You want to be in a Mexican idiot, that'd be fog Day slash President's Day. Good Marti Scott's loan back on seven hundred WWD driving. Yeah, that FOG's no joke this morning. There's there's still a fog out there. Obviously. I don't think it's gonna burn off till like ten eleven, twelve o'clock today. For sure makes sense with the warm weather moving in, all that snow and ice and rain,
o the grap you know, the moisture is what's causing this. Obviously, definitely two hands on the wheel and turn the fog lights on if you have them. So, if you are in the under the age of fifty, in that cohort sub fifty, you are seeing an eighty percent increase over the last thirty years of cancers, in particular digestive cancers. You're twice as likely to have colon cancer, four times more cases of rectal cancer than people born in nineteen fifty.
That's unreal. What's driving this is the question? He is Randy Drusik, He's the president of HC and ken Wood. Good morning. How are you? Those are all seeing rapid increases as well as a matter of fact, today, in twenty twenty five, young adults are twice as likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and four times more likely to be diagnosed with rectal cancer as those born in nineteen fifty. What the hell is driving this trend and how do we fix it? Randy Drosick is the president
of HC here in Kenwood. Doctor Drosick, Good morning, How are you?
I'm fine, Thank you and thanks for having me.
Yeah, I appreciate it. Weird paradox here, we're getting better at finding and treating cancer as much earlier than ever before. But why then are people developing cancers younger than ever before? Or is it because that we are discovering them at an early age because of that treatment. It's kind of like a self fulfilling prophecy here.
That's good. We don't really know why people are being diagnosed younger, but we definitely have a trend in colon, breath, cervical, and a few other cancers that we are seeing this. It's being studied. We're concentrating. We've been concentrating for detection so long. This isn't something that we've we've been working at very long.
Yeah, Or are we just catching it earlier. I guess it's the point, you know, the cancers that we wouldn't see develop and maybe slow moving cancers that would develop over the course of a few years, we're catching so much sooner now, and therefore it seems like, Okay, we are getting maybe we always had it, but is there evidence that that's the case.
That may be part of the case. The other thing is we are better at genetics, so we do screen, like you said. But the interesting thing, the cancers that we see in these people who are under fifty tend to be much more aggressive than the cancers that we see and people who are over fifty.
Oh wow, oh paradox. It is a paradox. But as I looked at these numbers, what jumps off the page to me is there's like fourteen cancer types that were screened in the study that did. Eight of them are digestive based, right, So it's it's upper lower GI, stomach, throat, esophagel, all that stuff. And does that tell you maybe it's nutrition, diet, that kind of thing.
I think you're absolutely correct. I think it's our seventy lifestyle and you know, we have a lot of obesity in this country, smoking heavy alcohol, use a lot of processed foods. I think all those contribute to GI cancers.
How much do you attribute this to the to the diet because smoking numbers have been declined for a long time. But I look at that and go, although I should say, before the diet thing, let's talk about smoking. Vaping is a thing.
Now.
Do you think there's a tie there? Now there's no. I don't know if there's any scientific data to back that up, but smoking vaping is there something there?
I think vaping is definitely not good for you, and I think you're you. Also, it's the nail on the head again that diet. Our diet in US is just not very good. We're a fast food country.
Yeah, we still are, right despite an effort to try and need better. I know in my advanced stage that I am trying to do the best I can. Doesn't mean that I don't enjoy pizza or you know, burger and fries or something like that, but not not every day. And people hear that moderation, moderation, But physicians like yourself have been preaching that for a long time. Why do we tune that out?
I think Americans tend to work longer hours than other countries. When you look at the number of hours the American worker works compared to other countries, I think our free time is left and I think we try to cram as much into a day as we can.
I think that's an interesting analysis. I mean, if you've ever been overseas, for example, you go to Europe Italy, I've been to a few times, and it's just a whole different thing over the UK. Maybe a pretty similar to us here, but you know, you go there, things shut down for a couple hours in the afternoon, you want a cup of coffee. If there's no drive through there, you got to sit down and enjoy your coffee, and you come back in a super chill and I think there's something to be said about that.
