Re-posted from http://www.benbbrave.blogspot.com
According to the newspaper The West Australian I'm part of a trend and may not be that special after all.
"More young Australians than ever are battling bowel cancer, new data has found. Recent rising international figures prompted The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to investigate local bowel cancer rates. The figures, released on Wednesday, found incidences of bowel cancer among all age groups had increased. But colorectal surgeon Professor Graham Newstead said the number of people under 35 with the disease was "extraordinarily high"."
The article goes on to make an excellent point:
"In the younger people, they are not only getting a huge increase in the incidence, but they're dying," Prof Newstead told AAP.
Over the research period, bowel cancer deaths claiming young women aged between 20 and 34 had doubled.In their male counterparts, fatalities had risen by almost 25 per cent.
"They're dying because they present late and they present late because, if you're 30 years of age, you've got a bit of bleeding your GP is likely to say: `Probably haemorrhoids, don't worry about it'," Prof Newstead said."
The article then goes to make a totally crap point:
"Prof Newstead couldn't explain why bowel cancer was on the rise, but said it could be linked to the modern diet "filled with hormones and this and that".
That's sloppy science communication and does nothing to inform the reader. Are they talking about animal hormones? Plant hormones? My hormones?! What is This and what is That? Actually I think I saw That on a menu once but didn't order it because it was yellow.
I've personally never come across any information suggesting a link between hormones (mine, yours or those from plants and animal species) and colorectal cancer, plus, I have been mostly vegetarian for 6 years.
