Is Alcohol To Blame For Rising Cancer Rates In Asians?

Cancer rates amongst Asian-Americans are soaring right now. But what is the reason? Is alcohol to blame? Yeah, of course this is going viral in the Asian community right now. We got to talk about it, Andrew. What does the study say? Because you could say this is serious news. I mean, there's multiple studies. So there's actually two news articles that coincide with each other. One from NexShark that said, well, you know what? Asians are at a higher chance of cancer because they turn red when they drink. And not all Asians turn red, but about 50% of East Asians do. Specifically esophagus cancer, right? Or liver issues. Right. And then there's another article that also came out, and I don't know if they put them out at the same time, but I guess cancer rates amongst Asian-Americans are soaring. Amongst women, it is mostly breast cancer. Amongst men, it's mostly liver cancer. And Asian-Americans are the only group of them all to have cancer as the number one cause of death versus heart disease, which is what it is for other groups. So really just all in all, Andrew, just terrible news, right? Yeah, we're kind of, I guess Asians, I don't want to say Asians get cancer more than other people, but at least the numbers are rising. So we got to talk about it. So please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the Hop Out Boys and let me know if you like the commentary and the news that we cover. All right, Andrew, what are some quick thoughts that you have? Because like this is something that's, we're not medical professionals. We're not subject matter experts. I just read the studies like everybody else. And I got sent this a bunch of times on Instagram. Yeah, I mean, listen, Asians turning red and that not being a good thing. I don't think that's news to anybody, right? Like if you turn red and you get itchy when you take one shot of alcohol or you get one beer and you, you probably shouldn't drink that much alcohol. You're saying if your body cannot naturally break down as a hell to hide, that's not good. David, I'm saying if your entire body changes colors when you consume something, you might be allergic to it. Okay, yeah. Do you think that these studies repeatedly that have come out over the years, and right now we're specifically talking about the first article, which is referring to alcohol consumption, Asians turning red, Native Americans do as well, some portion of them. Has this changed behavior? Because I've seen these articles for 10 years, maybe 15 years now. Yeah, well, I don't want to say like the rise of cancer amongst Asians is only due to alcohol. I don't want to make that link because I'm not the scientist to make that link, but it probably can't help because liver cancer is still on the board for a lot of Asian American men. I mean, if you look at it, Asian Americans are 6% of the American population. They make up 10% of cancer patients. So they're slightly overrepresented. We all know Asians are overrepresented in academia, in the medical field, things like that, but also in the bad field of cancer patients. And then also Asian Americans saw a 32% rise amongst cancer rates amongst younger people, which is below 50 years old. But a lot of people, there was a lot of debate in the comment section saying, maybe Asians are just getting better healthcare where there's more cancer detection, whereas prior it wasn't even detected. So like we said, guys, I think there's a lot of arguments going back and forth. Obviously, this is something that impacts people's lives a lot. My general thing is like, I don't know if Asians are going to stop consuming alcohol due to these studies because it's dopamine release. Everybody's living way more short-term, short-term incentivized, like fun-filled lives than previous generations ever lived. And if that was to come at like a five-year life expectancy decrease, I think that people would take it, right? They like their smartphones, they like their burnt meats, they like their things, right? Yeah, yeah. And then also I feel like, and we're going to get into the comment section, but I feel like that Asians kind of need alcohol maybe more than other groups because they kind of need the social lubricant. At least Asians in America because maybe it's more of a Confucian culture or like they're not as extroverted. So like to come around, be around each other and have fun, they might feel like they need shots of soju, sake, Heineken, you know, Baijiu, things like that. Hennessy. Yeah, Hennessy, right? Not all of those are actually Asian alcohols, but you know what I mean, Asians drink it. And you know what? This is a last point. This is almost a life philosophical thing about YOLO. Everybody knows somebody or at least knows somebody who knows somebody who probably never ate anything bad, was a vegan, only did the right like quote-unquote like super moral things in life and may have tragically died in a car accident or something like that. I think that those things actually affect people's mindset about how they conduct their own life as