18 ms·
The most disturbing part, to me, is this: > The early-onset cancer epidemic might be one manifestation of increasing trends in the development of many chronic
by notamy 4y ago
The most disturbing part, to me, is this:
> The early-onset cancer epidemic might be one manifestation of increasing trends in the development of many chronic diseases in young and future generations.
Why are chronic diseases trending upwards? Is it the obvious things (pollution, microplastics, obesity, massive drain on mental health from the modern lifestyle, etc.), or is there something else going on?
- dani_german 4y agoThe past 50 years have seen a huge spike in life expectancy averages almost everywhere worldwide, so I’m just guessing that more people than ever with genetic tendencies to have early cancer onset are surviving and passing down those traits. There is also more people being screened for cancer than ever before so more cases are being detected when 70 years ago they would’ve just died and no one would know why
- lambdaba 4y agoThe result of misguidance from health professionals, big food & big pharma marketing. Not acknowledging that health is largely a result of lifestyle choices, and that pharmaceuticals are mostly ineffective and often harmful. And now for the specifics: - lies/bad science about meat (particularly red meat) being unhealthy - lies/bad science about cholesterol & saturated fat being unhealthy - not attacking sugar and processed foods at the highest level; should be treated like smoking if not even more harshly I say this for experience, until I fell ill I had no idea about either of those things. Like many of my peers, grew up with tons of sugar, and many misconceptions about what is healthy (although thankfully to a lesser extent than what's common nowadays) I'd also add that these things compound over the generations. We are more sensitive than our parents. It checks out for me, every generation has worsening autoimmune symptoms.
- p886 4y agoplus: high-PUFA oils (seed / vegetable oils) being labelled as "heart-healthy"
- rgrieselhuber 4y agoProtip: if you're ever looking for some downvotes when bringing up the dangers of PUFAs, recommend that people read the book Deep Nutrition. There seems to be an animalistic hatred toward a book that really sheds the light on why eating industrial waste is not the healthiest thing in the world.
- calvinmorrison 4y agoIf people get angry and upset at a topic, I find it usually requires to be brought into the limelight.
- rgrieselhuber 4y agoIndeed.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hombre_fatal 4y agoThis thread makes me wonder how many HNers base their nutrition off a quack like Paul Saladino. A rebuttal to the seed oil sophistry that seems to have managed to permeate every diet camp: https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-to-seed-oil-sophistry https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-... Everyone is so desperate to have a counternarrative take on nutrition that they'll believe whatever fad that passes through the internet. The same goes with saturated fat = healthy broscience and the dismissal of the lipid hypothesis.
- sweetheart 4y ago> bad science... > I say this for experience... > It checks out for me... Glad you've managed to avoid the pesky allure of bad science with your anecdotal approach!
- upsidesinclude 4y agoAre you trying to make the counter point that sugar and highly processed foods are healthy? There's lots of good science and history (! I guess that's just a bunch of anecdotes though) which demonstrates their ill effects. Sometimes, a fact has been asserted widely enough that we stop requiring sources, even at HN
- sweetheart 4y ago> Are you trying to make the counter point that sugar and highly processed foods are healthy? Nope, I said absolutely nothing to that effect.
- altruios 4y agoMore that he's critical of the thought process you've applied. You're conclusions are correct, so no one should be critical of that :)
- upsidesinclude 4y agoWasn't me, but sure
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tsol 4y agoThose statements of his were both at the end, when he gives his opinion on the general situation. That doesn't mean the main bullet points aren't supported by science
- dominotw 4y agoIf a doctor says to you ' you have hypertension because you've been eating pizza for dinner last 5 years' . Do you ask them to provide you with proof directly linking your pizza eating to hypertension? Would you just ignore their advice for lack of proof? No one will be able to provide you direct link between 'lifestyle choices' and chronic disease at an individual level.
- vibrio 4y agoI agree sugar is bad, cancer reseracher Lew Cantley has written very clearly scientifically about how High-fructose corn syrup is very bad supported with a lot of mechanistic data. I also agree health is largely a result of lifestyle choices for most-- it is what we can control. I can't even begin to contemplating support of many of your other statements. i wish you health and peace of mind.
- lambdaba 4y agoThere might be some unique harms from HFCS but I doubt they're anything but minor over harm from all fructose in refined form (so incl. and perhaps especially fruit juices and other junk often fed to children). Re: the cholesterol, check out my other comment. Thank you, wishing you the same.
- andrepd 4y ago> lies/bad science about cholesterol & saturated fat being unhealthy Are you saying cholesterol and saturated fats aren't unhealthy? I'm confused.
- mnd999 4y agoIt turned out eating high cholesterol foods didn’t lead to high cholesterol after all.
- another2another 4y ago
- lambdaba 4y agoYes, check out this report from Credit Suisse that sums up the state of the art research on the topic: https://research-doc.credit-suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&source=ulg&format=PDF&document_id=1053247551&serialid=MFT6JQWS%2B4FvvuMDBUQ7v9g4cGa84/gpv8mURvaRWdQ%3D https://research-doc.credit-suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&... Bottom line is saturated fat is not implicated whatsoever in any negative health outcomes.
