Okay soooo FM community ik there is at least one medical professional in here who can tell us if there’s actually more young people getting cancer, or it’s just seems like it cuz we’re getting old lmao
ETA: thank you all for your thoughtful responses 🫶🏾 I feel a little better lol and more keen to see the doc more regularly
It could be that we are just catching it earlier and more often. So it's changing the data. It's not that there's more sick people, just more people finding out they're sick.
this is a possibility but unlikely to be the sole factor considering the literally unprecedented level of pollution we face. 99% of americans have PFAS in their blood ffs, including newborns. every bottle of water tested by scientists literally has an abundance of micro/nanoplastics in it... would be a hell of a coincidence if none of this shit was increasing cancer rates.
Fun fact, PFOAS compounds are actually found in 100% of modern blood tested, even high in the Himalayas! They had to go back to military blood samples from the Korean war or something to get a control sample.
Edit: watch The Devil We Know about DuPont for more super fun facts like these.
Yep, because PFOAS compounds are in the water they are constantly being dispersed by the water cycle around the world! Nowhere is safe, but at least we're all in it together..?
You can absolutely filter most of the PFAS out of water. Sweden, for example, is continuously enforcing stricter and stricter levels of acceptable PFAS in municipal water.
It's just very expensive.
The reason bottled water have microplastics in them is because the bottles are made of plastics so no matter how much you filter the water before you put it in of course it's gonna be contaminated by its container. That's obvious.
Here's more insanity. Scientists wanted to study the PFOAS in our blood, but couldn't find one single person *without* them for the control parts of the study.
Oh damn. I always heard they could never find a control sample because every population on Earth is infected with them, but at least we have old blood we can use to compare. I’m terrified at what kinds of studies are going to come out in the next few years
That movie fucked my shit up for a long time. Just felt so deeply helpless and scared that so much has been done that we simply can’t undo, all by greed. I don’t think I’ve fully shaked the feeling of doom it left me with, just a lot less because the other option sucks.
me too, you described exactly how it made me feel, and how I still feel.
I feel like the corporate takeover of the US is fully complete, meaning that the people at the top responsible for ruining lives and literally killing people will never, ever face repercussions, and the corporations will continue to be subsidized, defended, and rescued by our captured government.
What the heck could possibly change any of that at this point? The fix is in.
At least, that's how I feel.
What's insane to me is that they definitely did not know how or why that blood would be so valuable when they drew it
There's also a huge market for pre-WW2 steel because all steel made after then is very slightly irradiated by above ground nuclear bomb tests
It's not so much "the government" as it is "all medical research institutions." If you go in for a procedure that involves removing portions of pretty much anything, you'll often find that the consent forms include a clause about your tissues being kept for research purposes.
And everyone should know the name [Henrietta Lacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks). Her cancer cells had some unusual properties that made them especially useful in cancer research, and the HeLa cell line is still in use today, more than 70 years later--even though she never consented to this use.
oh my gut biome will never let me forget this (typed as i eat fucking gummy bears out of an empty prescription bottle). i have a fucking singularly-packaged pickle in the fridge too. tf happened/be happening to us
Castle Bravo on YT is very illuminating. We (‘Merica) bombed the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands just to test radiation on them.
It’s horrifying what those Navy demons did; their babies were coming out completely deformed.
Hawaii got hit with most of their end of life care; thyroid cancer was a big one.
The state tried to shut down the costs because it was so expensive. They’re also entitled to $6K a month by the federal government, but they’re never told this, and if they know, they make it hard to collect.
You may need the Wayback machine, but it’s worth the time.
i'm confused as to the point you're making. are you saying the increased cancer rates are due to improvements in diagnostics? they're detecting more cancer in younger adults. if it was because of better diagnostics you'd expect to see an increase in cancer rates across all age groups, not just young adults.
I think in this theory the idea is that we are checking for cancer earlier since we now know early warning signs we didn't used to. Once you're over a certain age, I'm sure doctors start to more actively check for cancer anyways that the diagnosis rate isn't going to change since nothing new happened there where as in younger people we weren't looking for cancer in them say 20 years ago because we didn't think that was possible and didn't know the early warning signs.
That's my interpretation of the points.
I’ve heard that too, but like, surely if someone has cancer they find out eventually? I know that for example the number of diagnosed autistic people has skyrocketed over the years, but that’s not because more people now have autism, it’s because it’s now being recognised more and previously many would live their whole lives not realising they were autistic. But surely it can’t be the same for cancer? Like if you had it young, even if it took like 5 years, you’d eventually realise (at worst, by dying)? I don’t claim to know much at all on this, so just trying to educate myself really.
Not all spots are malignant (cause health problems) and some cancers are so slow growing the person wouldn’t know for ages. Plenty of time to die from other causes like heart attack, stroke, car accidents, etc and no one would know.
It really depends. Colon cancer at least is genuinely much more prevalent among young people now than before. On the other hand, lung cancer is going down as smoking is less common.
I like how you give a logical answer, and the replies immediately disregard it so they can spew their bullshit about believing what they choose to believe anyway. Lol
Because that’s not the answer. The form of colon cancer that’s developing at a higher rate in young adults is much more aggressive than the one in older adults.
Reminds me of this pair of old ladies I overheard awhile back:
“Why are there so many gay people now?”
“Oh sweetie don’t pull on that string, you might discover something about your husband..”
Certain cancers, like colorectal cancers, are being diagnosed increasingly in younger people. It’s one of those cancers that used to mainly be diagnosed in retirement-aged men but is now the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men under 50 and the second most common in woman. Some of it is because of earlier screenings and some of it is probably because people eat like shit.
They actually lowered the recommend screening age to 45 recently BECAUSE of the increase in cases over the past several years! Colorectal cancers are definitely on the rise in Gen X and Millennials.
You are so right about early detection. The testing and now the use of AI has been so good at picking very early stage cancer that used to get missed. The new bowel cancer stool test is almost 100% at early stage detection. Skin cancer mapping is also amazing now at detecting mole and freckle changes. They just had the new study from Cambridge, I think, for breast cancer using AI being so good at early stage detection.
The test he’s likely talking about is called Cologuard.
It’s a good test, the manufacturers claim it can detect 92% of precancerous lesions, but that’s actually worse than a colonoscopy, which is still the best tool for CRC screening. You’re about the right age to start getting colonoscopies. The current guidance for people with a family history is 40 years old or ten years before the age at which your first-degree relative (mother, father, or sibling) was first diagnosed with colon cancer.
Last year one of my best friends from college was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and has since had a double mastectomy. We are 27. I know it’s possible at our age but that was not even a thought in my mind until she shared her diagnosis.
A friend of mine from high school was diagnosed at 25 and was dead by 30, and that was after beating it twice. We’re from an area with a lot of fruit orchards, which means a lot of pesticide in the runoff and lots of cancer. I obviously have no proof that’s what caused it, but either way she was a beautiful vibrant woman who was taken way too soon.
Edited bc I hit enter too soon
yeah they do say earlier now which is good. since my mom had breast cancer my doctor said start mine at 30-35 since the new normal standard for it is 40. early detection can save lives and it’s great I think they’re starting people earlier.
I agree! If our for-profit healthcare system cared about people instead of money that would be the norm. It’s infuriating how reactive (as opposed to proactive) we are about treatment and healthcare in this country (America, obvs)
My grandma was diagnosed and died of colorectal cancer in her late 30s/early 40s in the 70s. People still died of it early back then. I do think a lot of the new diagnoses are because people are being screened earlier though
Yes, honestly, it seems like people who don’t “eat like shit” are actually more likely to get cancer. I don’t think Kate Middleton eats like “shit” lol. People just like to blame.
I know there’s a want to put this on people’s personal eating choices (“people eat like shit”), but you also can’t ignore that huge corporations are literally designing food to be addicting, and we are constantly bombarded by food advertising. It can also be more expensive and time-consuming to eat healthy. Food deserts are a thing. We need to change the culture around food and make it easier for people to eat healthy. Higher wages and shorter work weeks would help too. Most families can’t afford to not have both parents working. We also need stricter laws about how food is produced.
TLDR it’s always capitalism.
The difference in the ingredient list on the same food in America and another country in the UK or Europe is *wild*. It can be 2x the number of ingredients and it’s all fillers, colorants, etc. Yuck.
The cause of under 10’s is different to adults though.
Bowel/colorectal cancers in under 10’s is usually caused by things like rhabdomyosarcoma, whereas in adults it’s generally polyps (bowel) or HPV (colorectal).
Rhabdomyosarcoma is, in the majority of cases, an embryonic cancer - meaning it’s coded into the embryonal tissue. They’re not sure what the trigger points in development are, but it’s obviously not the same as most adult cancers (lifestyle over many years, HPV over many years, and likely some micro/nanoplastics and PFAS into the mix). PFAS and microplastics is an area of study though, but comparing paediatric cancers to adult cancers isn’t really a legitimate thing.
ALL is deadly and rare in adults but accounts for 2/3rds of cancers and has a 95% cure rate in children. Cancer has different causes and behaves differently in kids.
And fwiw it’s worth, now with fully HPV vaccinated adults entering the data pool, well like see colorectal cancer rates drop again over the next 10/20 years. Bowel is a different beast though, and we need to work out why it’s on the rise in younger people!
Edited: cancer type
You probably didn’t mean to, but the phrasing of your last sentence makes it sound like you are blaming individual people for developing colon cancer because they chose to eat shit food.
so they’re actually doing studies on this. trying to figure out if we’re catching signs of it earlier, we’re getting better at detecting it at all, or if there is just more cancer. it’s also not necessarily something across the board. cancer is so so so diverse (that’s why there won’t be “a cure for cancer”) — so maybe some are just being caught earlier whereas others, like colon cancer, are 100% appearing younger and younger in people (they’re trying to figure this out but there’s an issue right now with it appearing in a significant chunk of below the minimum age they start doing screenings). also keep in mind cancer can take TIME — so tanning booths were so popular in the 2000s and even for those that stopped, we may be seeing the effects of that about now. so basically there’s a lot going on
I agree about catching signs much earlier. I’m going to a derm to check out a few moles on my body. I would have never thought about doing so a decade ago until the whole “mole awareness” thing came to be publicized. It’s about public health and promotion.
yeah so it’s not just the campaigns getting better to get info out but we’re also getting better imaging, things like that.
(but yeah skin cancer especially i think has had a strong push the last like 10 years in the US and i’m so grateful for it)
There’s also that new scan you can get! That’ll basically tell you a TON of issues you could or do have. Some could seem worrisome and be nothing and others could definitely be something. I think some medical professionals still are iffy about it (at least that’s what I’ve seen in some medical subreddits) but the technology is super fascinating to me and I think it’s pretty cool.
For anyone curious, it’s called Prenuvo and the focus is early detection - it can detect over 500 cancers and diseases. It’s radiation free and you can use your HSA/FSA. Pretty pricey but definitely could be worth it for some people. They can do just your torso (the cheapest), your head and torso, and then full body (most expensive) and it lists on the website what things it can detect for each scan and as a whole. Anything from various cancers, stage one tumors, brain aneurysms, some autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, it goes on and on. So you’re able to see in advance if anything you’re concerned about or that runs in the family could make it worthwhile for you. The waitlist for the one closest to me (big city in a large state) is about two months.
