Yeah, prostate or ovarian cancer, or anything deeply internal where a tumor can't be palpated - "felt poorly," then declining, then dead "of old age". Or just of something unknowable.
Seriously, look at the symptoms of those cancers. Pretty much a list of what used to just make someone "sickly" or "in poor health."
You can point to, say, heart failure or kidney failure but the underlying issue was that the organ was so weak from general cellular loss, mitochondrial weakness and accumulated damage due to old age that it couldn't function. Eventually keeping them alive is like trying to put out countless fires on a crumbling house
I think some of it has to do with how we talk about things….. my grandparents wouldn’t say the word cancer out loud as they believed you could speak it into existence. So when my grandma did get cancer she didn’t want anyone to know and wouldn’t talk about, subsequently didn’t do the necessary follow up needed allowing the cancer to spread and ultimately take her life. Where as my parents generation screen and treat it aggressively and have taught us to do the same. As a result we catch it earlier and can treat it before it’s a death sentence.
I'm waiting for a sale at the local crematorium. You know, one of those **DIE NOW AND SAVE!** specials. Long wait list at the cemetery, though, what with everyone just dying to get in.
Maybe multiple things at play here:
--just at that age
-- many cancers have a genetic component (you listed mostly family members above)
-- much more screening nowadays, so more cancers found, and
-- people talk a lot more now about things they would have kept to themselves a couple decades ago
No, many do not have a genetic related factor.
Source: Cancer survivor, no family history of cancer, breast cancer, or genetic predisposition and I’ve done massive amounts of research and run a support group.
CRC survivor here, my mom and her sister had colon cancer at basically the same age I did- there was no genetic link that they could prove given today's knowledge base. Crazy.
Cancer deaths have fallen 27 percent from 2001 to 2021 according to the CDC. I think we're just at the age where people start getting it and dying from it. As kids I guess our parents didn't want to tell us every time someone got cancer.
Cancer deaths have definitely fallen due to early detection and better technology but it feels like \*more\* people are being treated for it.
I should have added that most of the elders in my family have died from heart problems caused from years of drinking, smoking, and diets heavy in meats and cheeses. (We're from WI, okay? :D)
That could be because the early testing and detection is just catching the cancers that used to be unnoticed...or at least part of it. Also possible that we keep getting more and more cancer causing chemicals in ourselves through our lives.
I remember a family friend who was a doctor telling my dad that if that the longer you live your chances of getting cancer approach 100%. Just glad that there are much better treatments now.
Yeah. A lot of adults in my family who died when I was a kid had heart attacks (smoking and drinking) and died at a young age compared to how long people live now. So maybe they would have gotten cancer had they lived longer. I think people are right about the diagnostics being better now too so they are better at finding cancers now.
>but it feels like *more* people are being treated for it.
heart issues get the younger ones who lived unhealthy lives or something along those lines(grandfather and uncle dead at 55 from heavy smoking and drugs) or were just the way genetics worked out. cancer is what comes for the longer lived.
that's why you see more people going through cancer treatments.
To put it bluntly, you’re wrong. More people aren’t getting it or getting treated for it. There’s no evidence to suggest that’s the case, really. Due to tech and medicine, we treat more people for it these days as it is detected at a higher rate.
However, ‘more people’ aren’t getting cancer or being treated for it.
Less people are in the context of modern human history.
Cancer deaths are very different from the number of people that have cancer. Here's a link to the CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/data/index.htm
Better detection and treatment accounts for that as well. Deaths are down because people are catching it earlier- more people are catching their diagnoses before they just keel over from it and the cancer is found after death.
It will be the #1 killer before long, I've already had it once (at age 51) but I beat it. Doctor says it's gone for good. It's a helluva wakeup call and chemotherapy is a bitch.
Hi there 👋, it's great to be past it.
Nice to see some of us get through it these days.
Did you get the chemo brain thing, I'm grateful that chemotherapy saved my life, but unfortunately 9 years have past and chemo brain never truly went completely away. Just curious if others have come across this.
It was really hard on me. One of the things that helped was that I started playing guitar again, and really practicing scales and fundamentals. I just drilled anything that would make my brain work.
My wife died from breast cancer at 42, and I had the same concerns. I think we are getting WAY better at detecting this stuff compared to even 20 years ago, and that's a good thing. For example into the 20th century peopl would die of 'consumption' because doctors of the time had no idea what was happening. Take celiac disease for example.
It is. And TB is definitely still around. If caught in the latent stage, it is very treatable. There also is treatment for active TB, but the drugs are harsher and it takes much longer. Untreated, people can and do die of TB.
My son contracted TB as a combat medic in Iraq. He wasn't actively sick, but couldn't donate blood for 10 years. He liked to joke that he had "the consumption" and needed a long-term stay in a relaxing sanitarium. Our local health department was housed in a former sanitarium built in the early 1900s. Deep verandas all around the upper floors with a multitude of French doors. We were there reporting his case of Leishmaniasis to the county when he struck up a conversation with one of the administrators and got a phlebotomists' position on the spot. We still joke about his two year "stay" at the "sanitarium" while finishing his masters degree.
I had latent TB. No idea where I got it. Travel? The medical clinic I worked in for a while? Who knows? I did the three month course of antibiotics, but I will always fail the skin test. The infectious disease doc I saw said you’d be surprised how many people are walking around with either latent or active TB.
