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Colon cancer now leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/12/colon-cancer-leading-deaths
111•stevenwoo•2h ago

Comments

kvgr•1h ago
There is going to be some big AHA moment tied so couple food practices. Like washing chicken in chlorine or something. I wonder how are the stats in other developed countries. The title says US.
leetrout•1h ago
I had no clue this was a thing. Thanks for sharing your thought...

I think it's a combination of our pesticide usage and general food processing but like a sibling said these are educated guesses.

imglorp•1h ago
My money is on massive overexposure to high fructose corn syrup in the Western diet.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9170474/

damnesian•1h ago
lack of fiber is a biggie too. Foods too highly processed. too many oils.
staticassertion•1h ago
This is my personal bet. It's just low fiber diets.
boringg•1h ago
It can't just be low fiber diets - there has to be some other exposures involved.
staticassertion•56m ago
Why?
Jerrrrrrrry•29m ago
Apt username from a person suggesting that non edible fiber is the nutrient causing illness and thats the presupposition we should argue against.

Why would more fiber help?

staticassertion•25m ago
Uh, what? I have not made a presuppositional argument (I made no argument at all...). I made a statement about my epistemic state - ie: that I would "bet" on low fiber being the major contributor to colon cancer rates. Someone then asserted that it can't be that, and I asked "why?".

> Why would more fiber help?

Because there is an incredible amount of research into high fiber diets being good for your gut, including reduced colon cancer rates.

jabroni_salad•48m ago
I usually stay out of health convos because it's just not my wheelhouse, but I think most people would benefit from extra fiber. It has an obvious direct benefit to your life the very next time you use the bathroom. I don't know if it is the answer to the rise of colon cancer; this is well studied and seems really easy to work with? We would surely know already. But I do know it's worth doing irrespective of that.
normie3000•1h ago
> high fructose corn syrup in the Western diet

US diet? Is corn syrup common elsewhere?

freshpots•1h ago
Sugar is 50:50 fructose:sugar and "high"-fructose sugar is 55:45. The slight difference in fructose:sugar between the two is not significant in terms of health outcomes, unless you mean sugar in general.
imglorp•44m ago
It's partly the pervasiveness of that product because it's in fking everything in the US at least. Why is it in BREAD? https://www.thedailymeal.com/1306301/unhealthiest-store-boug...

It's also the crazy amounts: we're accustomed to high levels of sweetness. Like 40g sugar in a can of soda.

John23832•25m ago
It’s a humectant. And it subconsciously tastes good (yay capitalism).
luhn•14m ago
I can't make sense of your comment, but whatever you're trying to get at is wrong: Table sugar is sucrose. Corn syrup is mostly glucose and contains no fructose. HFCS is commonly produced at 42% and 55% fructose formulations. I don't think HFCS is meaningfully more or less harmful than any other sugar, but chemically there's a significant difference.
Anonasty•1h ago
Western means the US in your context. Western europe does not have that or whatever we consider not "easter diet".
OJFord•52m ago
Not Easter diet is also known as a low-cacoa diet.
zvqcMMV6Zcr•1h ago
My bet is on low-fiber diet and people spending half hour playing with phone instead of getting up from toilet.
askonomm•1h ago
Why would me sitting down cause colon cancer?
nativeit•56m ago
Because anything that allows another person to look down on you and feel superior must therefore be true and moral.
taeric•1h ago
The trend has been down, even for this cancer. Such that I agree there were probably some big AHA moments. But I assert they almost certainly happened 50 years ago.

My expectation is that it is less that there has been a growing trend of this cancer getting worse, and far more that we have gotten better at many other cancers. That is, overall, this is good news on progress. Not a scare headline.

doubled112•45m ago
I grew up in a fairly industrial area with lots of trades people around me. From my anecdata, I'd suspect you're right. We know more about some cancers and the causes and they are easier to prevent.

The choices, personal or otherwise, I have seen can't be good for your body, and some you're simply not allowed to make anymore.

