alt Hacker NewsColon cancer now leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US
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As a Multiple Sclerosis patient since I was a teenager, let me just say: all you “healthy diet” zealots aren’t helping. Your advice on which blended kale and gogi berry smoothie I should try is cringe and annoying. Normally, the person is right in front of me, and well-intentioned, so I typically smile and politely thank them with a non-committal gesture towards trying it someday.
But since this is all one-party and relatively anonymous, I’d like to take the opportunity to tell everyone that unless you have a PhD or MD in a relevant field, your thoughts about fiber are irrelevant and unwelcome to anyone actually suffering from the disease(s) in question.
They need to lower the screening to 40. I just had mine at 40, turned out fine luckily. Did it without sedation which my doctor said was rare in US, but common outside of US. I found surprising, wasn't that big of a deal. Pain was probably at a 7/10 during the turns (like 3 times) but ok the rest of the time. A little uncomfortable. Some new sensations, some familiar (feeling like you are crapping your pants).
I walked in and walked out no issue and went on about my day. Prep was fine but would be hard if I didn't work at home.
So many folks that have it say things like "I was super healthy! Did exercise, young, don't drink, etc." Then you dig deeper and realize the last vegetable meal they ate was a soggy brussel sprout their mom made them when they were 17 years old, and also eat cold cut turkey sandwiches every lunch because they're "healthy", and maybe have a tiny shred of lettuce in the sandwich. For breakfast, they eat pancakes or sugary foods, and dinner is just a piece of steak
There is going to be some big AHA moment tied so couple food practices. Like washing chicken in chlorine or something. I wonder how are the stats in other developed countries. The title says US.
Recent discussion on this topic:
Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47078840
My step-brother had this around 40. He's okay now, but it was a terrible process involving surgery, carrying around a bag, and chemo which aged him significantly during treatment (from no gray hair to all gray in a couple years).
You would have never guessed he was an unhealthy guy by looking at him, but I do assume it has something to do with foods we consider normal in the US. I've taken a page out of Bryan Johnson's book and started eating well over 100% of recommended daily fiber intake (easy and enjoyable if you make some chia seed porridge every morning), and I will say my digestion has never been better. Keeping the system clear seems like a sane first line of defense to preventing this kind of thing.
Quite scary since we don't know what causes it. I know there are some intelligent guesses, but my understanding is that we don't have any hard proof.
The decline in mortality for so many other types of cancer has caused colon cancer to become the leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US. Eat more fiber.
Ultra-marathoners have a 7x chance of getting colon cancer under 50. This is where it needs to be studied, maybe it's a common food or common supplement they are taking?
Scary. I had whole-genome sequencing done and the results came back with dozens of "Increased risk for colo-rectal cancer" results.
I'm likely going to die of either a heart attack (already had one, at age 28), or cancer, and it seems genetic.
EDIT: Specific genes and alleles below, if anyone is curious
This almost certainly speaks more to how much we have advanced on other cancers? The chart for total incidence shows it peaked in the 80s at about 70 per 100k and is down to about 40 per the same amount, now.
Such that, yes, we can still get better. But people here are reacting as if there is some damning evidence that just doesn't track with the data. Even with an uptick in younger people getting this, we still don't have a smoking gun on anything that is directly causal to this.
Also, holy crap, if you have rectal bleeding, don't ignore it! That that is listed as an early warning sign that people ignore is terrifying.
I think part of this can be attributed to prolonged gut inflammation caused by toxins and parasites. There’s something like 60% of the population has some form of parasite and have no idea, which causes a lot of inflammation and problems. Problems that don’t necessarily point to the gut being the culprit on the surface. So it’s misdiagnosed a lot.
I recommend everyone do a gut cleanse once a year.
Hmm - but has its incidence increased or just other causes have fallen down faster?
One of the healthiest things you can do is buy a vitamix or similarly powerful blender and make kale, spinach, broccoli, and mixed berry smoothies with olive oil. They don't have to taste GOOD, just good enough to be chugged as fast as possible.
Amazing how everybody in this thread has posted their pet theories as to cause:
- insufficient fibre
- too much high fructose corn syrup
- too much milk
- too much citric acid
- toxins and parasites (gut cleanse!)
- washing chicken in chlorine (voiced as hypothetical)
- ultra-marathoners - maybe their supplements and too much carbs or dehydration?
- too much processed junk
- vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- radiation
- insufficient veggies
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Most people don't eat enough fiber, eat way too much processed junk, and have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Yet still the overall risk for colon cancer is surprisingly low and takes a long time to develop for everyone but the unluckiest.
Earlier screenings are just compensating for poor education. It's not a solution to anything but the question of how to raise insurance costs for young people.
Just eat your damn vegetables!
the 1 reason for colon cancer is milk. it's not natural anymore and casein makes it's problems because the fat is altered by homogenization. second is whey and monsanto. third is canola oils. fourth is cirtric acid, it's not from citrus. and it's everywhere, in every beverage, juice and preserved food, even in beers.
eat healthy my lads. trust not the media
If you have the symptoms, go get yourself checked out. I delayed my colonoscopy for YEARS, hell - I even delayed my doctors visit for years, and I had pretty much every symptom there is. My anxiety was through the roof when taking the blood test, and getting the colonoscopy - as I simply assumed they'd find something.
But, no. They didn't find a single thing. Blood and stool tests came back fine. Not even a polyp was found during the colonoscopy.
The only thing that kind of sucked, was the prep - there's no way around that. But the colonoscopy itself, no problem. I get some mild sedatives, but was completely awake during the procedure - even watched it on the screen.