well. Anyway, Andrew, let's just get into the comment section. Somebody said, I'm happy to know that there are 550 million other people in the world just like me, lighting up red like a Christmas tree when I have two drinks. David, you light up red when you drink. Yeah, I light up more red than even your average person lights up red. You light up even a little bit more red than me. We both light up. And yeah, I don't drink as much alcohol nowadays. Yeah, I think if I could handle my alcohol without feeling flush and like all bloated, as quick as I do, I probably would drink more. But David, we also have a very tall British friend who can handle, he probably takes 20 shots a night when he does go drinking. Yeah, yeah. Which is insane. He's gigantic. That would kill me. Yeah. That would literally kill me. Somebody said, we are doomed. And then somebody said, yep, we're all just here for a good time, not a long time. Somebody else said, you know what? I've never had the Asian glow and I've never had to worry about it. It is actually true, Andrew. Only like 35 to 45% of Asians, depending on which population you're looking at, have the Asian glow at a strong level. And does that mean though, that just because you don't have the Asian glow, that alcohol is not affecting you? Obviously not. Obviously, most people would say like alcohol is not something that you want to drink in high amounts, period, no matter who you are. Somebody said, oh, so you mean that drinking alcohol, which is literally scientifically deemed a toxin, is related to diseases? Who would have thought? I've started to see this like thought process come up a little bit more with the popularity of mocktails, Andrew. I hear that a lot. Somebody said it's just dark liquors for me. I would say personally, you do got to keep it more clear. Oh, oh, okay. I would say there's actually this stat from the Rogel Cancer Center that said, overall, and this is from 2021, although Asian-Americans have a lower cancer rate than white Americans, however, disparities still exist. Asian-Americans are eight to 13 times more likely to develop liver cancer and twice as likely to die from stomach cancer. So this is related to the alcohol-causing liver issues? I would say that liver cancer is probably more related to alcohol consumption. Somebody said, just take Pepcid and you'll be fine. Pepcid AC to the rescue. I mean, other people were promoting Target's generic version of Pepcid AC. It's way cheaper. It's true, guys. I checked it out. What do you think, man? Should people just take Pepcid and avoid this? That way, when you're at your corporate job, which is not going to be all Asians, more than likely, nobody's going to look at you funny at the Christmas party. Here's the thing about Pepcid AC. To me, it's a little bit more of an aesthetic thing. Aesthetically, it does not show you, make you as red, right? It stops the blood from flowing to the top, but I've noticed I have been very, very intoxicated and I've looked in the mirror and been like, oh, I'm not red at all and I keep drinking. So ultimately, you're still going to get drunk and intoxicated and that intoxicated, David, what is the root word in intoxicated? You got toxic in you. So I was still drunk. Somebody says, listen to your body. Asians shouldn't drink. Some Asians were pointing out that they've never drank or they drank a few times and they hated it because they had an allergic reaction. And of course, other people said, wait, wasn't there a bunch of studies that also came out about spicy food, spiking our risk of stomach and colon cancer, as well as tofu and soy, giving this and that risk of breast cancer. So how can I even live my life as an Asian person? Yeah, I think it's tough. If you eat a lot of pickled kimchi, that's hyper spicy and you drink a lot of beer and you do a lot of, like it will stack on each other. But I think a lot of those things, I just realized that everything causes cancer if you do it enough. Diet Coke. Yes, aspartame or aspartame. If you drink too much, but I mean like 10, 15 cans a day over a long period of time, it could develop cancer. You know what I would say? I would say it's important to know these things, but then you got to make decisions for your own life, right? There's microplastics inside our body and stuff. I can see why people don't care. I get it. If we're going to say, I'm going to say I don't really care about the worms in like Atlantic caught salmon. I don't know. It's tough to say, man. It's good to know though. Sometimes the news is designed to scare you. So what about cancer rising overall, Andrew? Some people think it's the vaccine. Some people think it's the microplastics, like you said in our detergents, our floss, refined foods. Is it your phone? Is it the microwave? Right. Is it the computer? Is it people being addicted to cheaply refined foods in a factory that is designed to hit your dopamine and people are addicted to the dopamine? Why are people eating on the inside of the grocery store instead of the outside of the grocery store? Because obviously, you know, on the outside of the