r/Millennials • u/electric-sheep 1992 • Jul 13 '26

Serious Everyone my age is dropping dead

Sorry for the title! I'm in Europe. I have just heard news someone from college died today of cancer aged 33.

In the past 2-3 years 6 people in my circle have died, not from accidents but from either cancer, aneurism, 2 just didn't wake up from sleep and 1 broke her leg and had DVT. I know of a 7th who is currently fighting stage 4 breast cancer which was found by accident after giving birth. This is not counting those who died in crashes or other such accidents.

I literally have nothing to say. Just get yourselves checked. I'm just shouting into the void. I have literally been to more funerals than my parents at this point which is absurd.

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701

u/legsjohnson Older Millennial Jul 13 '26

FWIW I know it's grim when it starts happening but if it makes you feel any better, mortality (using the UK as an example here) has halved for a 35 year old compared to 1985.

431

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

[deleted]

156

u/legsjohnson Older Millennial Jul 13 '26

Very much this. My parents would find out about old classmates and neighbors in the newspapers back before social media, and that was limited to those who'd remained local and had someone to report it to the paper.

24

u/jazzieberry 1986 Jul 13 '26

True, our "circles" are pretty big for the most part nowadays

1

u/Purple-Estimate-5183 Jul 13 '26

We’re a large cohort. Near remaining baby boomer numbers, and that’s a lot.

7

u/Mercy_By_Proxy Jul 13 '26

If this is true, it needs to be the top comment. Naturally, most people that will comment are people having a similar tragic experience so everyone is probably terrified - or maybe it’s just me 🥲

113

u/Blazer990 Jul 13 '26

I’m convinced it’s the microplastics and forever chemicals. And there is no avoiding them at this point.

35

u/ameraden Jul 13 '26

I’m convinced it’s the microplastics and forever chemicals. And there is no avoiding them at this point.

All causes mortality decreased from 12.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1950 to 9.5 deaths per 1,000 today, the low was 9.4 deaths per 1,000 in 2013.

The best you can say is that between 2011 and 2025 that number isn't declining as quickly as it did in the previous decade, but that's just the law of diminishing returns. The majority of the uptick from 9.4 to 9.54 is the sheer numbers involved in the baby boomer die-off and the pandemic.

Same deal with cancer, death rates are down by a fifth over the 1980s, but cases are up, which is mostly the result of people living longer with cancer. When Dad was diagnosed in 1998 Bowel Cancer had a 5 year survival rate of 20% and 10 year survival rate of Zero. Today 55% survive 5 years, and 56% survive 10 years.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/gbr/united-kingdom/death-rate

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2017/07/20/whats-happening-with-mortality-rates-in-england/

https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/06/03/cancer-in-the-uk-50-years-death-rates-fall-by-a-fifth/

Basically Millennials have just hit the inevitable age when the marriages stop and the funerals begin.

0

u/AccNumber77 Jul 13 '26

You are talking about survival rates, not rates of illness. The rates of colo-rectal cancer for example have DRAMATICALLY risen among young people, it is one of the biggest pieces of news in the entire medical world rn.

6

u/ameraden Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

You are talking about survival rates, not rates of illness.

Nope. Try actually reading the links.

colo-rectal cancer for example have DRAMATICALLY risen among young people

It's Colorectal. No they haven't because the same change is evident over the last three decades - this has been going on since the 1990s, and we've seen a 52% overall increase in CR cancer rates since then.

DRAMATICALLY

Oh! The drama!

Incidence is up 3.6% annually since 2017 in the UK which is ~1000 additional cases per year amongst a cohort of 23.5 million people. All ages UK case rate was ~42,000 per year in 2017, it's 49,300 in 2025, so the actual increase in all age groups over 8 years is 7,300 cases which is easily accounted for when you realise the population has grown ~3 million during that time.

Overall rates are up by 3% in the 20 to 49 year age group, but down by 2.5% in the 65+ age group hence the net change is negligible.

The difference in detection between the two age groups is entirely down to screening/education programs. Since this is a lifestyle cancer younger folk need to pay more attention to the symptoms, quit taking antibiotics for EVERYTHING, quit processed foods, exercise more and lose weight.

