Latest / Intellectual Medicine / Colon Cancer Under 50: Putting the James Van Der Beek Headlines into Perspective

Transcript

Colon Cancer Under 50: Putting the James Van Der Beek Headlines into Perspective · Intellectual Medicine

• 0:00
  Now it is a polluted world out there.
• 0:02
  You can't worry about the stuff you don't control, but you
• 0:07
  control what you take through your mouth.
• 0:09
  You control what you take through your skin.
• 0:13
  You control how you live your life with physical activity.
• 0:19
  We don't control the ozone layer.
• 0:21
  We can't have some control over X-rays.
• 0:24
  I want to be in a frame of mind where if I get a heart attack
• 0:28
  tomorrow, I'm not going to lament the fact that, damn it, I
• 0:32
  should have lived differently. It would have just been my fate.
• 0:37
  And that's cool. I want you all to die healthy,
• 0:41
  at an advanced age, without a long illness.
• 0:46
  We have to wonder what's going on.
• 0:48
  I mean, people under the age of 50 dying from colon cancer.
• 0:54
  Dying from anything. Colon cancer in particular is
• 0:57
  horrible, but it's come to the light because of some high
• 1:00
  profile cases. James Van Der Beek, age 48, Chad
• 1:07
  Bosman, age 43, died from colon cancer.
• 1:13
  That has put a hot light on the fact that there's an upward
• 1:16
  trend in younger people getting and dying from colon cancer.
• 1:20
  Why? And perhaps more importantly,
• 1:23
  what should you do about it? So I'm going to tell you what
• 1:26
  the real risks are, and I'm also going to guide you toward things
• 1:30
  you can do to help protect yourself.
• 1:34
  We all have to die someday, but nobody should die before the age
• 1:39
  of 50. Now, there are things we can do
• 1:42
  to make ourselves less likely to succumb.
• 1:45
  That's what we're going to talk about.
• 1:48
  But let's talk about the risk itself.
• 1:51
  A lot of times what happens is gets a headline and the risk
• 1:55
  gets amplified. The risk is real, but it needs
• 2:00
  to be put in context. The chances of a person underage
• 2:04
  50 getting colon cancer is 1 in 6579, and that's with the
• 2:13
  increased rate of 15.2 cases per 100,000 people, or to put in a
• 2:18
  percentage category, 0.0152% chance that any one individual
• 2:26
  will catch colon cancer. Think about those odds.
• 2:29
  One in 6579. So the odds are in your favor.
• 2:36
  You'll never get colon cancer, but it's not 0.
• 2:39
  The reason I share these odds is so that you can make rational
• 2:44
  decisions with good information when it comes to the medical
• 2:50
  establishment's response to this.
• 2:52
  It's classic more screening at a younger age, really one in 6579.
• 3:02
  And because of that rate, you're going to screen 10s of millions
• 3:08
  of people. It does nothing to affect the
• 3:12
  onset of cancer. It does, you know, fill up the
• 3:17
  coffers, right? Those screening tests aren't
• 3:19
  free. They're expensive.
• 3:21
  And now we're going to amplify them because now the screening
• 3:24
  age has been dropped to 45. And I'm not against screening.
• 3:27
  Let's be clear. The issue that I have is a point
• 3:30
  of emphasis talk about the cancer.
• 3:35
  What about screening? It's late in the game.
• 3:39
  Early cancer screening is a bit of a misconception.
• 3:44
  It takes about 10 years for cancer to go from a tiny polyp
• 3:52
  to actual malignancy. Maybe up to 15 years.
• 3:56
  Now back that up a little bit. How long does it take cancer to
• 4:00
  go from a cellular phenomenon to A1 centimeter tumor?
• 4:08
  That is a little polyp. That is about 10 years.
• 4:12
  So we're doing the math here for Chad Bosman at age 43, dying
• 4:17
  from prostate cancer. That means from polyp to
• 4:21
  invasive cancer, say minimum of 10 years.
• 4:24
  Go back 10 more years to the cellular onset.
• 4:28
  We're talking about a cancer that began in his 20s.
• 4:33
  All cancer starts at a cellular level.
• 4:37
  It can't be seen. It can't be felt.
