← Health Hacks with Mark Hyman, M.D.
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Foreign this is open mind.
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Hey everyone, Dr. Mark Hyman here. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who joined me on this journey through the very first season of Health Hacks. Whether you've been tuning in since day one or just discovered the show, I can't tell you how much your support has meant to me and the Health Hacks team. It's been an amazing season packed with insights, tips and practical hacks to help you take control of your health. As this season wraps up, I hope you continue applying what you've learned to support your well being and live your healthiest life. Thank you again for being a loyal listener and here's to all the great things you're going to achieve in your health journey. Today we're confronting a pressing issue that's been grabbing headlights everywhere. Alarming rise in cancer among young people. Now, early onset cancer rates are up nearly 80% from 1990 to 2019. That is terrifying. In the US alone, the American Cancer Society estimates over 2 million new cancer cases that will show up in 2024. We're seeing significant spikes in cancers of the digestive system like colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, uterine cancer and lung cancers. And notably, colorectal cancer has become a leading cause of cancer deaths, particularly striking men under 50 and rising as a major concern for young women. But why? What's driving this influx of cancer rates in younger generations? That's exactly what we're going to cover in today's episode of this podcast. And unlike the news and social media, I'm not just going to spotlight the problem. I'm going to offer real research backed solutions. We'll delve into the root cause of cancer and explore the impact of chronic inflammation and how our everyday lifestyle choices are creating a cancer feeding frenzy, accelerating biological aging and discuss actionable steps to mitigate these risks. From the importance of early screening to diet and reducing exposure to environmental toxins. My goal is to help you get equipped with practical strategies to take control of your health. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and welcome to Health Hacks.
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You know those tiny back to school emergencies that somehow become your problem? That's why I love Uber Eats. You can order school supplies, snacks and lunchbox essentials for $5 or less. So when your kid casually drops I don't like peanut butter anymore or I need five green highlighters for a project due tomorrow, Uber Eats has you covered. Get everything you need for back to school today from your favorite brands like Aldi and staples on UberEats order now ends. 97. $5 or less before taxes and fees. Select items only. Availability varies. See app for details. Hear that?
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That's now crispy and McCrispy strips meeting creamy Caesar sauce Sounds extra Crispy caesar sauce at McDonald's for a limited time. Ba da ba ba ba.
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Morning decisions. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink? Or sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe? Or white chocolate mocha? Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.
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Now. Cancer is increasing in young people. The rate of more than a dozen cancers has been increasing since the 1990s, especially among young adults. So what types of cancers are on the rise? Well, it's estimated that in 2024, there will be over 2 million cancer cases in the US alone, equal to about 5,480 new diagnoses every single day. Over 600,000 cancer deaths. Digestive system cancers, which affect esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, rectal, and pancreas are the biggest ones. And then there's for women, the biggest, which is breast and prostate, uterine and respiratory cancers, ranked the highest among all the new cases. Now colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer death. In 1998, lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death among young adult men. In 2021, colorectal cancer caused nearly twice as many deaths as lung cancer in young men because people stopped smoking and their diet got worse. Right? In young women, colorectal cancer was the fourth leading cause of death from cancer up until 1999. In 2021, it was a second leading cause of cancer death, following breast cancer, which remains the leading cause of cancer in women by a significant margin. Now, colorectal cancer is now the second most common cause of cancer death in men and women. It used to strike men in their mid-60s or later, and now it's the number one cause of cancer death among men under 50 and number two leading cause of cancer death in young women. Now, what's even worse is it's increasing by about 1 or 2% every single year in adults younger than 55. And the American Cancer Society now recommends screening for colorectal cancer earlier at 45, rather than the previous recommendation of 50. And why I think that might not be terrible. It's probably not young enough. And I've had many, many patients and also friends and colleagues who've diagnosed or had colon cancer much younger than even 45. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in men and women Breast cancer rates have been slowly increasing by about 0.6% every year since the mid-2000s, largely driven by diagnosis of localized stage and hormone receptor positive disease. And uterine cancer has increased by 2% every year in adults younger than 50 since the 1990s. So you get this whole pattern of cancer occurring more often and in younger people. Now. What demographics is cancer increasing in the most? Well, you might be surprised to learn that adults age 40 to 59 living in middle and high income countries have the highest burden of early onset cancer. In North America, Australia, the US, Western Europe, those countries have the highest incidence. And it's not due to lack of access to health care or preventive screening. And the global adoption of the westernized diet and lifestyle is probably responsible for the rise in cancer. In most cases, we're exporting our toxic diet. Unfortunately, all over the world. Now. Cancer deaths have decreased overall