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

Yes, I've heard of this too with endurance exercise. I reckon it puts huge demands on the body's nutrient stores - our bodies weren't designed for long bouts of intense exercise, only for low level exercise much of the time, interspersed with sudden, short bursts of high activity.

I’m nearly 60 and a lot of the things you are talking about - drinking, smoking, lack of sleep and exercise were as bad if not worse when I was young. We ate a lot of upf too (although not as much of e.g. soft drinks) but weren’t as fat. Was interested that someone mentioned microplastics - that’s clearly much worse now, as are certain other environmental pollutants.

A recent news article and a research paper on the topic:
https://theweek.com/health/covid-19-rare-cancers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10202899/

There must be many factors. Lots of things are different to when the baby boomers grew up. Pollution levels for one of many.

Probably all the cleaning products that people keep running to stock up at b&m thanks to Mrs Hinch.

I think a lot of it is linked to fast food /UPF food. Not eating enough natural products. I know a girl in her early 30s whose lifestyle was a lot of raving, smoking and drug taking. Sadly got a very nasty cancer stage 4. Went through extensive treatment. Relapsed then went through more treatment. Now in remission but back raving, smoking, drinking and drug taking! I'm gobsmacked at her attitude. Though I've never faced cancer I do try and live better than I did when I was younger due to chronic illness. We do feel invincible when we are younger but sadly this faced pace life is catching up with some.

Fillers, tattoos were never prevalent before in the young/ all poisons

I suggest you listen to Professor Angus Dalgliesh, professor of oncology at St George's, London - he is extremely concerned about links between mRNA vaccines and cancer. There is increasing research trickling in about the continued excess death rates worldwide and what might be driving them. Lots of medical people trying to sound the alarm about a provably under-researched new medical technology.

And yet all the people I know with cancer young lived admirably healthy lifestyles.

One person you know does not make a data set.

And it's kind of grim to see people talk about people they know and blame them for getting cancer. In fact it's not just kind of grim, it's very grim

Artificial sweeteners may play a role...

I would just like to add. Most cancers are very indiscriminate. Genetics, pollution? Anyone who ever gets cancer is never to blame. We shouldn't be exposed to the chemicals we are, be it in our food or the air we breathe. We get told for years something is healthy then later on they change their mind and something else comes along. I do think that trying to eat a better diet etc can maybe help in some regards but sadly we are facing the chances that it's a flipping lottery and I just hope the treatment is getting better and better. I've lost too many people to cancer. Some that were extremely healthy and some maybe not so healthy.

Again, the scientific data is really not strong on this. There's no evidence that normal levels of aspartame consumption causes cancer.

Hear hear.

We can't control the air we breathe. (Well we may be able to drive/fly /consume less but we can't control what others do)

We need to be asking governments to legislate to improve the quality of the air, water and food. Not pointing fingers at people who get ill and saying it was their fault

Quite, in my early 30s going through cancer at the moment, haven’t done a lot of the things mentioned in this thread as the cause. Sometimes it really is the (un)luck of the draw and also as you said the ever changing advice on what is healthy or not.

Agree. I wholeheartedly support British Farmers as a whole but individually I know of some bloody awful farmers who absolutely don't give a shit about anything but profits.

One in particular springs to mind for merrily spreading recycled garden waste on their crops as fertiliser. This waste comes from the council and is household garden/food waste. Trouble is people can't be trusted not to lob rubbish in their garden/food waste bin. I can't walk a yard on this farmers fields without seeing lots of plastic and metal shards. I have found knives, all sorts of shredded plastic and twisted metal, garden gloves and even condoms 🤢. This all gets churned up and harvested. Nice.

Yes I have reported this farmer and the landowner to environmental health and they did absolutely nothing. This was last year, same happened the year before and the same again this year. Hideous. God knows what else goes on that we end up consuming 🤢

Processed and GM foods.

No fruits or vegetables really look or taste like they did 20 years ago. Even seeds for growing your own are mostly GM varieties. I’m not in England, but where I am, watermelon is the fruit that’s a staple. You cannot ever find a watermelon with black seeds anymore, 20 years ago that’s all there was.

The amount of processed foods consumed is unreal.

Hormones and antibiotics- from human use and then they find their way into the waterways. Also used in farming for animals that are then consumed.

I also wonder about wifi.

I know I’ll get a lot of stick from this one too, and I had the vaccine so I’m not anti vax, but I do think there is a possibility that has impacted people more than we know yet.

But what can you do?

I think that's rather unfair.
We've seen on this thread everything 'new' from farming practices to diagnostics to microplastics bring blamed and everyone considering it as possible.
The covid vaccines are also new, also universal. We know there are people who can't take even a sinple and well known pharmaceutical like paracetamol.
I'm pro vax in general but it's not swivel eyed to consider there may be unforseen effects.

We should be able to discuss things rationally.

Env health teams have very few staff these days, since the Tories ripped all the funding away from local govt

Lung cancer in non smokers is rising

God not everything's the Tories fault. Problems exist even without rightish or rightists in power.
(From someone outside the UK with leftish & leftists entrenched in power)

A shit diet affects the body whether or not a person is overweight or obese.

It's a rare day on MN I don't see a post asking others to celebrate their shit diets, or saying eating a bar of chocolate a day is okay if you're not overweight.

Studies have shown aviators are more at risk of many cancers. Not sure this would apply globally, but my parents generation and my grandparents would have taken a fraction of the flights my generation has taken by this age I think. Just another idea I didn't see mentioned yet.

https://theweek.com/health/covid-19-rare-cancers

The impact of stress on our bodies I think will become more a focus - this video (Gabor Mate) was really insightful - particularly the piece around people's obituaries where he makes the point that the things that we celebrate and value in other people can sometimes be the thing that contributes to the timing / cause of their death (i.e. they put themselves last, they worked every day.. etc...)I also was interested in bio markers recently - and interested to learn more about gut health. Diet, how we experience stress and our exposure to nature (away from screens) - there is a lot of established research that shows patients in hospital environments exposed to nature - lots of plants, living walls etc. respond better to treatment and have shorter recovery time. Lastly, our air quality is crap - with the world's urban population nearly doubling by 2050, we will have high levels of poor air quality in concentrated urban areas, increasingly less green space (unless vertical green space increases) and less access to high quality nutrient rich foods (unless vertical farming can by increased)....

Isn't it linked to sugar and inflammation?