78 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.cians that the earlier a woman matures, as measured by the age of
her first menstrual period, the higher her risk for breast cancer.^28
Both early menarche and greater body weight are markers of in-
creased risk of breast cancer.^29
Women are not the only sex affected; the same increased risk as
a result of early maturation is seen with both prostate cancer and tes-
ticular cancer.'^0 If we grow and mature more rapidly, we increase
our cancer risk and age faster. We see the same thing in lab animals;
if we feed them so they grow faster, they die younger.^31
Ominously, the onset of menstruation has been occurring at a
younger and younger age in Western societies during this century.^32
The average age in the United States is now about twelve years. Ac-
cording to the World Health Organization, the average age at which
puberty began in 1840 was seventeen.^33
During the time period that the age of menarche (the onset of
menstruation) has decreased from seventeen to about twelve in
Western Europe and the United States, there has been a concomitant
change in Western eating habits. There has been an increased con-
AGE OF PUBERTY OVER TIME18 -i ,