Cancers rising in under 50’s. Do we have any sensible hypothesis as to why?

[ThatPeachSnake]

Ultra Processsed Foods? Drinking? I feel like we don’t smoke as much as previous generations…

I’m so very worried

Three friends late thirties/ early forties have been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer out of the blue. This points to processed foods but all are healthy. It's not fair.

There has also been a rise in brain tumour cancers which are linked to mobile phone use. Definitely multi factorial but do think heavy mobile phone use will be looked at in the future.

Food, drink, stress, lifestyle, chemicals screens … just all of modern life really!

I'm going for improved diagnostics!

Not necessarily.

bowel cancer has a very strong genetic link.

we now know this, screen those with the faulty genes, early intervention and better treatments means survival past child bearing age.

so the faulty genes are remaining in the population rather than slowly dying out.

same with any genetic cancers.

even if no genetic links people with cancer are surviving longer. So there will be more people in the population who have survived, or are being treated for cancer. So even if the incidence isn’t increasing, there will be more people living with cancer.

I agree that UPF's and plastics must have a lot to do with it. Plastics package almost all our food from carrots, cornflakes and chicken, to milk, chocolate, cheese and crisps. Everything really - except flour, sugar and eggs (for some reason)

I also think the concoction of household chemicals we surround ourselves with add to the mix as well as the lungfulls of benzene, toluene, PAH's and VOC's we breathe in at the petrol pump. These chemicals are nasty nasty nasty.

Our bodies don't have a chance.

There is a lot of difference between a pack of Monster Munch, and a pack of crisps such as Tyyrell's salted crisps. Just look at the ingredients. I know which I would rather consume, out of the two of them.

obesity is a huge contributor to the overall cancer stats, even though yes of course, everyone knows cancer patients who are not obese.

Other factors are alcohol, upf, ozone damage, pollution,

People not dying of other things first, measles, polio, car accidents,

and of course there are double the number of cancer patients around that there used to be due to average life expectancy with cancer being double what it was

Yep. UPF is absolutely everywhere, even extremely rote communities in developing countries have access to Coca Cola nowadays (as an example.) It is also likely to be linked to higher rates of obesity but again I'd be looking at UPF as being partially to blame for that.

Chris Van Tulleken did that experiment where he only ate UPF for something like 30 days. He put on weight, which they expected but they were shocked to find on brain scans how his neural pathways had changed before and after the experiment. I do think our knowledge of the dangers of UPF is currently like the knowledge that tobacco was bad for you in the mid 1900s. Science was starting to prove it but the big companies wanted to keep making their profits and people weren't keen to change their habits.

Imo stress is always underplayed and I think it's one of the most difficult aspects of life to change.

Evidence emerging that covid fucks up immune system long term, compromising natural ability to fight it. Which is potentially why there are so many advanced cancers being diagnosed with no symptoms

I'm under 50. I had cancer and have recently finished treatment. Prior to cancer, I didn't smoke, rarely drank, was at a healthy weight/low BMI, exercised - weight lifting, walked a minimum of 15,000 steps a day. I eat most organic, rarely UPFs. I still got cancer. My cancer is genetic/hereditary. Irregardless of this, one can do all the right things and still get cancer. Cancer is indiscriminating.

What I will say is that my lifestyle put me in a better place to deal with the ravages of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, ditto my age. Had I been overweight, eaten poorly, out of shape, drank, smoke etc, older, I would have found treatment so much harder.

Edited to add that I agree with @TomatoSandwiches, stress plays a huge part. not just in cancer, but in health and wellbeing full stop.

Came to say this. There will be some element of westernisation of diet, but this everywhere - including where most people are veggie or vegan, and where women cover entirely so not exposed to sun.
Plastics and chemicals, and better medicine so much earlier diagnosis

Better screening. When I was young people died in their 60s from heart attacks.
I think that these were probably heart attacks caused by the blood electron imbalance from the cancer.

Probably worded it wrongly, and I'm not a medical person.

I fucking knew this thread would be full of people falling over themselves to blame cancer sufferers for being fat, drunk and eating crap.
NONE of the younger people I know who have had cancer are any of those things. None smoke. All excercise, are slim, some vegetarian. I also know lots of people who are fat, drink too much and smoke - no cancer.
Yes, it’s very comforting to assume that cancer only happens to those who deserve it, but that’s not actually the case.
There are multiple environmental factors at play. Of course a healthy diet is important but it’s not a magic bullet.

Can I ask what their symptoms were?

I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in my early 40’s. I’m slim, fit & healthy. Don’t drink or smoke. Since being diagnosed I’ve met a lot of women like me. Obviously this is just anecdotal but there seems to be an increase in women in their 40’s being diagnosed. I don’t believe it’s ever just one factor, there are so many possible causes- genetics, lifestyle factors, environmental factors. My diagnosis has made me realise you can’t control for everything. You can live a healthy lifestyle & still develop a chronic condition. Therefore you can’t spend your life worrying about it because ultimately there’s a limit to what you can do.

The weed killers and insecticides which amateur gardeners can no longer get access to as they are cancerous or dangerous in some way are still used by farmers. Arable fields are sprayed every time they want to plant a new crop. Which can be 3times a year. Then the dead plants ploughed in. This is safe apparently, as is the chemical drift to neighbouring populations.
I think it could be this -traces of the chemicals must be in food . They are used all o er the world, more safely in some places than others.

Oh formula milk 🥴 you are in for it now! Or did you add that on purpose 🤔

It's absolutely a combination of all of the things mentioned, I think.

It's never going to be a simple answer.

Lifestyles have changed so much in the last 50 years.

From UPF to stress, and drinking and smoking, to obesity and less exercise.

Human bodies weren't designed to cope with this all. And yet this global lifestyle is so embedded, I can't imagine how it's going to change, even in the next couple of generations.

It is truly scary. I so hope for a broader recognition of this.

Plastic. Air pollution. Chemicals in food. Smoking. Drinking.

Thank you @PontiacFirebird, having cancer is pretty shit without feeling you brought it on yourself with an unhealthy lifestyle!

@PontiacFirebird , same in my experience. Teetotal, non-smokers who BFd their babies, not sedentary and didn't eat crap. Died in their 40s leaving their little children without their mother.
Cancer is so unfair.

EMF's generated by WiFi?

The hospital where my mother had her chemo said this. The chemo ward was full and some of them young (20s, 30s) One of the nurses said it's because they are picked up earlier. Fify years go no-one would have been able to treat the range of cancers that can be treated today, let alone pick them up.