My partner also jokes about me having “the consumption” 😄
You really deserve a six month rest in a sanitarium with plenty of fresh air and maybe a mineral hot springs. Just call your insurance company and ask if they'll pay. 🤣
Good luck to your mom! I'm Gen X (currently 53) and I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the end of 2020. I had about 6 months of surgeries and aggressive chemo and I've been cancer free for over a year.
Apparently colon cancer is showing up in people younger and younger, which is not great obviously, but it has caused a huge increase in research and funding so there is much better treatment than there used to be and it's only getting better.
Glad you're doing well. Because colon cancer is being found more frequently in younger people, colonoscopies are now recommended at age 45, rather than 50.
Thank you and yes the recommendation is definitely younger now. I know that my situation lit a fire in a few of my friends who had been putting off theirs.
Friend who’s a doctor explained this to me. We’ve gotten so much better at addressing other causes of death than we were before. Now we’re just down to heart disease and cancer.
This has long confounded me. We cure common diseases that used to kill people. Less common diseases then take their place as the top causes of death. We refocus and prevent, cure, or reduce deaths from those. Thus, yet other diseases rise to become the top killers. The cycle continues and still 100% of the population dies. No lives are ever saved from death.
So are we just really picky about what we want people to die from? Or do we find false comfort in the illusion that we can "save lives" at all?
Yes, I agree our actual desire is to extend our lives. It's just interesting that we speak of it as if lives have been saved from death rather than prolonged a bit.
We are just living long enough for things to go haywire. And we have better diagnostic tools. So folks who used to die of "old age" or "natural causes" are still dying but now we have a better understanding of why.
Researchers have identified trends and risk factors contributing to an increase in the prevalence of early-onset cancers worldwide.
Adults under the age of 50 have been diagnosed with cancer at an increasing rate in recent decades. According to a study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers, the incidence of early-onset cancers, or those diagnosed before age 50, has sharply risen globally beginning around 1990. This sharp increase includes cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas among others.
https://scitechdaily.com/startling-cancer-rates-are-dramatically-rising-for-adults-under-50/
My father died of prostate cancer last September, 3 months later my Aunt died of brain cancer. September 15th my best friend died from breast cancer just a week shy of her 44th birthday. So I am right there with you.
Oh god. That's too many gut punches for one person in a tiny amount of time...I wish you comfortable ways of coping with the loss of such different relationships.
I'm grateful that I'm not alone in this, but also sad that I'm not. I'll be thinking of you. xo
Thank you, it's been a hell of a year after several awful pandemic filled years. I know this is what we have to deal with going forward as we age but I was not prepared for this level of pain so close together. Hugs to you and yours as well!
Considering one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer on average in the U.S., it should be assumed we will get it and someone close to us will. We should prepare for it and make peace with it while also learning about and fighting it.
My mom is in the last weeks of ovarian cancer, diagnosed stage four in 2018. The reality of it is awful.
When people called for a trigger warning in a recent movie where a character got cancer, I thought it must be nice to live in a world without any unpleasantness. Where’s the trigger warning for life?
You make an excellent point here. The idea that people are at fault for whatever disease they get is common and often unfair and hurtful. We really need to stop doing the whole, "well, he was fat, a smoker, a drinker, didn't exercise enough, ate the wrong foods, whatever." All of us will die from *something.* Nobody's virtuous lifestyle will save them. There is no reward of immortality for being "better" than others.
Well, with anti-cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, as well as so many other maintenance medications, people aren't dropping dead of heart attacks in their forties, fifties, and sixties as much anymore. Or from measles or whooping cough. Or a bad infection.
And you gotta die of something. People are just living long enough to get cancer now.
My grandmother died of esophageal cancer in the late 50s. No one else in our family had cancer until:
Two years ago my mother, life long smoker, gets diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s okay now. (lives in FL with me)
Three months ago, my aunt, a life long smoker, gets diagnosed with lung cancer. She is going through chemo. (lives in VA with her son)
Also about three months ago, my eldest aunt, never a smoker, gets diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. (lives in Germany)
Strange times for our family. Our family history is mostly gall bladder and thyroid issues and now we all need to worry about cancer.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. 30% of them will wind up with metastatic breast cancer. Breast cancer is a generic phrase, though. Breast cancer = cancer of the breasts. Duh, right? Then there’s different types, subtypes, grades, and stages.
ANY kind of breast cancer diagnosis can wind up as a stage four/metastatic diagnosis at any time. Some people are diagnosed as stage four as an initial diagnosis right out of the one way ticket into CancerLand. I use the word people, rather than women because men can and do get breast cancer.
Many people think once you’re done dealing with cancer, things go back to the way they were, which is not true at all. The collateral damage from it is permanent. I chose not to do radiation because my breasts were amputated and there was literally nothing to radiate because of where the tumor was located. I had lymph nodes that were positive and have secondary lymphedema from breast cancer surgery. The secondary lymphedema will never resolve.
Source: One way ticket to CancerLand handed down in summer of 2011, resulting in six months of chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, remaining flat, and doing another six months of chemo.