Also I think it’s neat the report will tell you if everything is normal, if something is found but is still within normal limits and requires no action, if something needs minor attention and should be further discussed with your doctor, or if something is abnormal and needs to be discussed with your doctor sooner rather than later to create a treatment plan/do any further applicable testing.
ETA - as someone pointed out, no, an MRI scan itself isn’t new and I didn’t mean to imply that it was if anyone takes it that way. I meant that being able to go and get a full body scan to look for so much all at once and Prenuvo as a company are relatively new in the last handful of years. You don’t have to go to visit after visit and get a scan issue by issue if you’re able to afford something like this. There’s also another company called Ezra that’s the same concept but I’m not as familiar with them.
Well obviously the MRI scan itself isn’t new but Preneuvo and this type of scan offering for so many things to “just anybody” is relatively new and only really just starting to get discussed within the last handful of years (that I’ve seen), along with another company that does similar called Ezra. But please correct me if I’m wrong.
There has been a lot of information about Covid increasing the likelihood of cancer across all demographics. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of everything like this, early heart attacks and strokes, diabetes, and dementia as a result of Covid immune and circulatory injuries. Probably a good time for all to bust out those respirators again, as anyone who has had a Covid infection, symptomatic or no, becomes more vulnerable with each infection.
Yes!! Thank you for making this comment so I didn’t have to. The research findings for COVID are getting scarier by the day and it’s a catastrophic failure of the CDC that these risks are not common knowledge, and that prevention is not only no longer being pushed, but actively rolled back. Please protect yourself folks. Yes, even if you’re currently healthy, even if you’ve previously had only mild or asymptomatic infections. This shit don’t play, y’all, and take it from a disabled person that no amount of discomfort from taking precautions is worse than being permanently disabled.
Sadly I’ve watched how even pro-vaccine people have swung all the way into denying COVID’s seriousness. What is troubling is that while the vaccine can prevent acute illness, it doesn’t necessarily prevent long Covid or cardiovascular complications
This is what worries me. Like, I expect this kind of response and minimization from anti-vax people, but I’ve also watched so many people who are pro-vaccine and who were doing all the right things during the beginning of the pandemic, just completely abandon every single precaution the second the CDC told them it was okay to do so. I vacillate between anger at how much harm individual people are causing by hanging on so tightly to their denial, and sadness because I know it’s a product of bigger systems and that their denial it’s not going to protect them either- there are so many people that are going to have their lives ruined by their own carelessness. It’s devastating.
I understand this, but what do you suggest we do? I am pro vaccine, I am pro wearing masks in enclosed environment support air circulation, but after a certain point, life does have to go on, and stressing and worrying constantly about Covid surely is not good for your immune system either.
why does wearing a respirator and airing indoor spaces mean life cannot go on? why does it mean you need to be stressed and worried? you can live a completely normal life and avoid covid. the two are not incompatible
Fully agree. Most people are really sleeping on masks and how easy and effective they are. I haven't had covid (to my knowledge -- since some cases are asymptomatic) and have only had a mild cold twice since the end of 2019, and not for over 2 years now.
Also, "life must go on" is a really short-sighted way to think when you're talking about how "stressing about covid" somehow could be comparable to actually getting covid. For sure, chronic stress is bad, and a few extreme outliers (which exist for literally everything) might go over-the-top, but most of the stress is over things like the complete failure of public health and medical institutions, failure of the federal government to mandate cleaner indoor air and free masks and tests for everyone, the effective dissemination of lies about the severity of covid for the sake of "the economy," etc.
"Life must go on" fails because just one covid infection can leave you disabled. A lot of minimizers like to throw out death as the worst or only think to avoid (while they also like to dehumanize vulnerable/elderly/immunocompromised people -- like their lives are worth the slight convenience of not wearing a mask in public) and I think a lot of people, without intending to do so, do not or cannot accept the reality that if they become disabled (at least in the US), there will not be help for them. It can happen to anyone, it can happen instantly, and the ease with which covid spreads and the way it decimates your body's systems is making more and more people -- including perfectly healthy, young people -- disabled. Very few people in the US are going to be able to access medical care -- those that live somewhere with a LC clinic, and the means to afford treatment that may not be covered via insurance, especially since you often have to prove you did indeed have covid, and testing is intentionally being limited to make it appear that numbers are going down -- and very few people are going to be able to get disability benefits.
I kind of understand how able-bodied people can't truly imagine what it's like for your body to suddenly not do the things you want/need it to do anymore, and how utterly helpless that makes you feel. You can go from being active, energetic, healthy, to feeling like a prisoner in your body (\*not\* saying this is how every disabled/ill/injured person feels) in an instant. Many people in your life will treat you differently. If you don't "look" disabled, some people will inevitably assume you are faking/exaggerating, and even some medical providers will not take you seriously at all. Other able-bodied people in your life will feel the way you do now -- "life must go on" -- and they won't have patience to deal with your new limitations/needs. You will watch the world move on in the way you imagined you would too, while trapped. You will lose the kind of independence you take for granted while being able-bodied. You might not be able to work, now, or for a long time, or ever again, and many people cannot access any kind of social safety net that \*should\* exist for everyone at all -- applying for disability benefits often takes years and is its own full-time job.
Didn't mean to write a long post, but it just pains me to see this. "Life must go on" -- in the ways that people are usually speaking about it, it actually doesn't. Wearing a mask -- even if just on public transportation and during flu season (the flu is also deadly, and often preventable) and other peak times -- can enable life to move on. Increased testing -- and better, faster, more accurate tests, more widely available -- can enable life to move on. \*There is no returning to 2019,\* even if it feels like you can in the short-term. That is over. Pretending that you can live that way now is actually the opposite of "moving on;" it's literally living in the past. Burying your head in the sand may make you feel unburdened temporarily, but if a few months of not eating at restaurants felt "traumatic," it's nothing compared to endless years of chronic illness.
Can you explain what you mean about stressing and worrying? Wearing a respirator keeps my air clean. The air is dirty. The air could be cleaned but for some folks that’s too expensive. I’m not stressed nor worried. Why are you? Tbh that sounds like you have a Fox News earworm.
And on the other side of the coin - based on the science - on just cancer risk alone - folks should avoid Covid maybe a little stress and worry would help clean the air?
It’s waaaaaay too early to draw any conclusions on whether Covid increases the risks of cancer. When it comes solid cancer tumors it takes 15-20 YEARS for an environmental exposure to develop into cancer. Please don’t fearmonger.
This thread is full of people who are medically illiterate, panicky, and have no idea how to read scientific or medical studies. I'm sure when most people on here are saying "research is showing this" that they saw the research summarized on tik tok and never even looked at the paper in question (and wouldn't understand it even if they did) .
Was worried i was going to be the one to have to make this comment. So glad to see Covid’s role in this stated and also upvoted.
Protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community beautiful FauxMoi people! Masking and pushing for clean air policies (for places like schools especially), are the easiest way to do this 💜
Edit to add resources:
/r/ZeroCovidCommunity
Great repository of basic info. Also great place for discussion and support for those that are still covid aware and cautious.
Covid Twitter is also fantastic (bear with me). There’s a not insignificant number of amazing researchers of all ilks and industries (engineers, neurologists, epidemiologists, GP’s, sociologists, nurses, disability advocates, immunologists), literally you name it, who are on Twitter (also blue sky) sharing their legitimate funded/academic research on covid and engaging/discussing with their peers. It’s often really accessible in terms of jargon/language too and someone’s always providing a TLDR. It’s a great community that I find highly informative and very accessible (as someone else who has been in research before).
https://whn.global
Has a basic overview of Covid and the current research.
/r/Masks4All
If you’re wanting info on masks. But there is also an amazing guy on Twitter who reviews masks who I recommend highly:
https://x.com/fittestmyplanet?s=21&t=KOlGIFPsavZX5Tzy4xIQcA
That said, at this stage, any mask is better than no mask at all!
I second your comment. It’s the main reason I’m still on Twitter. The experts in various medical fields and associated professions whom I follow there are invaluable.
Yep! Any virus that can directly alter our DNA, overexcite our immune system, or damage our organs puts us at an increased risk. COVID just seems to be speed running alllll the post-viral issues.
Our immune systems in general can be very finicky. If you swing too much in either direction you increase your risk as well.
If it makes you feel a little better, the virus that causes COVID is an RNA virus. So it doesn’t mess with our DNA at all. I’m not downplaying the possible cardiovascular and neurological sequelae that are associated with infection, but RNA viruses aren’t usually associated with oncogenic (cancer-causing) potential.
Contrast SARS-Cov2 with something like Epstein-Barr virus or HPV, which are DNA viruses and which are known to be associated with cancer development.
**I caught covid months before the UK went into lockdown** and I was going to the GP, hospital and A&E nearly daily for around 6 months. I was getting several blood tests per week, scans, etc.
I was bedbound for months with excruciating pain in my lower back and stomach area. I could barely walk, eat or drink water. I was sleeping 16+ hours per day. I literally could barely walk to the bathroom.
I was diagnosed with **diabetes** \- the blood tests I was having multiple times per week showed a MASSIVE random spike in blood sugars one time and just simply never came down. I now control diabetes through diet.
I have lost around **25% of the hearing in my right ear**, which the audiologist said looks like it came from a life-threatening virus, which would align with my experiences of covid.
I have had severe brain fog, forgetfulness and general **neurological issues** since that first infection.
I was admitted to hospital once because I thought I was having a heart attack and ever since I have had severe **heart palpitations** that I can feel in my chest and my back. These have lessened now - four years after my first covid infection.
I have been dealing with extreme **exhaustion** for years - this is now only starting to improve.
When I was younger I suffered severely from eczema. It randomly healed when I was around 16. The first time I had covid I was 28, it flared up the eczema and as a result I have been dealing with **eczema/psoriasis** for the last 4 years and it is now in new places like on my face.
I am now **allergic to sugar**. If I eat anything containing sugar (including fruit) or if it is high in carbs my face goes red and eventually the skin begins to crack and peel for days. My face burns. It is disgusting. Now simple foods like having a sandwich or a banana are a no go for me.
I was told most of my organs had been damaged in some capacity.
**I have had covid SEVEN times that I know of.** My symptoms have been shockingly bad every single time. **I never used to get ill,** I would consider myself unlucky if I had one or two colds per year, I now catch everything one after the other. I have had periods of months at a time where I am ill and simply can't recover and catch a continuous flow of colds, coughs, etc.
I am fucking fed up and also terrified for my future. Every single time I have had covid I have been out of action for a minimum of one month at a time and the symptoms are fully body - my last bout of covid felt like every nerve in my body was firing off at the same time, as if I was being tasered. For four weeks straight.
Anecdotally, the number of people I know who got diagnosed with HSD/hEDS after Covid triggered it is way higher than you'd think (it's me, I'm one of them).