in the US because a better cancer treatment and technology advancements. However, we still have the highest morbidity, mortality and loss of what we call daily adjusted life years. Basically how many years of our life or days of our life are not spent in good health? Now, could our ultra processed diet be to blame? Well, I think so. In a 2023 systematic review in the Lancet exploring the relationship between ultra processed food and cancer risk, and nine out of 11 studies found a positive association between ultra processed food and all cancers except prostate cancer. Now, each 10% increase in ultra processed food in the diet correlated. When you gotta get this just 10% increase and there's, by the way, the average American has about 60% of their diet is ultra processed food and kids at 67%. If you have a 10% increase in ultra processed food in your diet, you're going to have a 13% higher overall risk of cancer, an 11% higher risk of breast cancer, and a 30% higher risk for colon cancer and a 50% increased risk for pancreatic cancer, which is almost universally deadly. That's terrifying. And this is even more infuriating because recently the Dietary Guidelines Committee of America for a dietary guideline said that there's not enough data to say ultra processed foods make you gain weight. And they basically didn't look at anything else. Well, we, we know that they both make you obese, diabetic and cause a host of other diseases, including cancer. Meanwhile, the lowest cancer rates in the 2019 British Medical Journal Global Cancer Trend Study were in western and central sub Saharan Africa. Now what can we learn from that? Well, lower rates in Africa could be due to limited cancer registries or more, more poorly organized reporting systems or lack of access to healthcare, but probably not. It might be due to the fact that they haven't fully adopted our western lifestyle. In fact, there's a very, very famous story of Dennis Burkitt, who was a British physician, went down into Africa in the mid-1920th century. He noticed something really strange. You notice all the indigenous sort of hunter gatherers who are still living out in the bush had almost no rates of chronic disease, card disease, cancer, diabetes, et cetera. When they moved to the city, their identical genetic cousins, essentially they started having the same risk of these chronic conditions as westerners. And when they look, he looked at interesting study, but he looked at the reasons and he found that the stool weight of a average hunter gatherer was two pounds a day, two pounds of poop. The average urban dwelling African who was adopting a modern western lifestyle had a stool weight of 4, 4 ounces. So 2 pounds, 4 ounces. What's the difference? Fiber. And it turns out that fiber plays a big role in preventing colon cancer. And the average American eats about 8 grams of fiber and they should have 50. And these hunter gatherers had about 150. Maybe cancer differences in Africa are because of poor reporting, but I think they're more likely to the fact that the western diet hasn't really been adopted by those countries. I mean, they still eat better and live relatively cleaner, healthy lifestyle than we do. But it's worth noting that the western diet is becoming increasingly common in African countries. And Coca Cola is everywhere, for example, I mean everywhere, even in remote areas, they don't have running water, they don't have cars, they have to hike up through the mountains, literally. Coca Cola is there. And with that and all the other processed food, western diseases are skyrocketing, like diabetes and heart disease and obviously cancer. So let's take this from a framework of functional medicine. What is the root cause? How do we get to the root cause of cancer? What's going on? We're seeing such a rapid spike in cancer cases. Well, people are getting sicker, younger, and they're aging at an accelerated rate. I mean across the board, not just for cancer, but everything else, diabetes. I mean, like, you know, I talked about this before, but you know, we call now we call type 2 diabetes. We used to call it adult onset diabetes because we never saw in kids. Now we see it in kids all the time and it's because of their crappy diet. New research presented at this year's American association for Cancer Research annual meeting revealed that people born in or after 1965 might be experiencing accelerated cell aging, which could be driving cancer at an earlier age. And in fact, researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine reported that accelerated aging was associated with higher risks of developing early onset cancers such as lung cancer, 42% increased risk. GI cancers, 22% increase. Uterine cancer, 36% increase. And genetics only account for a small portion of that variability in longevity, about 25%, probably not even that much. What's really driving our accelerated aging is our epigenome, which is how our genes are expressed based on everything we do to them every day. What we eat, our lifestyle, toxins in our environment. And these things can all turn on cancer genes. So there's a huge role of our diet in driving cancer, particularly sugar and starch, and we'll talk about that. And environmental toxins, which are increasingly on the rise. Petrochemical plastics, phthalates, endocrine Trojan cancers, heavy metals. There's a number of things that go wrong as we get older, all of which can contribute to cancer. Right. The, we call these the 10 hallmarks of aging. There's now like 13. But they're basically more or less the same things like disrupted nutrient signaling, which is how our bodies process and, and regulate our, our genes based on our food intake, like sugar and protein and starch, DNA damage, shortening of our telomeres. We get damaged proteins and we get epigenetic changes, zombie cells or senescent cells. We get mitochondrial changes, our gut microbiome changes which can affect cancer. Our stem cells get exhausted and we get inflammaging. Now inflammation or inflammaging is this final common pathway that seems to go wrong with every age related disease from heart disease to diabetes to cancer to dementia. And so what is inflammaging? Well, inflammaging is the accumulation of damage to our tissues that happens throughout our lifetime due to a toxic environment. I don't just mean toxins, I mean our food, stress, lack of exercise, everything else. And when you get