The Risk Factors for Colon Cancer:

Hey everyone! As you know I like to feature a lot of prevention-related topics on the Causes or Cures Podcast, mainly because the US does a horrible job at preventing disease. It feels like we are always responding to a “too late” health crisis versus investing in preventing the health crisis to begin with. Sadly, we are now at a stage where western lifestyle factors have created a scenario where younger and younger people are getting serious and chronic illnesses. This podcast is focused on colon cancer, which is one of the illnesses being diagnosed at an increased rate in younger people, but there are plenty more. You would think we’d be rolling out the carpet for prevention, but no. Not even at this stage. It’s tiring to continually harp about investing in prevention and lowering our risk for deadly illnesesses, but that’s where we are.

In this episode of Causes or Cures,  I chatted with Dr. Marko Lukic, a physician and researcher at the Arctic Univeristy of Norway, who recently did a study on modifiable risk factors for colon cancer.  The study was published in the International Journal of Cancer.

In the podcast, Dr. Lukic will talk us through his research; what data he used; about the specific, modifiable risk factors for colon cancer and their link to increased incidence (or new cases) and how much these risk factors explain the burden of colon cancer and how much of the burden remains unexplained. For the coffee drinkers out there, he will also add some interesting tidbits about his research on coffee and its relationship to cancer. The coffee bit was a bit of a tangent, but I learned during the recording that he did much of his doctorate work on the link between coffee and cancer risk. I love my daily cup(s) of coffee so I appreciated this part of the conversation.

You can listen to the podcast here. 

Upcoming episodes include exploring the link between risk factors and early-onset cancer some more. It’s a frightening trend, and one that seems counterintuitive for a highly scientific, evolving society, but it seems some of the habits of a modern-day life will end up sending folks to early graves. In short, we are in trouble.

Other episodes you can check out:

The NIH says he’s the intermittent fasting guru: Dr. Mattson on Intermittent Fasting for optimal aging and brain function

Also check out one of my latest health blogs:

Credentialism vs Anti-Credentials

Thanks for your support with the podcast and for checking out my blog! Talk soon.

Erin