Cancer came up on another thread along with the discussion about home treatments vs expensive medical care. One of those statistics I discovered a long time ago that might interest people.
In a statistical analysis of population groups in the USA something stuck out. In devout religious communities there is often a lower than average cancer rate compared to their neighboring population even if the other factors remain the same. This was first noticed with devout Mormon persons in Utah and the only significant difference in lifestyle was twofold, abstinence from nicotine, caffeine and alcohol was one set of factors but that was easily compensated for by matching populations of non Mormons who decline to consume tobacco, alcohol and even caffeinated beverages. The other factor they had a much harder time matching which is devout Mormons fast one Sunday each month and use the money saved on food that day to support food for the hungry programs and similar charitable endeavors.
From that small clue the researchers looked at other religions that encourage fasting, including some Christian denominations, Islamic Ramadan and Hindu fasting periods. In every case those persons who routinely fasted for some period annually or monthly ranging from one to three days have a remarkably lower cancer rate than their fully fed friends, neighbors and relatives.
It turns out that the human body has a set biological response to fasting. First the body uses up the Glycogen stores in the liver which takes depending on how well fed the person is from eight to twenty four hours. As the Glycogen depletes the body switches into a second mode and starts breaking down cells its detects to be damaged in any way. These cells are the ones that might develop into cancers and by breaking them down on a routine basis the body stops them from becoming cancer before they ever get started.
This is not 100 percent effective, nothing is, but it does give you a statistical advantage in the game of life. If you look at statistics modern Americans have around a 20 percent chance of developing cancer at some point before they die of old age. Some of these are more easily treated than others so it is not always the cause of death, but nobody wants to get cancer if they can avoid it.
There is even a school of thought that the nausea and lack of appetite caused by chemo-therapy and radiation treatments might actually be the most effective part of the treatment because the induced fast causes your body to attack the cancer cells on an individual basis.
Not all types of cancer are subject to this type of biological self defense, for example the most aggressive types like small cell lung cancer grow so fast they defeat the bodies self correction system by overwhelming its capacity. A week into a water only fast your body breaks down about 20 grams of cellular tissue a day so if the cancer grows at 21 grams a day and your system has non cancer cells that also need recycling it gains ground a little each day.
The types of cancer most effected by fasting are the glucose dependent cancers. As a fast reaches four days and extends your blood glucose level naturally drops and is replaced with ketones which can also feed your brain and major organs. You always need some glucose because red blood cells and a few other types are also completely glucose dependent. Cancers that can be killed by fasting are those that experience the "Warburg Effect" discovered a century ago by Dr. Otto Warburg.
Warburg Effect So to lower your chances of ever developing cancer routine fasting is a good idea even if you are not interested in the spiritual roots of the discovery.