inflamma aging, it results in oxidative stress and chronic low grade inflammation. So how does chronic low grade sterile inflammation not from cancer, I mean not from infections, but from just the sort of crappy lifestyle and diet we have and the toxins we have in our environment. How does inflammation drive cancer? Well, chronic inflammation disrupts our immune function. It creates an environment that allows cancer cells to thrive and to proliferate. And there's a whole host of pro inflammatory molecules we call cytokines. You heard about them during COVID things like IL6, IL1 beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha, which support a tumor growing micro environment, something you do not want to have. And also when your immune system is stressed like that, you also get immune suppression. So you get in one hand inflammation, but also immune suppression. So it's a bit of a paradox, but that's how the body works. And that inhibits the activity of important immune cells called natural killer cells. And they are exactly what they sound like. They're the hunt and destroy special forces of your immune system that go out and find and kill the cancer. They basically tumor surveillance and tumor elimination. When you have inflammation, you get also another problem. You get angiogenesis, which means the formation of new blood vessels. And those new blood vessels are required to supply nutrients and oxygen to the cancer cells. And this allows tumor cells to form and grow and progress. You also get reactive oxygen species and nitrogen species, which is like free radicals or an oxidation like rusting, that damage our DNA and then initiate or even promote cancer development, right? So they'll kind of damage your DNA and cause mutations that lead to cancer. Also, inflammatory mediators like the cytokines can induce changes in your epigenome that will silence special genes called tumor suppressor genes. They also can do other bad things. Right? These inflammatory mediators can activate oncogenes. Oncogenes are genes that turn on cancer. So both the suppressor genes that prevent cancer and the oncogenes that promote cancer are both adversely affected by chronic inflammation. So the question then is, if inflammation is a big driver of cancer, what causes inflammation? Well, there's a lot of factors. The big one is our standard American diet, right? You've heard me talk about this. So you're, you're, you're sick of it, but I'm going to keep talking about it because it is the biggest driver of all disease, right? Our standard American diet, or our SAD diet, ultra processed food, which is about 60% of our diet, sugar, which is 150 pounds a year per person, starch or flour, another 130 plus pounds a year, refined flour, grains. All these increase the risk for something called metabolic dysfunction and chronic disease. People don't really understand this, but there's a huge link between type 2 diabetes, pre diabetes or metabolic syndrome, obesity, and the risk for a whole slew of cancers. So if your blood sugar's out of whack and your insulin is out of whack and you have some degree of insulin resistance, you are at much higher risk of a whole host of cancers, not all Cancers, but all the big ones that are killing us. Colorectal cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, and many other cancers. I mean, smoking used to be the biggest risk factor. Now it's our food and it's all the other coboraminities that are driving cancer. So 4 to 8% of all cancers are attributed to obesity. I think it might even be more than that. But that's on a conservative note. Obesity is associated with 40% greater odds of early onset colon cancer and rectal cancer. So if you're obese, you have 40% higher risk of getting early onset colon and rectal cancer. 45% of adults 59 younger are obese. So this is a huge thing. And up to 80% of cancer patients have type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance at the time diagnosis. So think about that. Pancreatic cancer is a huge killer. And if you have insulin resistance, if you have type 2 diabetes, if you have impaired glucose tolerance, if you're on that spectrum of poor metabolic health, you're driving a dramatic increase in the risk of getting pancreatic cancer. Studies also show that diabetes significantly increase the risk of cancer and that many people who have cancer have a high rate of diabetes. Now there's 38 million adults, about 1 in 10 who have diabetes. In some populations. It's a lot more like the African Americans, Hispanic populations and the Native Americans. A hundred million people have pre diabetes. I think it's probably way more than that. It's very conservative. One in three are basically Americans. If you look at the, you know, that's based on this very strict criteria. But if you look at more more detailed criteria of insulin resistance, it's probably affecting over 90% of Americans, which is, you know, probably 300 million people. So scary. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has been going up by about 5% every year since 2002. In young people, not in older people used to get it. And so what do most chronic diseases have in common? Well, these chronic diseases and aging itself and cancer all have in common something called insulin resistance. I co founded a company called Function Health so you can access your data and learn about your own blood work and lab tests and find out if you indeed have any degree of insulin resistance. By measuring insulin levels, A1C, blood sugar, lipoprotein fractionation, measure inflammation levels, nutritional levels, all things that play a big role in cancer risk. We're going to talk a little bit about what testing you should get, but you can go to functionhealth.com mark and jump the waitlist, it's about 200,000 people on that. But you can jump it if you want to look at what really is going on. And we need to do this. And there's even newer, more sensitive testing called an insulin resistance score that's available through quest that actually is very sensitive and can pick up insulin resistance way before any other test. Now, why is insulin bad? Well, it's a growth hormone. It can bind to malignant cells which often over express insulin receptors. And it can also cause cancer cells directly to grow. High insulin levels can also increase the production of something called IGF1 or insulin growth factor 1 or insulin like growth factor 