- tsol 4y agoJust as an aside: This document is interesting. Not saying it isn't valid but I'm just wondering why a bank produced this. It's not just an economic forecast of the health foods market. It's an entire breakdown of the nutrition. Who is the target audience? It looks like the work of some consultants possibly
- another2another 4y agoFrom the article: "A proper review of the so called “fat paradoxes” (France, Israel and Japan) suggests that saturated fats are actually healthy and omega-6 fats, at current levels of consumption in the developed world, are not necessarily so" That probably means a whole ton of marketing material touting Omega oils has to be thrown away.
- yojo 4y ago> I'd also add that these things compound over the generations. We are more sensitive than our parents. It checks out for me, every generation has worsening autoimmune symptoms. This may just be a function of increasing pollen overstimulating the immune system. In the last 30 years pollen counts have gone up 20+%[1]. Turns out trees like carbon and warmer air. Anecdotally both of my kids have seasonal allergies, neither me nor my wife did when we were kids. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/pollen-seasons-are-getting-longer-driven-by-climate-change/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/pollen-se...
- itsoktocry 4y ago>pharmaceuticals are mostly ineffective Something tells me you don't understand the vast scale of pharmaceuticals, many of which keep people alive. Mostly "ineffective", come on. >I say this for experience, until I fell ill I had no idea about either of those things. Your personal experiences and biology cannot be extrapolated onto the world at large.
- kaba0 4y agoBig Sugar is mostly an American problem due to the industry’s lobbying. If people are not exposed to that level of sweetness they seriously can’t even eat your bread. Also, why allow that level of drug marketing everywhere? That’s also not a thing in other developed countries. So I really don’t think it is fair to call out scientists when these two industries have your politicians in their hands.
- dominotw 4y agoI think there is no way to directly link 'lifestyle choices' and chronic diseases. All we have is intuition like yours. There is always going to be aggressive push-back from people who will get you on lack of data linking those two. I agree about 'big pharma marketing.' part spreading misinformation that all these can be 'treated' with drugs that even educated fall for https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32744412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32744412
- jinder 4y agoMy guess: Environmental toxins, antibiotic use and poor diet leading to loss of microbiome diversity/dysbiosis and consequential disruption to the body’s homeostatic processes.
- enviclash 4y agoHow to really take care of the microbiome?
- fredrikholm 4y agoDiverse diet including as many types of food as possible (eg. mushrooms, fermented vegetables, seaweed and other 'unusual' foods), aiming for whole foods (eg. raw rice over white rice). Your gut bacteria is an expression of the foods that you consume on a daily basis.
- jinder 4y agoTry to be born vaginally rather than c-section (might be too late for that!), avoid antibiotics unless you absolutely need them, polyphenol-rich whole food diet with diverse fruits and vegetables, lots of fibre and resistant starch and fermented foods. Buy organic if possible.
- superbiome 4y agoSince I was born via c-section I've tried to make up for the lack of my microbiome diversity by spending many years going down on a lot of different women and it seems to be working.
- enviclash 4y agoI suppose you are making fun of it. In case you need arguments to extend your joke: my friend and I were recommended pills made of colostrum of cow -- he took them.
- deleted 4y ago
- lambdaba 4y agoJust adding a bit about the subject at hand: I am convinced the cancer epidemic is due to us grossly misusing our biological equipment: we are meant to feast & fast, and not have insulin's anabolic effects constantly activated. Fasting is crucial for "system maintenance", via autophagy (self-eating of damaged cells). Average person constantly stimulates insulin with following the advice of eating small meals often, without even going into the content of those meals.
- candiddevmike 4y agoAutophagy keeps getting brought up with such pseudoscientific bullshit explanations that I can't help but see it as snake oil. Furthermore, depending on who is describing it, the window for autophagy to kick in is anywhere from 8-48+ hours.
- godshatter 4y agoThere is a lot of "bro-science" out there concerning autophagy for sure, but it is definitely a thing. Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2016 for "his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/summary/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/summary/).
- hombre_fatal 4y agoOhsumi's research into the mechanics of autophagy doesn't seem to have much to do with the broscience around autophagy. In other words, the question isn't whether autophagy exists. The question is over whether fanatical "one-weird-trick" claims about autophagy are true and, further, what the impact actually is and compared to what. For example, autophagy is happening all the time, not just during during starvation. And it hasn't been demonstrated that fasting for 3 days to increase autophagy levels has a net benefit versus eating a nutrient-rich diet during that timeframe. Instead we just get vague but lofty claims in forum posts.
- lambdaba 4y agoI don't know what science you need to understand a system that is constantly active and is never fully allowed to rest will develop dysfunction. Anyway, as the sibling reply says, there is plenty of reputable research available to satisfy your curiosity if you wish.
- pastor_bob 4y agoA lot of these chronic diseases are autoimmune ones. I now know plenty of young people IBD, MS, Psoriasis, and even Rheumatoid Arthritis. These seem to be caused by less obvious things imo (MS although looks linked to epstein-barr), as otherwise general health doesn't seem to be poor.