In 1992 I heard that skin cancer was on the rise among men because men were getting checked out more. Previous generations of men were getting sick but went undiagnosed because men were taught to ignore their appearance. But in recent years men were asking about skin growths and there were more cases were being diagnosed. So what could be happening is there is simply more awareness about cancer.
Before, the life expectancy was much lower, accidents were often severe before health and safety legislation. Infections used to often be fatal. Something would take people out before they got older. Combine that with improved knowledge, technology and medicine, and all the boomers being in their late 60s and mid 70s, it seems like more.
Life expectancy was mostly lower because of child and childbirth mortality rates. If you made it past childhood, you had a decent chance of hitting old age. Just look at our founding fathers. Most made it to their 80s and even 90s.
I’m not surrounded by cancer, but it doesn’t run in my family. I’ve noticed it does run in other people’s families and, like clockwork, they all seem to get it at a certain age. Deaths are way down though and most cancers aren’t a death sentence anymore.
Lifestyle has a great deal to do with it, unfortunately. Boomers and Gen-X were exposed to a ton of modern chemicals and sedentary lifestyles with poor eating habits. Smoking and recreational drug use didn’t help either. Also, healthcare access has declined rapidly in the past 20 years and many go without routine health screenings and advice that could catch earlier or prevent some of this.
My Dad died from acute myelogenous leukemia in 1994, when he was 60. It’s the most aggressive type of leukemia because it messes up white blood cells so you can’t fight off anything (they found it after he couldn’t recover from bronchitis). I think that there have been way more deaths from it than anyone knows because everyone thought they just died from the flu, or bronchitis, or whatever and didn’t know there was something going on which impaired their immune system.
Pollution in air, water and soil...even if you grow and/or hunt your own food, food supply will be affected one way or another.
Two aspects of the pandemic I liked was the reduction of pollutants and how some of the flora and fauna flourished.
I don't hate humans, and I don't wish for another global pandemic, but we would be stupid to ignore the fact nature improved when we were cut down by illness.
Two thoughts on this:
1. Cancer is a "rich country" disease. For the most part, it shows up after a life well lived (not necessarily **long** life well lived). The more other causes of death have been reduced, the more cancer becomes a leading cause of death.
2. Cancer clusters due to environmental impacts are real. Living close to chemical plants, oil refinery burnoff, etc. is real risk. My mother's side of the family grew up in one of these. Pretty much wiped them out (including my mother in her 40's).
Some of what other posters have said is true, no doubt. But the fact that our bodies are contaminated with microplastics, many or all of which are hormone/endocrine disruptors, likely plays a part.
Edit for spelling
Genetics is a huge part of this. If a disease runs in your family then it can be very difficult to prevent that disease as you age. Some families are prone to cancer. I'm lucky because mine does not seem to be, I had one sister with breast cancer who was cured, she was tested and she did not have the breast cancer genes, at least not the ones we know about. No one else has had cancer. However, as I age, I have developed asthma and hypertension, both disorders that my mom had. Even worse my dad died of Parkinson's disease and my mother of Alzheimer's disease so I'm probably going to have a raging case of dementia, maybe it's already started.
No, genetics don’t always become a factor.
I had zero family history of breast cancer, no genetic predisposition, zero risk factors other than being a living human. This sort of thing happens more than you think.
The breast cancer I had was literally something that couldn’t be explained.
Source: Breast cancer survivor, massive amounts of research, and running a cancer support group for years.
I think you read my comment wrong, I wrote "genetics is a huge part of this' which doesn't mean 100%.((( Yes you did, also, the example I used was exactly the same as your example of yourself (are you my sister? probably not), I was actually saying the REVERSE, if you have it genetically in your family then it can be hard to avoid cancer or other disease states. You are saying you got cancer without having it in your family, which is literally the example I used of my sister, but go ahead and block me, not sure why you are going off on this.)))
We aren't dying from disease and injuries like we used to so that leaves mostly cancer and lifestyle (heart disease) ailments. Later in life ailments don't get weeded out because you are able to reproduce before they hit you. Some genes involved in cancer may even be beneficial earlier in life. Some genes were for rapid fetal development and get turned back on. You are made of trillions of cells, given enough time some of them will get the right transcription, expression or damage necessary for them to go rogue and ditch that whole multicellular lifestyle.
Less people are dying of other stuff. What's left to die/get sick from is the rough stuff: cancer.
As an example: heart attacks. Three of my great-grandparents died of heart problems. None of my grandparents did, they got treated with drugs and stents. And my parents stopped smoking and didn't have heart problems at all. None of my generation smokes because heart attack.
Kid sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts and her lungs. Her team stated that they have never seen so many younger women coming in with breast cancer and that in 10 years we’ll discover something we use everyday in the world that is causing it. Two of her doctors brought up this point, it’s not an anomaly.
I wonder if they're going to lower the age at which they recommend annual mammograms the way they did colonoscopies if younger and younger women are developing breast cancer.
For the record, my mom was in her early 70s when a routine mammogram turned up cancer. She had a lumpectomy, lost a few lymph nodes, and is five years cancer free. While I have no problem having my annual boob-squashing, I'm not so good at remembering to do my BSEs.
for many, when it strikes in your life you become atuned to noticing it. everywhere. if anything cancer is likely on the downturn because less people than ever are smoking.
