The incidence of colorectal cancer among younger people in the U.S. has been steadily rising over the past two decades, with the most significant increases observed in the youngest age groups. A study recently presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2024 found that from 1999 to 2020, the rate of c
2024: 500% surge in colorectal cancer among young people since 1999
Bacon is one of very few foods on the WHOs "definitely causes cancer" list. I'm guessing it comes as no surprise that this increase in cancer can possibly be explained by companies pushing profit.
I don’t think people started eating THAT much more bacon, although I am sure that all processed meats are a quick road to cancertown if you eat more than a tiny tiny amount
My money would be on a confluence of all sorts of various cancer causing things in our food and environment, each of which produces a significant but small impact on its own, and then maybe like 1-2 big ones which we will never really find out about
I don’t think people started eating THAT much more bacon, although I am sure that all processed meats are a quick road to cancertown if you eat more than a tiny tiny amount
Yeah, all processed meat has the same problem (nitrates), but I think you're right, bacon consumption probably hasn't increased enough to account for it all. I believe colorectal cancers have a very strong link with diet, though, so it's probably bacon along with many other foods that all come together to amplify it.
Is any of the 500% rise explained by better testing?
Risk factors include a family history of inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer. Modifiable risk factors include obesity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and dietary habits such as low fiber intake, consumption of processed meats or sugar-sweetened beverages, and a high-fat diet.
Sounds like the shitty western diet, lack of exercise, and the resulting obesity are the primary causes at least in the US.
Shitty western diet isn’t new though. Think of all the crap people ate and drank and smoked in the 1950s. They got cancer, but not early colorectal cancer in these numbers.
Well i haven't read the article but on principle you can make many things sound more or less dramatic than they might actually be with percentages. If there were 3 people with colon cancer per year (random figure) and now there are 18 that is 500% more, but may as well be a statistic outlier.
That being said I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be either or both. Microplastics are everywhere, we can only hope they dont fuck with our biological processes in irreversible ways (like causing infertility).
Probably faulty to look for a singular causal factor. It’s probably a mixture of various environmental and dietary changes that have occurred over the last 10-20 years or so