Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why are so many young people getting cancer?

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 254 posts

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#121

Post by marciob »

margalabargala wrote: post #88
talkingtab wrote: post #69

What I find interesting is the concept of dead food versus live food. This is just something I wonder about. For example a dead apple is one that was picked a year ago, sold today, kept in storage until now. Long shelf life - is the crucial change in our eating that I can see. When was the last time you had a fresh apple? Does the food industry want us to consider the health benefits of a dead apple versus a living a…

> I keep wondering why. Mainly because the distinction you are making doesn't actually exist. An apple doesn't "lose" anything by being stored. There are no preservatives, just refrigeration. The apple will proceed to go bad just as quickly once taken out of storage, and it will be just as nutritious as if you had eaten that same apple fresh off the tree. You can also take that same apple that's been in storage for a…

[flagged]

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#124

Post by gonzalohm »

talkingtab wrote: post #69

What I find interesting is the concept of dead food versus live food. This is just something I wonder about. For example a dead apple is one that was picked a year ago, sold today, kept in storage until now. Long shelf life - is the crucial change in our eating that I can see. When was the last time you had a fresh apple? Does the food industry want us to consider the health benefits of a dead apple versus a living a…

I think the yogurt may be a bad example. Most store yogurts don't have any weird preservatives, it's just milk, live cultures and sugar. I would recommend doing your own to save money though.

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#125

Post by lithocarpus »

phoneafriend wrote: post #119

Stick to the science folks. Let the MDs do what they do. Stats and population level studies are hard work. You need to vote somebody in who will support this, or live with the consequences.

And... sometimes stats and population level studies take a very long time or (more often) are never done at all and so if we only rely on this to tell us what to do, we'll miss a lot.

There are common sense ways to reduce cancer risk that have been obvious to and practiced by many people for a long time, before the studies showed that they were right. For example, all of the many new synthetic materials and chemicals that have been found to be carcinogens. I just assume any novel chemistry exposure is a risk, to eat it, drink it, touch it, breathe it. I can't and don't avoid all of it, but I can avoid a lot of it in terms of dose, compared to people who don't think about this at all.

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#126

Post by strictnein »

lenerdenator wrote: post #112
strictnein wrote: post #91

If I had to bet, it would be on HPV causing a majority of the rise in colorectal cancer. It is a major cause of throat cancer in men[0] and causes almost 100% of cervical cancer in women[1]. We have had a significant increase in anal sex over the past 10+ years[2] and are now seeing an increase in colorectal cancer. "Britain has found that the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds engaging in heterosexual anal intercours…

Kinda surprised at the idea that HPV is the cause; at least in the US, there was a fairly large push about 15 years ago to get more people (particularly teenage girls and young women) vaccinated against HPV. Would we not see a corresponding dip in deaths related to HPV-associated cancers by now?

Two things, I think.

1. The original guidance did not call for boys to get the vaccine. It does now.

2. We're talking about two different age groups. The article talks about those under 50. The group who got the HPV vaccine as part of their normal schedule are now just hitting their early 20s.

There's also still a huge number of people in the US who have HPV. It's really, really common.

"Approximately 42.5 million Americans are infected with HPV and there are at least 13 million new infections annually" [0]

Interestingly, the article calls out HPV directly as a cause of an increase in anal cancers.

"While HPV-related cervical and vaginal cancer rates have decreased since 1999, rates for oropharyngeal and anal HPV-related cancers have increased."

[0] https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/the-hpv-vaccine-acc...

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#128

Post by raised_hand »

sodafountan wrote: post #59

I know of two women under the age of 30 who got cancer, they were spouses/girlfriends of friends of mine. I didn't know them well personally, and only met them a handful of times at outings. Because they weren't married yet I'm sure it's just compounding their financial struggles. I was shocked when I heard they had cancer, I almost didn't believe it. Under 30 is such a young age to be diagnosed.

what type?

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#129

Post by [deleted] »

talkingtab wrote: post #69

What I find interesting is the concept of dead food versus live food. This is just something I wonder about. For example a dead apple is one that was picked a year ago, sold today, kept in storage until now. Long shelf life - is the crucial change in our eating that I can see. When was the last time you had a fresh apple? Does the food industry want us to consider the health benefits of a dead apple versus a living a…

[deleted]

Re: Why are so many young people getting cancer?

#130

Post by tptacek »

wemwemwem wrote: post #102
margalabargala wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I keep wondering why. Mainly because the distinction you are making doesn't actually exist. An apple doesn't "lose" anything by being stored. There are no preservatives, just refrigeration. The apple will proceed to go bad just as quickly once taken out of storage, and it will be just as nutritious as if you had eaten that same apple fresh off the tree. You can also take that same apple that's been in storage for a…

This is simply not true. A calorie is a calorie might be true, and its hard to know which is healthier for any single fresh vs storage example but plenty of chemical processes are going on. It could certainly be the case that a small number of storage examples where particular changes occur cause particular risks that account for a significant portion of cancer.

Stored apples are not causing cancer.
Post reply on HN