
Is it true that in Muslim countries, cancer is “easily treated”?
Now we will deal with the second part of the statement - supposedly cancer in mainly Muslim countries is not considered a serious illness and is easy to treat. Important The statistical parameter in the assessment of the severity of the disease is five -year survival, that is, the proportion of patients who five years after the diagnosis or the beginning of treatment survived and at least stopped the progress of the disease. For example, five -year survival of 80% means that out of 100 people with a similar clinical picture, 80 survived five years later. With regard to a particular patient, this indicator is not always accurate, but for the country it is generally very indicative.
In the case of oncological diseases, for the correct comparison, additional parameters must be taken into account. One of them is the stage at which cancer was detected. The difficulty is that to determine it, there are several protocols that are not always possible to compare. For example, in the UK and Russia, the TNM three -parameter scale is used, and in the USA - a five -parameter seer. In addition to them, their metrics are used for some individual types of cancer: for colorectal cancer Focus On the Duke’s scale (it is based on four parameters), a three -factor is used for oncogynecological diseases scale Figo, and for the neoplasms of the prostate - scale Gleeson, based on the assessment of the degree of differentiation.
Also on the forecast of five -year survival influences, from which type of cells the tumor appeared and in which part of the organ it is located, how much cancer cells differ from normal (in the scientific literature this parameter is called the degree of differentiation), the gender and age of the patient.
Such an amount of additional parameters seriously limits the possibilities for conducting comparative studies. A rare exception - statisticscollected by the International Cancer Research Agency. It takes into account the stage of the disease with the reduction between two main scales (TNM and Seer), the gender and age of patients, as well as (for some types of cancer), the type of cells from which the tumor appeared. However, this work reflects data from only six countries, and not a single mainly Muslim among them.
Other data sets take into account much less parameters. For example, in the report, prepared The non -profit organization “The Commonwealth Fund” is calculated with breast cancer without amendments to the stage, age or degree of differentiation. Researchers used data for 20 countries, among them there are no states with a predominant Muslim population.
Chinese scientists Analyzed Five-year survival in patients with lung cancer, based on statistics from different countries, which was collected in the second half of the 2000s. There are neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE in the sample, but there are other mainly Muslim countries: Kuwait (16.3%of patients lived for more than five years), Qatar (13.2%), Malaysia (10.1%), Turkey (14.9%) and Libya (2.6%). These indicators are by no means the highest. For comparison, in Japan, five -year survival with lung cancer was 32.9%, in Mauritius (about half of the inhabitants profess Hinduism, about a third of Christianity) - 31.7%, in Australia - 21.4%, in Switzerland, Norway and Latvia - 20.4%. However, in this work there is a significant gap - the authors do not indicate for what stage and type of cancer these data are relevant.
Similar methodological disadvantages of statisticscollected by the International Cancer Research Agency. It analyzes five -year survival for 15 types of cancer, but there is also no amendments to the stage. This parameter can seriously affect the quality of the analysis: if the country has good screening and many diseases is detected at an early stage, then the treatment will be effective and many patients will live long, even if they will subsequently die due to cancer. Conversely, if the early detection is low, then doctors will find cancer when the patient is unlikely to overcome a five -year line.
As follows from the table, by any of the analyzed types of cancer, the country with a predominantly Muslim population does not lead the five -year survival. In terms of survival, with seven types of cancer from analyzed 15, such a state is included in the three leaders. The best forecasts for most types of cancer in patients from Korea, where data In 2023, 51% of the population does not attribute itself to any religion, 31% of residents profess Christianity, another 17% - Buddhism.
To assess the damage that cancer causes to people, the Daly (Disability-djusted Life Years) parameter is also used. Roughly speaking, he Showshow many years of life have taken the disease from a patient. Schri Lanka (the majority of the population are Buddhists), Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria and Algeria have been lost a little less than two years. In the UAE, cancer “takes” 3.2 years, in Pakistan and Afghanistan - more than 4. For comparison, residents of Croatia “lose” 3.7 years, Poland - a little more than 4, Switzerland and Japan - 2.5, India and Bangladesh - 2.2 each. That is, there is no direct connection between the dominant religion and disability or premature death from cancer.
Thus, statistics do not confirm that in Muslim countries, cancer is better treated and people die less from cancer. Although data on the world and incomplete, in Muslim countries no less people die from cancer than in countries with another religion or lack of such.
Is it true that cancer can be cured by starvation?
Finally, we will deal with the last statement: supposedly cancer is easily treated by starvation. Not a single body of the body can exist without glucose entering foods - the main source of energy. The process of splitting this substance and obtaining energy from it for cellular metabolism is called glycolis. Cancer cells also need glucose, but the glycolis that they carry out differs from normal - it is happening About 200 times more active.
Modern Scientific Development directed just at "Prohibition" Quick glycolysisSo that the cancer cells "starve" and die. Most of these experiments are now at the stage of laboratory testing on the culture of cells or animals. Talk about proven effectiveness and safety of this treatment method so far is premature. Fasting in the everyday sense of “prohibiting” quick glycolysis cannot, and cancer cells in the absence of glucose capable “Switch” to power to the molecules of uridine, which play a decisive role in the synthesis of RNA, glycogen and cell biomembrane.
And although fasting will not cure, some positive effects for oncological patients have temporary abstinence from eating. In a review of Chinese researchers, it is noted that the refusal of food for 24 or even 48 hours before the start of chemotherapy reduced The frequency of appearance and the severity of side effects such as headache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. American scientists have found that low -calorie diet Raises The effectiveness of chemotherapy for breast cancer in mice. Also regular night abstinence from food for 13 hours reduced The probability of relapse of breast cancer in women who suffered.
In addition, interval fasting can be one of the ways to fight overweight, the presence of which refers To the predisposing factors of the development of a number of oncological diseases. How Show Research, this method of losing weight helps to lose slightly more weight than the rejection of “harmful” food, but primarily due to the decrease in muscle rather than adipose tissue.
At the same time, for cancer patients there are contraindications for starvation. Firstly, it is cancer cachexia-a decrease in the mass of adipose tissue and skeletal muscles. Depending on the location of the tumor from 13% to 61% of patients suffer From such a complication. Secondly, starvation is strictly prohibited in sarcopenia-the loss of muscle mass and a decrease in muscle functions. Her prevalence Even higher - from 38%to 70%, with lung cancer - up to 79%, and with pancreatic cancer - up to 89%.
Thus, it is impossible to get rid of cancer extremely starvation. Moreover, the cells of cancer tumors are more “omnivorous” and can eat not only glucose. However, starvation helps more easily to endure chemotherapy and even increases its effectiveness. At the same time, not all cancer patients can starve, such common complications as cachexia and sarcopenia are contraindications for abstinence from food.
Addition of May 22, 2024: A fragment has been added to the beginning of the analysis, which describes the history of the appearance of a viral text. The previous version can be found by link.
We thank the demographer Alexei Raksh for help in preparing the article.
Image on the cover: Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
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