Ironically, sitting on this laptop typing this might be as bad, but win some/lose some.

But some obvious examples?

Ever dip a shirt in benzene because it cools you down? Apparently it feels like Vicks, but doesn't leave that sticky feeling behind.

A good portion drank 6+ beers a day. I know they must have eaten, but some I never saw consume food. At all.

Some smoked a pack or two of cigarettes a day. Asbestos was in everything.

There was no ventilation/filtration for welders, painters, woodworkers, etc. If you could open the shop door it was a good day.

vharuck•34m ago
The trend has been upwards for invasive colorectal cancer among US residents under 50:

https://seer.cancer.gov/statistics-network/explorer/applicat...

taeric•25m ago
It has ticked up 1-2 per 100k over the past few decades for that group. Zoom the chart out, and you would probably be excused for assuming it is flat with some noise.

By all means, we should study this more. But the way folks are talking about this is a touch nuts.

hombre_fatal•1h ago
> An estimated 95% of American adults and children fail to meet daily fiber recommendations, with intake often falling below 10 grams per 1,000 calories consumed

It's tempting to focus on some magic bad ingredient/practice to explain our bad health (like seed oils), but we don't exercise, we eat directly against dietary guidelines, and we eat foods that we know are bad for us.

Now add on to that the social media grifters and industry advocates who tell you that eating poorly is good for you.

I don't blame individuals just trying to live their life though. This is how we've let our whole food environment set up shop.

NotGMan•1h ago
Focusing on fiber while leaving out glyphosate, sugar etc... is myopic.
hombre_fatal•1h ago
I don't think I need to enumerate every way our diets are bad in an HN comment, do I? You didn't even want to do it and you're the one gunning for it.

But processed meat consumption would be another good example of where we happily eat against dietary guidelines despite its link with colorectal cancer.

ankraft•1h ago
https://archive.ph/UUKZ1
everdrive•1h ago
Quite scary since we don't know what causes it. I know there are some intelligent guesses, but my understanding is that we don't have any hard proof.
ifwinterco•1h ago
Yep, there is something going on here (some environment toxin that most/all of us are exposed to), but we don't know what it is
Pxtl•1h ago
Hah, I've counted 10+ different intelligent(?) guesses in the replies.
Kye•49m ago
I lean toward "people got better at not dying from everything else." It's plausible to me that it just enabled existing factors to unfold on the time scales they unfold on for more people.

My handy heuristic for headlines like this: Is it a scary new trend that means something or did other factors suppressing its natural emergence decline? Or is it a matter of observation?

A recent real-world example was the detection of two different objects entering the solar system. The naive speculation was "they came on the same plane, so they must be alien!" But the reality is more mundane: the new detection method that found them, while flexible, started by looking at that plane. So of course both objects it detected were on that plane.

everdrive•39m ago
>I lean toward "people got better at not dying from everything else."

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem the be the case here, and the article goes into this. Deaths due to colorectal cancer under 50 simply used to be incredibly uncommon. Younger people were simply not screened for it. The rise is not solely relative to other forms of death, but in absolute terms has increased.

Kye•9m ago
There could still be another factor other than lifestyle or chemicals in the food, the dominant opinions as of posting. Point (which I realize I forgot to make) is we don't know and latching on to pet theories, even really smart ones, has never done anyone any good in general, but especially when it comes to health.
sublinear•1h ago
Most people don't eat enough fiber, eat way too much processed junk, and have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Yet still the overall risk for colon cancer is surprisingly low and takes a long time to develop for everyone but the unluckiest.

Earlier screenings are just compensating for poor education. It's not a solution to anything but the question of how to raise insurance costs for young people.

Just eat your damn vegetables!

butILoveLife•1h ago
After a ton of research, I think the generic suggestion 'Fiber' is not helpful.

Some things to consider:

>There are classifications of fiber, insoluable vs soluable

>Even those classifications are overly generalized, and can/should be broken down into basically individual foods.

>Fiber and the various types have impact on your gut bacteria. If your gut bacteria is bad, you might be fueling growth of bad bacteria.

