I Think I Have Pancreatic Cancer?

[Birdhil]

I have a family history of Diabetes. I am 25, and have had a high sugar diet for the past 24 years. I am getting worried and am scared to go to the doctor to find out I have pancreatic cancer. Ive smoked for the past 8 years. Plan and am making progress quitting. I have let stress get the best of me and have had frequent and i mean regularly relations with girlfriends. Im scared I might have this condition or diabetes at an early age. Lately I have been looking at symptoms and have a history of being paranoid about having problems. I have a poor diet of sugars like oatmeal cookies, breads or sweets of that nature, and cookies, and just sugars in so many forms. I have recently picked up a healthier diet but dont find it fulfilling. dont know if my body is reacting to the new diet or if i have something wrong with me, which im scared might be serious. When I say stress I mean anger stress. Im 135 lbs., 5'7", hispanic male. I have played sports in my time in school, and exercised regularly in different times of the year like in random patterns. I just need some direction, i do have not pain but like just a weird feeling on my left side upper ab or right under nipple area under the rib cage if that helps. And lately I been going to the restroom a lot bowel movement manner. Someone give me some inspiration.

[Fulaton]

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RE:

I think I have Pancreatic Cancer?

I have a family history of Diabetes. I am 25, and have had a high sugar diet for the past 24 years. I am getting worried and am scared to go to the doctor to find out I have pancreatic cancer. Ive smoked for the past 8 years. Plan and am making progress quitting. I have let stress get the best of...

[Seabert]

You don't know how much you just made my life a lot easier. Thank you both for your comments. I honestly think it is anxiety. I have begun to pick up better habits recently and from this info i received, you guys made this a lot easier on me. I will seek this natural method of treatment because I have also picked up not using medicines for any sickness. Just home remedies for head aches or colds. I have just gotten over illnesses with time. Thanks again, I will sleep with more piece of mind.

[Daibhidh]

Life expectancy is 85, so he has already exceeded that. The oldest living man is only 114, so with perfect health he might manage another 20 ears. However he has far from perfect health. When my cousin who was in the prime of his life was diagnosed with liver cancer at the age of 20, he survived less than a year His liver cancer is already stage 4 if it has spread to the pancreas, there is little treatment other than to make his remaining time comfortable.

[Lazzaro]

I'm quite sure you don't have any kind of cancer. Healthy 25-year-olds just don't get cancer, in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. Cancer is a disease of age, and tumors typically take 30+ years to develop - so you haven't even been alive long enough to get it!

Your weight is healthy - bordering on underweight - so you aren't at risk of diabetes and your body is handling your current diet fine. People in their twenties can generally eat what they like and be perfectly healthy. Again, diabetes is a disease of age. Type II is rarely detected until at least the 40s.

What is going on here is psychological. The mind is a very powerful thing, and once you start to worry about your health, it can produce the associated symptoms to try and scare you. If you're worried about your pancreas.... boom, it produces twinges in that general area. But abdominal twinges are not a sign of cancer. Most cancers are painless.

The fact that you're going to the bathroom a lot suggests to me you have anxiety issues. Anxiety floods your system with adrenaline, which speeds up all your systems - heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and bowel movements.

Anxiety often manifests as health anxiety / hypochondria. So look into getting your anxiety treated - not through medication, but through relaxation techniques (yoga, meditation), or Cognitive Behaviourial Therapy (CBT).

Health anxiety is extremely common in people in their 20s and 30s (those least likely to be ill!), and a good CBT practitioner can help you correct your faulty thinking so you stop worrying about your health and enjoy your youth. Google CBT with the name of your city, and you should get some useful results.

Good luck!

EDIT: @ Mrs. Miller, yes, of course young people CAN get cancer, the same way people can smoke 40 a day, eat rubbish, and mainline whiskey, yet still live to 100.... but the point is it is very uncommon!

Children who die from cancers are born with these cancers, and they are VERY rare. As this guy has reached 25 without dying, he obviously didn't / doesn't have an inborn cancer.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but you must emphasize / realize how rare this is. It is very VERY rare to get any kind of fatal disease in your twenties. Such diseases are all but unheard of in 25-year-olds.

This guy has health anxiety. So the last thing he needs is ominous scare stories about the very rare exceptions where people of his age get seriously ill. We agree there is nothing wrong with him, so let's concentrate on that!

[denys]

I actually disagree with Parakeet. Yes, while it takes a while to get lung cancer solely from smoking, young people can get cancer. A lot of children die from leukemia every year. I had a 27 year old friend recently die from tongue cancer. And yes. Tongue cancer DOES exist.

Same with diabetes. There are two types of diabetes. Type 1 and Type 2.


Type 1 diabetes is called "juvenile diabetes" or early onset diabetes, and anyone of any age can get it. In type 1 diabetes, the body makes little or no insulin, leading to high levels of glucose in the blood

Type 2 diabetes is the one that manifests itself in adults, but more and more young people are being diagnosed with it. In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas makes some insulin but it is not produced in the amount your body needs and it does not work effectively.

Having said all this, there is one thing Parakeet has said that I agree with: I do not think you have either of these diseases.


Your change in diet, and regular change in exercise has changed the way your body "operates". You're eating less junk food, so your body is trying to get it's sugar/fat from elsewhere, which is why you're never really satisfied. Once you get over your sugar cravings (don't give in to them), this feeling will go away, and you'll find that eating nice healthy meals will actually fill you up.

The healthy change in diet, combined with your stress/anxiety about having a disease is enough to send your bowels into overdrive. If you're doing #2's without any pain, I would guess that there's nothing wrong with your pancreas.

I am 27 with a family history of diabetes, heart disease, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer and bowel cancer. I don't smoke, but for most of my life I've had a high sugar high fat diet, and I'm only just starting to change it now. Being pregnant recently, I got all my blood tests, and I don't have diabetes or cancer. Just a really unhealthy lifestyle. (That I'm trying to change).

Making the change is harder than it seems. If you can manage it, your risks of getting the diseases in your family history go down significantly.

Good luck.

[Annawon]

I am not sure how did you imagine that you have a pancreatic cancer! Family history of diabetes puts you at a higher risk of diabetes. But eating sugars doesn't by itself lead to diabetes, it's the overall lifestyle which can. But how did you conclude you probably have pancreatic cancer! I think it's being paranoid which needs to be addressed. The frequent bowel movement could be all irritable bowel syndrome due to stress!