Researchers are trying to figure out what is making more young adults sick, and how to identify those at high risk
Meilin Keen was studying for the bar exam and preparing to move to New York City last June when she started throwing up blood.
Keen, 27 years old, learned days later that she has gastric cancer. She postponed the bar exam. Brain fog from chemotherapy made it hard to do her legal work.
Surgeons removed her stomach in December. Keen is coming to terms with all that means for her diet, her health, even her dating life. “That’s a fun icebreaker: I don’t have a stomach anymore,” she said.
Cancer is hitting more young people in the U.S. and around the globe, baffling doctors. Diagnosis rates in the U.S. rose in 2019 to 107.8 cases per 100,000 people under 50, up 12.8% from 95.6 in 2000, federal data show. A study in BMJ Oncology last year reported a sharp global rise in cancers in people under 50, with the highest rates in North America, Australia and Western Europe.
Doctors are racing to figure out what is making them sick, and how to identify young people who are at high risk. They suspect that changes in the way we live—less physical activity, more ultra-processed foods, new toxins—have raised the risk for younger generations.
Really tough one…
Is it the plastics? Maybe pollution in the air, or seas? Maybe it’s our ultra-processed foods? Maybe our stressful lives from 45 hours work week, or lack of sleep, or lack of money? Maybe aliens? Who knows!
Nah, it’s just lazy Millennial immune systems.
I once caught my immune system checking instagram instead of fighting off badly mutating blood cells. Nobody wants to work these days, damn kids!
My immune system quit and is currently living on welfare
I’m gonna saaay…chemical mixtures used by corporations have played a hand in this. puts on tinfoil hat And if history has anything to say about it these same corporations likely knew about the risks.
Honestly though, could be the microplasics. The stress. Our general mostly-jokingly stated desire to just die grandly manifesting a physical form. Obesity. Who knows, hopefully we’ll have some answers soon.
My bet is on a combination of all of the above (except aliens… probably)
Fool! Dismissing aliens is what they want you to think!
Plastic is the new asbestos and lead. Goddamnit.
The question that really needs an answer is why has this just started to happen now. Air pollution was far worse decades ago. Ultra-processed garbage has been around for a long time, and was arguably more prevalent thirty or forty years ago. Plastics and micro-plastics have not just suddenly appeared (though perhaps they’ve reached some critical concentration?). Working hours have been largely static since the 80s or so, and have noticeably declined since the 60s.
From looking at a similar article to this, it seems that colorectal cancers have seen the single biggest increase, so you’d be inclined to think diet, but then I wonder if it’s a particular new additive or ingredient or if it’s simply general diet quality, sugar, lack of fiber, obesity, that sort of thing.
Research presented by Zoe (that’s a team that includes 2 well known nutritional scientists) says that the quantity of ulta processed food in US and UK diets has been steadily increasing since the 80s. So we should not exclude that possibility.
The fact that this is a generation that had all of these from birth might be why as well
The ultra-processed food of yesterday had bad things like trans-fats. That caused issues like congestive heart failure.
They replaced it with sugar to make food taste good, in the 90s.
Cancer cells love sugar, it’s why we use glucose in PET scans. They grab all the sugar for energy to fuel the unsustainable growth. Then the tumors light up on a scan.
ultra processed foods
I’m betting specifically sugars. Cancer cells love sugar, allows them to rapidly grow.
It’s why we use glucose in PET scans as a way to detect cancer.
Probably not related to the extremely high rates of micro plastics found in bottled water recently…
/S
Obesity continues to rise, and that also increases risk of cancer
Honestly there are so many things that come to mind that it’s hard to pick one.
Looking at something that specifically would mean younger people would see a bigger increase than older, I wonder if stress is a big player? We know chronic stress increases your risk of cancer, and with house prices, climate change, social media, degrees becoming almost mandatory to get a job, along with I’m sure many other factors, surely more young adults are chronically stressed than ever?