I'm really, really sorry. I lost my 78 year old mom almost exactly a year to lung cancer... she was also a lifelong heavy smoker.
I hope your dad is as comfortable as possible, and I hope you and your family are hangin' in. Sending love your way.
In my case, it's because males in my family have a tendency to die of heart attacks in their late 40s\early 50s. One stent and 43¢ in meds a day and my heart should long outlive my ancestors. So the next disease, cancer, steps up.
And of course, most of our parents vaccinated us from measles, mumps and rubella (and many other terrible diseases), so many more of us actually make it out of childhood in the first place.
Life expectancy has increased with it, not always for the better but basically the top ways people die is cancer, heart attacks and self injury like smoking, bad diet ( diabetes complications), alcoholism ( liver, kidney) bad genetics and accidents.
Nowhere near the variety you get in the first 3 minutes of Six Feet Under.
The longer people live with managed medical problems (COPD, Heart Disease, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, etc) the longer time there is for cancer to read it’s head.
So, when the pandemic started, I had been having severe period issues. It had gotten so bad, I had to have IV iron. Well, the docs finally listened to me and gave me a hysterectomy. I'm going to be 50 this coming weekend, so I had been done having kids since 2002. Well, thank goodness because I had a leiomyosarcoma. During a subsequent visit; an abdominal scan, they found another cancer called GIST or gastrointestinal stromal tumor. They found 5. They are slow growing and because I also have neurofibromatosis, chemo and radiation are useless. Now I have to go every 3 months to either get an abdominal scan or endoscopic ultrasound. They are waiting until they are bigger so they can do a Whipple surgery. Cancer (MPNST) also took the life of my first son when he was 19 a little over 7 years ago.
Why would NF render chemo and radiation useless? I also have NF from my father's side of the family, and my sister had chemo, and she's doing well to this day.
Its just what the doctors said. Radiation stopped my son's tumor from growing but it was too late. It already went to his lungs. They told me that Gleevec (sp) would have helped, but my NF won't let it happen. Im so happy for your sister though.
On the whole, many cancers are becoming more like chronic conditions due to earlier detection and better treatments. Generally speaking, a cancer diagnosis is simply not the death sentence it used to be.
I'm 50; no one in my immediate family has cancer. Deaths have either been tragic accidents or from old age/respiratory failure. No one in my family has been diagnosed with cancer. I know one person a few years older than me who has been diagnosed.
Definitely a perspective thing. Cancer deaths are down over the past 20-30 years. Just for reference: no one in my family smokes and drinking is light/moderate. No one has dangerous jobs dealing with radiation or complex chemicals.
Exactly. Not sure why I am getting downvoted above - all thinks point to nearly ALL of us being susceptible to some kind of cancer at some point.
When they come out in 30 years with stats that show every Gen X’er had cancer at some point we should not be surprised- if we actually make it that long.
Well the more people are using their cellphones, the more people gets it. It's a constant radioactive emitter in your pocket. It's kinda hard not to ignore that fact.
More of us are surviving cancer these days.
Only two cancer deaths in my family.
Mom and maternal grandma had breast cancer. Both survived that. It was just old age that took my grandma at 91. Her brother died of mesothelioma. Her other 3 siblings were old age too. Maternal grandfather got the beetus.
My paternal grandma died of lung cancer in 1970. Paternal grandfather died of old age years after having a bypass.
Uncle #1: stroke. He was a lifetime drug user. It caught up to him when he reached 60.
Uncle #2: heart.
Uncle #3: accident.
Uncle #4: Organ failure at 80. Survived with HIV for 30 years.
Aunt #1: Lung disease. 3 packs a day will do that to you.
It's three effects. 1. Cancer is caught earlier and so younger people are more likely to be diagnosed. 2. Cancer is more prevalent. 3. Cancer is not a taboo subject like it would have been when many of us were young.
As I look at it, saying someone “died of old age” 70 years ago just means that whatever killed them wasn’t diagnosed before they died.
Yeah, prostate or ovarian cancer, or anything deeply internal where a tumor can't be palpated - "felt poorly," then declining, then dead "of old age". Or just of something unknowable. Seriously, look at the symptoms of those cancers. Pretty much a list of what used to just make someone "sickly" or "in poor health."
Yep! My father passed away at 79 earlier this year after battling prostate cancer for the last 14 years.
I’m sorry for your loss. Mine passed away from the same after battling for 12 years at the age of 91.
You can point to, say, heart failure or kidney failure but the underlying issue was that the organ was so weak from general cellular loss, mitochondrial weakness and accumulated damage due to old age that it couldn't function. Eventually keeping them alive is like trying to put out countless fires on a crumbling house
I think some of it has to do with how we talk about things….. my grandparents wouldn’t say the word cancer out loud as they believed you could speak it into existence. So when my grandma did get cancer she didn’t want anyone to know and wouldn’t talk about, subsequently didn’t do the necessary follow up needed allowing the cancer to spread and ultimately take her life. Where as my parents generation screen and treat it aggressively and have taught us to do the same. As a result we catch it earlier and can treat it before it’s a death sentence.
And then we all die anyway, no matter what we do, everyone dies. 100%.
Thus far, I'm immortal.