I definitely think we're working ourselves into bad health, but.
We have for a long time. Maybe the generations figure out because you hear about, wow, the work ethic of these young people. They just want to go on vacation, and maybe there's maybe they're going to live longer as a result of that as opposed to what we were doing.
Well, you know, they may, that's that's for sure. You know, we tend not to exercise as much as other countries. You. I think that plays a huge role in it also.
And I think the older you get, the more sedentary you are too. But you know, we're talking about cancer and young people. What is it specifically about our diet Western diet? Is it the saturated fad? Is the processed nature of foods? As a physician, doctor do I said, can you finger? Can you point the finger at any one thing? Or is it all those things?
I think it's I think it's everything. I think high fat diet definitely plays into it. Processed foods play into it, high sugar content. You know, with we see processed foods and snacks, you're you're probably better off eating a carrot for a snack than the bag of chips.
Yeah, but between me and you, the chips are so much better.
You know, particularly if you have French onion dip.
I hard to argue with with.
French onion dip and chips, I agree, yeah, but.
It can't be every day. It has to be you know, I know people my age that are you're probably having a bag of chips a day, or a six pack of beer or twelve pack, as the case may be. And I mean, that's all and good if you've don't plan on living long, but that's the unfortunate part of this thing. How much is alcohol use playing into this? Especially for people under the age of fifty are developing cancer.
Heavy alcohol use, particularly as the sovageal cancer and the softageal cancer. Alcohol and smoking together is a very lethal combination. So we definitely see that not only that, you know, you get cerrosus and deliver you get centripleal obesity. All those things contribute to poor health. But the key is what you said earlier, moderation moderation.
Do you think that sleep deprivation, poor sleep quality factors into this too? And that you mentioned we're going and going and going all the time. Most of us are not getting as many hours as we need. Most I think the average American has lessened seven hours of sleep. Now, is that a factor here that your body doesn't have time to repair those hells?
Well, again, you're corrected. I don't know if it has as much effect with cancer, but it certainly does with our overall health, not just that, but our mental health and risk of Alzheimer's, you know who. In our brain just needs to be compressed just like an athlete's body needs to decompressed.
It just because you know, you work out, let's say, a lift weight. So we got to take a day off before you do anything else because you're sore and your muscles have to in order to grow your muscles, you have to rest. That's part of it. Another paradox here, sounds like you're saying the same thing with this.
Absolutely yeah, your brain needs to be worked, your brain needs to be relaxed, and finding that balance is very difficult.
And we don't like that right the whole olm yoga right, take a calm time relaxation technique. I got an iPhone that nags me like a like a second wife about you know, stand up, sit down, do this, do that. It's like we just turned that stuff off and we just want to plow through it. And especially men, we just want to plow through that wall. We'll just keep going when we fall over.
Oh, I agree. I have a bad habit of at Also, I did hot yoga for a year or two prior to the pandemic, and I can tell you you want to talk about something that will let your brain decompress. It's unbelievable and I'm sorry that haven't gone back to it.
Yeah, and I tried it actually before I backsurgery years ago, and I just I can't do the yoga thing. It's too much of me. I can't spend that much time with myself. Doctor.
Well, I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of me. I'll be honest with you. I got, like, you know what, enough of this stuff. I got me with my voices in my head, by myself. It's a it's not a good combination. I just I got to get away from me sometimes.
But you know, you have to stay active. I always tell people, once you sit, you stay seated. And I'm sixty four and I ran the pig this past year. Good and you just have to keep doing that. If you're I should say age properly about that.
