Freaks me out hearing cancer rate rising in younger people

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It scares when I've heard stories of people in the UK, US and other westernised countries under 50 or 45, diagnosed with cancers like colon/bowel. I always attributed that to older individuals but I can't understand why it's happening in those at a younger age. It seems to worry me in the same way about heart attacks, strokes or prostate issues.

It gets me sometimes worrying about the food I eat that I enjoy because I seem to think a lot of people now eat stuff that has been processed and has lots of sugar and salt. But I do enjoy eating fruit, yogurts. I eat muesli or wheat cereal every morning rather than toast. I really wish I didn't have to obsess over these thoughts and just enjoy the food I like but its hard to put it in the back of my mind.

Ya it kind of freaks me out too.

That's because of lifestyle factors, you have little to be afraid of if you don't treat your body like a rubbish bin. Use the fear to inspire better choices.

turns out I may have cancer.

Here's what I know from some of the research I've done on the topic... The primary cause of cancer is shortening telomeres. Once the chromosomes in a cell lose all their telomeres, the cell will either die (what's supposed to happen) or it will become senescent, in which case it will start dividing out of control. Your body has NK cells that are designed specifically for fighting cancer - your body is constantly producing cancer cells, which are killed by the NK cells. You "get cancer" when the number of cancer cells in a part of your body becomes too many for the NK cells to handle.

Anyway, that's sort of the science behind cancer. Knowing all that, there are some things you can do to reduce your risk of getting it. Mainly, you need to focus on reducing inflammation, which is the main cause of telomere shortening. Things that reduce inflammation and promote telomere growth include regular exercise (especially aerobic exercise), consuming a high-fiber diet, consuming antioxidants, and fasting. Things that increase inflammation and accelerate telomere shortening include sedentary lifestyle, consuming lots of sugar, consuming a diet high in red meat, drinking alcohol, smoking, obesity, sleep deprivation, and chronic stress.

Chronic stress is one of the most important factors, and it can be counter-intuitive. A lot of times, obsessive healthy living can actually backfire, because you're so stressed about what you eat, how much you exercise, etc. that you end up inducing inflammation through stressing out all the time. So you need to cut yourself some slack and allow yourself to cheat every now and then. Living a healthy lifestyle is good, but don't be obsessive about it.