• 4:40
  You have no symptoms. There's not a blood test on the
• 4:42
  planet that can catch it. There's not an imaging study in
• 4:45
  the world that can catch it. Cancer is, dare I say it, almost
• 4:51
  inevitable. We're going to make these cancer
• 4:54
  cells, folks. The difference in many cases is
• 4:58
  killing them before they get ahead of steam.
• 5:01
  What is the greatest risk factor for catching cancer?
• 5:04
  Age. Why would age be the greatest
• 5:07
  risk factor? I maintain there are two primary
• 5:10
  reasons. 1 The immune system is starting to weaken.
• 5:14
  The thymus gland, which makes antibodies starts to really
• 5:18
  evaporate, turn to a glob of fat somewhere in the early to late
• 5:22
  60s. And that not coincidentally, is
• 5:26
  when when cancer in general, invasive cancer in particular,
• 5:30
  starts to really accelerate. So you've got immune function.
• 5:34
  What's the other thing? Toxins, toxicity, cumulative
• 5:39
  toxicity. All right, so let's talk about
• 5:41
  you. What can you do?
• 5:43
  First, I don't advocate ivermectin for prevention in
• 5:48
  this setting. Ivermectin is an interesting
• 5:51
  drug with some properties that lend itself to treatment of
• 5:55
  cancer in combination with other substances.
• 5:59
  Not as a stand alone. So do not think you should take
• 6:02
  this just because it's over the counter.
• 6:04
  I think it's reckless and counterproductive.
• 6:07
  Better things you can do. Well, what are they?
• 6:10
  One of the things is percent body fat folks.
• 6:13
  This is a risk factor for all cancers, colorectal in
• 6:18
  particular. Excess adiposity creates
• 6:21
  inflammatory cytokines. The nutritional patterns
• 6:25
  correlating with growth of fat cells also lend risk.
• 6:30
  So focusing on percent body fat reduction, GLP one drugs, are
• 6:35
  they going to help fight cancer? To the extent you can
• 6:39
  healthfully lose weight, that may occur.
• 6:43
  But remember, it's got to be helpful.
• 6:45
  Losing weight does not improve your health, Losing fat does.
• 6:51
  If you just shrink because you're not eating, that's not
• 6:54
  good. So be mindful of your body if
• 6:58
  you're going through weight loss, but go after that.
• 7:00
  What else can you do? Stop.
• 7:03
  Don't do it. I'm talking about X-rays.
• 7:06
  Ionizing radiation is a sneaky trigger of cancer.
• 7:10
  With every X-ray we get, our lifetime risk of cancer clicks
• 7:15
  up a little bit, looks up a little bit.
• 7:18
  You know, years ago, as a younger parent, my son was
• 7:21
  involved in a skiing accident. He went to the emergency room
• 7:25
  and they did a CAT scan of his whole abdomen just to be safe.
• 7:31
  I regret that. Young exposure is a greater
• 7:35
  risk. All exposure is a risk.
• 7:38
  So pause. They want to X-ray you.
• 7:41
  They always say the same thing, don't they?
• 7:44
  It's just a little bit of radiation.
• 7:46
  It's only like what you would get in a year or in a week or
• 7:49
  two. It's all bad.
• 7:51
  It's a pure toxic carcinogen. So before you acquiesce to that
• 7:57
  CAT scan, that X-ray bone density, the DEXA scan has
• 8:02
  gained popularity in some anti aging circles.
• 8:05
  I think it's a horrible idea. There are far better ways to
• 8:09
  assess body makeup than X raying it.
• 8:12
  So avoid X-rays. Avoid excess food intake.
• 8:19
  Excess food? What about meat?
• 8:22
  Meat can be a problem, but it's also can be good for you.
• 8:28
  The difference between success and poison.
• 8:31
  It's the dose if you are eating more than 6 ounces of meat at
• 8:37
  anyone setting, you're tipping into a toxic range if you are
• 8:42
  eating meat that has carcinogens buried into it.
• 8:46
  So I was at Whole Foods today and then a sign up there said
• 8:52
  our chartreuse. I hope I'm saying that right
• 8:56
  does not contain any artificial nitrites or nitrates.
• 9:02
  These are preservatives that are absolute, unequivocal
• 9:05
  carcinogens, and they're in some of your food.
• 9:09
  The sneaky part is you don't always know that just like that
• 9:13
  label, it gave you a false impression.
• 9:16
  Artificially manufactured, who cares?
• 9:20
  It's all carcinogenic. But the US government allows
• 9:25
  food companies to label a product nitrite free if the
• 9:31
  nitrates are from a natural source.