Yeah, yeah, I uh, well you're a you're a freak then, because I'm thinking man running it that uh. And I'm younger than you are. Although I still box, I may have to give that up because I got, you know, ostri arthritis, and everything hurts now, but I'll find something else to do, uh, in order to keep active. And it's good for your brain, it's good for your body. We're talking to doctor Randy Drusick this morning. He's an ecologist. He's also president of OHC Cancer Specialists all all all over.
The one here in Kenwood is fantastic, by the way, firsthand experience there. They are the cancer specialists in Cincinnati talking about a weird paradox here. We're getting better at finding and treating cancers, but we are seeing cancer developed earlier than ever before. Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, Hamlin County Auditor, Bridget Kelly. There's Chadwick Boseman, of course, James Vanderbeek from Dawson's Creek who just died days ago. How
much of this? You know? I mentioned the diet element of this thing too, and then I started thinking about you know, I just mentioned when I had surgery and I had seed iff and it's a gut back. We don't think about our back here and our gut until things go really, really south. Is that also part of this too? We're eating the processed foods and alcohol and smoking and lack of exercise, probably over prescribed antibiotics and stuff like that have a factor in your gut health.
How important is that with cancer?
Sure your gut has natural bacteria in it, and if we disrupt that mal you you can have all kinds of problems. You can have an infection called clustered and different. Still, there are certain types of guests to intestinal cancers that we know are related to helicobactor. So yes, there are, and you can actually treat those cancers by treating the helico factors. So bacteria certainly can play a role, and so conviruses.
Yeah, and so you're yeah, does HPV for women.
Fit in this too, Yes, yeah, it definitely does. They plays a very big role in cervical cancer and now we're seeing it in some all cancers also.
Right right right, I think, and it all fits together that the the the bacteria in the gut, and it sounds kind of like new agy, but you know, stuff like yogurt and kafir and anything like that that's a probiotic that you can consume is definitely gonna help help move the needle for you, especially if you maybe you are cutting corners when it comes to diet and exercise.
I agree, and I think we don't know exactly why, but it may have to do with what we call transit time. If you have a bowel movement every day, all the bad stuff gets out of your gut. If there's someone that has an every five or six days or what we with a lot of people would consider constipation, you're more exposed to those tox in your gut. And there's a question whether that may increase your risk of these GI cancers.
Is that metabolism though? Can you change that? But the way your body metabolizes I.
Think you can with with high fiber diets. I think there's a lot of things you can do to increase, increase your time.
More veggie and more exercise. And it makes stuff, uh, it makes stuff move through, if that makes sense. I mean if it hangs around, it takes a chance to you know, essentially just sit there. And there's a reason why your body's getting rid of it. I guess that makes sense. You can't take the garbage otlet's put that way. Why not be too too messy here? Yeah, And we're
seeing this alarming trend. Now, how concerned are you as a as a oncologist doctor drawsick that we're seeing these numbers and people getting cancer earlier and earlier than ever before. How bad is it really?
From your perspective, it's devastating because the cancers are much worse. If you take a colon cancer and a forty year old for colon cancer and a seventy year old, the prognosis is much worse. The stage tends to be picked up a little bit later, you know, because we don't really screen for colon cancer nless, you have a known genetic risk until you're forty five. So you take a thirty five year old, it's not expected. You're not screening.
It tends to be later, tends to be more aggressive, they don't respond as well the treatment, and some of the markers of this tend to be the genetic markers, both from the family genetics and the genetics. The tumor tend to be different and.
It's just some more aggressive therefore harder to treat.
Absolutely.
Yeah, when it comes to cancers that you see, which is the I guess you know, we talk about lymphatic cancer, which my mom had, but there's you know, there's a host of ones that are like, oh that we just have the treatment for that. The ones that you're seeing that are just not survivable or we're not there yet as first treatment goes.
Or what I think the young well, I think we've made headway in every cancer. And I'm an optimist because I'm an oncologist, but I think if the ones that I see that I find to be devastating is our younger patients with colon cancer. You know one that's it's on the rise one to two percent year. They don't respond quite as well. And to me, that is that is a very heartbreaking when you see it.
