The Hidden Drivers Behind Cancer: if risk isn’t random, what's causing cancer to form

A quiet shift is underway: cancer rates are falling in older adults but rising fast under 50. We unpack what’s driving that change and show why risk isn’t random—it's the result of an interplay between emotions, environment, and epigenetics that shapes how cells age, repair DNA, and defend against disease. 

Emotions aren’t a soft add-on; they tune physiology, alter glucose and inflammatory signaling, and determine whether your nervous system spends time in healing states. 

Environment spans food quality, movement, circadian rhythm, nature exposure, air and water, and everyday products that quietly raise toxic burden. 

Epigenetics reveals your blueprint—how you methylate, antioxidize, and clear hormones—so we can tailor inputs that shift gene expression toward resilience. Two people can share exposures yet see different outcomes because their pathways work differently; the key is to find your weak links and reinforce them.

You’ll hear how small, consistent changes stack up: better sleep and light hygiene to restore circadian rhythm, nutrient-dense meals that stabilize glucose and boost detox, reducing high-risk exposures without chasing perfection, and practical tools for stress and emotion processing that reawaken immune vigilance. 

If this conversation helps you see your health terrain with new clarity, subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking forward.

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Transcript

Setting The Stakes: Rising Rates

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Ground and Root Podcast, where we are exploring the world of holistic strategies to enhance healing and help you stay cancer free. I'm your host and holistic cancer dietitian, Dion Detraz, and I'm so happy to have you here. In our first episode, I shared more about me and my story and why we're here doing this work. In our second episode, I'm gonna share more about why cancer grows. This is the real nuts and bolts of why we're doing this work. We're gonna talk about the reasons cancer grows, why is that influencing younger and younger people, and the important interplay between the three primary root causes. Now, first, just to make sure we're all on the same page, I want to take a minute to talk a little bit about the cancer rates and then also what cancer is, because that even and of itself might be a little bit confusing for people. And I do have some notes. So if you see, for those of you watching the video, if you see my eyes go down, just because I don't want to miss anything. All

Early-Onset Trends And Data

SPEAKER_00 1:02

right. So as I mentioned in the last episode, nearly one in two people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. And if you're listening right now, it's it's likely that you've already had a diagnosis or somebody that you're close to, somebody you love has been diagnosed. Now, what I find even more concerning is this has traditionally been a disease of older age. As we, as our cells age, they are more likely to mutate and become cancerous. So we're more at risk. But this is not true anymore. Cancer rates in older people are actually beginning to drop, which is a great sign, but cancer rates in people under 50 are going up and like significantly. They've increased nearly 80% over the last three decades, which is just unreal, if you really think about that. And this is according to several studies. This is not just one source that is showing that this trend is happening. As I mentioned in the last episode, I am personally seeing this in my own practice, where statistically, over half of my current clients and the members of our group program are under 50. And probably about a third of them were under 40 when they were first diagnosed. And I mentioned in the last episode that I have had several people under 30 as well, which is just crazy. So we're gonna talk about why. We're gonna talk about why this is happening. Now, although breast cancer, and I'm seeing this specifically in my practice as well, but breast cancer has the highest number of these incident cases and what we would consider early onset, like that's just earlier than what we would expect to see in cancer. But in addition to breast cancer, we're also seeing this in gastrointestinal cancers. So we're seeing younger and younger people getting colon, rectal, stomach, esophageal, even appendix and bile duct cancers, we're seeing more of those. The gastrointestinal cancers actually have the fastest growing incidence rate. So more and more people. Like one in five new cases of colorectal cancer in the US at this point in time is occurring in people younger than 55. And that rate has almost doubled over the past three decades. That's according to the American Cancer Society. So, as I mentioned just a minute ago, traditionally cancer has been a disease of aging, with the rate of normally the rate of cancer tripling over the age of 60. So as we get into our later years, we have three times the rate of getting cancer. This will make more sense when I dive into the why in just a minute. And I would say overall, this is still true, but since the 90s, cancer among older adults is dropping and cancer among people under 50 is going up. So that is like the biggest problem. Like basically, people are aging earlier. If we think of cancer as a disease of aging, then that means like people's cells are aging faster.

