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My guess would be more processed food. The other most likely culprit is alcohol, but young people are drinking less of that.

• programmarchy 4y ago
  Could also be compounded by sitting on our asses all day (literally, not figuratively).
• steve_adams_86 4y ago
  If I recall correctly, those figures in the USA and Canada for example have been falling very slightly only recently, after decades of increasing. I suspect the rates of cancer we see wouldn’t have had a chance to decrease as a result. Cancer from poor nutrition is a cumulative thing, so we wouldn’t see meaningful changes from a few % decrease in alcohol consumption for many years (if at all). This may be different in other countries too, so apologies if you aren’t thinking strictly within the North America bubble.
• rubicon33 4y ago
  My guess is either some chemical or food additive used in the industrial processing of foods that we are consuming in processed foods, or even more terrifying if true, some kind of pesticide that has been introduced in the last 20 years and is only now bearing its teeth.
  • steve_adams_86 4y ago
    It’s tempting to suspect something awful like that, but looking at high quality meta analyses of the lifestyles of people who get most common diseases will reveal just how harmful our diets are — even without pesticides and industrial additives bearing teeth. It’s consistent the world over; you can plainly eat, drink, and sit yourself to death. I’m not saying the pesticides and preservatives don’t matter, I just doubt anything new has popped up to make things worse. It’s already been pretty bad for many decades. In the case of Lawson, it could have been a case of genetics rather than diet; she appears relatively healthy and is very young. But these outliers aren’t unheard of, and make for a kind of shocking story when presented with statistics about cancer rates in younger adults increasing. The average age is much higher though, and the health of the average person getting these cancers is likely worse. This isn’t anything all that new, and more so a continuation of trends.
• inciampati 4y ago
  I was thinking of that or maybe pesticides. Something like pesticides could be visible from different effects in different countries.
• Qem 4y ago
  > My guess would be more processed food. Mine would be colon proximity to pockets where we carry our omnipresent smartphones all day around. I think a simple test to this hypothesis is to see if there is correlation between tumor position and if the person is left or right handed, as the phone probably will be stored in a preferred side pocket, according to handedness.
  • Supermancho 4y ago
    This is a good idea and I would donate to such a study.