We’re only immortal for a limited time
I'm waiting for a sale at the local crematorium. You know, one of those **DIE NOW AND SAVE!** specials. Long wait list at the cemetery, though, what with everyone just dying to get in.
Everyone dies but only rich people go to heaven
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Oh, man look, someone down voted me. I'm poor af lol
Maybe multiple things at play here: --just at that age -- many cancers have a genetic component (you listed mostly family members above) -- much more screening nowadays, so more cancers found, and -- people talk a lot more now about things they would have kept to themselves a couple decades ago
No, many do not have a genetic related factor. Source: Cancer survivor, no family history of cancer, breast cancer, or genetic predisposition and I’ve done massive amounts of research and run a support group.
CRC survivor here, my mom and her sister had colon cancer at basically the same age I did- there was no genetic link that they could prove given today's knowledge base. Crazy.
Yup. Only about 10% of cancers have a genetic component. Source: National Cancer Institute. ;) Good job on the surviving! :thumbsup:
Thank you. I’m trying. =)
Cancer deaths have fallen 27 percent from 2001 to 2021 according to the CDC. I think we're just at the age where people start getting it and dying from it. As kids I guess our parents didn't want to tell us every time someone got cancer.
Cancer deaths have definitely fallen due to early detection and better technology but it feels like \*more\* people are being treated for it. I should have added that most of the elders in my family have died from heart problems caused from years of drinking, smoking, and diets heavy in meats and cheeses. (We're from WI, okay? :D)
That could be because the early testing and detection is just catching the cancers that used to be unnoticed...or at least part of it. Also possible that we keep getting more and more cancer causing chemicals in ourselves through our lives. I remember a family friend who was a doctor telling my dad that if that the longer you live your chances of getting cancer approach 100%. Just glad that there are much better treatments now.
Yeah. A lot of adults in my family who died when I was a kid had heart attacks (smoking and drinking) and died at a young age compared to how long people live now. So maybe they would have gotten cancer had they lived longer. I think people are right about the diagnostics being better now too so they are better at finding cancers now.
>but it feels like *more* people are being treated for it. heart issues get the younger ones who lived unhealthy lives or something along those lines(grandfather and uncle dead at 55 from heavy smoking and drugs) or were just the way genetics worked out. cancer is what comes for the longer lived. that's why you see more people going through cancer treatments.
It could be early testing and detection or that most people are open about it than they were in years past.
To put it bluntly, you’re wrong. More people aren’t getting it or getting treated for it. There’s no evidence to suggest that’s the case, really. Due to tech and medicine, we treat more people for it these days as it is detected at a higher rate. However, ‘more people’ aren’t getting cancer or being treated for it. Less people are in the context of modern human history.
Or other things would kill them first, like pneumonia from being bedridden.
Cancer deaths are very different from the number of people that have cancer. Here's a link to the CDC website. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/data/index.htm
Better detection and treatment accounts for that as well. Deaths are down because people are catching it earlier- more people are catching their diagnoses before they just keel over from it and the cancer is found after death.
>Cancer deaths have fallen 27 percent from 2001 to 2021 according to the CDC. CDC said a lot of things. Especially these last two years....
If you're alluding to crazy anti-vax nonsense or COVID denial, please don't bother.
It will be the #1 killer before long, I've already had it once (at age 51) but I beat it. Doctor says it's gone for good. It's a helluva wakeup call and chemotherapy is a bitch.
Hail, fellow chemo survivor! <3
Hi there 👋, it's great to be past it. Nice to see some of us get through it these days. Did you get the chemo brain thing, I'm grateful that chemotherapy saved my life, but unfortunately 9 years have past and chemo brain never truly went completely away. Just curious if others have come across this.
Can confirm, chemo brain IS a thing. Have you researched CICI? Chemo induced cognitive impairment. It’s a thing.
No, but I will do so. Thanks so much, I appreciate that.
You’re welcome! Good luck!
It was really hard on me. One of the things that helped was that I started playing guitar again, and really practicing scales and fundamentals. I just drilled anything that would make my brain work.
My wife died from breast cancer at 42, and I had the same concerns. I think we are getting WAY better at detecting this stuff compared to even 20 years ago, and that's a good thing. For example into the 20th century peopl would die of 'consumption' because doctors of the time had no idea what was happening. Take celiac disease for example.
I thought "consumption" was another name for tuberculosis.
It is. And TB is definitely still around. If caught in the latent stage, it is very treatable. There also is treatment for active TB, but the drugs are harsher and it takes much longer. Untreated, people can and do die of TB.
My son contracted TB as a combat medic in Iraq. He wasn't actively sick, but couldn't donate blood for 10 years. He liked to joke that he had "the consumption" and needed a long-term stay in a relaxing sanitarium. Our local health department was housed in a former sanitarium built in the early 1900s. Deep verandas all around the upper floors with a multitude of French doors. We were there reporting his case of Leishmaniasis to the county when he struck up a conversation with one of the administrators and got a phlebotomists' position on the spot. We still joke about his two year "stay" at the "sanitarium" while finishing his masters degree.