I’m sorry, are only young people exposed to microplastics?
This is something specific to the young.
Probably the people born infused with microplastics while older people only had lead gasoline fumes.
The article notes Cancer is coming to young people more than it used to. It makes no claims that it isn’t also coming for older people.
Or dioxins???
Plastic water bottles have been around for ages though, so why just now?
Irt isnt the bottle, it is the degredation of those plastics in general water, which then got bottled up.
Stress, Anxiety, microplastics, and the imminent collapse of our ecosystem and society.
most people aren’t living, they’re surviving
Don’t forget all the pfas in our blood!
Doesn’t that prevent clots though? Keep your blood from sticking to things.
It does a hell lot more and it evens worse than you think
Diesel exhaust particles
It’s almost like plastics and the chemicals that make plastic are incompatible with human health. Too bad literally every single thing we use in our day to day life is at least partly made if not entirely made of polymers. We went balls to the wall making plastics in the 50s that we screwed our entire species up, not to mention the planet.
But the extreme use of plastics isn’t anything singular to the new generations. We’re only now finding out that microplastics are everywhere, but that’s very much not new and whether it affects our health is still very much debated, despite the alarmist media posts.
The amount of plastic in our environment has increased dramatically and is only increasing.
The density of exposure is relatively recent.
Stress & pollution with a sprinkle of COVID.
And a smattering of microplastics.
The main figures mentioned are from 2000-2019. So definitely no COVID involved.
Not surprising when you learn that perfluorinated compounds (e.g. Teflon) are in the drinking water and everyone’s bodies. Teflon, GenX, and other PFCs cause cancer as well as other serious ailments. There are probably other chemicals in the air too that are doing similar work.
But why now then? Teflon has been widespread since the 50s. A lot of these compounds have been around for a long time, so why is this just happening now?
Politics aside, there’s a very big scientific question here too that needs to be answered.
The cancer rates have been steadily rising since the 50s.
Is this controlled for the decrease in deaths from other causes? I know that’s a confounding variable for cancer deaths increasing in the elderly.
Yes, people living near dump sites have a significant higher increase in cancer. Also people eating sea food (PFAS accumelates in animals, especially sea food) have a significant higher rate. Also the rate of younger people having cancer is increasing, not only cancer rate.
Probably exposure in the womb
Continued growth in usage, continued growth in improper waste disposal, continued growth in the general environment, exposure over time … add a decade or two for search of these
It just doesn’t degrade and that is why we find them so usefull. Pfas dumped 50 years ago is still around and we just keep producing more.
Perfluorinated compounds do not biodegrade, and so the continued production of PFCs means more in the environment than ever before. Since we live in the environment, there are therefore more PFCs in our bodies than ever before.
Its because we have poisioned our enviorment. Between PFAS, microplastics, pesticides, preservatives and prolly 100 other factors…
Blame deregulation
How’s the regulation feeling about BPA nowadays? I’ve seen contradictory research saying it is and it’s not carcinogenic
Not sure about BPA, but we’re closer to knowing what BPA does than what BPS does. We just replaced a somewhat studied plasticizer for an even less studied and understood one. Plasticizers never went away.
The ones with the most money win the narrative
We can simply stop putting it in food if there’s a hint it’s bad. It’s so simple, bit somebody would lose a few bucks.
“Baffled”? Really?
Vape anyone?
Stomach cancer isn’t usually caused by smoking
Could COVID also be a cause? I’ve read that the number of young people with heart problems has increased significantly.
… Patel is now on a mission to put concrete numbers to what he acknowledges are clinic-level observations, and to find a way to help patients most at risk. There is evidence to support Patel’s observation that SARS-CoV-2 can set off inflammatory responses in tumors, causing cancer to progress much sooner and more aggressively, and even reawaken dormant cancer cells.
Im baffled. All this close to nature healthy lifestyle gave us this?
I’m guessing it is mostly due to stress, economic factors post pandmic