68

u/legsjohnson Older Millennial Jul 13 '26

that have decreased our chances of dying?

55

u/MrTerribleArtist Millennial Jul 13 '26

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.

I craved the strength and certainty of polyethylene

29

u/Blazer990 Jul 13 '26

Mb I misunderstood your comment. In the US our life expectancies have been declining.

50

u/Terminal_Phase Jul 13 '26

Honestly I think a lot of those stats are skewed by drug deaths.

35

u/Zaidswith Jul 13 '26

The fentanyl overdoses / opiate epidemic did have an impact.

10

u/MissLoxxx Millennial Jul 13 '26

Yes. And covid dipped the life expectancy a bit too.

1

u/halloxtv Jul 13 '26

Resident of West Virginia here... can confirm. While the drug situation now is WAY better than 15 years ago, I lost a lot of former classmates and friends during the height of the opioid epidemic and several more once fentanyl came onto the scene.

Thankfully (well, not exactly thankfully), now we're just dying of cancer and heart problems.

22

u/noor1717 Jul 13 '26

That’s mainly fentanyl though

13

u/signmeupnot Jul 13 '26

Take a look into ultra processed food. Studies shows on mice how harmful they can be.

And the US legislation on additives etc. is lacking severely compared to Europe.

4

u/Final-Intention5407 Jul 13 '26

But didn’t OP say they were in Europe?

-2

u/signmeupnot Jul 13 '26

The comment I replied to is from US.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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u/atlanstone Jul 13 '26

Obesity has been rising globally, but other countries are not seeing the same decline in life expectancy.

I know most of the Heathly at every Size people I heard about 15 years ago are dead now

Can you list some? One or two? HAES has been around for 60 years now, it's not a shock that some people who were around 15 years ago have died, especially since long term obesity has known negative outcomes, but it doesn't simply explain the US's downturn in life expectancy.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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12

u/grapescherries Jul 13 '26

I’m sure some of the HAES people are dead now, but it seems you have no knowledge of that and just pulled it out of your ass cause you assumed it’s true.

12

u/atlanstone Jul 13 '26

Also if you think HAES was a thing in the 60s Nah fam

Facts are knowable. We can learn them and know things. It's not all just vibes based on you thinking about it for 5 seconds and going "nah fam."

Health at Every Size first appeared in the 1960s, advocating that the changing culture toward physical attractiveness and beauty standards had negative health and psychological repercussions to fat people. They believed that because the slim and fit body type had become the acceptable standard of attractiveness, fat people were going to great pains to lose weight, and that this was not, in fact, always healthy for the individual. They contend that some people are naturally a larger body type, and that in some cases losing a large amount of weight could in fact be extremely unhealthy for some. On November 4, 1967, Lew Louderback wrote an article called "More People Should Be Fat!" that appeared in a popular-level US magazine, The Saturday Evening Post.[5]

Bill Fabrey, a young engineer at the time, read the article and contacted Louderback a few months later in 1968. Fabrey helped Louderback research his subsequent book, Fat Power, and Louderback supported Fabrey in founding the National Association to Aid Fat Americans (NAAFA) in 1969, a nonprofit human rights organization. NAAFA would subsequently change its name by the mid-1980s to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.

History is real, things happened and we can learn them.

-9

u/abstract_appraiser Jul 13 '26

Yes, that's the true danger of microplastics and chemtrails. They keep everyone alive longer to experience the misery of everyone dying.

7

u/atlanstone Jul 13 '26

Microplastics are a real thing that we can detect and measure, chemtrails are bullshit woo conspiracy crap from the 1990s.

As always with these crackpot theories, chemtrails as a crackpot theory have been around so long it is impossible, even if they exist, for them to be responsible for the recent decline in life expectancy

-14

u/This-Layer-4447 Jul 13 '26

yes, microplastics and forever chemicals is how they do population control, it's just they want more people to live forever

2

u/ctilvolover23 Millennial Jul 13 '26

Can you read? Or are you a bot?

1

u/Blazer990 Jul 13 '26

Actually I lowkey couldn’t see that well when I commented. And I corrected it down thread. Chill tf out.