• 9:33
  Yeah, that arsenic won't kill you because it's natural.
• 9:37
  That's BS. So do not eat cold cuts.
• 9:40
  I don't trust any of them. Not the organic label.
• 9:45
  Nitrate free? Forget about it, they're
• 9:48
  carcinogenic. How about meat?
• 9:51
  High quality grass fed, raw or barely cooked meat is your best
• 9:57
  play. If it's charred, if it's cooked
• 10:00
  like that, it converts into carcinogens.
• 10:05
  If you're eating processed meat, hot dogs, sausage, I hate to say
• 10:10
  it, bacon. Why do I hate to say it?
• 10:13
  Because I love bacon. I mean, who doesn't?
• 10:16
  It's great, tastes great, but it's a carcinogen.
• 10:20
  Now we all have to make our own decisions.
• 10:23
  The body can process some toxicity, but how much?
• 10:28
  And what's the tipping point? Carcinogens are cumulative, and
• 10:33
  they're multi, multifaceted. X-ray here, some nitrites there,
• 10:41
  some charred meat over here. What about heavy metals?
• 10:46
  You know, they're everywhere. They're in the dirt.
• 10:50
  They grow up into the plants you eat.
• 10:52
  Aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead.
• 10:58
  You can't dodge them, but you can minimize them.
• 11:02
  Volume reduction, That helps. You know what else helps?
• 11:06
  Saunas. When you sweat, you'll lose
• 11:10
  toxic metals. It's a beautiful thing to do.
• 11:13
  They do this a lot in the Nordic countries.
• 11:15
  Of course they do. It's dark, they have nothing
• 11:16
  else to do. I can't sit in the sauna that
• 11:18
  long. It's just a little bit boring.
• 11:21
  But if you're so inclined, it's a good thing.
• 11:24
  Can you exercise to the point of sweating?
• 11:27
  Will that be helpful? It may, but exercise itself has
• 11:32
  anticostinogenic properties. It enhances immune function, but
• 11:37
  it's dose dependent. If you do moderate intensity
• 11:42
  exercise, you're going to gain health benefit.
• 11:45
  If you do high intensity exercise, you may get
• 11:47
  conditioning. Your body may look different,
• 11:51
  you know, washboard abs and all that sort of stuff, but it's a
• 11:54
  stress on the system that can actually weaken immunity.
• 11:59
  So I advocate for strength training, for fitness, for
• 12:03
  activity, but don't go nuts out there unless you love it.
• 12:07
  Hey, if you love it, have a wall, because lack of joy is a
• 12:12
  factor. It's a risk factor.
• 12:14
  Lack of joy. Stress is a risk factor.
• 12:18
  Stress weakens the immune system.
• 12:20
  I've seen it in my practice. It's not uncommon.
• 12:23
  Somebody loses a spouse, goes through bankruptcy, goes through
• 12:27
  a divorce, and three years later, cancer shows up.
• 12:32
  Remember, your body is fighting cancer every day.
• 12:36
  On a cellular level, cancer cells are weak.
• 12:40
  They're relatively easy to crush.
• 12:43
  Tumors are resilient. The art, the game is to make
• 12:49
  your body an unpleasant place for cancer cells to thrive.
• 12:53
  Percent body fat. Avoid toxins going in your body.
• 12:58
  What about supplements that make sense?
• 13:01
  You know, I like vitamin CI. Say a minimum of 500 milligrams
• 13:04
  every day should be your base. And when you feel stressed, bump
• 13:09
  it up. You could take up to 2000
• 13:11
  milligrams at one time. That's because vitamin C is a
• 13:15
  stress vitamin. It's unique in the animal
• 13:19
  Kingdom. Most mammals make their own
• 13:22
  vitamin C and when they're stressed, they make tons of it.
• 13:25
  We can mimic that with supplement.
• 13:28
  One of the perhaps one of the most valuable supplements is
• 13:33
  vitamin D. Now, vitamin D in functional
• 13:37
  studies has been shown to correlate with a lower incidence
• 13:41
  of cancer. Studies were done looking at
• 13:43
  blood levels and those who have the highest level of vitamin D
• 13:47
  had the lowest level of cancers. We believe the same thing can
• 13:51
  happen by virtue of supplementing the target.
• 13:54
  Get the blood level between 50 and 100.