1. And now it's a hormone that increases cell division and growth and inhibits something called autophagy, which is what you need to clean up old, damaged cells, which is what's happening when you're preventing yourself from getting cancer. I mean, all of us have cancer right now in our body. Just realize that everybody does. But if our immune system's working, it's surveying the landscape, it's finding those cancer cells, it's sending out the natural killer cells to hunt and destroy. And usually we're good. But if we don't have this process of improving our immune system by having the proper lifestyle and diet, I detail this all in my book Young forever, then we're gonna get in trouble. Now, high blood sugar is a huge issue. High, high blood sugar is a huge issue in cancer cases. High blood sugar is found in 39 to 99% of cancer cases. And that leads to insulin resistance to free radicals or oxidative stress, and more inflammation. It also creates something called AGEs or advanced glycation end products. Age. Now, glycation is when sugars bind to proteins like DNA, lipids, and it creates a browning reaction. We see that, you know, we, we, you know, get a crispy skin on a chicken or creme brulee. That, that's, that's basically the same reaction, but that's not good in our body. And these ages accumulate in our tissues. They drive inflammation, they accelerate aging, and they are linked to cancer. Now, what are the sources of these in our diet? Well, ultra processed food, baked goods, cooking at high heat. So brown charred, fried, burnt foods. And these create all kinds of damage. These ages cause damage to the lining of your blood vessels, vascular damage, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, reduced blood flow, DNA damage, tissue damage, mitochondrial damage. So it's a big deal. Now you can measure hemoglobin A1C, which is an average blood sugar, to look at and how you're doing with your circulating ages. Because. Because A1C is a direct measure of a glycated protein. It's sugar combining with your hemoglobin, which then damages the hemoglobin. And it creates this molecule called hemoglobin A1C that we can measure and as a way of tracking blood sugar. But the higher hemoglobin A1C, the higher your age is. And what is normal? Well, you know, the normal range is up to 5.7. It used to be 6 or 6.5, but they keep lowering it because the risk increases with every little bit you go up. In fact, I recently talked to a scientist who studied A1C. Anything over five seem to be an issue with increasing risk of cardiovascular disease. So if your blood sugar is really high and your A1C6 or higher, that's associated with much higher cancer risk in both diabetics and non diabetics. And it may be a problem even at lower low levels. So besides sugar and insulin resistance, what else is driving this? Well, fructose, high fructose intake. And I don't mean from fruit. Okay. High fructose from processed food, high fructose from high fructose corn syrup is a significant contributor to obesity and metabolic syndrome, or prediabetes. It also may be partially responsible for the link between metabolic disease and cancer. So how does that work? Well, clinical and experimental evidence indicates that cancer cells often have elevated levels of something called fructose transporters. Now, that high fructose intake, like from high fructose corn syrup or even table sugar, is associated with cancer cell progression, mostly pancreatic and colorectal cancer. And we, we talked before about how pancreatic cancer, 80% of them, have some degree of insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome. So how does fructose drive cancer? Well, it contributes to something called the Warburg effect. And cancer cells have a preference to rely on a process called glycolysis, which is breaking down of sugars to support their energy needs instead of other kinds of metabolic processes. So, for example, sugar feeds cancer. They can't run on fat. Humans are like an AC DC car, right? Or they, they're like a hybrid car, right? The electric is fat, Right. If you run an electric, it's clean burning. So keto diets and carbohydrates are dirty burning fuel. So cancer cells can only run on carbohydrates. So when you can starve them with keto diets, we're seeing actually that that may help to reduce the progression or Even cure many cancers in experimental models. So when you, when you have this sugar fructose, it makes them able to grow and metastasize in low oxygen environments, which really are common in many tumors. Fructose also produces uric acid and lactate byproducts, which promote a favorable environment for cancer growth via something called angiogenesis. And they fuel cancer cells and maintain an acidic ph, which then suppresses the natural killer cell activity. So the more fructose you eat, the more ultra process you eat. You're basically fueling your cancer cells. You're creating an environment where you're getting more uric acid, more lactate, which grows more blood vessels to the cancer, and then you get an acidic ph because of that, and that suppresses your natural killer cell activity. So the basically the hunt and kill destroy white blood cells you have don't work and you get in this vicious cycle. So you don't want to be eating a lot of high fructose corn syrup or free fructose. Although in fruit is fine.
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You know those tiny back to school emergencies that somehow become your problem. That's why I love Uber eats. You can order school supplies, snacks and lunchbox essentials for $5 or less. So when your kid casually drops I don't like peanut butter anymore or I need five green highlighters for a project due tomorrow, Uber eats has you covered. Get everything you need for back to school today from your favorite brands like Aldi and staples and Uber eats order now ends 97. $5 or less before taxes and fees. Select items only. Availability varies. See app for details. Hear that?
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That's now crispy and McCrispy strips meeting creamy Caesar sauce Sounds extra. Crispy caesar sauce at McDonald's for a limited time.
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Tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink? Or a sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe? Or white chocolate mocha. Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.
