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A podcast by millennials, for millennials, covering health challenges unique to Gen Y. Get expert insights, practical patient advice, and inspiring survivor stories to help you make informed healthcare choices. Empower your journey with YMyHealth!
Melissa Schenkman (00:42)
It's Melissa. It's March. Hard to believe that it's already March, I know, for so many of us. It just seems like yesterday, or it was the beginning of the new year. At YMyHealth, we are very excited about this month. We have an incredible lineup of podcasts, and also this week are heading on the road to Washington DC and to Crystal City, Virginia, to be with our amazing partners Fight CRC at their Call on Congress event, which is an incredible event for advocacy for all of us for colorectal cancer education and awareness, promoting research, supporting colorectal cancer patients and survivors, as well as caregivers and their families.
And Julie and I are incredibly excited about going. We're going to be recording multiple podcast episodes live and in person, and you'll get to hear those and we'll get to meet several of our contributors in person. So we're very, very excited about this month. And the reason we...
make such a push each year to do colorectal cancer education awareness during colorectal cancer awareness month but also throughout the year is because this is a problem that for a decade now but it seems like even more in the last couple years is really deeply affecting members of our generation specifically and specifically people under the age of 50.
It used to be that colorectal cancer was thought of as an old person's disease and that is absolutely not the case anymore and so I just want to give you a couple of statistics as we start this month to understand really the scope on what a big problem colorectal cancer is in people under age 50 and why it is so incredibly important to educate yourself about the signs and symptoms and go and find out if you were due for a screening based on family history.
For example, even though the screening age per person average risk right now is 45 years old, if you have a family member who has had colorectal cancer or has had colon polyps show up on their colonoscopy, you actually should be getting your first screening 10 years prior to when they first had those polyps or colorectal cancer show up.
So I just want to give you to start the month some perspective on how big of a problem colorectal cancer is in people under the age of 50 and why it is so incredibly important for each of us to know the signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer and if we see them, to go to our doctor and also to know our own family history, right?
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (03:05)
So lots of important pieces of information for all of us to know and be aware of. So three really important statistics that highlight what a big problem this is. So the first is that the incidence of early onset colorectal cancer, so early onset being people under the age of 50 like us, is expected to increase by more than 140 % by 2030. And all of us know what year we're in, right? We're in 2025, so that's five years away, which is not a long time.
Also, more than 27,000 people under the age of 50 are predicted to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer by 2030. And now, among adults under age 50, colorectal cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in men and the number two in women for people under age 50. So this is something that is affecting a lot of people in our generation. And if you don't personally know someone yet, if you're not personally affected yet,
It is possible that at some point with these numbers, you will know somebody or you possibly could be affected. And that's why we have to really have this on our radar and talk about it. And we have just a great lineup for you this month. So first, our episode that is coming up after this episode, episode 16 is an episode where we're going to be highlighting age disparities, which is something that millennials are facing, obviously with the colorectal cancer screening age being 45.
But just in our journey to both navigate prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer. So we're going to be talking to each disparities with Dr. Fola May. This is going to be one from the archive. It is one of our most popular Instagram lives that we did incredibly informative.
Dr. May is a fellow millennial and she is the associate professor of medicine and UCLA's division of Digestive Diseases, the associate director of UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity and the director of the May Lab at UCLA as well as on the Fight Colorectal Cancer Board of Directors, which is how I had the opportunity to get connected with her.
So very excited to bring to you in episode 16, kind of the evolution of the lowered colorectal cancer screening age, age-related healthcare disparities that millennials are facing, talk about genetic testing, and we also talk about new screening methods and new research that's out there. So definitely stay tuned for that one.
Episode 17 (05:24)
In episode 17, it's our March Mental Health Monday episode, and we're going to talk about the intersection between mental health and chronic disease, and specifically, scanxiety. I bet a lot of you out there, probably it's 50-50, some have heard of scanxiety, others have never heard of this before, but very few people talk about this.
And what that is is this anxiety that people sometimes have when it comes to medical tests and screening. And this is something that so many of our YMI Health contributors who are cancer survivors have spoken with us about, and there's just not that much coverage on it. And so Julie and I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about this, not only in relation to it being Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, but even more broadly with chronic conditions, which so many millennials face. So we are going to be talking with Valerie Johnson…
who is about to get her master's in clinical mental health counseling in May, but she has had a wealth of experience in her training in relation to chronic disease in younger people. She even did her master's research looking at autoimmune disease and presented her work at the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
So we are super excited to have Valerie to really dive into what scanxiety is, what are some tools that all of us can use to take and help us both as we approach medical appointments and scans, but also during that waiting period as we balance other stressors that we have in our life. So very excited for that one.
