Israel today is the most fertile area in the world for medical research into the so-called “degenerative” diseases, including arteriosclerosis, diabetes and cancer, Dr. Jack Karpas, deputy director of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel, said today, addressing a meeting of the national board of Hadassah.
Dr. Karpas, brought to this country by Hadassah to study hospital administration, disclosed that Israel’s 80.000 Yemenite Jews as well as thousands of other Jews from so-called backward countries are not afflicted by the “degenerative” diseases, which are commonly regarded as the major killers in modern societies.
He reported that an intensive medical survey of 300 Yemenites failed to disclose a single case of arteriosclerosis. He added that diabetes and cancer, especially lung cancer, were virtually unknown among Yemenite Jews in the years immediately following their arrival in Israel. However, a second examination three years later of the same 300 Yemenite Jews revealed a marked increase in the cholesterol content of their blood, Dr. Karpas noted. Cholesterol is believed to be a causative factor in arteriosclerosis.
Dr. Karpas cited as another phenomenon about cancer worthy of further investigation, the fact that cancer of the cervix is virtually nonexistent among Jewish women, but cancer of the breast is twice as prevalent among Jewish women as among non-Jewish women.
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