Scientists say it’s true: active lifestyles, fewer vices mean much less cancer
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - A new study examining cancer incidence rates in the Amish underscores the virtues of clean living and how they’re keeping this tight-knit community healthy. The study, conducted by researchers at Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, looked at 24 different types of cancer over an eight-year period and found that overall cancer rates among the Amish are 40 percent lower than those living outside of an Amish community.* The study was recently published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control.
Because of their resistance to vices like alcohol and tobacco in particular, data from the study show that incidence rates of tobacco-related cancers are 63 percent lower in the Amish than in non- Amish. Other pillars of their “clean” lifestyle, such as eating organic foods, having few sexual partners and wearing long sleeves and wide-brimmed hats, also help keep cancer rates low in this group. Although positive, study findings were quite different from what study authors anticipated.
At the beginning of the eight-year study, scientists set out to prove that diseases like cancer that run in families must be common among the Amish since they’re all so closely related. After going door-to-door, talking and documenting cancer case-by-case in 92 families in Holmes County, Ohio, lead study author Dr. Judith Westman was surprised to find that the data actually disproved her previous theories.
“As we looked and looked we did not find any increased risk of cancer in the Amish,” Westman says. “In fact, they may have some genetic factors that actually protect them from cancer that we haven’t yet identified.”
Study findings hit close to home for current medical student Andy Yoder who grew up on his family’s Amish farm. Despite leaving the church, Yoder returns often and thinks the Amish could teach the rest of society a lot about medicine. His past could even play a helpful role in research.
“Because of me coming from that community and speaking their language, Pennsylvania Dutch, they would trust me and I think it would open up a lot of doors,” Yoder says.
Next, researchers may want to test blood and tissue samples from the Amish to see if they have any genetic advantages in fighting cancer. Until then, though, this community will continue to live their secret, simple lives and enjoy all of the health benefits that come with it.
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References: *Low Cancer Incidence Rates in Ohio Amish, Cancer Causes and Control, published online September 25, 2009. Overview and abstract retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/ 5ggkuh8338jl728g/?p=5fa2f62e9ce34300acd0bce8cadf7ad6π=0 |
