I feel like I am always hearing about how things are carcinogenic, like red meat or air conditioners or aspartame. Why does it seem like *so* many things are carcinogenic and does that mean they cause cancer? Because it’s starting to feel like everything causes cancer…
This is the type of thing that gets my anxiety going so I’d love if someone who understands this better than I do can explain it.
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Just about everything is. Heck, you don’t even have to do anything bad like smoking to get cancer. Your body is made up of cells that undergoes DNA replication constantly and the proteins involved in this process can make mistakes. When we’re younger, we have good mechanisms to manage these errors. But as we grow older, we are more prone to errors and cells can become cancerous spontaneously. This is how some people who are chronic smokers may never end up with cancer while others who, on paper, are eating and have a healthier lifestyle, can still end up with cancer in their life.
Of course, carcinogens up your probability of causing significant DNA damage, but it is by no means causation unless it’s something really concentrated, like prolonged exposure to radiation to a nuclear bomb, which significantly increases your probability.
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