Modern lifestyle, exposure to toxins and eating habits are behind the silent climbing of the disease among the younger ones
When I was a child, it was a word I heard – but well from afar. It was an adult thing, older people. However, there was an idea more or less clear that the older one, the greater the chance to appear this disease. This logic made sense: Over time, our body suffers, wears out and turns out to be more vulnerable. It was also a death sentence. There was very little about the knowledge of the disease and its treatment.
A reality that has changed – and for the worse
For some time now, something different began to happen. Increasingly young people are receiving this diagnosis – 40, 30 people, even in their early 20s. And no, it’s not an impression. It’s really real. In the last three decades alone, the number of cases in people under 50 has increased 80%. And mortality rose together in about 30%. There is something implicit in this: our body is trying to send us a signal. In fact, a clear message: it is not realizing our modern way of living.
But why? Like this? What happened to our body – or rather, with our world?
Let’s go back in time. For thousands of years, we humans were running after food – literally. It was hunting, collecting fruits, running away from predators. No fast food, no delivery, no “giant combo with large soda.” Hence agriculture came about 10,000 years ago, evolved civilization, we learned to conserve food, store them and transport them. All great!
Until, in the nineteenth century, a revolution came: A – practical, fast and delicious food. We exchanged the Fresh Food Fair for the supermarket shelf. While, on the one hand, we have been able to control infectious and parasitic diseases, with drastic reduction in malnutrition and mortality from these causes, on the other, they came to an aggressive foods, stuffed with substances that our body does not recognize as good: nitrite, nitrates, emulsifiers, dyes – a true chemical cocktail disguised of food.
Modern lifestyle: a fertile terrain for cancer
There were also gradual changes in habits throughout the twentieth century. With the migration of the countryside to the city, we exchange the active lifestyle – to walk, have contact with nature, eat real food – through the car, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, urban stress, pesticides and environmental pollution.
We are exposed to artificial light 24 hours a day, changing our biological cycle; excessive alcohol consumption; to the tobacco and the electronic cigarette (which, surprise, has even more nicotine than the common cigarette). Result: Our body freaked out! An explosion of chronic, degenerative, mental illnesses – and cancer.
And it’s not just the traditionally incident cancers like that of colon or breast that worry. We also see an increase in hematological and pediatric cancers, diseases that, 50 years ago, were low in this age group.
Hope exists – and begins with information
But not everything is lost. The treatment has evolved. Specific drugs, vaccines, less invasive, robotic and laparoscopic surgeries have turned the death sentence into a treatment, although hard, full of hope, with real possibilities for healing.
And it is possible to do more! Up to 80% of cancer cases can be avoided or at least treated early. Science corroborates an old saying: Judgment and chicken broth only do well. It is possible to act in our favor. Breaking this cycle goes through simpler choices than they seem.
Eating real food (the one your grandmother would recognize as food – fruits, vegetables and fresh meat), move a little every day (you don’t have to run a marathon – just get out of statue mode Or a little dance already help!), keep an eye on the scale, avoid cigarette, vape, alcohol, and contact with pollutants and toxic products are basic care attitudes with oneself.
And, of course, do the tracking tests when the time comes. Diagnosing early can save lives. Cancer may be changing the face – but we can also change the end of this story. Understanding the roots of the problem is a first step. The choice is ours.
*By Dr. Valter Alvarenga Júnior – CRM 52.80429-0 RQE 19476
Cancer Surgeon of the University Hospital of UFRJ