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Now what about alcohol? Alcohol is a big problem. 750,000 global cases of cancer in 2020 could be directly attributed to alcohol, according to a study published in Lancet. Now, while heavy drinking accounted for most of the cancers, even light to moderate drinking accounted for about a hundred thousand cases. So how does alcohol increase cancer risk? Well, according to international bodies that look at carcinogens, It's a Group 1 carcinogen, according to the ARM IARC. Now, when alcohol or ethanol is metabolized in the body, it's first converted to something called Acid aldehyde. It's a highly reactive and a toxic compound. Now, acid aldehyde can cause DNA damage. It can produce harmful mutations that lead to cancer. It also interferes with DNA repair mechanisms. Now, alcohol metabolism in cells, particularly the liver, leads to the production of reactive oxygen species. It damages also your cellular components like lipids, proteins, DNA, and it promotes inflammation. It also impairs the absorption of really important nutrients like vitamin A and C and D and folate, as well as increases the excretion of minerals that you need for your immune system. So you can see, alcohol causes cancer in all sorts of ways. It also can increase circulating estrogen levels. So more alcohol, you drink, the higher estrogen level, even if you're a man. And it's a risk factor for breast cancer, and we're even seeing breast cancer in men now because of the increase in estrogen in their bodies, because of the extra fat that they accumulate. And fat produces estrogen. Now, one of the major modifiable risk factors for breast cancer is getting rid of alcohol. For every 10 grams of alcohol per day, which is about one drink, the risk for breast cancer goes up 10%. The average risk. If you, for example, a woman, you have one glass of wine a day, it increases your risk of breast cancer by 40%. Now, chronic alcohol consumption also causes other problems, right? So you're a little bit, you're getting risk, right? But the, there's more aggressive use of alcohol that can cause liver cirrhosis, scarring of the liver, and that's another big risk factor for liver cancer. Alcohol also damages mucous membranes in the mouth, the throat, the esophagus, the larynx, the stomach and the colon and the rectum. And that's why it increases the risk of all these digestive cancers. 30 grams or more, which is about three drinks per day of alcohol, increases the risk of colorectal cancer. And the problem is alcohol consumption increased during the pandemic, which maybe has led to the rise in cancers we're seeing after the pandemic or maybe due to Covid. We're not sure if the coronavirus some way creates this chronic low grade inflammatory state that increases cytokines. Even when the viruses seems to be over. There's this lingering effect of long Covid, and that may be why we're seeing this increase in cancer risk and rates after Covid. Alcohol consumption can also lead to other changes in the body, epigenetic changes. So it modifies DNA methylation and histones and non coding rna. Bunch of mumbo jumbo. But the Bottom line, it damages your genes, right? These, these changes affect gene expression and they promote something called onogenesis or the development of cancer. What else causes cancer? Well, smoking. I don't think I need to say anything more about that. Everybody pretty much understands smoking causes all sorts of cancers, not just lung cancer. Also, nutrient deficiencies are a big factor. And in fact, having adequate vitamin D levels is protective against cancer. So you need to get your levels tested, you need to know your numbers because you can't just guess, you can't know what your vitamin D level is because some people need more or less. Most people are deficient. And vitamin D is so critical because it has so many cancer fighting functions within the body. And there's also a large body of evidence that vitamin D is so protective against cancer and that low vitamin D is a huge risk factor for getting cancer. And having high vitamin D is a big factor in reducing the risk of most types of cancer. So how does vitamin D work to fight cancer? Well, it inhibits cancer cell growth and proliferation. It reduces cancer metastases or the spread of cancer. It stimulates the maturation of healthy cells. So it makes your cells turn into normal cells. It induces the death of cancer cells we call apoptosis or programmed cell death. That's a good thing. It prevents the blood vessel growth in tumors or angiogenesis. It prevents inflammation associated with cancer and it reduces the incidence and or death due to cancer. So basically it lowers the the chance of getting it and of dying from it. Women with a mean vitamin D serum level greater than or equal to 40 nanograms had a 71% lower risk of cancer than women with serum levels less than 20. And that was looked at over a period of about four years for all invasive cancers combined, excluding skin cancer. Maybe that's because they go in the sun. Now that's just stunning to me. And in most lab reference ranges, say 20 is normal. Some have moved up to 30, but certainly 40 is considered a higher end level of vitamin D according to most lab reference ranges, because the reference range is 20 or 30, not 50, which is probably what it should be. Colorectal cancer is another big factor in vitamin D. Meta analysis of many randomized controlled Trials report a 30% reduction in disease progression or death from colorectal cancer among patients who supplemented with vitamin D. So even if you had cancer and you took vitamin D, it seemed to reduce your risk. Another Meta analysis of 15 studies in 14 countries reported dose response relationship between serum vitamin E level and the risk for colorectal cancer. So the more elevated your vitamin D level was, the lower your risk of colon cancer. 