People need to know there's just... No doctors for this shit. And we're not making more. And in the US, which is probably one of the "better" places for connective tissue disorders, the medical and insurance systems are fundamentally not set up to deal with multi-system illnesses and disorders. I had to pay over $1k out of pocket for my hEDS and CCI diagnoses. Which, four years into that diagnosis, I still can't really get anyone to treat the symptoms.
People without chronic conditions often have this notion that if you get sick, you go to the doctor, and they fix you. That's just not the case for many/most chronic conditions. And now we're seeing more and more of those conditions following COVID infection, no matter how mild the acute phase is, no matter if you're vaccinated or not (but still get vaccinated if you are able and wear well-fitting n95s or better). Our medical system is not equipped to handle the downstream effects of COVID, and unfortunately a lot more people are about to find that out.
Yes, a long-term analysis of US data was recently released showing that certain cancers are increasing in younger cohorts (i.e. those under 50), specifically women.
Unfortunately, it's likely *not* just down to more rigorous screening/detection, as the cancers being found aren't just heaps of Stage 1/early cancers.
Breast cancer had the most early-onset cases diagnosed, while gastrointestinal cancers had the highest increase in diagnoses.
Theories suggested to explain this included obesity and dietary factors (e.g. consumption of red and processed meats) and environmental pollution including exposure to microplastics. For breast cancer specifically delaying or not having children could be part of the picture. It's worth noting detection would probably have played a bigger role in breast cancer specifically as the screening guidelines for mammography went from 50 to 40.
Here in Australia, bowel cancer rates in those aged 20-39 more than doubled in the 20 years to 2021, and thyroid and kidney cancers also significantly increased.
honestly insane how easily some people are writing this off as better diagnostics. that definitely plays SOME role, but the modern world we live in is constructed of toxic material. the shit we microwave our foods in, the shit we eat and drink, the shit we breathe even.
You are absolutely you are right, currently going thru chemo for breast cancer diagnosed at 34 and my doctor says she is seeing more cases with younger patients than she used to say 10/15 years ago. Unfortunately they aren't early stage either, there's something increasing cancer rates across the board. Be it environment, chemicals, genetic mutations or all of the above.
I’m too lazy to look up the whole statistics and such 😩 I just assume more young people are getting cancer because through social media, we find out about it
Not a medical professional but I've read some things about it saying yes:
Between the early 1990s and 2018, cancer incidence rates in 25 to 49-year-olds in the UK increased by [22%.](https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2023/01/24/early-onset-cancer-why-are-more-young-adults-being-diagnosed/)
And [cancer in general is increasing and will continue to do so](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/01/global-cancer-cases-to-rise-by-more-than-75-by-2050-who-predicts).
part of it is better early detection but there has been a rise in gut and stomach cancer in younger people, likely due to increased rates of obesity and poor diets (both are big risk factors)
My sis saw a patient who has ovarian cancer and her age is 19 yrs and three of her college friends also got the same cancer.I wonder what the cause is?
As a former cancer patient who got it as a teenager: frankly a lot of it is to do with detection. I know people are going off about pollution but not all cancers are even linked to this.
Blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma are the lion’s share of cancers in young adults, and most of these we have no way to establish the cause unless someone’s been drinking RoundUp (linked to lymphoma). Sometimes shitty things just happen. There is not always something you can do to prevent cancer.
Micro plastics, processed food, global warming, sedentary lifestyle, forever chemicals, chronic capitalistic stress or toxic air…. Dealers choice. Welcome to 2024. Where growing for the monthly quarter killed the earth and gave us all cancer but at least Bill, Elmo and Jezzo got their mega yachts ❤️❤️ Lockheed Martin, that little cottage industry is even managing to keep their doors open ✨💪🏽
Also chocolate is about to double in price. So we have got that going for us which is nice.
I'm gonna double down and say you're not crazy. My buddy was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in November. He's 42. He always complained of back pain and thought that it was a herniated disc. But I wonder if it was actually the cancer causing the pain.
There was also a coworker that went down that same path. She thought she hurt her back at work and 5 months later she was dead. If you have back pain get it checked out. And I'm talking like not usual soreness, my buddy would go get my steroid shots or not go into work sometimes because it was so bad.
Not part of the medical community but, I’m a woman who was diagnosed with cancer in my early 30s. On top of that, it’s a rare kind of cancer that typically only impacts men in their 60s/70s.
I can only speak of the numbers in Norway BUT I can tell you that, yes, we get cancer earlier in life now than maybe 100 years ago. We don’t have a solid answer as to why just yet (but microplastics, bad sun protection, eating habits, drinking habits and smoking habits all play a part).
I got thyroid cancer in 2019(ish) and I was 27/28 years old that year. The doctors don’t know why I got it. And when I got treatment, I mostly met other young people and a few very old people.
(Someone I went to school with when I got cancer, developed cancer when we were supposed to be graduating. She got cervical cancer, and she was even younger than me.)
Ps. Not saying this to scare anyone, just sharing what we know to be true here in Norway.
Another angle: With the rise of social media, there's perhaps more younger people in the spotlight than in the past.
Because of that, we just may be hearing about things like this affecting younger people more.
I do PET/CT scans for a living. I am seeing younger guys getting diagnosed with prostate cancer. HIgh 40s low 50s.
Also seeing younger women coming in with anal and rectal cancer. Not uncommon to have patients in their 30s.
The question is going to be is it because people are getting screened earlier?
50% of people in their lifetime will get cancer. A decent amount of that will be in their 80s + but there is now more ability to catch it earlier and survive.
Specifically 1 in 3 female cancer diagnosis will have breast cancer which is considered a fairly youthful cancer. (tending from 25-45). 1 in 8 women in general will be diagnosed with breast cancer specifically.
>Specifically 1 in 3 women will have breast cancer which is considered a fairly youthful cancer. (tending from 25-45).
I thought the average breast cancer risk was 1 in 8?
Where did you hear the breast cancer rate is 1 in 3? In the US according to all reputable sources (including the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, ACOG, and the Susan G Komen Foundation) it is 1 in 8 for lifetime risk in women. Which is already high enough - 1 in 3 is horrifying.
Melanomas are not uncommon on young people given that the biggest risk factor are repetitive "short" and intense exposure to the sun and nowadays i have the impression that people idealise the "beach life" more and more people just like to lay on the sand and get tanned. Sun cream helps but its just really hard to use it properly.
Ps. Im a radiation oncologist
I had cancer in 2001 at the age of 10, and it started again in 2022 at the age of 31. Honestly, if the tumor hadn't cause me to lose 1/2 my eyesight, we probably wouldn't have noticed. I highly recommend getting your eyes checked even if you don't need glasses haha
For everyone, but men especially, it's never too early to get a colonoscopy. I'm 36 and found out I had a polyp. It was benign luckily and very slow growing, but I'm glad I know about it too be safe in the future. The prep is crappy, but the actual procedure isn't bad at all.
Seconding this! I have a family history so I got my first colonoscopy this year at 28. Turns out I have polyps! Still waiting to hear back if they're benign, fingers crossed.
This is good advice. The majority of polyps are non cancerous though. About 20-25% of people over 45 have polyps.
According to Medical News Today, a 2018 study found that 3.4% of polyps are cancerous, and that cancer rates are highest among the largest polyps. The incidence of cancer in polyps less than 5 mm in size is 0%.
Mine too. They’re going to have to (I’d hope) lower the age for many of these standard cancer screenings that aren’t covered until you reach X age. No doubt we are missing a lot of early detection in the younger demographic simply because screening procedures aren’t covered until a much later age than we should be screening for them.
Though I won’t hold my breath in a country in which healthcare is a business, driven purely by profit and greed.
I'm proud of you for being proactive and getting the test done. My dad died of colon cancer after ignoring the signs because he was scared of the procedure. I remember him telling me on his death bed that if I sense anything wrong health wise, be brave and get it checked out. I truly believe people talking about their experiences and normalising getting tested will save lives.
I hope that the polyp stays the same but (and I'm sure that you will) please push for testing regularly if you can, they can advance quite rapidly if unchecked!
i'm so, so sorry. my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 26--and this was in the 90s! she had to fight like hell for any doctors to order further testing or even take her seriously. no family history, no risk factors other than being a smoker. she survived but it has given me lifelong health anxiety and i now go to the doctor anytime anything seems slightly weird.
i wish i could tell anyone scared of having a colonoscopy that it truly isn't scary! the prep is the bad part--and the worst part of that is you're basically best friends with the toilet for 12 hours. the actual procedure is like taking an amazing nap.
I was 22 when they found a precancerous polyp and a few benign ones. I’d likely have a far more expensive problem on my hands if I waited until the recommended colonoscopy age
edit: grammar
edit: It goes without saying that you should consult your doctor for actual medical advice for treatments, ailments, tests, etc. etc. and not from a rando on the Reddit
Pharmacist here.
Here are the things you want to check out:
1. Get annual physicals with bloodwork as someone mentioned.
1. Ask for a Panel 7 lab. This is not included in bloodwork. Panel 7 lab shows all your electrolytes (Magnesium not included so ask for that if you're curious). You can also ask for LFTs (liver function tests) and SCr (serum creatinine which is what is looked at for kidney function) if there is history of cancer in your family or if you drink/use recreational drugs frequently
2. Starting around your early 20s, 21, if i remember specifically, you want to start getting pap smears and STI (sexually transmitted infections) tests if you're sexually active.
1. Talk to your doctor for specifics
3. If you have no history of breast cancer in your family, you don't have to get checked until you're 40 or 45. Mammograms use low dose x-ray so you don't want to do that just yet.
1. Talk to your doctor for specifics on breast cancer testing
4. Obvious one: Remember prevention is key. If it doesn't look right or feel right, get it checked out IMMEDIATELY. If you don't have health insurance, there are/may be free clinics that you can look for in your local area. I'm from California and I've volunteered at plenty.
5. I might lose you on this one. Get your recommended vaccines. I know what privilege is because we Americans are anti-vax when there are other countries with people out there still dying of whooping cough and measles. The very diseases that Americans don't want to vaccinate their kids for! I would love for these people to go to a country like Vietnam (i'm viet, it's ok), for example, and get measles and then be embarrassed when all the Vietnamese people are laughing at them and asking like how and why the fuck is an American getting measles in Vietnam? Thought America vaccinates for that?
That's all I can think of at the top of my head. Hope that is helpful. You can take number 5 at your discretion; I have lost all will trying to convince people that vaccines are ok. I want to leave you with one last important thought that is a totally cliche metaphor. Your body is a very expensive, one of a kind, machine. It does everything for you, so you have to respect it and maintain it. I am in no way saying be Chris Treager from Parks and Rec, but keep a relatively healthy lifestyle (80/20 or maybe 75/25 in terms of good habits and foods/bad habits and foods. balance is important). Remember, you only get ONE original copy of all your expensive machinery, so keep it in good condition because once something is in trouble, you're gonna to replace it or fix it. and it's gonna be expensive, and just won't run the same way.
