this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
188 points (97.5% liked)

Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2220 readers
507 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

Non-paywall link

top 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MTK@lemmy.world 94 points 8 months ago (5 children)

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!

[–] Xanis@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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.

[–] deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My bet is on a combination of all of the above (except aliens... probably)

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Fool! Dismissing aliens is what they want you to think!

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Plastic is the new asbestos and lead. Goddamnit.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Don't dismiss asbestos and lead yet! plastic is jist the latest model in a still maintained series of killers, fun!

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

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.

[–] yenahmik@lemmy.world 56 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Probably not related to the extremely high rates of micro plastics found in bottled water recently...

/S

[–] Gigan@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago

Obesity continues to rise, and that also increases risk of cancer

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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?

[–] heyoni@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

Or dioxins???

[–] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I’m sorry, are only young people exposed to microplastics?

This is something specific to the young.

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 11 points 8 months ago

Probably the people born infused with microplastics while older people only had lead gasoline fumes.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 50 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Stress, Anxiety, microplastics, and the imminent collapse of our ecosystem and society.

most people aren't living, they're surviving

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget all the pfas in our blood!

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't that prevent clots though? Keep your blood from sticking to things.

[–] Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago

It does a hell lot more and it evens worse than you think

[–] HerrBeter@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

Diesel exhaust particles

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml -4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

The amount of plastic in our environment has increased dramatically and is only increasing.

The density of exposure is relatively recent.

[–] SuperCub@sh.itjust.works 19 points 8 months ago

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.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 19 points 8 months ago

Its because we have poisioned our enviorment. Between PFAS, microplastics, pesticides, preservatives and prolly 100 other factors...

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

Blame deregulation

[–] egeres@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

How's the regulation feeling about BPA nowadays? I've seen contradictory research saying it is and it's not carcinogenic

[–] TheFarm@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

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.

[–] Ibex0@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

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.

[–] BobGnarley@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

The ones with the most money win the narrative

[–] sylverstream@lemmy.nz 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could COVID also be a cause? I've read that the number of young people with heart problems has increased significantly.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

https://www.ajmc.com/view/kashyap-patel-md-sees-link-between-covid-19-and-cancer-progression-calls-for-more-biomarker-testing

... 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.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Im baffled. All this close to nature healthy lifestyle gave us this?

[–] DavidGarcia@feddit.nl 1 points 8 months ago

I'm guessing it is mostly due to stress, economic factors post pandmic

[–] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] piecat@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Stomach cancer isn't usually caused by smoking

[–] MaximilianKohler@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] BobGnarley@lemm.ee 0 points 8 months ago

Start with the Red Dye 40