from Hacker News

Colon Cancer Is Rising in Young People: What to Know About Causes and Symptoms

by sherilm on 3/29/24, 4:02 PM with 71 comments

  • by M_bara on 3/29/24, 4:10 PM

  • by jbuhbjlnjbn on 3/29/24, 4:29 PM

    The usual suspects are pesticides, emulsifiers, preservatives/additives, genetically engineered food, highly processed food and then overall plain worse eating, as in lack of: unprocessed, fiber, freshness.

    The problem is that there is so much money in food made by big companies nowadays, for every reputable study you will get 10 studies paid by those companies that proclaim the opposite.

  • by l5870uoo9y on 3/29/24, 4:35 PM

    Heard a podcast with one of Germany leading nutritionist advocating for banning energy drinks completely. Sugary beverages targeting teenagers filled with chemicals and caffeine and sold in large containers with zero health benefits – "why are they even allowed?" he asked rhetorically (paraphrasing).

    You could ask the same question for any of the nova class 4 products[0].

    [0]: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova

    Edit: This study suggest connection between colon cancer and sugary beverages:

    > Conclusion Higher SSB (Sugar-sweetened beverage) intake in adulthood and adolescence was associated with a higher risk of EO-CRC (early-onset colorectal cancer) among women. Reduction of SSB consumption among adolescents and young adults may serve as a potential strategy to alleviate the growing burden of EO-CRC.

    https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/12/2330

  • by sdo72 on 3/29/24, 4:25 PM

    > red meat, ultraprocessed foods and sugary beverages

    I also think these are the culprits, and ultraprocessed food is the ultimate.

  • by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on 3/29/24, 9:31 PM

  • by Gerlo on 3/29/24, 4:34 PM

    Why did this post completely disappear from nearly the top of the front page? It's not even in the top 200.

  • by A_D_E_P_T on 3/29/24, 4:24 PM

    In part, it may have to do with the increasing prevalence of anal sex. There are tentative links between HPV exposure and colon cancer. https://healthmatch.io/colon-cancer/anal-sex

    This is an extremely unpopular subject to research, though, for obvious reasons.

  • by colpabar on 3/29/24, 7:43 PM

    What I find really annoying is that doctors still won't sign off on a colonoscopy until you're 45. They will, but they do it in a way that apparently makes it not covered by insurance, despite the fact that a family member was diagnosed with colon cancer ~8 years ago. The current guidance says I shouldn't get one for another 13 years.

    Everyone I have talked to about this has told me to just lie and say I have symptoms I don't have so I can get the "right" colonoscopy ordered that insurance will cover. It seems really stupid.

  • by strongly-typed on 3/29/24, 4:45 PM

    This post coincides with a sudden major uptick in cancer related video recommendations on my YouTube feed. I wonder if other people are seeing the same thing.

  • by dehrmann on 3/29/24, 4:26 PM

    > millennials born around 1990 now have twice the risk of colon cancer compared with people born around the 1950s

    If this is at their current age and not comparing with boomers 40 years ago, extra yikes.

  • by nickburns on 3/29/24, 4:14 PM

    please indulge me in my making a completely unfounded statement (with which Occam's Razor comes to mind notwithstanding): it has to be related to plastic.

  • by ijijijjij on 3/29/24, 4:28 PM

    Preservatives could probably be partly blamed, because there are basically poisons.

    Also, increased antibiotics use... they kill good gut bacterias. AKA: we don't know why you are sick.. take these antibiotics for 10 days for no reason.

    A dentist once prescribed me two antibiotics at once because his shitty root canal job was hurting me (and it didn't fix anything). $1000 down the drain and it created pain in my guts.