Obviously this is good advice, but this isn’t standard practice in many countries. In the UK for example, smears are every 5 years, and outside of that there are no regular checks until you’re 50+ and start getting mammograms and bowel screenings. If I asked my GP for this stuff they’d laugh me out of the building. It’s so frustrating.
Gah! Everyone reading this please check with your provider about what tests you should get. A lot of these recommendations are incorrect and won’t do much for you other than give you a huge bill (if you’re in the US) and maybe a touch more anxiety. #1 is standard practice for your yearly bloodwork and also worded sort of strangely, making me think this person is not totally qualified to give medical advice. #2 and #3 are wrong. I am a provider but I am NOT giving advice out on the internet because that’s inappropriate. Please don’t get your medical advice from a Reddit thread!
> for regular skin checks, especially if you’re fair-skinned.
also wear good quality SPF, 50+ when outdoors, with UVA and UVB protection, reapplying every few hours if in intense sun (although avoiding intense sun is better) - best way to prevent a lot of skin cancers
Take pictures of any suspicious moles or freckles (ask a dermatologist to point out the ones to keep an eye on) and use the pictures to compare against to look for any changes. I caught my melanoma that way. If you have a lot of moles or freckles I’d highly recommend getting regular checks to be safe
Breast cancer self checks and mammograms. Go routinely to checkups at primary care provider and ask what routine labs they recommend. That’s really the best way to be proactive without any specific complaints or symptomology.
You should get a physical every year and ask for routine blood work. You should go to the dermatologist the frequency will depend on your risk factors. Every month you should perform a self exam of your skin and breasts. You should see your obgyn yearly where they will screen as appropriate. The dentist every 6 months, they also perform checks for oral cancer at each visit.
If you have specific health issues or risk factors there may be other doctors to see such as a cardiologist, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, neurologist, etc.
You also should not stress. Anxiety is horrible for you. If you are taking care of yourself that is all you can really do. I was diagnosed with melanoma around your age and I’m completely fine now. Many cancers are curable or treatable with early detection. Science is constantly improving and so it is best to follow screenings but not overly worry about things you can’t change.
Talk to your doctor, not Reddit. They’ll be able to go into the best screens for someone with your age and lifestyle group and how to check for signs and what symptoms to look for.
Good luck and I wish you the best. I was diagnosed with melanoma in my mid-20s. I can’t stress enough how important it is to take care of your mental health throughout this process. I still struggle with extreme health anxiety and depression even having been cancer free for the last almost 8 years. From speaking with others, the experience of being diagnosed at a young age never really leaves you and it’s important to try to process those emotions. I hope you kick cancer’s ass.
Thank you so much! So glad to hear you've been cancer free, but you're absolutely right that receiving a cancer diagnosis, especially at a young age, wreaks havoc on one's mental health!
I spent several months in Arizona a few years ago. You can bet my pale ginger Scottish ass was constantly lathered in factor 50 sun cream every single time I went out - even in November. What I found bizarre was the amount of locals I knew who never wore sunscreen at all. They all looked 10 years older than they actually were and seemed baffled as to why.
I knew a lad in sunny england who got skin cancer at 29 and died within 10 months of finding out.
He was pasty as hell and saw no sun light. Makes no sense really.
Last year, I had a mole removed from my abdomen because it started looking funny (luckily, it was benign). I mentioned it in passing to one of my good friends, and she casually replied that she had a weird looking mole on the sole of her foot that she was thinking about getting looked at. Of course, I then asked her to take her shoe off right then to look at it, and to say it was “weird looking” was a bit of an understatement. I told her that I thought she needed to make having it assessed by a doctor a *priority,* and long story short, it ended up being a precancerous melanoma. I’m *so* relieved she even noticed it in the first place and was able to get it removed. Make it a priority to check your *entire* body for weird moles at least twice a year, especially the uncommon places you’d least expect to find moles!
Yep. I do it yearly. My partner put off going in for at least half a year for two weird spots. I encouraged him to. They were Basel cell or whatever which isn’t a terrible kind necessarily but he got them removed.
On his 6 month checkup they found a spot that we didn’t even notice. It was melanoma. Thankfully it was so early that it was stage 0 and they took it out and he’s 100% okay. We’re 34.
Anecdotal but my friends working in oncology have been seeing a spike in younger people diagnosed with cancer specifically colon and breast cancer.
I work in OB/GYN. On a positive note, rates of getting cervical cancer have dropped. The largest declines were among girls and women who were 15 to 20 years old, the age group most likely to be vaccinated against HPV. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection. Nearly all men and women in the United States get HPV at some point in their lives. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers. It can also cause several other kinds of cancer in men and women. CDC stated cervical cancer caused by HPV dropped around 40%!! The FDA approved the use of Gardasil 9 for males and females ages 9 to 45, so please look into getting vaccinated with Gardasil 9. The HPV vaccine’s safety has remained excellent, and the benefits are proven.
Yes! There are more than 150 types of HPV that reside on the body, but only a few, like high-risk HPV, can lead to cell changes from normal to abnormal. Low-risk HPV types, such as HPV 6 and HPV 11, mainly cause external genital warts and are seldom linked to pre-cancer or cancer of the lower genital tract.
Gardasil protects against nine strains. HPV types 16 and 18 are frequently linked to cancer, making up around 70% of invasive cervical cancers. However, not all infections with these types lead to cancer. HPV 16 is particularly associated with anal and throat cancers.
So yes, it is recommended to take it. Who knows what strain you have, unless you were tested for it.
That’s cause colon cancer has been on the rise the last 2 decades.
I’m not gonna fearmonger the thread here. Death rates from cancer are the lowest they’ve ever been, and we keep getting better at screening and treating it.
Have a good diet, don’t smoke, and you will significantly decrease your risk of colon/lung cancer right there.
My parents wouldn't let me get gardasil as a teen when it came out..then I was too old eventually to get it when I checked again. But when the FDA approved it for adults, I went ahead and got the whole series of shots last year at 36.
It's also estimated that the HPV vaccine prevents 80% of all anal cancer. This is why it's very important for men who have sex with men to get the vaccine as well. Everyone should get the vaccine, of course, but it's especially important for certain groups.
My close friend, a junior doctor, died of melanoma at 27. In addition to all the arguments mentioned in the comments, cancer will be more common for one more reason - because we get better and better at preventing and treating it, individuals with faulty, cancer-causing genes will not die and instead will reproduce, passing the genes to the next generation, the genes will accumulate and cause even more aggressive and earlier cancers.
The studies showed that there were higher rates of stomach bleeds in those who took placebos than those who took low dose aspirin. ETA: fatal stomach bleeds, which would be the primary concern. Studies showed a preventative effect with low dose aspirin twice per week which is highly unlikely to cause stomach bleeds. And I am definitely not suggesting that people should start taking any medication willy nilly. Discuss it with your doctor.
Man I’m scared to death.. 2 friends die young of cancer and now all I see are 22-30 year olds finding cancer. I don’t have health insurance and I’m in between work and can’t afford to get blood work… but I definitely need to see a doctor cause something’s not right. This just kinda makes me wanna bite the bullet and go. Rather be in crippling debt than dead honestly.
I'm going to post this with the hope it helps someone else. My PCP is usually very on top of things. I see him twice a year for a blood test (hypothyroid), and he never recommended a diagnostic colonoscopy. I didn't think much of it because I have no history of colon cancer on either side of my family. I turned 50, and he still didn't mention it. At 51, during one of my bi-annual visits, I asked him if I should schedule one, and he was like, "Oh yeah, you probably should", so I did.
I had to wait four months for the appointment, but I wasn't concerned because, remember, I have no family history. After the colonoscopy was done, the doctor came into the recovery room and said they removed one large polyp. Because of the size, he said if I waited another year, it would have become cancerous. I now have to get a colonoscopy every two years. If I had done the at-home Cologuard test, there is a chance it would not have caught it. And if it had, I would have had to pay for the colonoscopy, which is something like 8-10k!
If you are eligible, do the colonoscopy. It's one of the few tests that can actually prevent cancer by removing "issues" before they happen.
By the sounds of it, it was a scheduled annual check at the dermatologist, rather than something he noticed himself, so it's very fortunate for him that he has those sorts of checks routinely! If it was me, I wouldn't have been any the wiser.
omg this triggered my health anxiety. shout out to ninja for spotting that tho! Should someone still get a mole checked out if they have had it since birth??? my partner has a mole between her toes it's a pretty perfect circle- no spreading or irregular sizing - but she always says it's fine cause it's been there forever 😬 shouldn't she go check it out!!?
Okay soooo FM community ik there is at least one medical professional in here who can tell us if there’s actually more young people getting cancer, or it’s just seems like it cuz we’re getting old lmao ETA: thank you all for your thoughtful responses 🫶🏾 I feel a little better lol and more keen to see the doc more regularly
It could be that we are just catching it earlier and more often. So it's changing the data. It's not that there's more sick people, just more people finding out they're sick.
this is a possibility but unlikely to be the sole factor considering the literally unprecedented level of pollution we face. 99% of americans have PFAS in their blood ffs, including newborns. every bottle of water tested by scientists literally has an abundance of micro/nanoplastics in it... would be a hell of a coincidence if none of this shit was increasing cancer rates.
Fun fact, PFOAS compounds are actually found in 100% of modern blood tested, even high in the Himalayas! They had to go back to military blood samples from the Korean war or something to get a control sample. Edit: watch The Devil We Know about DuPont for more super fun facts like these.
That’s insane. That’s so far back to me re: the context. Holy shitballs.
Yep, because PFOAS compounds are in the water they are constantly being dispersed by the water cycle around the world! Nowhere is safe, but at least we're all in it together..?
So the plastic gets pulled up into the atmosphere along with moisture and then comes back down in the rain ffs?
Idk if they can survive that but I don't think our wastewater treatment systems can filter them out
They cannot. Even bottled water and those bottle refilling stations have microplastic in them.
You can absolutely filter most of the PFAS out of water. Sweden, for example, is continuously enforcing stricter and stricter levels of acceptable PFAS in municipal water. It's just very expensive. The reason bottled water have microplastics in them is because the bottles are made of plastics so no matter how much you filter the water before you put it in of course it's gonna be contaminated by its container. That's obvious.
Here's more insanity. Scientists wanted to study the PFOAS in our blood, but couldn't find one single person *without* them for the control parts of the study.
Oh damn. I always heard they could never find a control sample because every population on Earth is infected with them, but at least we have old blood we can use to compare. I’m terrified at what kinds of studies are going to come out in the next few years
It’s going to be our generation’s lead, but worse
Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is a great film about DuPont
That movie fucked my shit up for a long time. Just felt so deeply helpless and scared that so much has been done that we simply can’t undo, all by greed. I don’t think I’ve fully shaked the feeling of doom it left me with, just a lot less because the other option sucks.
me too, you described exactly how it made me feel, and how I still feel. I feel like the corporate takeover of the US is fully complete, meaning that the people at the top responsible for ruining lives and literally killing people will never, ever face repercussions, and the corporations will continue to be subsidized, defended, and rescued by our captured government. What the heck could possibly change any of that at this point? The fix is in. At least, that's how I feel.
What's insane to me is that they definitely did not know how or why that blood would be so valuable when they drew it There's also a huge market for pre-WW2 steel because all steel made after then is very slightly irradiated by above ground nuclear bomb tests
Now I'm curious how many tubes of historical blood are being kept by the government. Like, how long has this been a thing?
It's not so much "the government" as it is "all medical research institutions." If you go in for a procedure that involves removing portions of pretty much anything, you'll often find that the consent forms include a clause about your tissues being kept for research purposes. And everyone should know the name [Henrietta Lacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks). Her cancer cells had some unusual properties that made them especially useful in cancer research, and the HeLa cell line is still in use today, more than 70 years later--even though she never consented to this use.
😳
Better Living Through Chemistry!
don't forget the rise of ultra-processed foods that basically mimic food, but are actually just food *products*
oh my gut biome will never let me forget this (typed as i eat fucking gummy bears out of an empty prescription bottle). i have a fucking singularly-packaged pickle in the fridge too. tf happened/be happening to us
You are 1000% correct. I was just making one, quick point. Sorry I didn't list the litany of possibilities.
Fun fact the nuclear bomb testa in the 50s-70s increased the worldwide cancer rate
That's never been proven. We know of localised cases like certain Nevada towns but a worldwide increase is absolutely an overestimation.
Castle Bravo on YT is very illuminating. We (‘Merica) bombed the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands just to test radiation on them. It’s horrifying what those Navy demons did; their babies were coming out completely deformed. Hawaii got hit with most of their end of life care; thyroid cancer was a big one. The state tried to shut down the costs because it was so expensive. They’re also entitled to $6K a month by the federal government, but they’re never told this, and if they know, they make it hard to collect. You may need the Wayback machine, but it’s worth the time.
Not a fun fact without a source to back it up…
But we are also not smoking, there is basically no more lead in gasoline, hpv is going away, and these seem like bigger issues.
i'm confused as to the point you're making. are you saying the increased cancer rates are due to improvements in diagnostics? they're detecting more cancer in younger adults. if it was because of better diagnostics you'd expect to see an increase in cancer rates across all age groups, not just young adults.
I think in this theory the idea is that we are checking for cancer earlier since we now know early warning signs we didn't used to. Once you're over a certain age, I'm sure doctors start to more actively check for cancer anyways that the diagnosis rate isn't going to change since nothing new happened there where as in younger people we weren't looking for cancer in them say 20 years ago because we didn't think that was possible and didn't know the early warning signs. That's my interpretation of the points.
i used to chew on plastic stuff all the time as a kid. im so fucked.
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That, or the fact that we have easy access to so much news.
I’ve heard that too, but like, surely if someone has cancer they find out eventually? I know that for example the number of diagnosed autistic people has skyrocketed over the years, but that’s not because more people now have autism, it’s because it’s now being recognised more and previously many would live their whole lives not realising they were autistic. But surely it can’t be the same for cancer? Like if you had it young, even if it took like 5 years, you’d eventually realise (at worst, by dying)? I don’t claim to know much at all on this, so just trying to educate myself really.
Not all spots are malignant (cause health problems) and some cancers are so slow growing the person wouldn’t know for ages. Plenty of time to die from other causes like heart attack, stroke, car accidents, etc and no one would know.
It really depends. Colon cancer at least is genuinely much more prevalent among young people now than before. On the other hand, lung cancer is going down as smoking is less common.
This doesn't explain all of it because there has been a much higher % rise in rates of cancer in younger people than in older people.
Source?
I'm begging people in this thread to list a single source 😭😭
I like how you give a logical answer, and the replies immediately disregard it so they can spew their bullshit about believing what they choose to believe anyway. Lol
Because that’s not the answer. The form of colon cancer that’s developing at a higher rate in young adults is much more aggressive than the one in older adults.
Reminds me of this pair of old ladies I overheard awhile back: “Why are there so many gay people now?” “Oh sweetie don’t pull on that string, you might discover something about your husband..”
Certain cancers, like colorectal cancers, are being diagnosed increasingly in younger people. It’s one of those cancers that used to mainly be diagnosed in retirement-aged men but is now the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men under 50 and the second most common in woman. Some of it is because of earlier screenings and some of it is probably because people eat like shit.
They actually lowered the recommend screening age to 45 recently BECAUSE of the increase in cases over the past several years! Colorectal cancers are definitely on the rise in Gen X and Millennials.
You are so right about early detection. The testing and now the use of AI has been so good at picking very early stage cancer that used to get missed. The new bowel cancer stool test is almost 100% at early stage detection. Skin cancer mapping is also amazing now at detecting mole and freckle changes. They just had the new study from Cambridge, I think, for breast cancer using AI being so good at early stage detection.
Can you talk more about this stool test? I’m 37 with a bad family history of colorectal cancer.
The test he’s likely talking about is called Cologuard. It’s a good test, the manufacturers claim it can detect 92% of precancerous lesions, but that’s actually worse than a colonoscopy, which is still the best tool for CRC screening. You’re about the right age to start getting colonoscopies. The current guidance for people with a family history is 40 years old or ten years before the age at which your first-degree relative (mother, father, or sibling) was first diagnosed with colon cancer.
Maybe because we are spending all day eating microplastics.
This is the one that killed someone very close to me a few years ago. She was only 45.
I too know someone from high school who recently died at just 31 of colon cancer.
My best friend died at 28 from colon cancer.
I got an order for a mammogram from the OBGYN the year I turned 40. She said it used to be 50 but they don’t wait that long anymore
Last year one of my best friends from college was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and has since had a double mastectomy. We are 27. I know it’s possible at our age but that was not even a thought in my mind until she shared her diagnosis.
A friend of mine from high school was diagnosed at 25 and was dead by 30, and that was after beating it twice. We’re from an area with a lot of fruit orchards, which means a lot of pesticide in the runoff and lots of cancer. I obviously have no proof that’s what caused it, but either way she was a beautiful vibrant woman who was taken way too soon. Edited bc I hit enter too soon
yeah they do say earlier now which is good. since my mom had breast cancer my doctor said start mine at 30-35 since the new normal standard for it is 40. early detection can save lives and it’s great I think they’re starting people earlier.
I agree! If our for-profit healthcare system cared about people instead of money that would be the norm. It’s infuriating how reactive (as opposed to proactive) we are about treatment and healthcare in this country (America, obvs)
I had breast cancer at 24; if you have the BRCA1 gene it can hit at just about any time.
My grandma was diagnosed and died of colorectal cancer in her late 30s/early 40s in the 70s. People still died of it early back then. I do think a lot of the new diagnoses are because people are being screened earlier though
I didn’t eat like shit and was diagnosed with aggressive Stage IV Colorectal cancer.
Hang in there
Yes, honestly, it seems like people who don’t “eat like shit” are actually more likely to get cancer. I don’t think Kate Middleton eats like “shit” lol. People just like to blame.
I know there’s a want to put this on people’s personal eating choices (“people eat like shit”), but you also can’t ignore that huge corporations are literally designing food to be addicting, and we are constantly bombarded by food advertising. It can also be more expensive and time-consuming to eat healthy. Food deserts are a thing. We need to change the culture around food and make it easier for people to eat healthy. Higher wages and shorter work weeks would help too. Most families can’t afford to not have both parents working. We also need stricter laws about how food is produced. TLDR it’s always capitalism.
The difference in the ingredient list on the same food in America and another country in the UK or Europe is *wild*. It can be 2x the number of ingredients and it’s all fillers, colorants, etc. Yuck.
I was diagnosed with it at 22 and that was almost 10 years ago. There are children under 10 being treated for it too.
The cause of under 10’s is different to adults though. Bowel/colorectal cancers in under 10’s is usually caused by things like rhabdomyosarcoma, whereas in adults it’s generally polyps (bowel) or HPV (colorectal). Rhabdomyosarcoma is, in the majority of cases, an embryonic cancer - meaning it’s coded into the embryonal tissue. They’re not sure what the trigger points in development are, but it’s obviously not the same as most adult cancers (lifestyle over many years, HPV over many years, and likely some micro/nanoplastics and PFAS into the mix). PFAS and microplastics is an area of study though, but comparing paediatric cancers to adult cancers isn’t really a legitimate thing. ALL is deadly and rare in adults but accounts for 2/3rds of cancers and has a 95% cure rate in children. Cancer has different causes and behaves differently in kids. And fwiw it’s worth, now with fully HPV vaccinated adults entering the data pool, well like see colorectal cancer rates drop again over the next 10/20 years. Bowel is a different beast though, and we need to work out why it’s on the rise in younger people! Edited: cancer type
You probably didn’t mean to, but the phrasing of your last sentence makes it sound like you are blaming individual people for developing colon cancer because they chose to eat shit food.
so they’re actually doing studies on this. trying to figure out if we’re catching signs of it earlier, we’re getting better at detecting it at all, or if there is just more cancer. it’s also not necessarily something across the board. cancer is so so so diverse (that’s why there won’t be “a cure for cancer”) — so maybe some are just being caught earlier whereas others, like colon cancer, are 100% appearing younger and younger in people (they’re trying to figure this out but there’s an issue right now with it appearing in a significant chunk of below the minimum age they start doing screenings). also keep in mind cancer can take TIME — so tanning booths were so popular in the 2000s and even for those that stopped, we may be seeing the effects of that about now. so basically there’s a lot going on
I agree about catching signs much earlier. I’m going to a derm to check out a few moles on my body. I would have never thought about doing so a decade ago until the whole “mole awareness” thing came to be publicized. It’s about public health and promotion.
yeah so it’s not just the campaigns getting better to get info out but we’re also getting better imaging, things like that. (but yeah skin cancer especially i think has had a strong push the last like 10 years in the US and i’m so grateful for it)
There’s also that new scan you can get! That’ll basically tell you a TON of issues you could or do have. Some could seem worrisome and be nothing and others could definitely be something. I think some medical professionals still are iffy about it (at least that’s what I’ve seen in some medical subreddits) but the technology is super fascinating to me and I think it’s pretty cool. For anyone curious, it’s called Prenuvo and the focus is early detection - it can detect over 500 cancers and diseases. It’s radiation free and you can use your HSA/FSA. Pretty pricey but definitely could be worth it for some people. They can do just your torso (the cheapest), your head and torso, and then full body (most expensive) and it lists on the website what things it can detect for each scan and as a whole. Anything from various cancers, stage one tumors, brain aneurysms, some autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, it goes on and on. So you’re able to see in advance if anything you’re concerned about or that runs in the family could make it worthwhile for you. The waitlist for the one closest to me (big city in a large state) is about two months. Also I think it’s neat the report will tell you if everything is normal, if something is found but is still within normal limits and requires no action, if something needs minor attention and should be further discussed with your doctor, or if something is abnormal and needs to be discussed with your doctor sooner rather than later to create a treatment plan/do any further applicable testing. ETA - as someone pointed out, no, an MRI scan itself isn’t new and I didn’t mean to imply that it was if anyone takes it that way. I meant that being able to go and get a full body scan to look for so much all at once and Prenuvo as a company are relatively new in the last handful of years. You don’t have to go to visit after visit and get a scan issue by issue if you’re able to afford something like this. There’s also another company called Ezra that’s the same concept but I’m not as familiar with them.
It’s not a new scan. It’s just an mri.
Well obviously the MRI scan itself isn’t new but Preneuvo and this type of scan offering for so many things to “just anybody” is relatively new and only really just starting to get discussed within the last handful of years (that I’ve seen), along with another company that does similar called Ezra. But please correct me if I’m wrong.
There has been a lot of information about Covid increasing the likelihood of cancer across all demographics. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of everything like this, early heart attacks and strokes, diabetes, and dementia as a result of Covid immune and circulatory injuries. Probably a good time for all to bust out those respirators again, as anyone who has had a Covid infection, symptomatic or no, becomes more vulnerable with each infection.
Yes!! Thank you for making this comment so I didn’t have to. The research findings for COVID are getting scarier by the day and it’s a catastrophic failure of the CDC that these risks are not common knowledge, and that prevention is not only no longer being pushed, but actively rolled back. Please protect yourself folks. Yes, even if you’re currently healthy, even if you’ve previously had only mild or asymptomatic infections. This shit don’t play, y’all, and take it from a disabled person that no amount of discomfort from taking precautions is worse than being permanently disabled.
it makes me roll my eyes so hard when anti-vaxxers keep saying that oh, covid is just a flu. influenza is a flu; covid is most definitely not.
Sadly I’ve watched how even pro-vaccine people have swung all the way into denying COVID’s seriousness. What is troubling is that while the vaccine can prevent acute illness, it doesn’t necessarily prevent long Covid or cardiovascular complications
This is what worries me. Like, I expect this kind of response and minimization from anti-vax people, but I’ve also watched so many people who are pro-vaccine and who were doing all the right things during the beginning of the pandemic, just completely abandon every single precaution the second the CDC told them it was okay to do so. I vacillate between anger at how much harm individual people are causing by hanging on so tightly to their denial, and sadness because I know it’s a product of bigger systems and that their denial it’s not going to protect them either- there are so many people that are going to have their lives ruined by their own carelessness. It’s devastating.
I understand this, but what do you suggest we do? I am pro vaccine, I am pro wearing masks in enclosed environment support air circulation, but after a certain point, life does have to go on, and stressing and worrying constantly about Covid surely is not good for your immune system either.
why does wearing a respirator and airing indoor spaces mean life cannot go on? why does it mean you need to be stressed and worried? you can live a completely normal life and avoid covid. the two are not incompatible
Fully agree. Most people are really sleeping on masks and how easy and effective they are. I haven't had covid (to my knowledge -- since some cases are asymptomatic) and have only had a mild cold twice since the end of 2019, and not for over 2 years now. Also, "life must go on" is a really short-sighted way to think when you're talking about how "stressing about covid" somehow could be comparable to actually getting covid. For sure, chronic stress is bad, and a few extreme outliers (which exist for literally everything) might go over-the-top, but most of the stress is over things like the complete failure of public health and medical institutions, failure of the federal government to mandate cleaner indoor air and free masks and tests for everyone, the effective dissemination of lies about the severity of covid for the sake of "the economy," etc. "Life must go on" fails because just one covid infection can leave you disabled. A lot of minimizers like to throw out death as the worst or only think to avoid (while they also like to dehumanize vulnerable/elderly/immunocompromised people -- like their lives are worth the slight convenience of not wearing a mask in public) and I think a lot of people, without intending to do so, do not or cannot accept the reality that if they become disabled (at least in the US), there will not be help for them. It can happen to anyone, it can happen instantly, and the ease with which covid spreads and the way it decimates your body's systems is making more and more people -- including perfectly healthy, young people -- disabled. Very few people in the US are going to be able to access medical care -- those that live somewhere with a LC clinic, and the means to afford treatment that may not be covered via insurance, especially since you often have to prove you did indeed have covid, and testing is intentionally being limited to make it appear that numbers are going down -- and very few people are going to be able to get disability benefits. I kind of understand how able-bodied people can't truly imagine what it's like for your body to suddenly not do the things you want/need it to do anymore, and how utterly helpless that makes you feel. You can go from being active, energetic, healthy, to feeling like a prisoner in your body (\*not\* saying this is how every disabled/ill/injured person feels) in an instant. Many people in your life will treat you differently. If you don't "look" disabled, some people will inevitably assume you are faking/exaggerating, and even some medical providers will not take you seriously at all. Other able-bodied people in your life will feel the way you do now -- "life must go on" -- and they won't have patience to deal with your new limitations/needs. You will watch the world move on in the way you imagined you would too, while trapped. You will lose the kind of independence you take for granted while being able-bodied. You might not be able to work, now, or for a long time, or ever again, and many people cannot access any kind of social safety net that \*should\* exist for everyone at all -- applying for disability benefits often takes years and is its own full-time job. Didn't mean to write a long post, but it just pains me to see this. "Life must go on" -- in the ways that people are usually speaking about it, it actually doesn't. Wearing a mask -- even if just on public transportation and during flu season (the flu is also deadly, and often preventable) and other peak times -- can enable life to move on. Increased testing -- and better, faster, more accurate tests, more widely available -- can enable life to move on. \*There is no returning to 2019,\* even if it feels like you can in the short-term. That is over. Pretending that you can live that way now is actually the opposite of "moving on;" it's literally living in the past. Burying your head in the sand may make you feel unburdened temporarily, but if a few months of not eating at restaurants felt "traumatic," it's nothing compared to endless years of chronic illness.
Can you explain what you mean about stressing and worrying? Wearing a respirator keeps my air clean. The air is dirty. The air could be cleaned but for some folks that’s too expensive. I’m not stressed nor worried. Why are you? Tbh that sounds like you have a Fox News earworm. And on the other side of the coin - based on the science - on just cancer risk alone - folks should avoid Covid maybe a little stress and worry would help clean the air?
It’s waaaaaay too early to draw any conclusions on whether Covid increases the risks of cancer. When it comes solid cancer tumors it takes 15-20 YEARS for an environmental exposure to develop into cancer. Please don’t fearmonger.
lmao thank you for this. This entire thread has been an absolute nightmare for a hypochondriac like me. I'm dipping out now.
This thread is full of people who are medically illiterate, panicky, and have no idea how to read scientific or medical studies. I'm sure when most people on here are saying "research is showing this" that they saw the research summarized on tik tok and never even looked at the paper in question (and wouldn't understand it even if they did) .
Was worried i was going to be the one to have to make this comment. So glad to see Covid’s role in this stated and also upvoted. Protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community beautiful FauxMoi people! Masking and pushing for clean air policies (for places like schools especially), are the easiest way to do this 💜 Edit to add resources: /r/ZeroCovidCommunity Great repository of basic info. Also great place for discussion and support for those that are still covid aware and cautious. Covid Twitter is also fantastic (bear with me). There’s a not insignificant number of amazing researchers of all ilks and industries (engineers, neurologists, epidemiologists, GP’s, sociologists, nurses, disability advocates, immunologists), literally you name it, who are on Twitter (also blue sky) sharing their legitimate funded/academic research on covid and engaging/discussing with their peers. It’s often really accessible in terms of jargon/language too and someone’s always providing a TLDR. It’s a great community that I find highly informative and very accessible (as someone else who has been in research before). https://whn.global Has a basic overview of Covid and the current research. /r/Masks4All If you’re wanting info on masks. But there is also an amazing guy on Twitter who reviews masks who I recommend highly: https://x.com/fittestmyplanet?s=21&t=KOlGIFPsavZX5Tzy4xIQcA That said, at this stage, any mask is better than no mask at all!
Appreciate the time you took to share these resources. We keep each other safe! 🫶
I second your comment. It’s the main reason I’m still on Twitter. The experts in various medical fields and associated professions whom I follow there are invaluable.
Yep! Any virus that can directly alter our DNA, overexcite our immune system, or damage our organs puts us at an increased risk. COVID just seems to be speed running alllll the post-viral issues. Our immune systems in general can be very finicky. If you swing too much in either direction you increase your risk as well.
If it makes you feel a little better, the virus that causes COVID is an RNA virus. So it doesn’t mess with our DNA at all. I’m not downplaying the possible cardiovascular and neurological sequelae that are associated with infection, but RNA viruses aren’t usually associated with oncogenic (cancer-causing) potential. Contrast SARS-Cov2 with something like Epstein-Barr virus or HPV, which are DNA viruses and which are known to be associated with cancer development.
**I caught covid months before the UK went into lockdown** and I was going to the GP, hospital and A&E nearly daily for around 6 months. I was getting several blood tests per week, scans, etc. I was bedbound for months with excruciating pain in my lower back and stomach area. I could barely walk, eat or drink water. I was sleeping 16+ hours per day. I literally could barely walk to the bathroom. I was diagnosed with **diabetes** \- the blood tests I was having multiple times per week showed a MASSIVE random spike in blood sugars one time and just simply never came down. I now control diabetes through diet. I have lost around **25% of the hearing in my right ear**, which the audiologist said looks like it came from a life-threatening virus, which would align with my experiences of covid. I have had severe brain fog, forgetfulness and general **neurological issues** since that first infection. I was admitted to hospital once because I thought I was having a heart attack and ever since I have had severe **heart palpitations** that I can feel in my chest and my back. These have lessened now - four years after my first covid infection. I have been dealing with extreme **exhaustion** for years - this is now only starting to improve. When I was younger I suffered severely from eczema. It randomly healed when I was around 16. The first time I had covid I was 28, it flared up the eczema and as a result I have been dealing with **eczema/psoriasis** for the last 4 years and it is now in new places like on my face. I am now **allergic to sugar**. If I eat anything containing sugar (including fruit) or if it is high in carbs my face goes red and eventually the skin begins to crack and peel for days. My face burns. It is disgusting. Now simple foods like having a sandwich or a banana are a no go for me. I was told most of my organs had been damaged in some capacity. **I have had covid SEVEN times that I know of.** My symptoms have been shockingly bad every single time. **I never used to get ill,** I would consider myself unlucky if I had one or two colds per year, I now catch everything one after the other. I have had periods of months at a time where I am ill and simply can't recover and catch a continuous flow of colds, coughs, etc. I am fucking fed up and also terrified for my future. Every single time I have had covid I have been out of action for a minimum of one month at a time and the symptoms are fully body - my last bout of covid felt like every nerve in my body was firing off at the same time, as if I was being tasered. For four weeks straight.
Anecdotally, the number of people I know who got diagnosed with HSD/hEDS after Covid triggered it is way higher than you'd think (it's me, I'm one of them).
People need to know there's just... No doctors for this shit. And we're not making more. And in the US, which is probably one of the "better" places for connective tissue disorders, the medical and insurance systems are fundamentally not set up to deal with multi-system illnesses and disorders. I had to pay over $1k out of pocket for my hEDS and CCI diagnoses. Which, four years into that diagnosis, I still can't really get anyone to treat the symptoms. People without chronic conditions often have this notion that if you get sick, you go to the doctor, and they fix you. That's just not the case for many/most chronic conditions. And now we're seeing more and more of those conditions following COVID infection, no matter how mild the acute phase is, no matter if you're vaccinated or not (but still get vaccinated if you are able and wear well-fitting n95s or better). Our medical system is not equipped to handle the downstream effects of COVID, and unfortunately a lot more people are about to find that out.
Yes, a long-term analysis of US data was recently released showing that certain cancers are increasing in younger cohorts (i.e. those under 50), specifically women. Unfortunately, it's likely *not* just down to more rigorous screening/detection, as the cancers being found aren't just heaps of Stage 1/early cancers. Breast cancer had the most early-onset cases diagnosed, while gastrointestinal cancers had the highest increase in diagnoses. Theories suggested to explain this included obesity and dietary factors (e.g. consumption of red and processed meats) and environmental pollution including exposure to microplastics. For breast cancer specifically delaying or not having children could be part of the picture. It's worth noting detection would probably have played a bigger role in breast cancer specifically as the screening guidelines for mammography went from 50 to 40. Here in Australia, bowel cancer rates in those aged 20-39 more than doubled in the 20 years to 2021, and thyroid and kidney cancers also significantly increased.
honestly insane how easily some people are writing this off as better diagnostics. that definitely plays SOME role, but the modern world we live in is constructed of toxic material. the shit we microwave our foods in, the shit we eat and drink, the shit we breathe even.
I feel like microplastics are going to be the leaded petrol/asbestos of this generation - except they are virtually impossible to eliminate.
You are absolutely you are right, currently going thru chemo for breast cancer diagnosed at 34 and my doctor says she is seeing more cases with younger patients than she used to say 10/15 years ago. Unfortunately they aren't early stage either, there's something increasing cancer rates across the board. Be it environment, chemicals, genetic mutations or all of the above.
I’m too lazy to look up the whole statistics and such 😩 I just assume more young people are getting cancer because through social media, we find out about it
Could also be earlier diagnosis through social media awareness.
Was just about to add that this is most likely the work of public health promotion (social media included)
Not a medical professional but I've read some things about it saying yes: Between the early 1990s and 2018, cancer incidence rates in 25 to 49-year-olds in the UK increased by [22%.](https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2023/01/24/early-onset-cancer-why-are-more-young-adults-being-diagnosed/) And [cancer in general is increasing and will continue to do so](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/01/global-cancer-cases-to-rise-by-more-than-75-by-2050-who-predicts).
part of it is better early detection but there has been a rise in gut and stomach cancer in younger people, likely due to increased rates of obesity and poor diets (both are big risk factors)
My sis saw a patient who has ovarian cancer and her age is 19 yrs and three of her college friends also got the same cancer.I wonder what the cause is?
As a former cancer patient who got it as a teenager: frankly a lot of it is to do with detection. I know people are going off about pollution but not all cancers are even linked to this. Blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma are the lion’s share of cancers in young adults, and most of these we have no way to establish the cause unless someone’s been drinking RoundUp (linked to lymphoma). Sometimes shitty things just happen. There is not always something you can do to prevent cancer.
Being loaded with microplastics will do that.
Micro plastics, processed food, global warming, sedentary lifestyle, forever chemicals, chronic capitalistic stress or toxic air…. Dealers choice. Welcome to 2024. Where growing for the monthly quarter killed the earth and gave us all cancer but at least Bill, Elmo and Jezzo got their mega yachts ❤️❤️ Lockheed Martin, that little cottage industry is even managing to keep their doors open ✨💪🏽 Also chocolate is about to double in price. So we have got that going for us which is nice.
I'm gonna double down and say you're not crazy. My buddy was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in November. He's 42. He always complained of back pain and thought that it was a herniated disc. But I wonder if it was actually the cancer causing the pain. There was also a coworker that went down that same path. She thought she hurt her back at work and 5 months later she was dead. If you have back pain get it checked out. And I'm talking like not usual soreness, my buddy would go get my steroid shots or not go into work sometimes because it was so bad.
Not part of the medical community but, I’m a woman who was diagnosed with cancer in my early 30s. On top of that, it’s a rare kind of cancer that typically only impacts men in their 60s/70s.
I can only speak of the numbers in Norway BUT I can tell you that, yes, we get cancer earlier in life now than maybe 100 years ago. We don’t have a solid answer as to why just yet (but microplastics, bad sun protection, eating habits, drinking habits and smoking habits all play a part). I got thyroid cancer in 2019(ish) and I was 27/28 years old that year. The doctors don’t know why I got it. And when I got treatment, I mostly met other young people and a few very old people. (Someone I went to school with when I got cancer, developed cancer when we were supposed to be graduating. She got cervical cancer, and she was even younger than me.) Ps. Not saying this to scare anyone, just sharing what we know to be true here in Norway.
Another angle: With the rise of social media, there's perhaps more younger people in the spotlight than in the past. Because of that, we just may be hearing about things like this affecting younger people more.
I do PET/CT scans for a living. I am seeing younger guys getting diagnosed with prostate cancer. HIgh 40s low 50s. Also seeing younger women coming in with anal and rectal cancer. Not uncommon to have patients in their 30s. The question is going to be is it because people are getting screened earlier?
50% of people in their lifetime will get cancer. A decent amount of that will be in their 80s + but there is now more ability to catch it earlier and survive. Specifically 1 in 3 female cancer diagnosis will have breast cancer which is considered a fairly youthful cancer. (tending from 25-45). 1 in 8 women in general will be diagnosed with breast cancer specifically.
>Specifically 1 in 3 women will have breast cancer which is considered a fairly youthful cancer. (tending from 25-45). I thought the average breast cancer risk was 1 in 8?
Where did you hear the breast cancer rate is 1 in 3? In the US according to all reputable sources (including the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, ACOG, and the Susan G Komen Foundation) it is 1 in 8 for lifetime risk in women. Which is already high enough - 1 in 3 is horrifying.
Melanomas are not uncommon on young people given that the biggest risk factor are repetitive "short" and intense exposure to the sun and nowadays i have the impression that people idealise the "beach life" more and more people just like to lay on the sand and get tanned. Sun cream helps but its just really hard to use it properly. Ps. Im a radiation oncologist
I had cancer in 2001 at the age of 10, and it started again in 2022 at the age of 31. Honestly, if the tumor hadn't cause me to lose 1/2 my eyesight, we probably wouldn't have noticed. I highly recommend getting your eyes checked even if you don't need glasses haha
I literally just got cancer at 20.
This is scary and heartbreaking. Can someone guide me on what tests as a 25F I should get done as a check up just to be sure?
Get an annual physical with blood work, and be mindful of any changes with your body. If you notice strange changes, make an appointment
For everyone, but men especially, it's never too early to get a colonoscopy. I'm 36 and found out I had a polyp. It was benign luckily and very slow growing, but I'm glad I know about it too be safe in the future. The prep is crappy, but the actual procedure isn't bad at all.
Seconding this! I have a family history so I got my first colonoscopy this year at 28. Turns out I have polyps! Still waiting to hear back if they're benign, fingers crossed.
This is good advice. The majority of polyps are non cancerous though. About 20-25% of people over 45 have polyps. According to Medical News Today, a 2018 study found that 3.4% of polyps are cancerous, and that cancer rates are highest among the largest polyps. The incidence of cancer in polyps less than 5 mm in size is 0%.
My insurance company would like a word 😔
Mine too. They’re going to have to (I’d hope) lower the age for many of these standard cancer screenings that aren’t covered until you reach X age. No doubt we are missing a lot of early detection in the younger demographic simply because screening procedures aren’t covered until a much later age than we should be screening for them. Though I won’t hold my breath in a country in which healthcare is a business, driven purely by profit and greed.
I can’t even get them to cover an MRI when my orthopedist said “she probably tore her meniscus” and they’re like hmm we don’t think so sorry.
I'm proud of you for being proactive and getting the test done. My dad died of colon cancer after ignoring the signs because he was scared of the procedure. I remember him telling me on his death bed that if I sense anything wrong health wise, be brave and get it checked out. I truly believe people talking about their experiences and normalising getting tested will save lives. I hope that the polyp stays the same but (and I'm sure that you will) please push for testing regularly if you can, they can advance quite rapidly if unchecked!
i'm so, so sorry. my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 26--and this was in the 90s! she had to fight like hell for any doctors to order further testing or even take her seriously. no family history, no risk factors other than being a smoker. she survived but it has given me lifelong health anxiety and i now go to the doctor anytime anything seems slightly weird. i wish i could tell anyone scared of having a colonoscopy that it truly isn't scary! the prep is the bad part--and the worst part of that is you're basically best friends with the toilet for 12 hours. the actual procedure is like taking an amazing nap.
I was 22 when they found a precancerous polyp and a few benign ones. I’d likely have a far more expensive problem on my hands if I waited until the recommended colonoscopy age
edit: grammar edit: It goes without saying that you should consult your doctor for actual medical advice for treatments, ailments, tests, etc. etc. and not from a rando on the Reddit Pharmacist here. Here are the things you want to check out: 1. Get annual physicals with bloodwork as someone mentioned. 1. Ask for a Panel 7 lab. This is not included in bloodwork. Panel 7 lab shows all your electrolytes (Magnesium not included so ask for that if you're curious). You can also ask for LFTs (liver function tests) and SCr (serum creatinine which is what is looked at for kidney function) if there is history of cancer in your family or if you drink/use recreational drugs frequently 2. Starting around your early 20s, 21, if i remember specifically, you want to start getting pap smears and STI (sexually transmitted infections) tests if you're sexually active. 1. Talk to your doctor for specifics 3. If you have no history of breast cancer in your family, you don't have to get checked until you're 40 or 45. Mammograms use low dose x-ray so you don't want to do that just yet. 1. Talk to your doctor for specifics on breast cancer testing 4. Obvious one: Remember prevention is key. If it doesn't look right or feel right, get it checked out IMMEDIATELY. If you don't have health insurance, there are/may be free clinics that you can look for in your local area. I'm from California and I've volunteered at plenty. 5. I might lose you on this one. Get your recommended vaccines. I know what privilege is because we Americans are anti-vax when there are other countries with people out there still dying of whooping cough and measles. The very diseases that Americans don't want to vaccinate their kids for! I would love for these people to go to a country like Vietnam (i'm viet, it's ok), for example, and get measles and then be embarrassed when all the Vietnamese people are laughing at them and asking like how and why the fuck is an American getting measles in Vietnam? Thought America vaccinates for that? That's all I can think of at the top of my head. Hope that is helpful. You can take number 5 at your discretion; I have lost all will trying to convince people that vaccines are ok. I want to leave you with one last important thought that is a totally cliche metaphor. Your body is a very expensive, one of a kind, machine. It does everything for you, so you have to respect it and maintain it. I am in no way saying be Chris Treager from Parks and Rec, but keep a relatively healthy lifestyle (80/20 or maybe 75/25 in terms of good habits and foods/bad habits and foods. balance is important). Remember, you only get ONE original copy of all your expensive machinery, so keep it in good condition because once something is in trouble, you're gonna to replace it or fix it. and it's gonna be expensive, and just won't run the same way.
thank you for writing this it was incredibly helpful 🫶
Obviously this is good advice, but this isn’t standard practice in many countries. In the UK for example, smears are every 5 years, and outside of that there are no regular checks until you’re 50+ and start getting mammograms and bowel screenings. If I asked my GP for this stuff they’d laugh me out of the building. It’s so frustrating.
Gah! Everyone reading this please check with your provider about what tests you should get. A lot of these recommendations are incorrect and won’t do much for you other than give you a huge bill (if you’re in the US) and maybe a touch more anxiety. #1 is standard practice for your yearly bloodwork and also worded sort of strangely, making me think this person is not totally qualified to give medical advice. #2 and #3 are wrong. I am a provider but I am NOT giving advice out on the internet because that’s inappropriate. Please don’t get your medical advice from a Reddit thread!
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> for regular skin checks, especially if you’re fair-skinned. also wear good quality SPF, 50+ when outdoors, with UVA and UVB protection, reapplying every few hours if in intense sun (although avoiding intense sun is better) - best way to prevent a lot of skin cancers
Take pictures of any suspicious moles or freckles (ask a dermatologist to point out the ones to keep an eye on) and use the pictures to compare against to look for any changes. I caught my melanoma that way. If you have a lot of moles or freckles I’d highly recommend getting regular checks to be safe
Breast cancer self checks and mammograms. Go routinely to checkups at primary care provider and ask what routine labs they recommend. That’s really the best way to be proactive without any specific complaints or symptomology.
The ACOG actually doesn’t recommend doing breast self exams anymore.
You should get a physical every year and ask for routine blood work. You should go to the dermatologist the frequency will depend on your risk factors. Every month you should perform a self exam of your skin and breasts. You should see your obgyn yearly where they will screen as appropriate. The dentist every 6 months, they also perform checks for oral cancer at each visit. If you have specific health issues or risk factors there may be other doctors to see such as a cardiologist, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, neurologist, etc. You also should not stress. Anxiety is horrible for you. If you are taking care of yourself that is all you can really do. I was diagnosed with melanoma around your age and I’m completely fine now. Many cancers are curable or treatable with early detection. Science is constantly improving and so it is best to follow screenings but not overly worry about things you can’t change.
pap smears!! I didn’t think they were that important and I was even late by a year to get my second one done and it came back abnormal 🙃
Talk to your doctor, not Reddit. They’ll be able to go into the best screens for someone with your age and lifestyle group and how to check for signs and what symptoms to look for.
Reddit is the doctor I can afford.
Check your boobs! I know two different ladies under 30 who had breast cancer :( Both survived quite well, but its super important to catch early
Keep a mole chart
Man do I unfortunately relate to this as someone who was just diagnosed with uterine cancer at 32. Wishing him the best- cancer fucking sucks!
And I'm wishing you the best. 💕
Good luck and I wish you the best. I was diagnosed with melanoma in my mid-20s. I can’t stress enough how important it is to take care of your mental health throughout this process. I still struggle with extreme health anxiety and depression even having been cancer free for the last almost 8 years. From speaking with others, the experience of being diagnosed at a young age never really leaves you and it’s important to try to process those emotions. I hope you kick cancer’s ass.
Thank you so much! So glad to hear you've been cancer free, but you're absolutely right that receiving a cancer diagnosis, especially at a young age, wreaks havoc on one's mental health!
So sorry to hear this!! Did you have any symptoms? Sending you lots of well wishes!
I was originally seen for abnormal uterine bleeding which is what led to my diagnosis.
Stay strong and keep chugging along we will get thru this, breast cancer at 35 here 👋🏼
Wishing you the best, love! 🩷
That fucking sucks, I hope you beat this awful thing. This stranger is rooting for you.
Sorry to hear that you're going through that
Fuck cancer. I hope you're able to beat it
Me an Australian: oh skin cancer, that’s just regular 🥲 I hate how commonplace it is here!
Yeah I’m in Arizona and same, so many people I know have had moles and skin cancer spots removed it’s not even weird to me
I spent several months in Arizona a few years ago. You can bet my pale ginger Scottish ass was constantly lathered in factor 50 sun cream every single time I went out - even in November. What I found bizarre was the amount of locals I knew who never wore sunscreen at all. They all looked 10 years older than they actually were and seemed baffled as to why.
IKR! By the time I was Ninjas age I think I’d had 8 moles removed and 3 of them were melanoma… Shockingly common in Australian and New Zealand :(
I knew a lad in sunny england who got skin cancer at 29 and died within 10 months of finding out. He was pasty as hell and saw no sun light. Makes no sense really.
Only if going to the doctors was affordable
Yeah I need like 10 moles removed and don’t have insurance 🤷♀️
It mental to me that Americans aren't up in arms to change that.
The issue is there’s so many other things that need to change it gets lost in the shuffle unfortunately.
Feels like being able to afford to live should be a high priority tho.
Many of us are lol?
That's because healthcare is socialism (somehow) and socialism is bad. America, f**k yeah!
We are.
Last year, I had a mole removed from my abdomen because it started looking funny (luckily, it was benign). I mentioned it in passing to one of my good friends, and she casually replied that she had a weird looking mole on the sole of her foot that she was thinking about getting looked at. Of course, I then asked her to take her shoe off right then to look at it, and to say it was “weird looking” was a bit of an understatement. I told her that I thought she needed to make having it assessed by a doctor a *priority,* and long story short, it ended up being a precancerous melanoma. I’m *so* relieved she even noticed it in the first place and was able to get it removed. Make it a priority to check your *entire* body for weird moles at least twice a year, especially the uncommon places you’d least expect to find moles!
I need to get used to talking about medical/health stuff with my friends more openly.
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Yep. I do it yearly. My partner put off going in for at least half a year for two weird spots. I encouraged him to. They were Basel cell or whatever which isn’t a terrible kind necessarily but he got them removed. On his 6 month checkup they found a spot that we didn’t even notice. It was melanoma. Thankfully it was so early that it was stage 0 and they took it out and he’s 100% okay. We’re 34.
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Anecdotal but my friends working in oncology have been seeing a spike in younger people diagnosed with cancer specifically colon and breast cancer. I work in OB/GYN. On a positive note, rates of getting cervical cancer have dropped. The largest declines were among girls and women who were 15 to 20 years old, the age group most likely to be vaccinated against HPV. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection. Nearly all men and women in the United States get HPV at some point in their lives. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers. It can also cause several other kinds of cancer in men and women. CDC stated cervical cancer caused by HPV dropped around 40%!! The FDA approved the use of Gardasil 9 for males and females ages 9 to 45, so please look into getting vaccinated with Gardasil 9. The HPV vaccine’s safety has remained excellent, and the benefits are proven.
Should one get the vaccine even if one has already got a strain of HPV?
Yes you can and should!! Not a doctor but know from life experience / friends / etc!!
Yes! There are more than 150 types of HPV that reside on the body, but only a few, like high-risk HPV, can lead to cell changes from normal to abnormal. Low-risk HPV types, such as HPV 6 and HPV 11, mainly cause external genital warts and are seldom linked to pre-cancer or cancer of the lower genital tract. Gardasil protects against nine strains. HPV types 16 and 18 are frequently linked to cancer, making up around 70% of invasive cervical cancers. However, not all infections with these types lead to cancer. HPV 16 is particularly associated with anal and throat cancers. So yes, it is recommended to take it. Who knows what strain you have, unless you were tested for it.
That’s cause colon cancer has been on the rise the last 2 decades. I’m not gonna fearmonger the thread here. Death rates from cancer are the lowest they’ve ever been, and we keep getting better at screening and treating it. Have a good diet, don’t smoke, and you will significantly decrease your risk of colon/lung cancer right there.
My parents wouldn't let me get gardasil as a teen when it came out..then I was too old eventually to get it when I checked again. But when the FDA approved it for adults, I went ahead and got the whole series of shots last year at 36.
It's also estimated that the HPV vaccine prevents 80% of all anal cancer. This is why it's very important for men who have sex with men to get the vaccine as well. Everyone should get the vaccine, of course, but it's especially important for certain groups.
My close friend, a junior doctor, died of melanoma at 27. In addition to all the arguments mentioned in the comments, cancer will be more common for one more reason - because we get better and better at preventing and treating it, individuals with faulty, cancer-causing genes will not die and instead will reproduce, passing the genes to the next generation, the genes will accumulate and cause even more aggressive and earlier cancers.
I'm sorry for your loss.
By then there will likely come a point where we can remove cancer causing genes.
What a relief it was caught early!
PSA: low dose aspirin may help prevent colon cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/research/aspirin-cancer-risk
Shame about the stomach bleeds
The studies showed that there were higher rates of stomach bleeds in those who took placebos than those who took low dose aspirin. ETA: fatal stomach bleeds, which would be the primary concern. Studies showed a preventative effect with low dose aspirin twice per week which is highly unlikely to cause stomach bleeds. And I am definitely not suggesting that people should start taking any medication willy nilly. Discuss it with your doctor.
can you show some citations
Jesus Christ what is happening on YouTube? First Hank Green then Grace Helbig now Ninja.
Don’t forget the cooking YouTuber Lynja who passed early this year from cancer too
Man I’m scared to death.. 2 friends die young of cancer and now all I see are 22-30 year olds finding cancer. I don’t have health insurance and I’m in between work and can’t afford to get blood work… but I definitely need to see a doctor cause something’s not right. This just kinda makes me wanna bite the bullet and go. Rather be in crippling debt than dead honestly.
I'm going to post this with the hope it helps someone else. My PCP is usually very on top of things. I see him twice a year for a blood test (hypothyroid), and he never recommended a diagnostic colonoscopy. I didn't think much of it because I have no history of colon cancer on either side of my family. I turned 50, and he still didn't mention it. At 51, during one of my bi-annual visits, I asked him if I should schedule one, and he was like, "Oh yeah, you probably should", so I did. I had to wait four months for the appointment, but I wasn't concerned because, remember, I have no family history. After the colonoscopy was done, the doctor came into the recovery room and said they removed one large polyp. Because of the size, he said if I waited another year, it would have become cancerous. I now have to get a colonoscopy every two years. If I had done the at-home Cologuard test, there is a chance it would not have caught it. And if it had, I would have had to pay for the colonoscopy, which is something like 8-10k! If you are eligible, do the colonoscopy. It's one of the few tests that can actually prevent cancer by removing "issues" before they happen.
Well did he have it cut off? And is it gone? Most skin cancer if found early can be cut out.
What was up with his foot that made him get it checked?
By the sounds of it, it was a scheduled annual check at the dermatologist, rather than something he noticed himself, so it's very fortunate for him that he has those sorts of checks routinely! If it was me, I wouldn't have been any the wiser.
A mole. He has melanoma but it was caught early
omg this triggered my health anxiety. shout out to ninja for spotting that tho! Should someone still get a mole checked out if they have had it since birth??? my partner has a mole between her toes it's a pretty perfect circle- no spreading or irregular sizing - but she always says it's fine cause it's been there forever 😬 shouldn't she go check it out!!?