Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Today we're diving into an important and growing health concern, colon cancer.

Recent studies show that cases of colon cancer are becoming increasingly common in younger adults.

In fact, the rate has doubled among people under 50 since the 1990s, prompting doctors

to lower the recommended age for screening.

So what can we do to protect ourselves and our loved ones?

I'm joined by Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Andy Chan, to talk about the importance

of colon cancer screenings and how changes to our diet could help

reduce the risk of this disease.

In the U.S., the American Cancer Society just came out with a very sobering report that statistics

are such that now the leading cause of cancer death in people younger than 50 among men is colon cancer. The leading cause of cancer death in people younger than 50 among men is colon cancer.

The leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 is now colon cancer.

And by 2030, they estimate that it will become the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.

So that's a real change from where we were, you know, 10, 20 years ago.

And I feel like that is a long way from the common conception, you know, because you're

actually saying that as a cause of death, for example, that would actually be higher than

breast cancer for women under 50 in just a few years. Is that correct?

Exactly. Yeah. Which I feel is, and obviously in no way reduces the seriousness of breast

cancer or any other correct cancer, but it does suggest that there is not a popular understanding

of just how common this is becoming as a cancer for younger people. Correct. Yeah. I mean, I think that's another trend that we're seeing. We're also seeing

that, for example, breast cancer incidence is rising also in younger women, not quite the

rate of increase as we're seeing with colon cancer. So cancers in general seem to be shifting

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