Zurak Cancer Foundation

Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, with 903,500 new cases estimated to have occured in 2008. Nearly three-quarters of these cases were diagnosed in economically developed countries. Incidence rates of prostate cancer vary by more than 70-fold worldwide. The highest rates are recorded primarily in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and Oceania, largely because prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing is widely used and detects clinically important tumors, as well as other slow-growing cancers that might otherwise have escaped diagnosis. The lowest rates are in many parts of Asia. With an estimated 258,400 deaths in 2008, prostate cancer was the sixth leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Men of African descent in the Caribbean region have the highest prostate cancer mortality in the world, with age standardized rates more than four times higher than those in the US and more than 15 times higher than those in the M...

For thousands upon thousands of years (during most of which overweight, let alone obese, people were fairly rare), therapeutic fasting was a common protocol for the healing of many a malady. From famous sages like Plato, Aristotle, and the aforementioned Hippocrates and Plutarch to cancer patients unable to eat during chemotherapy to pet dogs and cats who suddenly lose once-voracious appetites upon falling ill, it seems like the natural response to – and perhaps therapy for – major illness is to stop eating for a while. Now, “natural” is not always good. “Is” does not necessarily imply “ought.” But I think the persistence of this phenomenon throughout nature demands that we look a little more closely into whether or not there’s something to it. From babies putting items they found on the ground into their mouths to introduce novel bacteria to their bodies, to weight lifters craving meat after a hard workout to introduce protein to their hungry muscles, to pregnant women experienci...