Is it true that if you don't drink cow's milk the possibility of getting breast !
Question:
Is it true that if you don't drink cow's milk the possibility of getting breast cancer is drastically reduced?
A friend who had breast cancer went to China, where she claims they have virtually no breast cancer, and found that they do not drink cow's milk or consume cow products. She stopped eating and drinking all cow products. Her breast cancer disappeared! Cow products have hormones which cause the cancer (she claims!).
Answers:
Well, according to China's health authorities breast cancer is one of the biggest killers of Chinese women . . . .
Peoples Daily: China Launches Campaign against Breast Cancer
http://english.people.com.cn/200309/01/e...
So, it already seems that your friend has some incorrect information. Chinese women do have breast cancer.
Recent study done about prevalence of breast cancer in China.
1: Zhonghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi. 2006 Jun;28(6):438-40.Links
[Time trends, estimates and projects for breast cancer incidence and mortality in China][Article in Chinese]
Yang L, Li LD, Chen YD, Parkin DM.
National Office for Cancer Prevention and Control, Beijing 100021, China. yangling@pubem.cicams.ac.cn
OBJECTIVE: Using comprehensive available data on women breast cancer in China, to describe the mortality trends from late 1970s, estimate and project the profile in 2000 and 2005, and to aim to provide a reference for clinic, basic research and prevention and control strategy making for breast cancer in China. METHODS: Using Joinpoint model, the mortality trends were analyzed on the basis of routine surveillance data. Combining with the data from the second national mortality survey and several cancer registries, using the log-linear model (based on Poisson distribution), the breast cancer profile in 2000 and 2005 were estimated and projected. RESULTS: Although there was a slight decline in mortality between early 1970s and 1990s, the age-specific mortality rates among young and middle age women increased dramatically which followed a continuing increase trend on both rates and absolute numbers, in both urban and rural areas in recent 15 years. Compared with 2000, there are 470 thousands more new breast cancer cases and 130 thousands more deaths from breast cancer in 2005. CONCLUSION: Due to the double effects of both increasing risk factors and population growth and ageing, breast cancer will be one of the most extensively increasing cancers in Chinese women. The prevention and control of breast cancer will be of great emphasis for future cancer control strategy in China.
PMID: 17152490 [PubMed - in process]
To further check this claim you can look on Entrez Pubmed to see if you can find any type of independent verification. There are extensive studies done on this issue and none of them seem to confirm a connection between cancer and cow products.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez...