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!
I once caught my immune system checking instagram instead of fighting off badly mutating blood cells. Nobody wants to work these days, damn kids!
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.
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.
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.
Probably not related to the extremely high rates of micro plastics found in bottled water recently…
/S
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.
Stress, Anxiety, microplastics, and the imminent collapse of our ecosystem and society.
most people aren’t living, they’re surviving
Doesn’t that prevent clots though? Keep your blood from sticking to things.
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.
Stress & pollution with a sprinkle of COVID.