• 13:57
  That's what I recommend. It's a little bit higher than
• 14:00
  standard recommendations. And if your doctor is getting
• 14:03
  nervous because your level is 70 or 80, reassure him or her that
• 14:08
  you've got solid information and it's being monitored.
• 14:10
  Nobody ever had toxicity from a level below 100.
• 14:14
  Literally. I've never seen it published.
• 14:16
  I've never seen a case. But vitamin D, if you're not
• 14:23
  taking vitamin K along with it, can accelerate absorption of
• 14:27
  calcium in a manner that could put increased risk to soft
• 14:31
  tissue because the calcium does not always deposit in the right
• 14:36
  spot. So you got to have vitamin K2,
• 14:40
  menoquinone, the subset of that is the MK7 variety, but more
• 14:45
  importantly, vitamin K2. The range of that could be 100
• 14:50
  up to 500 micrograms every day. Vitamin D generally recognized
• 14:56
  as safe as 4000 units per day. I take 5000.
• 15:02
  This is something that should be monitored periodically by your
• 15:04
  doctor or your nurse practitioner.
• 15:07
  A blood level of vitamin D has value and can be used to guide
• 15:11
  therapy, so I recommend that to you.
• 15:13
  So your vitamin D physical activity, percent body fat.
• 15:17
  Stop eating cancer causing stuff.
• 15:21
  What about sugar, Carbs, simple carbohydrates are pro
• 15:26
  inflammatory, tend to correlate with with increased adiposity.
• 15:31
  But in a vacuum sugar is not a carcinogen.
• 15:36
  I believe it's more a consequence of the effect it has
• 15:38
  on the whole body, which is why I actually like it better than
• 15:42
  artificial sweeteners. Are they carcinogenic or not?
• 15:47
  No, studies are equivocal. I don't like them.
• 15:50
  I think they're evidence of carcinogenesis is out there.
• 15:56
  There's a huge lobby that funds studies to prove they're not
• 16:02
  carcinogenic. I don't believe it.
• 16:06
  But more importantly, what's the point, right?
• 16:09
  Artificial sweeteners are not helpful in losing weight, So
• 16:13
  what are we doing? So how about a probiotic?
• 16:18
  The bacterial balance in the colon is relevant.
• 16:22
  A healthy, broad variety can be a good thing.
• 16:25
  Not everybody needs probiotics, but if you're on a proton pump
• 16:30
  inhibitor, an antacid, if you're having to take antibiotics
• 16:34
  periodically, these are cases where it makes sense.
• 16:37
  Your gut should be you should be capable of ignoring your gut.
• 16:42
  You shouldn't be thinking about it.
• 16:44
  Bloaty, unformed stool, thinking about the next bowel movement.
• 16:49
  That's not normal. Folks get that checked out
• 16:52
  because that kind of chronic inflammation is a is a trigger
• 16:58
  can be a trigger for cancer. Any chronic inflammation and the
• 17:03
  gut can show itself right. You should have formed stool
• 17:06
  every day, sometimes twice a day.
• 17:09
  If that's not happening, contemplate means of improving
• 17:16
  getting a food inflammations test.
• 17:17
  The blood test can be acquired. A probiotic can make sense.
• 17:22
  I've had patients for instance, taking tons of turmeric
• 17:26
  believing hey, this is an anti-inflammatory, the gut
• 17:30
  wasn't right. We did the test proves that
• 17:32
  they're in their case, the turmeric was actually pro
• 17:35
  inflammatory. All right, so some tips about
• 17:39
  what to do. How about screening?
• 17:42
  I do not like a colonoscopy for screening purposes as your first
• 17:46
  step for anybody. I already told you the risk of
• 17:50
  you having cancer is 1 in 6579. A colonoscopy requires sedation,
• 17:57
  requires an intravenous support. It requires a device going in
• 18:04
  your rectum. It was up somebody else's rectum
• 18:08
  a little while ago and somebody cleaned it in the backroom.
• 18:12
  I'm just saying, how much do I trust what's happening back
• 18:16
  there? I'm not fond of this idea now.
• 18:19
  I had a colonoscopy when I was 50.
• 18:21
  I threw up in the parking lot. I lost two days of my life.
• 18:25
  I'll never get back the prep and the day of the study.
