Speaker 1: Everyone, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today we
Speaker 1: are going to investigate why the age of onset of
Speaker 1: a lot of cancers seemed to be getting younger, and
Speaker 1: it appears to be an almost global phenomenon. Now, you
Speaker 1: may have seen in the news a few months ago
Speaker 1: there was a headline doing the rhymes that showed an
Speaker 1: explosion in bil cancer incidents in the under fifties. And
Speaker 1: one of the leading theories as to why this was
Speaker 1: occurring was the declining quality of our diets and specifically
Speaker 1: the huge increase in ultra process food consumption. And the
Speaker 1: thinking was that there were twin drivers. The crap that's
Speaker 1: in ultra processed foods, such as flavor enhancers and multifiers
Speaker 1: and preservatives that we know now damage the lining and
Speaker 1: create an unhealthy microbiome. And then there's the double wamy
Speaker 1: of the crowding out of nutritious food that feeds a
Speaker 1: positive microbiome and a healthy cut lining. Clearly, if you're
Speaker 1: eating more crap food, you're eating less healthy food, so
Speaker 1: we get this double wammy effect. Now, this week I
Speaker 1: read a thought provoking article from the Journal of the
Speaker 1: American Medical Association Oncology that highlights increased rates of many
Speaker 1: different cancers in younger people, and it actually explores what's
Speaker 1: going on and whether or not that these increased cancers
Speaker 1: in young people are actually a symptom of accelerated biological aging.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the background. Traditionally, cancer has been
Speaker 1: a disease that we associate with older age, but recently
Speaker 1: there's been a noticeable bump or a spike in cancer
Speaker 1: diagnosis among people under fifty. And we're not just talking
Speaker 1: about borl cancer that I mentioned earlier. It's also breast cancer,
Speaker 1: pancreas cancer, kidney cancer, and even head and neck cancers.
Speaker 1: It appears to be global. It's growing, and it's affecting
Speaker 1: millennials and Gen zs born in the eighties and the nineties. Now,
Speaker 1: in this article, they actually suggested that some of the
Speaker 1: usual suspects explain this, things like poor diets, sentary living, pollution,
Speaker 1: increased microplastics, and even antibiotic overuse. Now, what if these
Speaker 1: cancers aren't just random or lifestyle driving, but what if
Speaker 1: they're actually assigned that these people are biologically older than
Speaker 1: their birth certificates suggest So, as you will be well
Speaker 1: were chronologically is the number on your birthy cake, and
Speaker 1: it's a blunt instrument. Biologically, is is what's happening underneath
Speaker 1: the hoot how your sales, tissues and organs are actually functioning.
Speaker 1: And twenty years ago I actually developed a biological age
Speaker 1: test and that was used in lots of gyms that
Speaker 1: basically give people a needs and based on their fitness
Speaker 1: and strength levels. But more recently there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of these biological aging clocks that you may be aware of.
Speaker 1: I've talked about some of them that look at the
Speaker 1: aging of cells and different processes in a body, epigenetic
Speaker 1: markers and all of these sorts of things, things like
Speaker 1: grimm AADs that are out there and they're now used
Speaker 1: in lots of research studies. So these studies show that
Speaker 1: two people can both be forty, but one may have
Speaker 1: a biological age of a sprightly thirty five and the
Speaker 1: other are weary forty eight. And it's kind of like
Speaker 1: comparing at twenty ten Toyota Corolla. It's been lovingly serviced
Speaker 1: and driven by one very careful owner to one that's
Speaker 1: been doing laps in a dirt track in the outback.
Speaker 1: So when we see thirty five year olds being diagnosed
Speaker 1: with cancers we normally associate with people in their sixties.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're just aging faster. And here's a concept that
Speaker 1: I loved that was outlined in the paper, the expose home,
Speaker 1: and it is the total sum of everything your body's
Speaker 1: being exposed to over time. Crap, food, pollution, stress, poor sleep,
Speaker 1: poor social conditions, financial stressors. It's the whole chaotic buffet
Speaker 1: of modern life. And if the exposed home has gone
Speaker 1: off the reels by ultra processed diets, chronic stress, loneliness,
Speaker 1: even trauma, lack of physical activity, all of this speeds
Speaker 1: up your internal war intern and that's what's by accelerated aging.
