Altered microbiome, sleep deprivation, an increase in alcohol
consumption among possible culprits in 30-year global trend
BY Brigham and Women’s Hospital Communications
What’s causing the alarming rise in cancer for adults under 50? – Big Think
A study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reveals that the incidence of early onset cancers — including breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas — has dramatically increased around the world, with the rise beginning around 1990. In an effort to understand why many more people under 50 are being diagnosed with cancer, scientists conducted extensive analyses of available data, including information on early life exposures that might have contributed to the trend. Results are published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.
“From our data, we observed something called the birth cohort effect. This effect shows that each successive group of people born at a later time — e.g., a decade later — have a higher risk of developing cancer later in life, likely due to risk factors they were exposed
to at a young age,” said Shuji Ogino, a professor at Harvard Chan School and Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist in the Department of Pathology at the Brigham. “We found that this risk is increasing with each generation. For instance, people born in 1960 experienced higher cancer risk before they turn 50 than people born in 1950, and
we predict that this risk level will continue to climb in successive generations.”
Ogino worked with lead author Tomotaka Ugai and colleagues from 2000 to 2012 to analyze global data on 14 cancer types that showed increased incidence in adults before age 50. Then the team searched for available studies that examined trends of possible risk factors, including early life exposures in the general populations. Finally, the researchers examined the literature describing clinical and biological tumor characteristics of early onset cancers compared with cancers diagnosed after age 50.
“We found that this risk is increasing with each generation.”
— Shuji Ogino, professor, physician-scientist
In an extensive review, the team found that the early life “exposome,” which encompasses an individual’s diet, lifestyle, weight, environmental exposures, and microbiome, has changed substantially in the last several decades. They hypothesize that factors like the Western diet and lifestyle may be contributing to the rise in early onset cancer. The team acknowledged that this increased incidence of certain cancer types is, in part, due to early detection through cancer screening programs. They couldn’t precisely measure what proportion of this growing prevalence could solely be attributed to screening and early detection. However, they noted that increased incidence of many of the 14 cancer types is unlikely due to enhanced screening alone.
Possible risk factors for early onset cancer included alcohol consumption, sleep deprivation, smoking, obesity, and eating highly processed foods. Surprisingly, researchers found that while adult sleep duration hasn’t drastically changed over the several decades, children are getting far less sleep today than they were decades ago. Risk factors such as highly processed foods, sugary beverages, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption have all significantly increased since the 1950s.
“Among the 14 cancer types on the rise that we studied, eight were related to the digestive system. The food we eat feeds the microorganisms in our gut,” said Ugai. “Diet directly affects microbiome composition and eventually these changes can influence disease risk and outcomes.”
One limitation of this study is that researchers did not have an adequate amount of data from low- and middle-income countries to identify trends in cancer incidence over the decades. Going forward, Ogino and Ugai hope to continue this research by collecting more data and collaborating with international research institutes to better monitor global trends. They also explained the importance of conducting longitudinal cohort studies with parental consent to include young children who may be followed up for several decades.
“Without such studies, it’s difficult to identify what someone having cancer now did decades ago or when one was a child,” said Ugai. “Because of this challenge, we aim to run more longitudinal cohort studies in the future where we follow the same cohort of participants over the course of their lives, collecting health data, potentially from electronic health records, and biospecimens at set time points. This is not only more cost effective considering the many cancer types needed to be studied, but I believe it will yield us more accurate insights into cancer risk for generations to come.”
Ogino’s work is supported in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health grants and the Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Grand Challenge Award. Ugai’s work is supported by grants from the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation.
Daily consumption of sugary drinks linked to increased risk of liver cancer –
Cancer diagnosis rates are going up in younger adults, study finds,
driven largely by rises in women and people in their 30s
Story by By Brenda Goodman, CNN
Certain kinds of cancer are being diagnosed more often in younger adults in the US, a new study shows, and the increases seem to be driven by cancers in women and adults in their 30s. A government-funded study of 17 National Cancer Institute registries, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at more than 500,000 cases of early-onset cancer, or cancers diagnosed in patients under age 50, between 2010 and 2019.