>You don't actually need fiber

>You don't actually need a colon

>I think gut bacteria management will probably be the next big thing. A combination of more scientific probiotics + fiber/prebiotics.

>I'm guessing the colon cancer thing is probably due to pollutants. Not necessarily air, but could be from food.

hombre_fatal•1h ago
"Fiber from food" seems good enough. It's hard not to fibermax without incidentally improving your diet substantially. For example, beans are one of the best and easiest sources of it.

Splitting hairs beyond that, like insoluble and soluble, is the kind of thing that just confuses and intimidates people about nutrition advice.

It's a bridge you can cross once everyone is eating 50g+ of fiber per day, has chiseled physiques, and are looking to min/max.

h4kr1•52m ago
>I'm guessing the colon cancer thing is probably due to pollutants

> You don't actually need fiber

Hey, you know what fiber is good for? Speeding up gut motility! You know what a faster gut motility is good for! Getting toxins out of our body quicker!

Qem•1h ago
> Just eat your damn vegetables!

At least if you can find some not previously doused in poison.

appplication•1h ago
Of the three people I personally knew who died of colon cancer in their 30s, all were athletes or vegans. I'm not saying that caused it, but I do think it is potentially more complex than just fiber.
dham•1h ago
They need to lower the screening to 40. I just had mine at 40, turned out fine luckily. Did it without sedation which my doctor said was rare in US, but common outside of US. I found surprising, wasn't that big of a deal. Pain was probably at a 7/10 during the turns (like 3 times) but ok the rest of the time. A little uncomfortable. Some new sensations, some familiar (feeling like you are crapping your pants).

I walked in and walked out no issue and went on about my day. Prep was fine but would be hard if I didn't work at home.

y-c-o-m-b•1h ago
Which state did you have it done in if I may ask? I'm in Oregon and haven't been able to find a doc that does it without sedation. I can't be put under sedation for medical reasons, but I definitely need this procedure done sooner than later due to new GI problems.
dham•1h ago
North Carolina. And I wasn't actually aware that some doctors wouldn't do until after I had it done (reading about it online). I just called before my appointment to say I didn't need sedation. They said ok and wrote it down. They weren't really pushy during the appointment other than asking me why I didn't want sedation.

I thought it was going to be awkward but wasn't at all. We just chatted. It was him and an assistant. I was able to watch the TV of my colon while he was doing it.

rootusrootus•1h ago
For people who might be interested in following your advice, the conventional wisdom is that you should definitely look around when choosing the doctor. I.e. do not use a regular gastroenterologist who primarily does sedated colonoscopies, you want one who has experience with non-sedated ones. They have a better idea of what hurts and how to mitigate that.
ceedan•22m ago
"They weren't really pushy during the appointment" (:
cstrahan•1h ago
I had a colonoscopy and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (thankfully not in that order) without sedation. Had it done in D.C.

My doc looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if it could be done without sedation, and reminded me that it would be uncomfortable, but otherwise didn't have any problem with it. I've endured 50k runs, brutal workouts, and traumatizing childhood neglect - I really can't see what the fuss is with mild discomfort that, by comparison, barely registers, and for such a short amount of time at that.

dham•1h ago
Yea most of the time it was discomfort but the turns were pretty high up there in pain. But that was only 3 times.
rudhdb773b•43m ago
I don't really mind the pain itself, but I could see myself thinking the worst in that situation and imagining the strong pain meant the probe had punctured my colon.

I assume that's not actually a realistic risk, right?

nick__m•50m ago
I too had esophagogastroduodenoscopy and the "sedation" I received as a barely noticeable dose of fentanyl. It was unpleasant to feel like I was drowning in saliva but it was quite bearable.