30 nanograms was associated with a 33% lower risk of colorectal cancer. But if your level is 50, which is, I think it should be 50 or more, it was associated with a 60% lower risk of colorectal cancer. So the most reference range of say 30 is, is quote, the bottom limit of normal. But I don't think that's normal. I think that's suboptimal. So what else can cause cancer? Well, environmental toxins. We're exposed to over a hundred thousand toxic chemicals that we never had been exposed to before the industrial revolution in our air, our water and our food and all that drives inflamma aging. So let's go through them. Air pollution while inhaling carcinogens and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, formaldehyde, heavy metals, arsenic, chromium, nickel, directly damage DNA particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 millimeters, or what they call PM2.5, which is basically from air pollution from factories and off gassing and cement and coal plants that gets in the lungs and it causes inflammation and oxidative stress. And according to the WHO or the World Health Organization, ambient air pollution is estimated to cause about 16% of lung cancer deaths. So it's not just smoking. There are many non smokers, by the way, who get lung cancer. It's also linked to breast cancer. Women living in areas with higher average levels of fine particulate matter or PM of 2.5 may be at risk for breast cancer. Endocrine disrupting chemicals interfere with production, conversion and breakdown of hormones. So that's another thing. And this is, this is not heavy metal, but this is like plastics and pesticides interfere with all sorts of hormonal things. They're called endocrine disruptors. So plastics, bpa, phthalates, they bind to estrogen and androgen receptors, causing excess cell division in hormone sensitive tissues like breast and prostate. So they're everywhere. It's hard to get rid of them. We did a whole session on environmental toxins, we'll do probably more. But there's PFAS, all the forever chemicals, PCBs, dioxins, even though they've been eliminated from our society by banning them. And atrazine, they still are out there and we're still exposed and have them. Glyphosate was used on 70% of crops which is known to cause cancer. And that's everywhere. It's herbicide and pesticides. Also heavy metals are Everywhere, Mercury, lead, cadmium. And they cause all sorts of problems. They cause DNA damage, they cause gut damage, they damage our epigenome, they disrupt normal cell signaling, they affect insulin resistance, reproductive hormones, thyroid hormones. They drive chronic inflammation. So environmental toxins are a problem and we need to reduce our exposure and we need to also help eliminate them from our bodies. We'll talk about that in a bit. What else can cause cancer? Well, our sedentary lifestyle, exercise is one of the best tools that we have to prevent cancer. It's anti inflammatory and produce all sorts of antioxidants. It supports your blood and lymph flow and helps balance your blood sugar, helps you detoxify. It's great, right? Everybody knows exercise is good for them. And a sedentary lifestyle means we're missing out on all the benefits for physical, metabolic, hormonal and overall health. So you gotta exercise, just don't worry about it. All right, so what else can cause increasing cancer risk and inflammation in the body? Well, dysbiosis, imbalances in the gut, flora and microbiome plays a big role through driving inflammation and leaky gut and just all kinds of food stuff that gets in and bacterial toxins and that can drive cancer. Also the lack of healthy bacteria prevents the production of something called short chain fatty acids which are anti cancer. Also environmental toxins, infections, poor diet, all that stuff. So we just really have to deal with our gut. And there's other things like viruses that can contribute to cancer, like Epstein Barr virus, bacteria like H. Pylori can cause stomach cancer. Covid might be a factor. And there's some increasing data coming out. It's not definitive yet that coronavirus can create a long term inflammatory state that actually may create a better environment for cancer to grow and further the cancer process. In fact, I did a podcast with Jeremy Nicholson on the Doctor's Pharmacy and we discussed in detail his research on post Covid and post Covid syndrome. And even people who don't have any symptoms still have biomarkers of increased inflammation after Covid. So that's a bit concerning. Now we don't know for sure, but I think it's going to be a significant factor in public health. And data is emerging that there's been uptick in cancer, including rare cancer since COVID like cholangiocarcinoma in young people, which just doesn't usually happen. Uh, now there may be many mechanisms that it can contribute to cancer or low grade inflammation which can lead to immunosuppression and cellular aging or senescence. DNA Damage, DNA methylation changes, shortened telomeres, autophagy, a whole bunch of reasons, mitochondrial issues, white blood cell dysfunction, maybe residual viral fragments and viral reactivation, inhibiting of tumor suppressor genes, upregulating of tumor promoting genes. So there are a whole series of mechanisms too probably complicated for you to understand, and I barely understand them as a doctor. Coronavirus and Covid can be a factor in increasing your risk of cancer. And I think my belief is that we're going to see more and more of this over the next years. Now, what else might be going on? Well, up to 10% of cancers may be genetic, but just because you have the genes doesn't mean you're going to get the cancer for sure. In fact, there was this twin study, I think it was in Denmark, was 88,000 twins, 44,000 twin pairs. And they looked at cancer in that group and they found only 10% of cancers kind of matched with identical twins. So 90% is environmental. There's a lot of genes that are involved in cancer and like the T P53 tumor suppressor genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes for breast cancer. And there's a lot of research coming out like one from the National University of Singapore where they explored how the interaction between environmental factors like ultra processed food and our genes, that kind of combo of gene environment can contribute to cancer risk. For example, they found that patients with inherent mutations in BRCA2 gene had increased sensitivity to methylglyoxal, which is a chemical that's produced during fructose and glucose metabolism and that can lead to DNA damage and even early cancer development.
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You know those tiny back to school emergencies that somehow become your problem. That's why I love Uber Eats. You can order school supplies, snacks and lunchbox essentials for $5 or less. So when your kid casually drops I don't like peanut butter anymore or I need five green highlighters for a project due tomorrow, Uber Eats has you covered. Get get everything you need for back to school today from your favorite brands like Aldi and Staples and Uber eats. Order now ends 9 $75 or less before taxes and fees. Select items only. Availability varies. See app for details.
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Hear that? That's now crispy at McCrispy strips meeting. Creamy Caesar sauce sounds extra. Crispy caesar sauce at McDonald's for a limited time.
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Tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink? Or a sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe? Or white chocolate mocha? Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks. Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.
