by Higgenbotham » Sat Jul 11, 2026 4:21 pm
Higgenbotham wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 4:11 pm
WHEN ANDREW CHAN, MD, became a gastroenterologist two decades ago, he began noticing a gradual shift in the patients calling for appointments. These weren’t the usual people over 65. Instead, they were young adults who, at first glance, check the boxes for “healthy.” Yet each had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Most weren’t obese. Some were marathoners. Some were vegetarians. Some didn’t even take a sip of alcohol. Since Dr. Chan specializes in high-risk cancer genetics, he also checked to see if there was a family history of disease. Negative.
Dr. Chan’s situation is not an outlier. In fact, it’s becoming more of the norm.
As to why young adults who check the boxes for having a healthy lifestyle can be getting sick, I've attempted to answer that question. Given the way I've tried to answer it, the problem will only continue to grow worse with time.
Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2024 6:34 pm
Higgenbotham wrote: Fri Feb 23, 2024 9:54 pm
In what might be called the mainstream American culture, which includes exposures to synthetic chemicals, childhood vaccines, standard American diet
First generation: (born around 1960 plus or minus a few years) Parents were not exposed to synthetic chemicals until they were adults. Anecdotally there seem to be a few more obese kids, geeky kids, gay kids, kids with allergies, kids needing orthodontics, etc., but nothing too alarming and kids seem to grow out of some of these problems. The birth rate for this generation falls a bit when adulthood is reached but nothing too dramatic. There may be a few years decrease in life expectancy becoming evident.
Second generation: (born around 1985 plus or minus a few years) First transgenerational effects may be seen, in other words, parents who were exposed to these things during their own fetal and childhood development start to have kids. In addition to what plagues the first generation born around 1960, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, autism, more severe allergies, diabetes, and other disorders become more common and less curable. Some are now common enough to have names and to be screened for. This generation sees a dramatic fall in their birthrate upon reaching adulthood.
Third generation: (born around 2015 plus or minus a few more years) Now going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects are now quite noticeable and influence the culture and economy to a great extent. There are lots more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults compared to generations born before World War II, so many in fact that an acronym to describe this phenomenon is thought to be needed, LGBT. It is rare for a child not to have some kind of disorder. Disorders become even more severe; for example whereas many children born in 1960 may have been a bit geeky, now many are severely autistic. The birth rate for this generation takes a dramatic fall to less than half of the birthrate of the generation born before World War II.
Fourth generation: (born around 2045 plus or minus a few more years) Now really going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects in the mainstream American culture are now so severe that fertility and lifespan are affected to the point that it is evident mainstream culture is no longer viable. In most cases, disorders are so severe as to be irreversible and in many cases untreatable.
Reference that discusses transgenerational effects:
Fetal exposures cause disease in future generations. Remarkably, it appears that early life exposures can lead to health problems not only in adulthood, but also down through subsequent generations. For instance, adult diseases linked to newborns' low birth weight, enumerated above, cause adverse effects not only in those babies born small, but also in their children of any birth size, through heritable changes in gene expression that result in a phenomenon known as "epigenetic inheritance." Very different from genetic mutations, which are physical changes in gene structure, epigenetic inheritance is instead characterized by certain genes being turned on or off, but near permanently in ways that can be inherited.
If a genetic mutation is like changing a light fixture, the comparable epigenitic change would involve taping the light switch on or off. Since genes are responsible for making the chemicals that build and repair the body, this unnatural forcing to a permanent on or off position can have far-reaching consequences. In humans, both kinds of genetic changes, mutations as well as epigenetic changes in gene expression, can be passed down to a baby in the womb.
Scientists have recently found heritable epigenetic changes linked to the fungicide vinclozolin and pesticide methoxychlor, which impaired sperm counts and sperm motility not only among animals exposed in utero, but also in three subsequent generations (Anway et al. 2005). In other words, what each of us was exposed to in our mother's womb might affect the health of our great-grandchildren.
Notably, both of these pesticides were recently banned under a federal law that requires pesticides to be safe for newborns and children. The government gives children no explicit protection under the federal law meant to ensure the safety of other commercial chemicals (the Toxic Substances Control Act), even though risks from childhood exposures to industrial chemicals are no lower than those from pesticides.
https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burde ... n-newborns
The problem here seems to be that when the fetal exposures and exposures of previous generations lock epigenetic effects into place, a healthy lifestyle is not enough to overcome them in many cases. It may take stronger interventions than what are being practiced.
As I noted here:
"Fourth generation: (born around 2045 plus or minus a few more years) Now really going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects in the mainstream American culture are now so severe that fertility and lifespan are affected to the point that it is evident mainstream culture is no longer viable. In most cases, disorders are so severe as to be irreversible and in many cases untreatable."
We're nowhere near that yet but the first indications of it may be showing up in a few people. Without very strong interventions to reverse the transgenerational effects, these results may be mainstream in the second half of the century.