If I ever receive that procedure again, I will ask to skip the fentanyl microdose. The anesthesia and the buzz were not only underwhelming but for some reasons I started to feel the typical opioid warmth when the procedure was almost completed. Had they waited a few minutes after the IM injection I might have had another opinion on the usefulness on fentanyl during endoscopie because the last 30s were almost pleasant!

rootusrootus•1h ago
With old school sedation I think it might be worth avoiding it. But with propofol you are out like a light, and then wake back up just as fast when they turn it off -- and it feels like you just had a nice nap. Aside from feeling a bit groggy for a few minutes, you just get up and walk out the door and go about your day. Personally, I do not think I'd volunteer for 7/10 pain just to avoid that.
JKCalhoun•18m ago
My first colonoscopy was without anesthesia, and it was as described above. A little uncomfortable on the one bend, but I don't even think I would put it at 7/10 (perhaps a 4 or 5—but not a sharp pain, mind you).

Definitely enjoyed the following times with anesthesia because, of course 0/10 as far as I know. Also, anesthesia just trips my mind—how seemingly time travel (going forward in time) seems to be involved.

gniv•1h ago
The prep is by far the worst of it. I wish they could do it differently.
gavinray•1h ago
I had a colonoscopy + upper endocoscopy a few months ago, age 29.

The prep was horrible, particularly the electrolyte drink they make you take the night before. I almost puked several times trying to get that stuff down.

Actual procedure was a breeze. I was sedated, and then I woke up and it was over.

geoffeg•1h ago
There's an option which doesn't involve drinking any yucky fluids, just water. SuTab. You have two rounds of twelve pills that you drink with three cups of water at various intervals.
unsupp0rted•45m ago
I've done it enough times that I'm totally fine with it: the electrolyte drink tastes like slightly bad-tasting Gatorade, which is hardly worth caring about.

And you get diarrhea-like bathroom runs half a dozen times maybe.

Yes it was annoying to get the runs and gross to drink the stuff the first few times, but people eat things like cow tongue or live octopus or whatever... I can handle some bad-tasting Gatorade and some diarrhea just fine, especially given the 5 years of peace-of-mind it buys me afterward.

phainopepla2•1h ago
Do you have specific risk factors that caused your doctor to recommend getting it at 40, or did you have to convince them? My understanding is that if the doctor doesn't order it, many insurance companies won't cover it.
xbryanx•1h ago
Recent discussion on this topic:

Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47078840

freediddy•1h ago
Ultra-marathoners have a 7x chance of getting colon cancer under 50. This is where it needs to be studied, maybe it's a common food or common supplement they are taking?
moi2388•1h ago
Dehydration? Overconsumption of carbohydrates?
slibhb•1h ago
Can you provide a link? I looked and all I found was one study that looked for pre-cancerous adenomas.
Drunk_Engineer•1h ago
I can find only a single paper making this claim about marathoners. And that study has attracted a lot of criticism.
ifwinterco•1h ago
That's such a big disparity I'm very suspicious of that data, but there seems to be plenty of evidence that grossly excessive cardiovascular exercise is bad for you in various ways.

If people enjoy it and really get a lot out of it then I wouldn't judge them for doing it, but let's not pretend it's healthy, because all the evidence is that it isn't.

In terms of cardio being able to run a half decent 5k a couple of times a week is probably a good idea, any more volume than that is really not necessary and at some point becomes harmful

slibhb•53m ago
Claiming that distance running is unhealthy is wild. It can lead to injury, and there's such thing as overtraining. But to claim that it's broadly unhealthy is just wrong
ifwinterco•43m ago
Risk of stroke is the most obvious (and fairly concerning) one where there's solid data.

Also there's "distance running" as in running maybe 50k a week, that's probably okay, although as you get older it will increase your risk of stroke. But ultramarathons are a whole different ball game and almost certainly bad for you

slibhb•29m ago
Can you link the data? I don't buy it.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11720530/ says there's a higher rate of AF in older, male althetes but a lower risk of stroke compared to similar aged, non-athletes.

At any rate, the data doesn't seem clear enough to claim that "distance running bad for you" or "any distance over 50K is bad for you".

ifwinterco•15m ago
I'm struggling to find it but I definitely remember reading a paper that claimed that aerobic exercise in over 60s decreased heart attack risk (which is good, obviously) but increased stroke risk.