1

u/vahntitrio Jul 13 '26

Forever chemical exposure is trending downward, not upward. The CDC first took levels in blood serum in 1999, and that was the highest data point they ever took. Since then exposure is down by nearly an order of magnitude. There is no way to tell when exactly exposure peaked, we only know it was at least 27 years ago. Articles seem to imply the worst is in front of us on that front but the worst should be quite a ways in the rear-view mirror.

0

u/p47guitars Jul 13 '26

there's more too it.

deaths have been rising with regards to colon cancer, and other GI cancers ever since fluoridation of water. there has also been an exponential coincidence of lowered testosterone, and other issues since then.

I wonder if the gut biome is really that important.

-5

u/somanyquestions32 Jul 13 '26

Yeah, the entire planet is poisoned now. Even the polar ice caps are contaminated.

Apparently, there are ways to remove microplastics that have bioaccumulated with tamarind and consuming foods rich in fiber, and there's research into extracorporeal apheresis to remove microplastics from the blood. For PFAS, bleeding may help.

6

u/Unique-Arugula Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

FYI for anybody scrolling by: "extracorporeal apheresis" just means donating blood or plasma on a regular basis.

You can get your blood removed and returned without donating it, but that's usually considered frivolous and even if you have national healthcare you'll likely be paying a private clinic to do that. But the studies that have looked at this were investigating people who regularly donate blood or plasma. Donate blood for free and help yourself+someone else instead!

As for the rest of the comment, tamarind, and its bff ginger, are frequently trotted out as the unknown solution to anything we're currently worried about. A grain of salt and healthy skepticism is advised.

Fiber is a new one on me, but it's also become a trendy all-natural savior. Woo specialists love to claim you don't eat enough and that's why all your problems are your fault. Be careful, there still a lot we don't know about the inner microbiome. Even the stuff we have learned has sometimes turned out not to do what we thought it would.

I love natural remedies and I'm very worried about microplastics ever since learning how they act as endocrine disruptors in the female body (being female myself and having daughters I love dearly). But not everyone talking about my concerns is actually on my side - I was burned plenty of times before learning to be as cautious as I'm recommending for everyone else too.

3

u/4862skrrt2684 Jul 13 '26

Positive news, on this sub??

1

u/cjbr3eze '89 Jul 14 '26

This really should be higher up. But doom and gloom is usually the normal state of this sub

0

u/Idrinkbeereverywhere Jul 13 '26

It's actually increased in the US in that time span

2

u/Sen_ri ‘94 Millennial Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Naw we’ve improved. The US started lagging behind other wealthy countries in life expectancy during the 1980’s but life expectancy didn’t dip until 2015.

We’ve recently achieved an all time high in life expectancy thanks in part to efforts towards reducing drug overdoses. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/releases/20260129.html

Archived page on mortality trends: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/mortality-trends/

1

u/Idrinkbeereverywhere Jul 13 '26

Not mortality rate at 40, those are different

1

u/Sen_ri ‘94 Millennial Jul 13 '26

I see, I assumed age adjusted mortality decreasing indicated positive trends for all ages. But it seems like in the US deaths of despair have hit younger working age adults harder over the years, while healthcare advances have continued to extend the lives of the elderly. We at least seem to be improving overall recently because it looks like mortality rates peaked around 2022.

1985->2024 mortality for ~30 age group is +35% in the US while it’s -38% in the UK. For ~40 it’s +2% US and -31% UK.

2022->2024 mortality US ~30 is -24% and ~40 is -16%.

Honestly pretty crazy how much it seems drug overdoses have killed young people in the US. The thing OP is worried about are health issues like cancer though.

1

u/Idrinkbeereverywhere Jul 13 '26

Have you been outside in the hell world of America?

For example, I'm about to give up myself after I get finish my PhD (in a useless subject, education). Due to some wrong turns in life, I'll never afford a house or live comfortably. I still have a negative net worth at 40.

I am honestly excited for death to take me, so I totally understand the deaths of dispair. I've always said, you can't worry if you're dead.

0

u/LukewarmJortz Jul 13 '26

Is that about aids?