• 18:28
  Now we've got stool testing that's quite excellent, which I
• 18:32
  recommend. There's even a blood test now
• 18:35
  that's pretty solid. So there are ways that you can
• 18:38
  screen at less cost, at less lifestyle interruption, and at
• 18:44
  less risk. There is such a thing as
• 18:48
  complications from colonoscopy, bleeding, rupturing the viscous,
• 18:53
  poking a hole in it, and in rare circumstances, death, usually
• 18:59
  not from the colonoscopy, but from the anesthesia or from, you
• 19:03
  know, aspiration if you vomit. It's pretty rare.
• 19:07
  And I don't want to spook folks, but nobody ever died by virtue
• 19:12
  of giving a stool test. So you got to look at risk
• 19:16
  benefit cost at age 45, should you get screened?
• 19:22
  Why not, right? If it's a screen that doesn't
• 19:25
  hurt you specifically, Stool testing is my choice for my
• 19:30
  patients. It can give you false comfort.
• 19:33
  Now you know that those cancers are trying to form at a cellular
• 19:38
  level. Now you know that your immune
• 19:40
  system is fighting them every day.
• 19:43
  This is a chronic lifestyle endeavor.
• 19:48
  You live the anti cancer lifestyle right?
• 19:52
  You avoid known carcinogens. I know this may be controversial
• 19:57
  but I don't think cannabis marijuana has intrinsic health
• 20:02
  benefit. It could be counterproductive
• 20:06
  right? Just for your own thought.
• 20:09
  Now suppose you say to me, but I love the buzz I get from
• 20:13
  cannabis and doctor I know you drink a Margarita now and then.
• 20:16
  So don't be a hypocrite. All right, I'll give you that.
• 20:19
  We all need our hedonism. I already told you that's part
• 20:23
  of healthy living. As long as it's balanced too
• 20:26
  much poison, the right dose, potentially helpful, really with
• 20:32
  regard to most substances. It's really sad that these men
• 20:36
  were lost. It's really sad that people are
• 20:38
  lost at all. It's horrible that cancer takes
• 20:43
  anybody's life. But put these risks in
• 20:46
  perspective. You want a global lifestyle that
• 20:51
  is anti cancer, anti heart disease.
• 20:55
  The top four causes of death in Americans between 20 and 50 are
• 21:00
  all traumatic. You know, cars, guns, suicide #5
• 21:05
  is heart disease. Number six is cancer, and number
• 21:09
  one in the cancer category is colon.
• 21:11
  So it is out there, but the things you do to protect your
• 21:15
  heart are going to also protect your colon and we'll have global
• 21:19
  anti cancer value. Don't take false comfort.
• 21:24
  Be prepared such that if you get cancer, if you get heart
• 21:29
  disease. I saw a picture of these guys.
• 21:32
  They look pretty darn healthy, didn't they?
• 21:34
  They're lean sometimes. Sometimes you do everything
• 21:38
  right and the genetic dye is cast.
• 21:42
  That does happen, folks. There's no shield that is
• 21:47
  perfect. When the call comes, we answer.
• 21:52
  Can you do genetic risk test? You can.
• 21:56
  Majority of cancers, 90% of them are environmental.
• 22:00
  Now it is a polluted world out there.
• 22:03
  You can't worry about the stuff you don't control, but you
• 22:07
  control. What you take through your
• 22:08
  mouth, you control what you take through your skin.
• 22:14
  You control how you live your life with physical activity.
• 22:19
  We don't control the ozone layer.
• 22:22
  We can have some control over X-rays.
• 22:25
  All right, team, keep the faith. Health is your destiny.
• 22:30
  Disease and illness can afflict anybody at any time.
• 22:35
  I want to be in a frame of mind where if I get a heart attack
• 22:38
  tomorrow, I'm not going to lament the fact that, damn it, I
• 22:43
  should have lived differently. It would have just been my fate.
• 22:47
  And that's cool. I want you all to die healthy,
• 22:51
  at an advanced age, without a long illness.
• 22:54
  So good luck with all your healthy habits.
• 22:58
  Put them together one at a time. Don't feel like you have to be
• 23:01
  perfect every now and then. I have a slice of bacon.
• 23:06
  I hope it's not my tipping point toward death, but volume is
• 23:10
  relevant. So small volume, you get away
• 23:13
  with it. Large volume problem.
• 23:16
  All right, gang, until the next time.
• 23:17
  Thanks for sharing time with me. We'll see you then.