I think the biggest risk though is acutely doing high intensity exercise (e.g. a marathon) whereas doing low intensity regular exercise (e.g. a 5k jogged at moderate pace 4x a week) is probably good.

So it's not "running is bad", it's more "running insane distances and/or running at insanely high intensity is bad", but the issue is a lot of people who get really into running end up doing one or both of those things.

One sign that marathons (let alone ultramarathons) may not be particularly healthy is that the first guy to do one famously died, and then subsequently people die doing them every single year. Yes the risk is low overall, but that doesn't mean it's actually good for you

christophilus•36m ago
Can't remember where I heard it-- some MD on a podcast recently-- but he mentioned distance running increases visceral fat in your muscles and around your organs when compared to HIIT and weight training, and visceral fat is generally a health risk indicator.
slibhb•22m ago
Visceral fat is fat around organs. It doesn't exist in muscles. I highly doubt that distance running increases visceral fat, that sounds made up. It may be that weight lifting is better for losing visceral fat, but that doesn't mean distance running is bad.
kjkjadksj•48m ago
I remember when that paper hit HN the thinking was actually to do with reduced bloodflow to the colon while running for long periods of time.
zthrowaway•1h ago
I think part of this can be attributed to prolonged gut inflammation caused by toxins and parasites. There’s something like 60% of the population has some form of parasite and have no idea, which causes a lot of inflammation and problems. Problems that don’t necessarily point to the gut being the culprit on the surface. So it’s misdiagnosed a lot.

I recommend everyone do a gut cleanse once a year.

rubicon33•1h ago
What do you mean when you say “do a gut cleanse”?
anonymous344•1h ago
fenben, ivermect. herbs like blackseed oil, blac walnut, even organic cloves
kingkawn•1h ago
I sacrifice a houseplant to baphomet as an alternative
jeffbee•1h ago
From the company that brought you the Lung Brush.
sandy_coyote•1h ago
What is a gut cleanse? That sounds destructive.

Doing an ambiguous preventive activity on 1 out of 365 days doesn't sound effective.

hombre_fatal•57m ago
These sacrificial two-days-on-the-toilet offerings are like giving confessions to the priest to get back on the good side so you don't have to change your behavior.

Yes I can eat this 4200cal Costco pizza, I did my cleanse last month.

hshdhdhj4444•1h ago
If parasites was the concern then countries like Bangladesh would have incredibly higher rates given that people there tend to have orders of magnitudes more parasites than anywhere in the developed world.

And I’m not sure what toxins is supposed to mean and how Americans are more exposed to toxins than developing world children scouring through our electronic garbage on a daily basis

Anonasty•1h ago
Gut cleanses are just marketing. Occasionally eating healthy and then going back to regular unhealthy diet skews the middle point of gut health.
zthrowaway•56m ago
Well for me it killed the parasites I had plaguing me and cured a lot of sickness I was experiencing. To each his own.
SapporoChris•49m ago
CDC estimates about 60 million are effected by parasites in USA. which is about 17 or 18%.

Gut cleanse, colon cleanse, detoxing. None of this is supported by science. Nor would any of these things cure, prevent or in anyway help a parasitic infection.

Here are some common parasitic infections and how they're treated. None of these treatments recommend gut cleanse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia#Infection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascariasis#Treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookworm_infection#Treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm_infection#Treatment

Gut inflammation can be a problem, but I would not recommend treating it or even diagnosing it without evidence.

cmcaleer•28m ago
Gut cleanses are probably stupid but I wonder if people would benefit from taking antiparasitics prophylactically. It's not something I've ever done, but I eat sashimi pretty regularly and wonder if I should take something like praziquantel because I'm probably at risk for Japanese broad tapeworm, and the symptoms are mild enough I can't really tell without testing, but the price of actually testing is much higher than just taking a drug with a great safety profile.