What Cancer Actually Is

SPEAKER_00 4:02

So, first, before we talk about the reasons why, let's talk about what cancer is, just to make sure, again, we all understand. I don't want to make any assumptions. I think we're all coming here with a different base level of what we know. Cancer is technically a like the definition of cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell proliferation. And proliferation just means like growth and spread, right? Cells grow and spread to other parts of the body. And it happens typically when the genetic information in our cell, which is the information that's responsible for keeping cell growth in check, becomes damaged. This explains why historically, as cells age, we're more likely to get damage to our cells, to our DNA or mutations. Like we're they're more vulnerable to these influences. And over time, we tend to acquire more and more mutations, which could, again, put us at risk for cancer. But as I alluded to just a few minutes ago, the concerning aspect now is that people's cells and bodies are aging quicker, resulting in more opportunities for DNA damage. And I would say another big thing here. So we have like more damage to the cells happening, and we're going to talk about why again in just a second. But also our primary system of cancer prevention, right? If you remember me speaking about this within my dad's story, the immune system is not working as well. So we have less than ideal functioning of the immune system, which is supposed to help catch any damaged precancerous cells before they become a problem. And we have more damage happening to the cells. So it's this combination that is creating cancer, especially in younger people. But I'm going to continue to say this over and over again because I feel like it's just so important that if we understand the why, we can stop the

Immune System’s Crucial Role

SPEAKER_00 6:01

cascade, right? We can change the environment. We can reduce the things that are damaging our cells. We can improve the functioning of the immune system. We have control. We have more control than we think in what's happening in our body, but we just have to know, like we have to know what it is, right? We're not just like coming into the world knowing these things. We have to learn and we have to identify where in our lives we might be at risk. So, not asking why is really preventing us from changing the statistics on cancer. This is why my focus and my practice is focused on the why. All right, so hopefully that makes sense to everyone. And let's talk about the why. So I've really narrowed this down just in my framework and the way I think about it, the way I teach about it, the way I help my clients work through it and identify their own personal unique whys, is I've lumped them into three categories. So there's three factors that can influence our risk for cancer. And the interplay between these three factors plays a really big role in why one person gets cancer and somebody else doesn't, even though what they've been exposed to may be very similar. I call it my three E's because they each start with an E. So we're gonna start with emotions is one. That's one bucket. Environment is another bucket. And then epigenetics is the third bucket. So let's start with emotions. This is not a category that is talked about very often. Certainly when you go into traditional oncology office and maybe you do like an intake form. Nobody's asking you, or I shouldn't say nobody. Maybe there are some doctors out there who are doing this, but I think it's rare. Are you being asked about your emotions? Are you being asked about your stress, your trauma, like your history, right? Your emotional health. This isn't being asked about. And yet it actually plays a really big role in our environment, right? The environment of our body that

The Framework: Three E’s

SPEAKER_00 8:12

could allow cancer to grow. So this includes, when I say emotions, it includes emotional wellness, but it also includes your level, the level of stress in your life. It includes trauma, your history around trauma, and it includes your energy, your frequency. As you will learn, if you're new with me, I love combining science with woo. And woo is like energy and frequency and like the stuff we can't see. I love combining this because as I've learned over the years, and after working with people for over a decade, that actually the woo, the energy, the frequency, the emotions plays a really big role in whether we heal and stay healthy. So a few things I want to mention. And like I said in the last episode, I want to give you the overarching framework so you have a sense of like where we're going. But we're gonna talk about all of these in much more detail as we go because we could take each piece and just like really dive in. So we're not gonna do that today. I want to give you high level today, but just know we're gonna get more nitty-gritty as time goes on. Okay. So under the category of emotions, so we have stress directly suppresses the immune system. Remember, that's our primary defense against cancer. So when we're in a chronic stress state, chronic fight or flight, which so many people are, like it's just a consequence of modern day living for many people. This is going to create burden on our immune system. It is also gonna interfere with our sleep. Our sleep is a critical time for when we heal, when we repair, when the body is actually like looking for these precancerous cells and getting rid of them. That happens when we're sleeping. If we're not sleeping well, that's like a very important period of time that is not gonna help us stay cancer free. It also stress also raises inflammation in the body. It can raise blood sugar levels in the body. Again, you'll learn about this more as we go.