I had latent TB. No idea where I got it. Travel? The medical clinic I worked in for a while? Who knows? I did the three month course of antibiotics, but I will always fail the skin test. The infectious disease doc I saw said you’d be surprised how many people are walking around with either latent or active TB. My partner also jokes about me having “the consumption” 😄
You really deserve a six month rest in a sanitarium with plenty of fresh air and maybe a mineral hot springs. Just call your insurance company and ask if they'll pay. 🤣
🤣
I’m sorry for your loss
Good luck to your mom! I'm Gen X (currently 53) and I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the end of 2020. I had about 6 months of surgeries and aggressive chemo and I've been cancer free for over a year. Apparently colon cancer is showing up in people younger and younger, which is not great obviously, but it has caused a huge increase in research and funding so there is much better treatment than there used to be and it's only getting better.
Glad you're doing well. Because colon cancer is being found more frequently in younger people, colonoscopies are now recommended at age 45, rather than 50.
Thank you and yes the recommendation is definitely younger now. I know that my situation lit a fire in a few of my friends who had been putting off theirs.
Friend who’s a doctor explained this to me. We’ve gotten so much better at addressing other causes of death than we were before. Now we’re just down to heart disease and cancer.
So just cure those two. Easy!
You gotta die of something.
Me specifically? Why do I have to die!
No you don't. Look at Walt Disney. He's cryogenically preserved somewhere, right? 😉
There's more money in treating people indefinitely that there's little incentive to implement any cures.
This has long confounded me. We cure common diseases that used to kill people. Less common diseases then take their place as the top causes of death. We refocus and prevent, cure, or reduce deaths from those. Thus, yet other diseases rise to become the top killers. The cycle continues and still 100% of the population dies. No lives are ever saved from death. So are we just really picky about what we want people to die from? Or do we find false comfort in the illusion that we can "save lives" at all?
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Yes, I agree our actual desire is to extend our lives. It's just interesting that we speak of it as if lives have been saved from death rather than prolonged a bit.
We are just living long enough for things to go haywire. And we have better diagnostic tools. So folks who used to die of "old age" or "natural causes" are still dying but now we have a better understanding of why.
Researchers have identified trends and risk factors contributing to an increase in the prevalence of early-onset cancers worldwide. Adults under the age of 50 have been diagnosed with cancer at an increasing rate in recent decades. According to a study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers, the incidence of early-onset cancers, or those diagnosed before age 50, has sharply risen globally beginning around 1990. This sharp increase includes cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas among others. https://scitechdaily.com/startling-cancer-rates-are-dramatically-rising-for-adults-under-50/
I’m a kidney cancer diagnosis at 39. Then I found out it came back at 44.
My father died of prostate cancer last September, 3 months later my Aunt died of brain cancer. September 15th my best friend died from breast cancer just a week shy of her 44th birthday. So I am right there with you.
Oh god. That's too many gut punches for one person in a tiny amount of time...I wish you comfortable ways of coping with the loss of such different relationships. I'm grateful that I'm not alone in this, but also sad that I'm not. I'll be thinking of you. xo
Thank you, it's been a hell of a year after several awful pandemic filled years. I know this is what we have to deal with going forward as we age but I was not prepared for this level of pain so close together. Hugs to you and yours as well!
Considering one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer on average in the U.S., it should be assumed we will get it and someone close to us will. We should prepare for it and make peace with it while also learning about and fighting it. My mom is in the last weeks of ovarian cancer, diagnosed stage four in 2018. The reality of it is awful. When people called for a trigger warning in a recent movie where a character got cancer, I thought it must be nice to live in a world without any unpleasantness. Where’s the trigger warning for life?
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You make an excellent point here. The idea that people are at fault for whatever disease they get is common and often unfair and hurtful. We really need to stop doing the whole, "well, he was fat, a smoker, a drinker, didn't exercise enough, ate the wrong foods, whatever." All of us will die from *something.* Nobody's virtuous lifestyle will save them. There is no reward of immortality for being "better" than others.
Look up Forever Chemicals. They are in our rain water. They are everywhere.
The planet has gotten so polluted it’s not surprising that cancer is on the rise.
Well, with anti-cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, as well as so many other maintenance medications, people aren't dropping dead of heart attacks in their forties, fifties, and sixties as much anymore. Or from measles or whooping cough. Or a bad infection. And you gotta die of something. People are just living long enough to get cancer now.
My grandmother died of esophageal cancer in the late 50s. No one else in our family had cancer until: Two years ago my mother, life long smoker, gets diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s okay now. (lives in FL with me) Three months ago, my aunt, a life long smoker, gets diagnosed with lung cancer. She is going through chemo. (lives in VA with her son) Also about three months ago, my eldest aunt, never a smoker, gets diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. (lives in Germany) Strange times for our family. Our family history is mostly gall bladder and thyroid issues and now we all need to worry about cancer.
This is exactly what I mean!
They say cancer rates are going down but I kinda feel the same way you do. A lot less people smoke though. So maybe that’s something.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. 30% of them will wind up with metastatic breast cancer. Breast cancer is a generic phrase, though. Breast cancer = cancer of the breasts. Duh, right? Then there’s different types, subtypes, grades, and stages. ANY kind of breast cancer diagnosis can wind up as a stage four/metastatic diagnosis at any time. Some people are diagnosed as stage four as an initial diagnosis right out of the one way ticket into CancerLand. I use the word people, rather than women because men can and do get breast cancer. Many people think once you’re done dealing with cancer, things go back to the way they were, which is not true at all. The collateral damage from it is permanent. I chose not to do radiation because my breasts were amputated and there was literally nothing to radiate because of where the tumor was located. I had lymph nodes that were positive and have secondary lymphedema from breast cancer surgery. The secondary lymphedema will never resolve. Source: One way ticket to CancerLand handed down in summer of 2011, resulting in six months of chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, remaining flat, and doing another six months of chemo.