For similar reasons, I also wonder about people who consume raw milk. These people are more likely to endorse ivermectin for e.g. covid, because it made them feel much better. Maybe it's possible these people aren't lying about that, but not because it cured their covid.

zby•1h ago
Hmm - but has its incidence increased or just other causes have fallen down faster?
anonymous344•1h ago
the 1 reason for colon cancer is milk. it's not natural anymore and casein makes it's problems because the fat is altered by homogenization. second is whey and monsanto. third is canola oils. fourth is cirtric acid, it's not from citrus. and it's everywhere, in every beverage, juice and preserved food, even in beers.

eat healthy my lads. trust not the media

rootusrootus•1h ago
Those are some big claims, which without any references at all smell a lot like bro science.
smarf•57m ago
could you provide some further information on this? it seems to contradict other studies, such as: - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11239739/
h4kr1•55m ago
Parroting the health "influencer" (grifter) talking points here ^
ceedan•1h ago
The decline in mortality for so many other types of cancer has caused colon cancer to become the leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US. Eat more fiber.
rauljordan2020•1h ago
So many folks that have it say things like "I was super healthy! Did exercise, young, don't drink, etc." Then you dig deeper and realize the last vegetable meal they ate was a soggy brussel sprout their mom made them when they were 17 years old, and also eat cold cut turkey sandwiches every lunch because they're "healthy", and maybe have a tiny shred of lettuce in the sandwich. For breakfast, they eat pancakes or sugary foods, and dinner is just a piece of steak
gavinray•1h ago
https://realfood.gov/
hackyhacky•50m ago
Let's keep in mind that this is the recommendation from the same government that recently declined to regulate dangerous pesticides [1] and relaxed regulations on additives [2].

The current US administration is not at all interesting in addressing America's unhealthy food.

[1] https://cen.acs.org/environment/pesticides/glyphosate-roundu...

[2] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-take...

gavinray•41m ago
It's better than the "Food Pyramid" and "MyPlate" which were the gov standards when I was growing up.

Those standards put processed carbs like bread/pasta as the largest part of a "healthy diet". Whoops.

hackyhacky•40m ago
> It's better than the "Food Pyramid" and "MyPlate" which were the gov standards when I was growing up.

Correct. The root of the problem is that corporate interests influence government regulation. [1] That hasn't changed. What has changed is which industry is offering the largest bribes.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

triceratops•30m ago
Humans have relied on bread, pasta, rice, and tubers for most of their calories since time immemorial. Japanese people eat plenty of rice even today and they are very healthy.

"Food pyramid dumb, eat meat" is a very reductive take.

throwaway27448•14m ago
Only the last hundred to twenty thousand years or so. Evolutionarily speaking, that's not our typical diet. Maybe excepting tubers.
h4kr1•9m ago
I love when the Food Pyramid and MyPlate are brought up as arguments on why Americans are unhealthy these days.

National estimates suggest only 8%-14% of Americans ever followed MyPlate. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40752889/

Also, MyPlate only used "grains" as a category, with a note to make half from whole grains...not just processed carbs. Big difference. And, vegetables are the biggest category.

Adding on to that, if you workout in ANY capacity, you need simple carbs.

boringg•1h ago
Are you serious? Do you really think thats the reason that this is happening -- that people don't just eat their veggies? Fiber is important but, um, that's a pretty hot take.

I suspect there are other factors at play.

Night_Thastus•1h ago
The diet of most people in the US is pretty horrific. Absurd amounts of sugar, little to no vegetables, little fiber, lots of heavily processed foods.

That certainly does not help the situation. Whether it's correlational or causal I'd leave up to people more knowledgeable in the subject.

boringg•29m ago
Right but as I understand the problem of colon cancer its impacting people across the board in good health - not strictly this "core" US consistuency of high fat, high sugar, low fiber, high processed food.

It is also across normal BMI, "healthy" diet and regular exercising population. Thats what's concerning about the uptick.

gavinray•1h ago
No health issue is so easily reducible, but the impact of eating a diet of "actual food" and moving around even a little bit daily cannot be overstated.

