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Cancer rates are rising in young people

scientificamerican.com

41–50 of 162 posts

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my personal theory is that plastics and PFAS are going to be the "things we did wrong for too long" for millenials / Gen Z.

Just like leaded paint before... and perhaps all (fossil fuel) pollution too. I think the ultimate lesson will be "we're one with the environment, not, in fact, a separate entity from it".

Exactly. I was alluding to things like lead and asbestos. Could've been more clear.

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#44
Yeah if possible get screened and when in doubt about something in/on your body please get it checked. I also had to suffer through chemo this year because of metastasis – had I checked sooner I might've gotten away by just having the surgery and no chemo. Last chemo was two months ago, still have side effects, mostly neuropathy. Compared to other patients I shared rooms with I still consider myself lucky but definitely an experience you want to try and avoid (unless you need it, of course). Now hoping my next CT is clean.

I can't comment on causes as I'm not a doctor, in my case all the known causes did not apply to me.

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#45
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be on the freedom side. Now in some areas it's becoming clear to me that we as a population do not have any self control and both sugar addiction and drug addiction is out of control and causing mass suffering

Just wanted to add: we should also hold vendors of these things accountable.

Driving through some towns recently I saw fast food chains as the main source of food for people. These corporations are like vultures feeding on people who are not able to control their own behavior. Looking at the people you could see years of overeating of very unhealthy food as they were extremely overweight, sometimes by hundreds of pounds. I used to live in Japan and the population looked normal and healthy. Coming back to the US and looking around me is astonishing and sad.

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#46
post #8

How much of this is explained by the increase in obesity in young adults? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first specific cancer TFA mentions is colorectal. In the last sixty years the obesity rate has tripled with morbid obesity growing nearly ten fold.

By explained do you mean cause and effect? What is the link between the two? More cells = more that can become cancerous?

The relationship is more biochemistry = more opportunities for cancer. Obesity causes increases in a broad range of hormones as well as a generally higher rate of inflammation and stress, which can impact gene expression and cause higher rates of mutation, leading to higher cancer rates.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/o...

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my personal theory is that plastics and PFAS are going to be the "things we did wrong for too long" for millenials / Gen Z.

Just like leaded paint before... and perhaps all (fossil fuel) pollution too. I think the ultimate lesson will be "we're one with the environment, not, in fact, a separate entity from it".

Agreed. We simply have been functioning off the premise that what we do has no impact. But we are in the billions now and most of what we do we do at a huge and unimaginable scale.

Nature could, before, take time to heal and "absorb" everything we threw it's way. Time was the ultimate healer.

We no longer have that option and we simply must stop the third world from progressing. If you all thought it was bad with the small 1st world population damaging the env, you can't even fathom the scale and sheer trash the third world billions will generate in the coming decades whilst they "come out of poverty and industrialization".

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#49
post #22

36 y/o male with stage 4 colon cancer. Diagnosed in 2016. Lifelong triathlete / healthy eater. I think it's easy to write this off and just better screening, but I think that's certainly a necessary, but not sufficient explanation. I'm open to other ideas, but I have to imagine some of this is due to changes in our environment and food supply. plastics everywhere, pesticides in our food, pollution in the air.

Stage 4 as well, diagnosed in 2021. Lifelong vegetarian, mostly ate organic foods and generally active. I always suspected something was wrong with my gut, but didn't think it would be cancer. No genetic component either.

Re: Cancer rates are rising in young people

#50
post #17

I would wager this is more a function of better/earlier detection than anything. In general deaths from cancer are down considerably. I'm having trouble finding exact stats I want, but believe this is the case for young people as well. Cases of cancer that result in fatality have been and will always be counted pretty close to 100%, since they will eventually seek medical help. Cases of cancer that are less serious a…

There is no modern improvement in screening process that would account for the increase in colon cancer we have been seeing in young adults. Colon cancer screening still does not begin until age 50

https://www.epicresearch.org/articles/colorectal-cancer-scre...

This shows that the colon cancer screening rate has quadrupled for ages 45-49 since 2020. It says official guidelines were changed in 2021.

I am not going to pretend to be an expert, but I also imagine there could be significant difference in how sensitive these screenings have been over the decades.

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