Breast Cancer Rates Rise Among Younger Women
The exact causes aren't known, but the likely culprits are clear
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today. Below you’ll find links to several in-depth, actionable stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. But first, this important news brief:
Breast cancer rates among women under age 50 are increasing, according to a report yesterday from the American Cancer Society. The percentage of younger adult women contracting the disease has been rising 1.4% per year.
Experts don’t know exactly why, but among the likely culprits are the usual suspects: worsening diets, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, alcohol consumption. Earlier onset of periods caused by increased levels of estrogen may play a role, too.
The rise does not owe to any increase in cautionary mammograms, experts say.
Meantime, breast cancer isn’t the only type that’s increasing. Pancreatic cancer, uterine cancer, and cancer caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infections have all been increasing in recent years.
The takeaway: While risk factors for cancer are not all in our control—genetics plays a role, and plenty remains unknown—there is much we can do to reduce our risk. As I’ve written before, at least 40% of all cancer cases, and likely more than 50%, are attributed to modifiable risk factors ranging from poor diets high in ultra-processed food (see my new feature story on deadly food below) and lack of physical activity to industrial air pollution, chemicals in food due to large-scale farming practices, and other human-caused factors. My previous deep dive on all this:
Now, on to our feature stories this week…
I’m super excited about this week’s installments in our series, the 25-Year Checkup: big developments since the turn of the millennium that have had significant effects on our health and wellness.
Perimenopause is More Confusing Than Ever. What No One Told You but Should Have.
I’ve never been through menopause, but my wife has, and let me tell you: Nobody told her what was coming! I mean, years of night sweats and mood swings and more, thanks to… perimenopause? What’s that? Who knew? She didn’t. I didn’t. Most people don’t. This writer argues convincingly that research on it is lacking, communication about it almost nonexistent. And so she tells people what to expect and how to deal. Finally.
It would not be an overstatement to say that women have been gaslit on a massive scale by the government, their doctors, and wellness companies in the last 25 years… The good news is that women actually have much more agency than we think.
—May Pang
The Surge in Transgender Individuals Generates Huge Pushback
Every now and then a topic bursts into the zeitgeist in a way that creates tremendous divisions between people with different cultural backgrounds or religious/political beliefs. Too often the divisions are sowed with misinformation and outright hatred and bigotry. Our resident psychiatrist has had a front-row seat to the transformation of transgender issues over the past quarter-century. So… If you read only one story about transgender issues this year, let it be this thoughtful piece.
Discussions about gender don’t have to devolve into arguments about what he said / she said / they said. Since the turn of the millennium researchers have developed a respectable body of science exploring transgender issues. Although much remains to be learned, we have information that can help us begin to understand the changes in our society, and healthy ways to address these developments.
—John Kruse MD, PhD
How 25 Years of Life Online Have Rewired Relationships
Like many people, I have a love-hate relationship with the internet and all it has spawned. I’m closer to a handful of old high school friends I’d lost track of. I’m way too close to a lot of strangers who don’t enrich my life. I’m better informed. Often I’m over-informed. It’s funny: I don’t know anyone who hasn’t said, “I need to spend less time online.” Yet I don’t know anyone who is spending less time online.
We’ve all heard report after report tying screen time to rises in depression, loneliness, cyberbullying, sleep disorders, and even suicide. But the evidence isn’t just in scientific journals. It’s in real life, too: In the couple out to dinner who pull out their smartphones and hardly speak. In the distracted driver who barely notices the pedestrians in the crosswalk. In the startled eyes of a fellow shopper when you simply try to make friendly small talk.
—Kathleen Murphy
Murphy goes on to explain the ways in which the internet has enriched life since the turn of the millennium. I suppose only you can decide if the tradeoff has been worth it.
The Collapse of Hope and How It Can Be, Must Be, Recaptured
Back in 2000, hope ran high for me. The world had plenty of problems, but a lack of hope wasn’t one of them. What happened? It feels like hope drained away in cycles of technological evolution, economic disasters, and political change, siphoned off by increasing bitterness among the populace and a growing “us versus them” mindset. Thing is, hope is a foundational feeling on which all good human emotions rest. Anyway, this writer says it way better…
The world feels fragile and frail and so very unpredictable. It didn’t occur to me in 2000 that progress can halt, that forward momentum can slow, that certainties you thought were carved in stone can erode with time.
—Niall Stewart
This newsletter is written by Robert Roy Britt, editor of Wise & Well.
THIS WEEK’S OTHER FEATURES
A selection of our informative, entertaining and actionable stories
Our Food is Killing Us
A new website ranks 50,000 US food products on degree of industrial processing. Why? Because ultra-processed food (which is the majority of food available in supermarkets) causes obesity and fuels chronic physical diseases, cognitive decline, depression and other mental health conditions. Meanwhile, a new lawsuit alleges that food manufacturers purposely engineer these “foods” to be addictive, even though they know about the health risks. I’ve done a deep dive to pull it all together, and within two days of publishing the story, the FDA announced two new changes aimed at improving the quality of the food we eat (both are noted in the story):
Now a simmering food fight, though not particularly coordinated, has come to a boil. Research scientists, nutritionists, health officials and lawyers are calling out the nation’s unhealthy food supply as a profit-driven problem that’s been brewing for decades.
—Robert Roy Britt
Mistakes My Friend with Acne Makes Again and Again
I love when a story that does not speak directly to me is compelling simply because it reveals a lot of science I was unaware of. And in this case, I learned skin care tips that are useful to anyone, whether we have acne or not. This story also illustrates what experts can learn by simply observing real people do real things.
Dermatologists could learn a lot if they watched patients recreate their typical skincare routines. Watching my friend go through her steps, I was reminded of how easy it is to unknowingly adopt habits that might not be ideal for managing acne.
—Annie Foley
Can a Cat’s Purr Really Heal a Human?
Cats can be soothing companions, and emotional support animals — dogs or otherwise — can be mind saving. There’s even some evidence suggesting the calming effects of pets can help people recover more quickly from surgeries. Claims beyond that start to get whacko, though. This scientist debunks “medicinal vibrational frequencies” but, as with many myths, finds some interesting seeds of truth.
The basic idea of “healing through vibrations” has floated around for more than 100 years; an inventor in 1920 created a vibrating “Rife machine” that crackpots claim cures everything from cancer to Lyme disease.
—Sam Westreich, PhD
This Woman Wipes Out Chronic Pain and Trauma Via Surf Therapy
Chronic pain is among the most mysterious and intractable of human maladies, similar to emotional trauma in how the symptoms can range from frustrating to debilitating, even if there’s no visible, easy to identify source. People find successful remedies to both conditions not with one silver bullet but with a range of approaches. Here’s one that’s a bit out of the blue, leveraging nature, physical activity and some aspects of mindfulness, all rolled into one wave of relief.
[Tracey Chester] believes that surf therapy works because it is an immersion event, like cold plunging. But it also has a slight threat of danger from being out on the waves, which concentrates the mind and body to work together.
—Wise & Well
Randall H. Duckett
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today.
Cheers,
Rob