The Japanese never had any reported cases of MS till American style fast foods arrived.... Is this true?

Question

If this is true can anyone show me proof.

It would really help my uni project if this was true but of course I need to reference it.

thanks!

Answer 1

Fast food is not the culprit. Record keeping shows an upswing in Japanese cases starting 100 years ago. Distribution does show environmental factors with one example ...

"

    *  There was a sudden increase in prevalence of MS in the Faroe Islands following World War II occupation by British troops.[6]

    * Residency in Hawaii increases the risk of MS for those of Japanese descent while simultaneously decreasing the risk for Caucasians.[7]

    * Immigrants to London from areas of low risk such as south-east Asia, Africa and the West Indies, have a low prevalence of MS but their British-born children have the same high prevalence as the indigenous British.[8]

"

[ link 1, below ]

You will have to research it. You have to use the full name of the medical condition --  Multiple Sclerosis + japan -- because the search engines are overloaded with "ms = microsoft and or ms = the politically correct address for a woman"

Lots of hits. Lots of quacks selling diets and pills but much solid statistical reports. The Japanese are interesting because they don't fit the statistical north / south distribution for ms at all.

Answer 2

it is possible.   my daughter has crohns and when we were in the middle east we were told by the doc that he had been there 20 years and never seen  a case amongst the local population. he said that it was a western disease.  it will be interesting to see if diseases that are possibly due to western diet increase or start up in cultures where fast food has recently been introduced

Answer 3

Industrialisation, more likely the cause - that is my firm belief, I have ms, the incidence in UK rose after the industrial revolution - may be as much to do with more and more sophisticated diagnostics etc. but I believe that is the culprit in developing countries (not Japan increasing pollution there) where emission controls are not stringent or adhered to.

Answer 4

Possibly...It makes sense but I'm not a scientist.

Answer 5

I have MS. I can tell you that...

It's half autoimmune, so an increase in hygiene can trigger that half of it... but...

All MS sufferers have chronically low uric acid levels in their blood, it allows the damage to take place. Gout sufferers who have too much uric acid NEVER get MS. The Japanese do eat a lot of fish, and that raises uric acid levels. It may be that they are starting to eat dairy foods, as that lowers uric acid levels, and you get dairy in junk food more than in a traditional Japanese diet.

http://mathilda37.wordpress.com/2008/04/...

Fast food isn't to blame. Vegetarian diets can trigger MS though!