Emotions: Stress, Trauma, Sleep

SPEAKER_00 10:16

But those systems create an environment that cancer is very happy to be in. Cancer loves lots of blood sugar. Cancer loves inflammation. Cancer loves when the immune system is burdened and it's not like patrolling, right, as well as it should. Now, that's the stress component. Then there's also the traumas, the wounds, which again, most of us have. The suppressed emotions. This is there's a lot of really interesting research. I will save this for another podcast to go into like the science behind this, but there is some very interesting research around how suppressing emotions, especially around anger, has shown links to increased cancer risk. So there are certain personality traits where you might be more inclined to not express yourself, right? Suppress anger or to not speak your truth, to not advocate for yourself. We'll talk about the cancer personality, because there, again, there's been some science around this, which is really interesting. We'll talk about this more in a future episode. But there are, if you happen to have some of these or all of these personality traits, then it creates an emotional blueprint that when now that person is exposed to stress or exposed to something traumatic in their life, that creates a cascade, right? That makes them more susceptible to cancer. It's fascinating. So when we think about the reasons why, and we'll talk about that in the next episode. The how, what do we do with this information? How do we actually implement it into a plan to keep us healthy and cancer free? We have to assess your emotional health. Then we move into environment. Okay. And environment includes, yes, the external environment that you're exposed to, right? What is in your environment, but it also is including your diet. It includes your lifestyle. Like in my thinking around this is all part of your environment. So your diet, what is coming into your body, right? Is there enough of the right stuff coming in? Maybe not. Maybe you're not eating horribly, but you're just not getting enough of the good things that can help you stay healthy. Or maybe it's not as healthy as you would like it to be. And I could probably use quotes around healthy because I think that's relative. Again, we will dive much deeper into anti-cancer diet as we go. So there's a lot of ultra-processed foods coming in, a lot of sugar, a lot of alcohol, pesticides, et cetera. That is influencing the environment of your body. And that can increase risk for cancer. Lifestyle practices, lifestyle habits, not getting good sleep, having high stress, not moving, lack of exercise, or even just being outside in nature. You'll learn more in episode three about our pillars of wellness, our pillars of healing. But being in nature is a really important pillar, right? Using the earth as part of our medicine is a really important part. And so many people just don't spend any time outside. Disrupted circadian rhythms, which is obviously going to influence sleep, right? But circadian rhythms in and of themselves are a really important factor in keeping us healthy and cancer free. And then there's just the, then there's the actual environment, right? The sheer volume of things that you may be exposed to. And I will say, just to give you a few statistics around this because I think it's mind-blowing, what we are exposed to now compared to our ancestors, is staggering. It's like not the same world at all. 84,000 chemicals have been introduced into the environment since 1990. Fewer than 1% of those have actually been tested for safety. Right. And within those 1%, we already know that many of them are carcinogenic, which means they can create cancer cells. They can cause DNA damage to the cell, right? And turn it, make it cancerous. That alone, that's not the only reason, but that alone could explain why cancer rates are rising in younger and younger people since the 90s, right? 84,000 chemicals. Now, an alarming statistic in a study by the Environmental Working Group. If you're not familiar with them, I highly recommend going to their website, ewg.org.