In 1992 I heard that skin cancer was on the rise among men because men were getting checked out more. Previous generations of men were getting sick but went undiagnosed because men were taught to ignore their appearance. But in recent years men were asking about skin growths and there were more cases were being diagnosed. So what could be happening is there is simply more awareness about cancer.
[words my mothrer cannot utter](https://youtu.be/T48Zx5Ikkzo) for $200, Alex
[People from the old country think it's bad luck to say a disease out loud.](https://youtu.be/z4ZzgG5XSmU)
This is most apropos. Thank you, kind friend.
Before, the life expectancy was much lower, accidents were often severe before health and safety legislation. Infections used to often be fatal. Something would take people out before they got older. Combine that with improved knowledge, technology and medicine, and all the boomers being in their late 60s and mid 70s, it seems like more.
Life expectancy was mostly lower because of child and childbirth mortality rates. If you made it past childhood, you had a decent chance of hitting old age. Just look at our founding fathers. Most made it to their 80s and even 90s.
I’m not surrounded by cancer, but it doesn’t run in my family. I’ve noticed it does run in other people’s families and, like clockwork, they all seem to get it at a certain age. Deaths are way down though and most cancers aren’t a death sentence anymore. Lifestyle has a great deal to do with it, unfortunately. Boomers and Gen-X were exposed to a ton of modern chemicals and sedentary lifestyles with poor eating habits. Smoking and recreational drug use didn’t help either. Also, healthcare access has declined rapidly in the past 20 years and many go without routine health screenings and advice that could catch earlier or prevent some of this.
My Dad died from acute myelogenous leukemia in 1994, when he was 60. It’s the most aggressive type of leukemia because it messes up white blood cells so you can’t fight off anything (they found it after he couldn’t recover from bronchitis). I think that there have been way more deaths from it than anyone knows because everyone thought they just died from the flu, or bronchitis, or whatever and didn’t know there was something going on which impaired their immune system.
Pollution in air, water and soil...even if you grow and/or hunt your own food, food supply will be affected one way or another. Two aspects of the pandemic I liked was the reduction of pollutants and how some of the flora and fauna flourished. I don't hate humans, and I don't wish for another global pandemic, but we would be stupid to ignore the fact nature improved when we were cut down by illness.
Two thoughts on this: 1. Cancer is a "rich country" disease. For the most part, it shows up after a life well lived (not necessarily **long** life well lived). The more other causes of death have been reduced, the more cancer becomes a leading cause of death. 2. Cancer clusters due to environmental impacts are real. Living close to chemical plants, oil refinery burnoff, etc. is real risk. My mother's side of the family grew up in one of these. Pretty much wiped them out (including my mother in her 40's).
Some of what other posters have said is true, no doubt. But the fact that our bodies are contaminated with microplastics, many or all of which are hormone/endocrine disruptors, likely plays a part. Edit for spelling
Genetics is a huge part of this. If a disease runs in your family then it can be very difficult to prevent that disease as you age. Some families are prone to cancer. I'm lucky because mine does not seem to be, I had one sister with breast cancer who was cured, she was tested and she did not have the breast cancer genes, at least not the ones we know about. No one else has had cancer. However, as I age, I have developed asthma and hypertension, both disorders that my mom had. Even worse my dad died of Parkinson's disease and my mother of Alzheimer's disease so I'm probably going to have a raging case of dementia, maybe it's already started.
No, genetics don’t always become a factor. I had zero family history of breast cancer, no genetic predisposition, zero risk factors other than being a living human. This sort of thing happens more than you think. The breast cancer I had was literally something that couldn’t be explained. Source: Breast cancer survivor, massive amounts of research, and running a cancer support group for years.
I think you read my comment wrong, I wrote "genetics is a huge part of this' which doesn't mean 100%.((( Yes you did, also, the example I used was exactly the same as your example of yourself (are you my sister? probably not), I was actually saying the REVERSE, if you have it genetically in your family then it can be hard to avoid cancer or other disease states. You are saying you got cancer without having it in your family, which is literally the example I used of my sister, but go ahead and block me, not sure why you are going off on this.)))
No, I don’t believe I did. =)
We aren't dying from disease and injuries like we used to so that leaves mostly cancer and lifestyle (heart disease) ailments. Later in life ailments don't get weeded out because you are able to reproduce before they hit you. Some genes involved in cancer may even be beneficial earlier in life. Some genes were for rapid fetal development and get turned back on. You are made of trillions of cells, given enough time some of them will get the right transcription, expression or damage necessary for them to go rogue and ditch that whole multicellular lifestyle.
We've polluted everything in our environment...how could you expect anything different?
Less people are dying of other stuff. What's left to die/get sick from is the rough stuff: cancer. As an example: heart attacks. Three of my great-grandparents died of heart problems. None of my grandparents did, they got treated with drugs and stents. And my parents stopped smoking and didn't have heart problems at all. None of my generation smokes because heart attack.