The odds ratios for nearly all diseases and all-cause mortality shift so far from those two interventions it's almost unbelievable.

unsupp0rted•42m ago
We really don't know the reasons well. Food... some kind of bacteria or virus... 5 random things stuck together... it's silly to guess.
throwawaytea•1h ago
"Guys, it's not the chemicals present in every packaged food you ever set your eyes on, or the pesticides every vegetable is grown in, it's just that you don't eat vegetables."
kjkjadksj•54m ago
I can’t take hyperbolic appeals to the authority of chemical names = bad seriously. Let’s at least get specific and name a molecule with a known mechanism of action.
h4kr1•43m ago
This just in, chemicals = bad
tptacek•1h ago
You can quickly find historical availability & consumption data and I don't think it supports any trivially obvious hypotheses like these. You'll find headlines saying things like that we're at a low point in vegetable consumption going back to 1988, but I'm reading an NIH paper charting '70-'2010 and the patterns look stable, except for increases in total calories, in dairy, and in added dairy fats and oils.

Whatever's going on, it's probably going to end up being complicated and multifactorial.

(I do love me a crucifer, though).

casualscience•53m ago
Victim blaming cancer patients as cope so you can convince yourself "it won't happen to me" is a disgusting trend
cm2012•40m ago
The correlation to any of that stuff and cancer is basically meaningless in the scale of one persons life
Pxtl•1h ago
Amazing how everybody in this thread has posted their pet theories as to cause:

- insufficient fibre

- too much high fructose corn syrup

- too much milk

- too much citric acid

- toxins and parasites (gut cleanse!)

- washing chicken in chlorine (voiced as hypothetical)

- ultra-marathoners - maybe their supplements and too much carbs or dehydration?

- too much processed junk

- vitamin and mineral deficiencies

- radiation

- insufficient veggies

gdulli•1h ago
Throw return to office in there. You know it's coming eventually.
Pxtl•47m ago
Call it: RTO causes colon cancer, or WFH causes colon cancer?
z9e•38m ago
Yeah. Amazing how people on a forum are offering their opinions on something. Let’s point and laugh at them. /s

I’m more amazed at the toxic (no pun intended) comments in this post. It seems HN isn’t a place to voice health theories.

gavinray•1h ago
Scary. I had whole-genome sequencing done and the results came back with dozens of "Increased risk for colo-rectal cancer" results.

I'm likely going to die of either a heart attack (already had one, at age 28), or cancer, and it seems genetic.

EDIT: Specific genes and alleles below, if anyone is curious

https://i.imgur.com/szplWSj.png

kjkjadksj•50m ago
Probably nothing to worry about. Unless it is lynch syndrome.
gavinray•43m ago
I have two SNP's for Lynch syndrome, is that enough to warrant concern?

https://i.imgur.com/DZiJhGJ.png

https://i.imgur.com/PKF2QDr.png

nativeit•52m ago
As a Multiple Sclerosis patient since I was a teenager, let me just say: all you “healthy diet” zealots aren’t helping. Your advice on which blended kale and gogi berry smoothie I should try is cringe and annoying. Normally, the person is right in front of me, and well-intentioned, so I typically smile and politely thank them with a non-committal gesture towards trying it someday.

But since this is all one-party and relatively anonymous, I’d like to take the opportunity to tell everyone that unless you have a PhD or MD in a relevant field, your thoughts about fiber are irrelevant and unwelcome to anyone actually suffering from the disease(s) in question.

