I have noticed something that just MIGHT have something to do with increased youth cancer rates.
I go to swim laps, and the adjacent kiddie pool is full of babies, toddlers and pre-teens. And they are FAT. Not just overweight - about 40% of them are fucking obese.
I don’t think it matters what they’re eating; if they eat that much of it, they’re going to suffer.
While other reasons may add to it, I was going to say the same thing. Obesity is a big risk factor for some types of cancer. My younger sister was very obese and she, and while not young, was diagnosed with kidney cancer that had already metastasized when she was 59. Kidney cancer is one of the types of cancer that is more likely to occur in people suffering from obesity. And, sadly, we have a terrible epidemic of obesity. I'm not judging. I don't understand how it happened, but it's sad and it may be at least part of the reason why cancer is rising among young people.
Based on what I've read over the years, some people get cancer without a single risk factor. They might be very healthy, have very good habits, do not use any type of drugs, etc. and they still get cancer. Cancer is strange, in that any one of any age can contract it. I will never forget the sad experience during nursing school, doing clinical on a pediatric cancer ward. At that time, most of those children died, as we had very little treatments for them. And, a close friend of mine in high school, had a 9 year old brother who died of leukemia. He died quickly without any symptoms until he was diagnosed, so the rise in cancer rates probably have many causes, but obesity is one risk factor. It's kind of like smoking.
Some people can smoke 3 packs of cigs a day and live into their 90s, while others get lung cancer in their 40s. And some people, like my husband's late grandmother can be very obese their entire lives yet live to be 94, then die peacefully, while in the very early stages of dementia. It's complicated.
The single biggest determinant leading to the triggering of certain types of cancer like colon, pancreatic, prostrate and breast cancer, and later morbidity and mortality outcomes, is nutrition. By an enormous margin. Certain cancer types are virtually nonexistent in certain portions of the world where humans live primarily on a whole food plant based diet, driven either by culture or through lack of financial resources. The same is true for certain other diseases like coronary artery disease (which is the leading killer of humans in the United States, claiming over 650,000 lives each year), stroke, Type 2 diabetes, sexual function and other conditions. While there are other factors and comorbidities that influence the onset and progress of such conditions, like genetics, lifestyle, smoking, obesity, hypertension, etc., nutrition is the single largest factor that influences what diseases we get and how these diseases respond to therapy. There is very strong evidence that eating a whole food plant based diet free from added oils and sugar can stop the progress of, and selectively reverse the symptoms of heart disease, in many cases even causing a regression of the stenosis in the coronary vessels (and other arteries). The key to nutrition appears to be the proportion of fat that we consume, and secondarily, the source of this fat. A person eating the typical "western diet" consumes about 30 to 40 percent of their caloric intake through fat, primarily from animal sources. Eating a whole food plant based diet drops the caloric fat intake to about 8 to 10 percent, all of it plant based. And this apparently makes all the difference.
I agree for the most part, but I've read some science articles that make the claim that there is no perfect diet for everyone, although I agree that most of what we eat should be plant based. I don't think eating small portions of lean meats is necessarily unhealthy. I don't like meat, especially red meat, but due to my chronic iron deficiency anemia, I do eat a little bit of it, as well as chicken and sometimes fish. I can't prove it, but I don't think I absorb sources of non heme iron very well. l love broccoli and greens, but I'm skeptical that I absorb enough of the iron in those foods. I recently learned that dark chocolate is high in iron, so I've added a little of that to my diet. I'm thin, and fairly active for someone who suffers with severe chronic pain.
But, most obese people don't eat a healthy diet. In addition to eating too much, a lot them, who I've known through my former jobs, drank enormous amounts of sodas, and didn't eat many vegetables. One young woman told me that she drank two liters of soda a day. This is common here. She was obese and if I remember correctly, she nearly died of heart disease while in her 40s. A close friend of mine who is only 55, has become obese. She promised me she would give up her sodas and Red Bull drinks. She also needs and wants to stop smoking tobacco. She also smoke a little bit of weed, mostly to help with stress and depression. My small city has an extremely high rate of severe obesity. It's rather sad. Eating in restaurants doesn't help, as a lot of the food isn't healthy and is very high in calories and fat. My late sister ate processed meat for lunch everyday, which has been associated with cancer. She also ate way too much, but she had lost over 100 lbs on Weight Watchers shortly before her cancer diagnosis. I've read that obesity is a risk factor for kidney cancer. Did you find this to be common when you were working in oncology?
I agree with the article I read recently that gave evidence that there is no one diet that works for everyone. I think it was in Scientific American. It discussed how humans have eaten since prehistoric times, with or without meat. It mentioned all the natural foods that early humans ate, as well as how we started eating meat. Supposedly, eating meat helped with our early ancestors intellectual development. Has that been debunked, as far as you know, or was it that meat has a high rate of protein that isn't found in many other foods.? My protein level is frequently borderline. I've been pestered by doctors to eat more protein, but I've been this way for decades, so I usually tune them out.
We are exposed to lots of chemicals that people in places like the Rain Forrests in SA, aren't. Do you think the environmental pollution we are exposed to has much of an influence on the development of cancer? Stress seems to impact people's health as well. I do wonder if that plays a role in diseases like cancer. And, why do some infants or young children develop cancer? My mom was addicted to sweets, was thin, and died at age 97 after suffering from dementia for about 7 years. I know that's anecdotal. And, why do so many older men get bladder cancer? You're the expert here, so I value your opinion. So many questions. So few answers.
But, as some of us said before, younger people were never as obese, statistically speaking as they are these days, at least in the most developed countries. I spoke to a middle aged doctor from California the other day and he told me that he was the only person in his high school class who was't obese. It's hard to deny that obesity has an influence on the cancer rate among younger people. Even kids in my town are often obese. This was almost never the case when I was growing up. How did this happen?
I've made it to 75, so I consider each birthday a gift, although if I don't get better treatment for my chronic pain, I might consider each year a punishment.
Let's just say it's complicated.