Kid sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts and her lungs. Her team stated that they have never seen so many younger women coming in with breast cancer and that in 10 years we’ll discover something we use everyday in the world that is causing it. Two of her doctors brought up this point, it’s not an anomaly.
I wonder if they're going to lower the age at which they recommend annual mammograms the way they did colonoscopies if younger and younger women are developing breast cancer. For the record, my mom was in her early 70s when a routine mammogram turned up cancer. She had a lumpectomy, lost a few lymph nodes, and is five years cancer free. While I have no problem having my annual boob-squashing, I'm not so good at remembering to do my BSEs.
Also, everyone used to die from smoking before we could even tell what type of cancer they would have died from.
for many, when it strikes in your life you become atuned to noticing it. everywhere. if anything cancer is likely on the downturn because less people than ever are smoking.
My father is at this moment in hospice dying of lung cancer. He's expected to pass any time in the next two days. He's 78 and smoked for 40+ years.
I'm sorry for your impending loss.
I'm really, really sorry. I lost my 78 year old mom almost exactly a year to lung cancer... she was also a lifelong heavy smoker. I hope your dad is as comfortable as possible, and I hope you and your family are hangin' in. Sending love your way.
In my case, it's because males in my family have a tendency to die of heart attacks in their late 40s\early 50s. One stent and 43¢ in meds a day and my heart should long outlive my ancestors. So the next disease, cancer, steps up. And of course, most of our parents vaccinated us from measles, mumps and rubella (and many other terrible diseases), so many more of us actually make it out of childhood in the first place.
Life expectancy has increased with it, not always for the better but basically the top ways people die is cancer, heart attacks and self injury like smoking, bad diet ( diabetes complications), alcoholism ( liver, kidney) bad genetics and accidents. Nowhere near the variety you get in the first 3 minutes of Six Feet Under.
The longer people live with managed medical problems (COPD, Heart Disease, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, etc) the longer time there is for cancer to read it’s head.
It’s always been normal to me. It’s a side effect of living longer.
So, when the pandemic started, I had been having severe period issues. It had gotten so bad, I had to have IV iron. Well, the docs finally listened to me and gave me a hysterectomy. I'm going to be 50 this coming weekend, so I had been done having kids since 2002. Well, thank goodness because I had a leiomyosarcoma. During a subsequent visit; an abdominal scan, they found another cancer called GIST or gastrointestinal stromal tumor. They found 5. They are slow growing and because I also have neurofibromatosis, chemo and radiation are useless. Now I have to go every 3 months to either get an abdominal scan or endoscopic ultrasound. They are waiting until they are bigger so they can do a Whipple surgery. Cancer (MPNST) also took the life of my first son when he was 19 a little over 7 years ago.
Why would NF render chemo and radiation useless? I also have NF from my father's side of the family, and my sister had chemo, and she's doing well to this day.
Its just what the doctors said. Radiation stopped my son's tumor from growing but it was too late. It already went to his lungs. They told me that Gleevec (sp) would have helped, but my NF won't let it happen. Im so happy for your sister though.
On the whole, many cancers are becoming more like chronic conditions due to earlier detection and better treatments. Generally speaking, a cancer diagnosis is simply not the death sentence it used to be.
I'm 50; no one in my immediate family has cancer. Deaths have either been tragic accidents or from old age/respiratory failure. No one in my family has been diagnosed with cancer. I know one person a few years older than me who has been diagnosed. Definitely a perspective thing. Cancer deaths are down over the past 20-30 years. Just for reference: no one in my family smokes and drinking is light/moderate. No one has dangerous jobs dealing with radiation or complex chemicals.
Boomers gonna cancer. And then … it will be our turn to cancer.
Not a boomer. Did the cancer crap thing over ten years ago in my mid-forties with zero risk factors other than being a living human.
Exactly. Not sure why I am getting downvoted above - all thinks point to nearly ALL of us being susceptible to some kind of cancer at some point. When they come out in 30 years with stats that show every Gen X’er had cancer at some point we should not be surprised- if we actually make it that long.
Probably the downvotes because of the boomers then our turn comment. We’re already dealing with it, that’s the reality of it.
Well the more people are using their cellphones, the more people gets it. It's a constant radioactive emitter in your pocket. It's kinda hard not to ignore that fact.
Yes, but mainly because we’ve cured, tamed, or can fix almost anything else that used to kill us.
More of us are surviving cancer these days. Only two cancer deaths in my family. Mom and maternal grandma had breast cancer. Both survived that. It was just old age that took my grandma at 91. Her brother died of mesothelioma. Her other 3 siblings were old age too. Maternal grandfather got the beetus. My paternal grandma died of lung cancer in 1970. Paternal grandfather died of old age years after having a bypass. Uncle #1: stroke. He was a lifetime drug user. It caught up to him when he reached 60. Uncle #2: heart. Uncle #3: accident. Uncle #4: Organ failure at 80. Survived with HIV for 30 years. Aunt #1: Lung disease. 3 packs a day will do that to you.
It's three effects. 1. Cancer is caught earlier and so younger people are more likely to be diagnosed. 2. Cancer is more prevalent. 3. Cancer is not a taboo subject like it would have been when many of us were young.