Yeah, we're seeing a rise in colorectal cancer, which is normally something you would see in middle age or beyond, and now we're seeing in patients, as you said, as young as forty and certain under fifty.
Now that's yeah, that's exactly correct.
That's horrible. I saw something else too recently, and it's called the birth cohort effect, in that each group of people born at a later time, let's say ten years apart, had a higher risk of delphing cancer and life. We're seeing that trend now that it should be going the other way, but it's the exact opposite.
Yeah, that's that's alarming. In our survival rates for some of these cancers, particularly like breast cancer, have gotten better, and I think some of that's due to early detection, but you do wonder whether this curve is going to slide back the other way now that we're seeing it in younger people.
Well, I mean prostate cancer for example, right is like now we're not doing the you know, post COVID, not doing the exam anymore, thank god. And it's it's it's blood work, it's it's a fecal study, stuff like that. So I mean that technology is amazing.
Yes it is. And one thing is when you're broke about COVID, we have a thing here at OAC and we try to preach this to the hospital. Cancer is not going to stop because there's a virus and a pandemic. Don't stop your screening, don't stop your mammograms, don't stop your colonostrophies, don't stop your your yearly cascans of the chest for smokers because there's a pandemic. Because this is going to catch up to us later when they're diagnosed. These patients are diagnosed at a later stage.
Yeah, no one likes to go and have that prostate screening if you're a guy, or you have your colonoscopy done to check. But you know, I've known people before that have said, man, I wish I would have because they're they're now gone and they died way too young because they never did that that work, and it's uncomfortable.
Who likes to go and I'm sure it's not pleasant for the physician either, but it's something you have to go and do and it's it's not it's uncomfortable and no one likes to do it, but the end result is catastrophic because you're living, your family and a lot of life left again. It's doctor Ran Drosic. He is the president. He's an oncologist at o HC Cancer Specialists and Columbus and ken Wooden across the state as well.
Doctor Drusick, thanks so much for taking time out and you're really busy, but appreciate the information this morning, and.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, certainly the best awareness campaign we have for this are young people getting cancer and dying. And I don't think you'll mentally we put it together because James Vanderbeek I mentioned, just died at what forty eight, And there's a pretty consistent pattern of people under the age of fifty getting and dying from cancers. Because you don't expect there was a nineteen year old, nineteen year old Miranda McKeon I think her name was, and with a nie.
She's an actress, had stage three breast cancer. And that's that's extremely young, right twenty two. Lea died at twenty two Dustin Diamond members saved by the bell. I think he was in his early forties from carsonoma. And it just it's a steady drug me to this. We just wanted to go, wow, there's there's a trend going on here. When you do that, though, you're you're surprised, I think, and if you're younger, you also thinking we all were at some point fallible that we can eat and drink
and do whatever we want. We're good. Well apparently not because whatever it is and somewhere in our environment and maybe also in our DNA, we don't know. These things are coming together with catstrok results, you know, when you see the cancer rates go up eighty percent over the last forty years, there's certainly something in the water and in the food and maybe within us as well. So you know the best thing you can do is go
get those screenings. At a time as we debate healthcare, and I'm gonna look at congresshutting down again and curely not for health care. But you know, the one before this was that people are pinching pennies and going lo I really can't afford this. And if you don't have health care, you're not going to go get the screenings, and you may wind up becoming a casualty, becoming a statistic I think the healthcare system is somewhat negligent in
this as well too. Yeah, we got to engage in care, and if you're fortunate to have the care, you still have to go. I know people who have insurance don't go to the doctor and all the less they're sick. That's a mistake. Especially used to be like over the age of forty you got to go once a year at least. Hell now it seems like at twenty you should be going once or twice a year, if indeed you have the insurance, which is another big part of the problem. Let me do a news update here. We
still have pretty heavy pockets of a fog. We'll find out when that burns off and more. Scottsland on this President's Day twenty twenty six, seven hundred ww