Sleep is the most neglected key to wellness for 70 million Americans – why prioritizing rest is crucial (msn.com)
Radical climate change activists ignore this real threat to the planet (msn.com)
The study found that overall, early-onset cancers increased over that decade, by an average of 0.28% each year. The change seemed to be driven by rates of cancer in younger women, which went up an average of 0.67% each year; at the same time, rates decreased in men by 0.37% each year.
There were 34,233 early-onset cancer cases in women in 2010 and 35,721 in 2019, an increase of 4.35%, the study says. Among men, cases fell 4.91%, from 21,818 in 2010 to 20,747 in 2019.
The rate of cancer diagnosis increased in adults in their 30s over the decade but remained stable in other under-50 age groups, the study found. At the same time, the rate of cancers in adults 50 and older is going down. When the researchers looked at cancer trends for younger adults by race, they found that early-onset cancers were going up fastest among people who identify as American Indian or Alaska Natives, Asians and Hispanics.
On average, the growth rates of early-onset cancers remained stable in White people and decreased in Black people between 2010 and 2019.
Cancers with the highest numbers of early-onset cases diagnosed in 2019 were breast (12,649 cases), thyroid (5,869) and colorectal cancers (4,097).
The biggest increases in early-onset cases were in cancers of the appendix, which went up 252%; cancers of the bile duct, which went up 142%; and uterine cancer, which increased 76%.
Incidence rates of early-onset cancers of the gastrointestinal tract grew the fastest from 2010 to 2019, increasing nearly 15%. Previous research has shown a rise in cancers of the digestive system, particularly colorectal cancers, among adults younger than 55 since the 1990s.
These increases are not confined to the US, studies say. A review of cancer registry records in 44 countries, published last year, found that the incidence of early-onset cancers is rising rapidly for 14 types of cancer, many of which affect the digestive system.
The authors of that review said the upswing is happening in part because of more sensitive screening tests as well as other causes that need investigation. Dr. Otis Brawley, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, has some theories about what’s behind the rising rates.
“The largest cause of cancer in the United States right now is smoking, but smoking rates [have been] going down since the 1960s,” he said. “It’s in the next couple of years that the biggest cause of cancer in the United States is going to be not obesity but obesity, consumption of too many calories and not enough exercise. … My gut suspicion is that a large part of this trend is lifestyle, or it’s driven by increased caloric consumption, increased obesity and not enough exercise.”
Another possible cause is alcohol use, he said. “There’s been a rise in alcohol-related cancers over the last few years. We now think about 6% or so of cancers in the United States are due to alcohol consumption, especially binge drinking.”
To lower your overall cancer risk, Brawley recommends “very basic principles”:
1. “Try to maintain a healthy weight. 2. Try to exercise. 3. Try to maintain a good diet
with five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day, preferably fresh fruits.
4. Try to decrease the number of processed foods in the diet.”
50 Toxic Ingredients — Sustainable Wellness (sustainable-wellness.com)
Daily soft drink linked to increased risk of liver disease – Bing video
Turns out lowly thymus may be saving your life – Search (bing.com)
Good genes are nice, but joy is better – Search (bing.com)
Race to evacuate entire population Canadian city over approaching wildfire.
Canadian officials ordered the evacuation of the Northwest Territories’ capital of Yellowknife and several smaller communities on Wednesday (August 16) as a massive wildfire threatened the town of Hay River overnight. So far no deaths have been reported from the Yellowknife fire but several structures have been destroyed.
America finally facing someone who has Mussolini’s willingness to see people die — and it’s not who you think (msn.com)
An employee at the Four Seasons Maui, where ‘The White Lotus’ was shot, says tourists were complaining about
canceled activities and asked about a dinner reservation at a restaurant that had burned down (msn.com)
Life Expectancy in The U.S. is Declining at a Rapid Rate – it is Beginning Much Earlier Than We Thought (msn.com)
Watch: Helicopter footage shows rare home on Maui seafront still standing after wildfires | Metro Video A two-story white house with a red roof appeared untouched and gleaming while surrounded by scorched black terrain with homes burned to the ground and trees stripped down to their skeletons.