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Now elevated levels of this compound methylglyoxal are also found in patients with diabetes or pre diabetes, which may explain part of their higher cancer risk. Those levels can be monitored by looking even at a 1C cause it's an indirect measure of that. The study also suggests that methylglyoxal can temporarily inactivate cancer preventing genes and offers a mechanism by which ultra processed food increases cancer risk. So how that's a pretty depressing bunch of news, right? Cancer risk is going up, it's younger people, all these things that cause cancer, the coronavirus, I'm like what are we gonna do? Right? Well the good news is we know a lot about how to lower our risk. So what would be a coherent and a comprehensive functional medicine approach? Well first you need to do testing because you don't want to guess, you want to test and you want to look at testing that indicates your risk of cancer. For example, insulin, very important fasting insulin is a highly, highly predictive of insulin resistance. And there's actually a newer test that Quest is doing called insulin resistance score which combines a an insulin test with a C peptide test that's a precursor of insulin and looks at the ratio and it's using a very sophisticated measurement called mass spectrometry. Much more accurate than what you get in a regular blood test. So this is the test I'm going to be using for all my patients because even is better than anything else we're using right now. Also you need to look at lipid panel to see if you have insulin resistance through lipoprotein fractionation. Your blood sugar, your A1C as we talked about, your blood count which can detect many blood cancers. A whole nutritional analysis because of vitamin D, omega 3s, B vitamins like folate, B12 and B6 affect cancer risk. Zinc, iron, magnesium, looking at inflammation levels with crp, cortisol, looking at metabolic factors like leptin, uric acid which we talked about sex hormones, you know if your estrogen is really high, maybe a factor fatty liver also drives cancer risk. So looking at your liver enzymes, heavy metals, all these things can be done with our test called Function Health test. And as I mentioned before, I co founded a company called Function Health allow easy access to testing without going through doctor insurance. It's $15,000 worth of test for less than 500 bucks twice a year testing with a membership model and you can learn all this about yourself. In fact we also have a test available there called Gallery by Grail which is a liquid biopsy of 50 different cancers that is highly predictive of what's going on. Less than a half a percent false positive rate, which is far lower than most other screening tests like mammograms and so forth. And it also is accurate about 70% of the time, meaning 75% of the time you have a cancer. It'll pick it up. Now, it'll miss maybe very early ones, but it's actually better than most screening tests. It picks cancer up a year or two or even three before you'd see it on any other screening test. And that's part of our offering with function Health. And we've already picked up a significant number of cancers and saved many lives as a result of this early testing. And it's in young people too. And I recommend doing it every year as a screening test. It's well worth the effort and the time and the money. And you can learn more about function and go to functionhealth.com, there's other things you might want to do as well, like stool analysis, looking at genetics, looking at even toxin levels in your cells. I've been recently using a lab in Germany called IGL that does deep toxin testing and mitochondrial testing and looks for DNA damage. And very, very helpful. I think you need that with a physician who understands that, a functional medicine doctor. But first you got to test and see what's going on and you got to correct all those things, and those are all treatable things. So what can we do in addition to testing to lower our risk of cancer? Well, many cancers are lifestyle related. And According to the WHO, an estimated between 30 to 50% of cancer cases are preventable through a healthy lifestyle and avoiding occupational carcinogens and environmental toxins. So that's a lot. I mean, think about it. You can cut up to 50% of cases down by simply living a healthy lifestyle and avoiding toxins. Pretty good. Now, I mean, you have to know what to avoid, right? And it's not that hard, right? Don't smoke, don't drink, or if you drink, keep it to a bare minimum because we know that there's really not even a safe level, even red wine. Keep your ideal body weight. Exercise regularly. About 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise daily. Gardening, dancing, walking, whatever you like to do. Or maybe 75 minutes of really vigorous exercise like team sports, running, also food, Right? Just get your diet sorted out. I mean, I think if you're listening to me, you probably already know that I'm very passionate about Food is medicine and you want to eat the Right. Drugs and you want to avoid the wrong drugs, right? Because food can heal but food can harm and you want to make sure you're eating the foods that are healing, not harmful. So obviously avoiding ultra processed food, starch, sugar, refined grains, all those things. I mean if you're going to have grains, don't have them refined. If you can have starch, don't have too much sugar occasionally as a treat. Obviously don't eat fast food, don't eat sugar sweetened beverages, don't eat hot dogs, hamburgers, low quality meats. I mean if it's obviously grass fed hamburger, that's fine. Dairy products also may be increasing the risk of cancers through their, you know, load of hormones that are naturally in them as well as hormones that can be added. There's also pesticides and try to eat organic when you can. So you just be smart. Don't eat anything that comes in a package with a long list ingredients you can't pronounce. Artificial sweeteners. Interestingly it's listed by the IARC which is an international body that looks at carcinogens classified aspartame as a group 2B carcinogen which is possibly carcinogenic to humans, including equal NutraSweet. So you know, no reason to really have those artificial sweeteners. You know if you want a stevia or monk fruit that's fine but stay away from all the weird stuff. A reduced fructose intake not in the form of fruit, but in the form of table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, ultra processed food liquid fructose and things like soda, fruit juice, not okay. Whole fruit is okay, it has all the fiber, the phytonutrients, polyphenols makes it fine. Obviously don't eat fried foods, charred foods, sugary sauces and barbecued foods. Those will cause the advanced glycation end products may raise your A1C. Of course what you should eat is real food, right? Keep your blood sugar balanced with a low glycemic anti inflammatory diet, get lots of disease fighting phytochemicals and antioxidants which come from plants. In fact, a Lancet paper reported that a low intake of vegetables and fruit along with other dietary risk factors led to about 11 million deaths a year. And