Environment: Diet, Lifestyle, Toxins

SPEAKER_00 14:57

They have a wealth of information and helping you change your environment, helping you live a less toxic life. But a statistic that they found in collaboration with Commonweal is that the average newborn born today has two, has almost 300, 287, 287 known toxins in their umbilical cord blood before they even take their first breath. And that's just, and again, this is not putting any fault on the mother. I have two children. I'm sure my kids came into the world with a lot more toxins than I came into the world with. And that is just because of what we're exposed to, what we just don't even have control over. So our environment is a really big factor. And this could be anything from what we're putting on our body, right? So cosmetics, body care products, hair care products, nail polish, dyes, all the things. What we're cleaning our clothes in, what we're cleaning our house with, what's in our car, like that new car smell, right? From our furniture. I mean, from everything at the office, like everywhere, outside, in the air, in the water. So much we don't, so much we don't have control over. But I'm gonna teach you how we can lower our toxic burden while enhancing our body's ability to clear toxins. Because of course it's never gonna be at zero. And it doesn't need to be. Our bodies actually do a really good job as long as it's within a balance that they can handle and as it hasn't overwhelmed the system. Now, the biggest problem here with environment is that all of these things lead to immune dysfunction. And remember, the immune system, our primary defense against cancer. So we have these this, the inputs coming in that could be damaging the DNA. And then these inputs over time are creating immune dysfunction, which now our system to help catch these cells early is not working as well. Some other things that can also lead to a dysfunctional immune system. And we'll again spend a lot more time talking about this because it's fascinating and very important information. But things like leaky gut and microbiome dysbiosis, chronic infections, that was one of the things for my dad that we didn't know about. Low vitamin D. Vitamin D is a really important factor in immune function. Your circadian rhythms are as well. Getting good sleep is as well, right? But just something else I hadn't mentioned yet. Viral load. Even COVID spike protein exposure. And that I'm gonna keep for an episode all on its own because it is so fascinating and so important for us to understand how even that one new thing being introduced into our bodies could explain some of the increase that we're seeing in younger and younger people. Okay, so we have the emotion bucket, we have the environment bucket, and then here's where the interplay really matters is the genetics, the epigenetics, because this is the blueprint you came into the world with, right? And it provides us with clues on how your systems of cancer prevention are set up to function. This is why one person could have maybe the same environment, but different genetics, and their risk for cancer is going to be different. This is not like the traditional way of thinking about genetics, where it's, oh, you were born with this BRACA mutation and now you have an increased risk. That is not what we're talking about. We're talking about just how is your DNA structured to like how well do you detoxify? How well do you anti-inflame or methylate? How well do you antioxidate? How well do you clear hormones? Those systems are really important when we're trying to decrease our risks for cancer. And the epigenetics part just means that once we know what your blueprint is, like what did you come into the world with, then we can bring in strategies, whether that's with food or specific lifestyle practices or even supplements that can then change how the gene is expressed, that we have control over it, right? It's not necessarily our destiny. We just need to understand what to do with that information. Hopefully that makes sense. And then it also makes sense why you could have same exposures, let's say be George Burns and like smoke and drink every day and still live to 100, where somebody else gets cancer in their 20s, smoking and drinking every day. A lot of that has to do with the overall load in the body, how well the body can clear what it's being exposed to. That has to do with your genetics and just the overarching load, how well your immune system is on the lookout for these things. And then what is the emotional framework, right? Are you also under high stress? Are you also dealing with suppressed emotions or trauma that's like weighing on you? So now that's also impacting, right? So to me, it's really about how these areas impact each other. And so what I want to teach with this podcast and when I work with people with coaching is to really first help you understand your why by going through each of those three buckets, going through the emotional history, the environmental

Toxic Load And Immune Dysfunction

SPEAKER_00 20:20

exposures, your genetics, your DNA. We do testing, we do assessments, we have strategies to help you get a really clear picture of, okay, this is my risk profile, right? This is where I am, whether I'm currently dealing with cancer or not. This is where I'm at my weakest, my weak links, if you will. And then from that, we can create the how, right? The next steps of okay, what do we do with that information? How do we now change that reality, change the environment in the body so that we have less DNA damage, right? Less cellular aging, a stronger immune system, less toxic burden, stronger detox pathways, all these things that are going to help us stay healthy and stay cancer free. And the cool part is when we take steps to help ourselves heal and stay cancer free, we are also helping our longevity just in general, right? We're helping decrease our risks for all disease, for aging. It doesn't mean we won't age, of course we will, but slower, right? We'll go into old age healthier. Isn't that what we all want? It's what I want. And this is another reason I do this work, is because not only of what I've seen in my own family and with the people that I've worked with, but also for me and my husband and my kids, I don't want us to get cancer. I want to do all these things now so that we can age healthy and cancer free. So in the next episode, we will dive into the how. Knowing the cause is the first half of the equation. And that's what we talked about today. The other half is knowing what to do about it. Okay. And I'm going to talk about my sort of unique approach around really bringing in a holistic strategy of what to do about it, how we need to treat the cancer, but we also need to heal. We need to heal the body, the mind, the spirit so that we can stay cancer free so that new cancer doesn't grow. That's what we'll be talking about then. Thank you so much for being here. When you're ready, I will see you in the next episode.