A chest surgeon at Stanford University School of Medicine recently uncovered a HUGE reason why we haven’t made more progress in the “war on cancer” in the last 50 years.
And the reason has NOTHING to do with our supposed “bad habits”—such as following a poor diet, drinking alcohol, or smoking.
Instead, it involves how our healthcare system FAILS to serve the people who need it most. (The ones the “experts” don’t talk or worry about.)
A dirty little secret behind cancer diagnoses
Despite funneling absurd amounts of money, time, and technology into researching the causes, treatments, and screening programs for cancer, we have made little-to-no progress against this deadly disease.
For example, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) alone spends more than $6 billion in taxpayer dollars, per year, on the disease!
But, clearly, they’ve been asleep at the wheel…for decades.
Because Dr. Joseph Shrager, the chest surgeon I mentioned above, recently uncovered something all the teams of government researchers around the country have missed for decades.
He noticed that an unusually large number of his lung cancer patients were EXACTLY 65 years old when they were diagnosed with the disease!
Sensing that something wasn’t right, Dr. Shrager asked his colleagues if they had noticed the same trend. And it turns out, they had noticed it, too. In fact, their own internal data showed a 200 percent (twofold) increase in lung cancer surgeries for people exactly 65-years-old compared to 64-year-olds.
So, then, Shrager and a group of his colleagues delved into the huge, costly Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database—a publicly funded national database that has been collecting data on cancer patients from 18 different geographic registries for decades (while ignoring key statistics like this one!). And here’s what they found…
Up to a 700 percent increase in cancer diagnoses exactly at age 65
Not only was there a sudden and significant increase in the diagnosis of lung cancers…but also of breast, colon, and prostate cancers…among people who were EXACTLY 65 years old.
Shrager and his team then broadened their analysis to include people between the ages of 60 to 69 years who were diagnosed with lung cancer as well as breast, colon, and prostate cancer. (They’re the four most common cancers in the U.S.)
Overall, they found that the increase in new cases of these four cancers was higher at the transition from age 64 to 65 years compared to any other one-year interval.
When it came to lung cancer, specifically, cases increased by about 3 to 4 percent each year for people between the ages of 61 and 64 years. But then—suddenly—at age 65, new cases jumped by more than 8 percent in just one year!
Likewise, the researchers noticed similar, but smaller jumps for breast cancers in women and prostate cancers in men for most of the years between 60 and 69. But at age 65, specifically, new cases jumped by a much higher amount.
The trend for colon cancer was perhaps the most shocking to uncover…
New cases of colon cancer increased by 1 to 2 percent per year for most of the years between ages 60 and 69. But then again—suddenly—at age 65, the numbers of new cases jumped by 15 percent. (That’s a seven-fold, or 700 percent, increase!)
Shrager and the other chest physicians think they know why there’s such a sudden, huge jump in cases of these four major cancers, including deadly lung cancers, when people turn 65…
It’s when they finally become eligible for Medicare.
Now, I’m not surprised that many cancers are caught once people enter Medicare. In fact, I personally went on Medicare recently. And my own first Medicare intake exam was the most thorough medical examination I’ve had since my entry exam to train to become a pilot/astronaut for the U.S. Air Force Academy, nearly 50 years before. And the U.S. government paid for them both.
But here’s the problem…
It seems many people, even if they have private insurance before turning 65, wait until they become eligible for Medicare to undergo important cancer-related diagnostic and therapeutic interventions…because of the exorbitant out-of-pocket costs.
Worse yet, up to 25 percent of people between the ages of 61 to 64 years are totally uninsured. And it’s during this very period in life that cancer rates begin to rise the most!
Dr. Shrager said this finding indicates that the U.S. health insurance system is an “incredible disaster”…
We funnel billions and billions of dollars into cancer research each year with statistical programs like SEER (which don’t seem to “see” much of anything that really matters to doctors and patients, as I warned about breast cancer in women recently).
But just when Americans need insurance coverage the MOST, up to a quarter of them don’t have it.
Plus, we’re now burdened with the hugely expensive, cumbersome, taxpayer-funded Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the Obama administration tried to claim would fix these kinds of problems.
But clearly—it didn’t.
Not to mention…what exactly have the cancer “experts” been studying all these years in the national SEER database, since they shamefully missed this clear and obvious problem that’s been staring them in the face for decades?!
Now more than ever, be your own advocate
Dr. Shrager’s shocking discovery just goes to show how important it is to be your own health advocate. We simply can’t rely on the mainstream medical system to look out for and protect us.
So, if you or someone you know is at risk of developing any type of cancer, talk about it with a trusted primary care physician who listens to you as an individual—no matter what your age.
(Of course, as I mentioned, once you hit age 65, Medicare covers routine cancer screenings. But depending on your personal medical history, you may want to consider getting examined at an earlier age.)
Fortunately, there are dozens of safe, natural approaches to help prevent, detect, AND treat ALL types of cancer as you age, including breast, colon, lung, and prostate. I’ve outlined them all in my groundbreaking online learning tool, my Authentic Anti-Cancer Protocol. To learn more, or to enroll today, click here now!
Sources:
“Cancer diagnoses and survival rise as 65-year-olds become Medicare-eligible.” Cancer, 7/1/21; 127(13): 2302-2310. doi.org/10.1002/cncr.33498
“Cancer Diagnoses Jump at 65 Years When Medicare Kicks In.” Medscape, 4/7/21. (medscape.com/viewarticle/948894)
“The Cancer Industry: Hype vs. Reality.” Scientific American, 2/12/20. (blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/the-cancer-industry-hype-vs-reality/)