that is not just not having the protective foods but also eating a lot of processed food and about 255 million years of disability adjusted life in 2017. So whether it kills you or not is going to make you sick and unhealthy and feel bad. Just try to cook More meals at home, eat out less. Eat a variety of whole colorful plant foods. More color, more benefit. Right? That's where all the phytochemicals are. Eat fruit, but have low glycemic fruit that's got lots of fiber, polyphenols, berries of all kinds, pomegranate apples, stone fruits like plums and nectarines, peaches, cherries. And don't eat high glycemic fruits a lot. Right. You know, if you're diabetic for sure, but things like pineapple, melons, things like that, grapes, not so great. Eat plenty of fiber, at least 30 grams or probably 50 grams a day is the word to shoot for ideally. And that keeps your microbiome healthy, prevents cancer. Make most of your plate non starchy veggies. Eat foods that help you detox environmental toxins like the Christopher's vegetable family. Bok choy, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens, dandelion greens. You know, have whole grains and legumes, but make sure you have the ones that are not full of glyphosate and sprayed and don't definitely, you know, if you want to eat wheat, have wheat berries that are regenerately grown. Don't eat, don't eat the modern dwarf wheat, which is just full of gliadin and inflammatory compounds. You know, the fiber actually in its foods actually increases short chain fatty acids like butyrate, which is we call postbiotic that actually turns off cancer genes, reduces inflammation. And there's actually specific foods that help protect against cancer like tomatoes, for example, have lycopene that protect against prostate cancer and whole non GMO soy like tofu, tempeh and the isoflavones, these plant compounds they contain can help protect against breast cancer. And no, soy does not cause breast cancer unless it's highly processed industrialized soy. So stay away from that green tea. Another very protective compound has e epigalactical gallate or egcg, which activates tumor suppressor genes and stops cancer from growing, which is awesome. In fact, Shanghai Men's Health study actually done in China because they drink a lot of green tea. 60,000 Chinese men aged 40 to 74 were studied and they found that the non smokers obviously smoke is not good, but the non smokers who drank green tea at least three times per week for more than six months had a 46% reduction in the risk of colon cancer. Coffee is also great. So coffee's got polyphenols, mushrooms, turkey tail is one particular that's used in Chinese medicine that Helps increase immune system strength and natural killer cells. And I've heard stories of people taking turkey tail and actually reducing their cancers pretty significantly. So it's just anecdotal, but it's interesting. It's approved as an adjunct to standard cancer treatment in Japan. There's other compounds in there called polysaccharide K as an active compound in turkey tail mushroom that's actually approved to treat cancer. Reishi mushrooms, also great, they may be beneficially supporting the immune system in cancer patients. Lots of other foods are good too, like extra virgin olive oil, dark chocolate, probiotic rich foods like goat or sheep, yogurt, kefir, kimchi, tempo, tempeh, natto, sauerkraut, all help your gut. Lots of antioxidant rich herbs and spices. These are all medicines that help you protect against cancer. Turmeric, rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, all are great. And also give your body a break from eating. Sometimes, like just go overnight without eating. Like eat at dinner at 6 and breakfast at 8. That's a 14 hour fast. If you want to extend to 16 hours, that's okay. Three or four times a week. It gives your body a rest and a chance to clean up. Um, and this also turns on longevity genes, right? And there's a lot of ways to do that. Um, you can activate autophagy through the, the overnight fast cleans up the dead zombies, the bad zombie cells. Um, you also want to make sure you reduce your toxic exposures, right? Water filter, air filter, don't use plastic stuff. Go to EWG.org, the Environmental Working group, to really dive into all the resources they have to help you reduce your exposure to toxins in your food, your household cleaning products, your skincare products, your food, everything. Make sure you focus on simple changes that can make a profound difference over time. It's not the one big thing you're going to do. It's all the little things that add up over time. But I think the good news is we know now a lot of what causes cancer. We can do a lot to prevent it. And we need to be basically the CEOs of our own health. So check out your lab test@functionhealth.com Mark. You know, I wouldn't get too depressed about it because there's so much now we can do, especially with the Grail Gallery testing for liquid biopsies. That, that made me feel a lot better because I have basically, my mother had some cancer, my father died of cancer, my sister died of cancer. So I deeply understand the concern about cancer and I definitely don't want it. So I'm going to get that test every year. So by understanding these trends and making good health choices, we can really all take great steps for preventing cancer and promoting longevity in our own life, in our community. So stay informed, stay proactive. Let's use this knowledge to positively impact our health and the health of future generations. And I'll see you next time on the podcast.
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You know those tiny back to school emergencies that somehow become your problem? That's why I love Uber Eats. You can order school supplies, snacks and lunchbox essentials for $5 or less. So when your kid casually drops I don't like peanut butter anymore or I need five green highlighters for a project due tomorrow, Uber Eats has you covered. Get everything you need for Back to School today from your favorite brands like Aldi and Staples on Uber Eats. Order now. Ends 97. $5 or less before taxes and fees. Select items only. Availability varies. See app for details.
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Every act of change begins with a neighbor. When neighbors connect through the Feeding America Network, small actions ripple into lasting impact. Feeding America led by neighbors. Give now to annhunger@feedingamerica.org hello. Look what TJ Maxx dragged in.
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The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now streaming on Disney and Hulu.
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We are digital. We are downloadable. We are streamable.
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The fashion event of the year is certified fresh.
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Pull yourself together. We have work to do.
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Critics say it's smart and witty and the perfect, perfect sequel. That's all. Get Runway ready for The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Disney plus and Hulu. Rated PG 13.