grocery store, it's more your veggies, meats, fruits, and I think at the worst, cheeses. And bread. Right, right, right. So why, what is it? I mean, there's a lot of discussion. Some people blamed it on the whitening creams that Asians put on their skin, like skin bleaching or like SK 2000. Who knows, man? There's a lot of slander for everybody. I guess if something changes the color of your skin, it's probably not good to use too much of it over a long period of time. That makes sense. Yeah, I don't know. I guess that's interesting. David, you know, I'm not a scientist, but I think that, you know, you could watch these documentaries on Netflix and they'll tell you that being vegan will cure cancer. I'm not sure about that, but I'm sure it's not horrible for you. So I guess like, but then you got to watch where you get your vegetables from. I think it's tough because Asians, you know, and maybe this is my overall takeaway. I think Asians want to enjoy their life how they want because they, Asians generally, we know across the board, work hard, right? They generally spend a lot of hours on their career making money. I would say that that's generally pretty true. They're concerned with their family, money, career, education. You're not going to see them take a three hour siesta after lunchtime. Yeah, so I think they want to like, I don't know, don't stop eating kimchi, I guess. But maybe like, you know, if you had to go to the doctor for a checkup once for your gastrointestinal problems, maybe you need to tone it down. Look into it, read some articles, go on Reddit, do something, right? Last but not least, someone said, was it an increase in cancer or just an improvement in cancer detection or access to healthcare? Somebody said, oh yeah, sounds like doctors are actually taking POCs issues seriously now, kind of made it a racial thing. That turned into a whole debate. Like I said, I'm not going for it or against it. I mean, I do think that there is a lot of times when you see these studies come out, you have to look at like, are people juking the stats or are they unintentionally juking the stats? Because you don't know, it's true. Detection rates could have went up and that could have accounted for at least a portion of this gigantic ratio increase. Or how about this? My theory, David, a lot of immigrant parents who might be developing cancer, they didn't want to go to the doctors for checkups. A lot of them don't like going to the doctor, at least American doctors. Right, they want their kids to be doctors but they don't want to go to the doctor. Yeah, exactly. So if Asian parents are going to the doctors more, then they are going to have cancer detected more and then it's going to boost the numbers. So is it the fast food? Is it the alcohol? Is it the stress of being an immigrant? Is it the fact that they're just going to the hospital more to get checked up on? It could be all of these things. Right. So you let us know in the comments down below what you think actually, because I'm curious to those people who maybe have family members who develop cancer or whatever. Like, I guess, what was the cause? What do you think? I think everything, you know, as far as my actual takeaway on this whole thing is everything in moderation. I do think these studies are useful to read, especially if you're Asian or you have older Asian parents. I don't want to fear monger in anybody, but I think it's useful to keep track of for sure. And like, you know, if your parents like something a lot, consuming a lot of something that has been deemed like a little bit of a dangerous item or potentially volatile, just talk to them about it. You don't have to, you know, ruin your relationship with them over it. But I think it's okay to bring it up in a nice way. I mean, there's like, I'm pretty sure, man, I love, I used to love eating this snack as the fried dace fish out of the can. Oh my. The Chinese fried dace with the black bean. Okay. There's no way that is good for you. There's a lot of carcinogens in there. It is deep fried. It has got a bunch of salt. It's in a can. It is delicious. And you never even seen that oil that they keep the fried dace in any other product. I don't know what oil that is. So, so yeah, I just, I wouldn't be afraid cause I eat pretty healthy. So I wouldn't be afraid to eat it once, like once a year, once every couple months, maybe. But yeah, anyways, guys, you let me know in the comments down below what you guys think about all this. Is the Asian glow related to the rise in cancer? Maybe there's other factors. What do you think it is? Let us know in the comments down below. Please hit that like button. Let us know if you like the commentary that we share. I will say this. If you can find cheap, good, organic groceries near you, take a look at them. Just take a look. If they're a little bit more expensive, maybe they lack a lot of preservatives or lack a lot of the refined, like processed chemicals. I'm just saying, think about it. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for watching the Hot Pop Boys. Until next time, we out. Peace.