How did Jesus get to be so hot? The fascinating history of the (wildly unrealistic) depictions of the savior | Opinion (msn.com)
2 teenagers kept their mom warm after they waded into the Pacific Ocean for 5 hours to escape the Maui wildfires (msn.com)
‘Power Grab’: Biden Admin’s Rollback Of Trump-Era Rule Will ‘Steamroll’ Federal Contractors, Experts Say (msn.com)
As Democrats Blame Climate Change, Massive Government Failures May Have Fueled Hawaiian Fires (msn.com)
Over nearly 80 years, Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life – Harvard Gazette
Air evacuations are to begin for people in the path of wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories (msn.com)
Biden Administration Settles with Environmental Groups to Restrict Oil Drilling in Gulf of Mexico (msn.com)
Biden marks 1-year anniversary of climate, health law, says ‘we’re investing in all of America’ (msn.com)
Hawaii family describes harrowing escape from Lahaina and loss of 5 homes to Maui wildfire (msn.com)
The Decay of Our Society: 10 Things That Were Once Great That Have Been Lost Forever/
Race to evacuate entire Canadian city with devastating wildfires approaching in hours/
Fires and other disasters are increasing in Hawaii, according to this AP data analysis/
12 of the Best States to visit in the United States as Rated by American Residents/
Biden’s historic climate law has a problem Story by Rebecca Leber •11h – Search/
Zeus: Political plan emerges that could end the climate culture debate – for good/
Biden marks 1-year of Inflation Reduction Act: ‘It’s turning things around’ | Watch/
“The Rich Ruin Everything” 10 Great Things The Rich Single-Handedly Destroyed/
Hawaiian Electric Knew Wildfires Were a Rising Threat, But Waited Years to Act/
In the ruins of Lahaina, a surfing legend leads a volunteer army to get supplies to survivors/
Sixty survivors found alive sheltering in Maui home as search enters ninth day (msn.com)
Joe Biden Backtracks on Maui Visit After Hawaii Response Receives Backlash (msn.com)
Editorial: Five takeaways from the first year of America’s biggest climate law (msn.com)
Why Are Government Officials Encouraging Tourism to Maui Right Now? (msn.com)
These 14 U.S. Cities Were Voted the Cleanest by Americans Themselves (msn.com)
Disconnected: 12 Societal Issues That Are Rapidly Destroying Humanity (msn.com)
St. Louis Honeymooners Escape Maui Fires, Donate to Help Residents (msn.com)
The Most Conservative (And Most Liberal) Towns In The United States (msn.com)
“We Don’t Want Your Kind Here” Only “Elites” Live In These 10 States (msn.com)
20 wildfires in Northern California trigger evacuations in searing heat (msn.com)
Radical climate change activists ignore this real threat to the planet (msn.com)
Biden Admin Caught Colluding With Facebook In Massive Scandal (msn.com)
‘Shame on you’: Developers attempt Maui land grab after wildfires (msn.com)
Bad Government, Not Climate to Blame for Maui Wildfire Disaster (msn.com)
Being supportive or insensitive: Is now the time to go to Maui? (msn.com)
27 Donald Trump election lies listed in his Georgia indictment (msn.com)
These Are America’s Most Charming Historic Downtowns (msn.com)
5 Historical Points Challenging The Existence Of Jesus (msn.com)
Myth: Alzheimer’s Disease: Ask Health Professionals (msn.com)
Biden’s historic climate law has a problem – Search (bing.com)
This Week’s Good News For the Climate Crisis (msn.com)
Biden’s historic climate law has a problem (msn.com)
Escaping the wildfires in Hawaii – Search (bing.com)
Religions You May Not Have Heard Of (msn.com)
8 Disappointing Realities of Medicare (msn.com)