achandra03•40m ago
I think this is probably due to people suffering from the just-world fallacy. Most folks like to believe that if you do the right things and consume the right stuff you'll have a long and healthy life when the fact of the matter is that luck/randomness plays a much larger role in your health than most people would like to admit.
imjonse•30m ago
One should acknowledge the role genes/luck play in disease, while also admitting that there are a few foods about which there is more or less consensus they are very bad for your health. So you can roll your eyes if someone suggests eating kale sprouts will cure all your problems but don't just keep eating junk food as if the opposite of their take must be good.
dbspin•19m ago
One hundred percent. I work in film, and recently had an argument with a friend around this point. He's incredibly healthy, and frequently works a large number of unsociable hours. I was pointing out that filmmaking hours make no concession for family or age. He'd convinced himself that he'll have no more difficulty doing 80 hour weeks in his forties and fifties than he does in his mid thirties, because he 'takes care of himself'. The implication being that everyone could work those hours if they just ate better and held multiple martial arts belts as he does. It was no use pointing out that he'd confused cause and effect.
nuodag•18m ago
You’re probably right but it’s also true that that is a very (probably unintended) cruel worldview that thought to the end claims all those suffering had it coming, and as such deserves to be called out and those having it should reconsider.
Rebuff5007•8m ago
I dont think this is right... most people I know care more about not doing the "wrong" thing than feeling entitled for doing the "right" thing.
Jerrrrrrrry•27m ago
Lol your PhD got you this far, keep appealing to your PhD gods
VladVladikoff•24m ago
But have you tried Kaleidoscopic Perennial Kale?? Not saying it will help at all but it sure looks cool! https://cicadaseeds.ca/products/perennial-kale-seeds-homeste...
logannyeMD•20m ago
I'll echo this by saying that, as someone who has their MD, there is much we simply do not know. We're always updating our priors and have much to base our decisions off of, but we simply do not understand many things. Medicine is out here winging it with the best of intentions, but there are no "experts" in the grand scheme of things.
staticassertion•18m ago
You're on a discussion forum where the topic is colon cancer. Surely you understand that people are going to discuss it?

It's a bit hard to tell from your post what you're saying. Certainly I can imagine being annoyed by constantly being given health advice from layman. But this is... a forum.

jancsika•9m ago
> As a Multiple Sclerosis patient since I was a teenager, let me just say: all you “healthy diet” zealots aren’t helping.

I don't understand the relevance to the article. Does Multiple Sclerosis come with a higher risk of colon cancer?

lend000•43m ago
My step-brother had this around 40. He's okay now, but it was a terrible process involving surgery, carrying around a bag, and chemo which aged him significantly during treatment (from no gray hair to all gray in a couple years).

You would have never guessed he was an unhealthy guy by looking at him, but I do assume it has something to do with foods we consider normal in the US. I've taken a page out of Bryan Johnson's book and started eating well over 100% of recommended daily fiber intake (easy and enjoyable if you make some chia seed porridge every morning), and I will say my digestion has never been better. Keeping the system clear seems like a sane first line of defense to preventing this kind of thing.

taeric•42m ago
This almost certainly speaks more to how much we have advanced on other cancers? The chart for total incidence shows it peaked in the 80s at about 70 per 100k and is down to about 40 per the same amount, now.

Such that, yes, we can still get better. But people here are reacting as if there is some damning evidence that just doesn't track with the data. Even with an uptick in younger people getting this, we still don't have a smoking gun on anything that is directly causal to this.

Also, holy crap, if you have rectal bleeding, don't ignore it! That that is listed as an early warning sign that people ignore is terrifying.

UltraSane•42m ago
One of the healthiest things you can do is buy a vitamix or similarly powerful blender and make kale, spinach, broccoli, and mixed berry smoothies with olive oil. They don't have to taste GOOD, just good enough to be chugged as fast as possible.
TrackerFF•10m ago
If you have the symptoms, go get yourself checked out. I delayed my colonoscopy for YEARS, hell - I even delayed my doctors visit for years, and I had pretty much every symptom there is. My anxiety was through the roof when taking the blood test, and getting the colonoscopy - as I simply assumed they'd find something.

But, no. They didn't find a single thing. Blood and stool tests came back fine. Not even a polyp was found during the colonoscopy.

The only thing that kind of sucked, was the prep - there's no way around that. But the colonoscopy itself, no problem. I get some mild sedatives, but was completely awake during the procedure - even watched it on the screen.

Malus – Clean Room as a Service

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