Speaker 1: And you will be aware that I have talked about
Speaker 1: the different hallmarks of aging, and here's the thing. Aging
Speaker 1: and cancer share many of the same biological pathways, and
Speaker 1: some of those I covered in that series on the
Speaker 1: twelve Hallmarks of aging, the ones where there's a very
Speaker 1: very clear overlap or things like DNA damage that's the
Speaker 1: big one, and mitochondrial dysfunction inflammation. Tellome are shortening, and
Speaker 1: their suggesting is that some of the others may be
Speaker 1: affected as well. So if you're aging faster at a
Speaker 1: cellular level cancer might not wait until retirement to come knocking.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing that we can all act on. Right,
Speaker 1: the same behaviors that slow aging can actually help prevent
Speaker 1: cancer if we flip them in terms of the impact
Speaker 1: that we're having on them, or they are the behaviors
Speaker 1: that we're having. So we're talking here in terms of
Speaker 1: reducing aging and reducing your risk of cancer, doing regular exercise,
Speaker 1: having caloric moderation. So I don't mean starvation, I just
Speaker 1: mean not overeating. And we are a society of overfed
Speaker 1: and undernourished individuals. What I mean by that is we're
Speaker 1: consuming too much calories and their crappy calories, so our
Speaker 1: nourishment is actually going down. That affects many of our
Speaker 1: cellular processes. The third one is avoiding smoking, avoiding binge
Speaker 1: drinking then would be the fourth one. Then it's about
Speaker 1: minimizing unmanageable stress, not the stress that helps us to adapt,
Speaker 1: but the stuff that actually breaks us down. And then
Speaker 1: it's about building strong social networks, because we know that
Speaker 1: loneliness is shocking for your health, but having good social
Speaker 1: networks is actually very good for your health. And then
Speaker 1: exposure to nature, having good sleep, having a sense of
Speaker 1: meaning and purpose in your life. Basically, the lifestyle that's
Speaker 1: good for your brillan, your mood and telomeres is also
Speaker 1: the best defense against these early onset cancers. And there's
Speaker 1: even this whole field emerging called gyro science which looks
Speaker 1: at slowing aging itself as a way to prevent a
Speaker 1: host of diseases, cancer included. So what does this mean
Speaker 1: for all of us? Well, maybe it's time we started
Speaker 1: looking before the age of fifty as the magic number
Speaker 1: for cancer screening as it typically is right now, Maybe
Speaker 1: we need biological age based guidelines because if you're thirty
Speaker 1: eight but your biology is more like fifty eight, you
Speaker 1: should probably be screened sooner. And it also means that prevention,
Speaker 1: the fundamental stuff that I talk about all the time,
Speaker 1: like movement, nutrition, connection, sleep, it is more powerful forever.
Speaker 1: It's not just about how long we live, but how
Speaker 1: soon before disease shows up. And the data in Australia
Speaker 1: and other countries is showing that people are getting chronic
Speaker 1: disease earlier and early. It's not just cancer. And this
Speaker 1: basically say is that we are aging at a much
Speaker 1: faster rate than we were decades ago. So the new
Speaker 1: longevity mindset's not just about living longer, it's about not
Speaker 1: breaking down too early. It's about increasing your health span.
Speaker 1: So the big takeaway here is if early onset cancer
Speaker 1: is a sign of accelerated aging, which it does appear
Speaker 1: to be, then our day to day choices are more
Speaker 1: than just healthy habits. They're actually investments in cancer prevention.
Speaker 1: And we don't need to live like monks, but we
Speaker 1: do need to pay attention to the life that we're
Speaker 1: living inside of our body. And I think the big
Speaker 1: thing here is really around kids, because the kids who
Speaker 1: are walking around these days eating crap diets, not moving
Speaker 1: very much and overwegh it. As young children and teenagers,
Speaker 1: they will definitely be getting cancer and other diseases much
Speaker 1: sooner than their parents. So on that tragic note, that's
Speaker 1: it for me for this week. Catch you next time.