Then in episode 18, we are going to have fight CRC ambassador Jennifer French, who Julie and I will be talking with in person at the call on Congress event recording this episode. And Jennifer is going to bring the caregiver perspective to the colorectal cancer experience, her wife.
She was diagnosed with stage four at 32 years old and we were really looking forward to learning from Jennifer and hearing her story.
Next in episode 19, we are going to have our monthly research spotlight this month being on colorectal cancer research. And we will be featuring Allison Rosen, who is a colorectal cancer survivor herself, as well as a fight CRC ambassador, who is a member of fight CRCs research, advocacy, training and support program and is a current advocate in that program.
Episode 20 (07:37)
In episode 20, in honor of World Alloimmunization Day, which is held in March, we are going to be having an episode that's dedicated to owl immunization and hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. And owl immunization, specifically maternal owl immunization, is this rare disease of pregnancy that occurs when a woman makes red blood cell antibodies after being exposed to a blood type that is different than her own from her fetus. And these antibodies can cross the placenta and attack
her unborn child, unfortunately. And so there are some really devastating consequences of that, including blood transfusions for the baby even after delivery. And so we are honored to have Katie Shanahan in this episode. We will be featuring her. She's the Director of Development at the Allo Hope Foundation and also a mom who first hand experienced all immunization during her pregnancy.
The Allo Hope Foundation that Katie works with is the longest running organization founded to offer resources and support that is geared specifically towards alloimmunized women and patients who have experienced hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. And so Katie is going to share her personal story with alloimmunization as well as talk to us about her involvement with Allo Hope and the wonderful work that the Allo Hope Foundation is doing.
In episode 21, Katie will be back to join us. And this time we're in this mini episode going to discuss the concerning trend of women refusing RhoGAM shots and the consequences of this. And yes, we hear about vaccine hesitancy when it comes to flu shots and COVID shots, but a lot of people don't know that that has really extended into the world of pregnancy with the hesitancy of taking this very important shot that can prevent aloe immunization.
And so we're going to talk about that and also provide you with some resources to look into if you are on the fence about getting the rogaine shot or you know someone who is.
In episode 22, we are going to turn to the world of telemedicine as we look into ways of navigating our healthcare system that are more efficient for us. In this episode, our podcast sponsor, Dr. Sarah Diekman, who is the director of Diekman Dysautonomia, is going to join us and she's going to dive into how you can navigate telemedicine as a patient, things that you might not know, and what can really be beneficial to…
Episode 22 (09:56)
individuals in our generation to be able to get better access to care. And we're going to wrap up the month with a Q &A episode, both Julie and myself, that is dedicated solely to your questions about all the different podcast episodes we've had so far. But we need you to make this happen.
So, no question is too big or too small. We would like you to email us with any of the questions you've had about the episodes and we will take ones that are very specific to a condition or something for a contributor to our actual contributors and get those answers for you in this episode, as well as any questions that you have for us. So in order to do that, make sure to email us your questions.
This episode is going to be held March 31st, so at least a week before then would be fantastic. And you can email us those questions at ymyhealthpodcast@gmail.com and all the YMyHealth Podcast are lowercase and I will put that in the show notes, but please make sure to do that.
If you're looking for more YMyHealth materials this month that focus on different health awarenesses, first of all, make sure you're following us on Instagram @ymyhealth_. On our Instagram this month, we are going to be offering several pieces of content that are dedicated to health awarenesses for March.
We will be having content dedicated to Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day, which is a hereditary condition that can increase your risk of whole rectal cancer and endometrial cancer and several others. We will also have content dedicated to National Sleep Awareness Week. We all know that we would like to all get better sleep, so stay tuned for information on that. And then also we'll have materials dedicated to National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, which is in the month of March. Looking for ways to support YMyHealth's work? We would be so appreciative of your support.
Two ways that you can go about supporting us, one is by checking out our Patreon channel. On Patreon, we offer ad-free content access, bonus members-only content, and behind-the-scenes access. So consider a subscription there and check out our page. Also, if you're interested in becoming a sponsor of the YMyHealth podcast, we would love to hear from you. We have different packages available for doing that. Currently, Diekman Dysautonomia is one of our sponsors, and you can check out both our show notes and view listen within our longer…episodes, you can hear the commercial that we do for Diekman Dysautonomia to give you an idea of some of the sponsorship offerings.
Interested in becoming a sponsor? You can also email us at ymyhealthpodcast@gmail.com. So a very exciting month planned and we are really looking forward to bringing you some amazing content and we hope to hear from you soon.