Great update on Joey Kenward

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

HE'S IN REMISSION!!!!

Click to read more...

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Excellent news - pulling for him, hope the good news keeps coming.

 

[bobbyb2009]

This guy is genuinely one of the good ones- and I mean people, not necessarily broadcasters. Just a good guy

 

[beachcomber]

Great news!

 

[VanJack]

Pulling for Joey....always enjoyed his preparation and professionalism with his interviews.

But damn....what the heck is going on with so many people under the age of 50 getting cancer? I'm beginning to seriously worry about the goal of stamping out this disease in the coming decades. Is it something in the environment, or the processed food we're eating?

As if 8 billion people who live on this planet didn't have enough to worry about.

 

[ratbid]

Pulling for Joey....always enjoyed his preparation and professionalism with his interviews.

But damn....what the heck is going on with so many people under the age of 50 getting cancer? I'm beginning to seriously worry about the goal of stamping out this disease in the coming decades. Is it something in the environment, or the processed food we're eating?

As if 8 billion people who live on this planet didn't have enough to worry about.

It's actually an interesting question that comes up a lot in my work. There are tons of environmental factors, but largely it's highly improved diagnostics. My background is in medical imaging and the access and ability of tech nowadays is leading to dramatically increased detection of cancer.

I recently was diagnosed with kidney cancer off an annual physical. Luckily it's incredibly early and should be fully treatable. Years ago, it would be unlikely to detect that cancer until it's advanced to the symptomatic stage, and at that point the survival rate is very low.

Suffice to say, get your physicals folks, going for mine at 37 rather than 40 might prove to be the difference between living to 41 or 80.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Pulling for Joey....always enjoyed his preparation and professionalism with his interviews.

But damn....what the heck is going on with so many people under the age of 50 getting cancer? I'm beginning to seriously worry about the goal of stamping out this disease in the coming decades. Is it something in the environment, or the processed food we're eating?

As if 8 billion people who live on this planet didn't have enough to worry about.

I am fortunate enough to have a family GP who advised me to do periodic physicals (including colonoscopies). Him along with his colleagues seem to think a diet of mostly processed foods which was unavoidable for many children raised in the 80's and 90's along with frequent usage of antibiotics placed an immense amount of stress on the organs during the most critical years of gut/organ development. We were the generation that consumed an insane amount of sugar, trans-fats, sugary juice/ soft drinks and generally avoided pure water. Doctors in the 90's were also prescribing antibiotics for EVERYTHING. Viral illnesses including the cold or flu? Antibiotics! Lingering cough? Antibiotics! Allergies? Antibiotics!

Suffice to say, get your physicals folks, going for mine at 37 rather than 40 might prove to be the difference between living to 41 or 80.

Yup. The general recommendation is to get a colonoscopy and physical at age 40. My doctor seems to think 30 is now an appropriate age to start doing so.

 

[tantalum]

Pulling for Joey....always enjoyed his preparation and professionalism with his interviews.

But damn....what the heck is going on with so many people under the age of 50 getting cancer? I'm beginning to seriously worry about the goal of stamping out this disease in the coming decades. Is it something in the environment, or the processed food we're eating?

As if 8 billion people who live on this planet didn't have enough to worry about.

One thing to really keep in mind is that "cancer" isn't a single disease. It's dozens upon dozens of different diseases.

 

[ratbid]

One thing to really keep in mind is that "cancer" isn't a single disease. It's dozens upon dozens different diseases.

Yup, the "cure" as it is, will always simply be the most effective detection and treatment.

 

[iceburg]

Pulling for Joey....always enjoyed his preparation and professionalism with his interviews.

But damn....what the heck is going on with so many people under the age of 50 getting cancer? I'm beginning to seriously worry about the goal of stamping out this disease in the coming decades. Is it something in the environment, or the processed food we're eating?

As if 8 billion people who live on this planet didn't have enough to worry about.

It's a combination of many different factors including environment, diet, genetics, an aging population etc. Some we can control, some we can't. To your point, there has been a large increase in colon cancer in younger generations over the last couple of decades. Lifestyle seems to be a significant contributing factor in colon cancer in upwards of 50% of the cases.

I know it seems like we may never get a handle on it but there have been some amazing advances. Check point inhibitors/immunotherapy have revolutionized cancer treatment and have been used on a long list of different types of cancer. Our understanding of the causes of cancer has also increased enormously. Some small changes in lifestyle can have a large impact.

I always remind people that it wasn't that long ago that many diseases were treated by bloodletting! Thing is it takes decades not days to figure this stuff out. That doesn't help families going through the tragic circumstances now. But it does mean that fewer families are going through those tragedies and a lot of cancers are more treatable than they were just a couple of decades ago.

Edit: I wanted to add that I think it would be a really good idea to communicate and celebrate the successes in dealing with the disease(s). News more often focuses on negative. We need to balance it with the positive. For example, deaths (males) from lung cancer have decreased by something like 50% since it peaked in the 80s. Age-adjusted deaths from cancer over the last decade have decreased quite a bit according to this CDC report (Cancer deaths - Health, United States)
That's really cool.