[quote=Higgenbotham post_id=94817 time=1783800690 user_id=100]
[quote]WHEN ANDREW CHAN, MD, became a gastroenterologist two decades ago, he began noticing a gradual shift in the patients calling for appointments. These weren’t the usual people over 65. Instead, they were young adults who, at first glance, check the boxes for “healthy.” Yet each had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Most weren’t obese. Some were marathoners. Some were vegetarians. Some didn’t even take a sip of alcohol. Since Dr. Chan specializes in high-risk cancer genetics, he also checked to see if there was a family history of disease. Negative.
Dr. Chan’s situation is not an outlier. In fact, it’s becoming more of the norm.[/quote][/quote]
As to why young adults who check the boxes for having a healthy lifestyle can be getting sick, I've attempted to answer that question. Given the way I've tried to answer it, the problem will only continue to grow worse with time.
[quote=Higgenbotham post_id=86154 time=1710110085 user_id=100]
[quote=Higgenbotham post_id=85897 time=1708739658 user_id=100]
In what might be called the mainstream American culture, which includes exposures to synthetic chemicals, childhood vaccines, standard American diet
First generation: (born around 1960 plus or minus a few years) Parents were not exposed to synthetic chemicals until they were adults. Anecdotally there seem to be a few more obese kids, geeky kids, gay kids, kids with allergies, kids needing orthodontics, etc., but nothing too alarming and kids seem to grow out of some of these problems. The birth rate for this generation falls a bit when adulthood is reached but nothing too dramatic. There may be a few years decrease in life expectancy becoming evident.
Second generation: (born around 1985 plus or minus a few years) First transgenerational effects may be seen, in other words, parents who were exposed to these things during their own fetal and childhood development start to have kids. In addition to what plagues the first generation born around 1960, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, autism, more severe allergies, diabetes, and other disorders become more common and less curable. Some are now common enough to have names and to be screened for. This generation sees a dramatic fall in their birthrate upon reaching adulthood.
Third generation: (born around 2015 plus or minus a few more years) Now going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects are now quite noticeable and influence the culture and economy to a great extent. There are lots more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults compared to generations born before World War II, so many in fact that an acronym to describe this phenomenon is thought to be needed, LGBT. It is rare for a child not to have some kind of disorder. Disorders become even more severe; for example whereas many children born in 1960 may have been a bit geeky, now many are severely autistic. The birth rate for this generation takes a dramatic fall to less than half of the birthrate of the generation born before World War II.
Fourth generation: (born around 2045 plus or minus a few more years) Now really going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects in the mainstream American culture are now so severe that fertility and lifespan are affected to the point that it is evident mainstream culture is no longer viable. In most cases, disorders are so severe as to be irreversible and in many cases untreatable.[/quote]
Reference that discusses transgenerational effects:
[quote]Fetal exposures cause disease in future generations. Remarkably, it appears that early life exposures can lead to health problems not only in adulthood, but also down through subsequent generations. For instance, adult diseases linked to newborns' low birth weight, enumerated above, cause adverse effects not only in those babies born small, but also in their children of any birth size, through heritable changes in gene expression that result in a phenomenon known as "epigenetic inheritance." Very different from genetic mutations, which are physical changes in gene structure, epigenetic inheritance is instead characterized by certain genes being turned on or off, but near permanently in ways that can be inherited.
If a genetic mutation is like changing a light fixture, the comparable epigenitic change would involve taping the light switch on or off. Since genes are responsible for making the chemicals that build and repair the body, this unnatural forcing to a permanent on or off position can have far-reaching consequences. In humans, both kinds of genetic changes, mutations as well as epigenetic changes in gene expression, can be passed down to a baby in the womb.
Scientists have recently found heritable epigenetic changes linked to the fungicide vinclozolin and pesticide methoxychlor, which impaired sperm counts and sperm motility not only among animals exposed in utero, but also in three subsequent generations (Anway et al. 2005). In other words, what each of us was exposed to in our mother's womb might affect the health of our great-grandchildren.
Notably, both of these pesticides were recently banned under a federal law that requires pesticides to be safe for newborns and children. The government gives children no explicit protection under the federal law meant to ensure the safety of other commercial chemicals (the Toxic Substances Control Act), even though risks from childhood exposures to industrial chemicals are no lower than those from pesticides.[/quote]
https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns[/quote]
The problem here seems to be that when the fetal exposures and exposures of previous generations lock epigenetic effects into place, a healthy lifestyle is not enough to overcome them in many cases. It may take stronger interventions than what are being practiced.
As I noted here:
"Fourth generation: (born around 2045 plus or minus a few more years) Now really going out on a limb. Transgenerational effects in the mainstream American culture are now so severe that fertility and lifespan are affected to the point that it is evident mainstream culture is no longer viable. In most cases, disorders are so severe as to be irreversible and in many cases untreatable."
We're nowhere near that yet but the first indications of it may be showing up in a few people. Without very strong interventions to reverse the transgenerational effects, these results may be mainstream in the second half of the century.