You Are Not Too Young for This — A Surgeon on the Cancer That Moved Into Your Thirties

Colorectal cancer used to be an older person's disease. It is not anymore, and the guidelines changed in a way most people never heard about. Dr. Georgine Nanos sits down with Sonia Ramamoorthy, MD, FACS, FASCRS, Chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Professor of Surgery at UC San Diego, Director of Physician Wellness at UC San Diego Health, and the 2024-2025 president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, where she is the fourth woman and the first Asian woman to hold the office in the society's 125-year history. She leads the colorectal cancer team at Moores Cancer Center and was the first surgeon in San Diego to perform robotic colorectal procedures. The line from this conversation that should stop you: 24 years ago, nearly all of her colorectal cancer patients were in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Today they are in their 30s and 40s, and they arrive at a later stage, because the early symptoms look exactly like hemorrhoids. In this episode: • Why colorectal cancer rates are climbing in adults under 50, and what the data actually shows • Screening now starts at 45, not 50, and why so few people know the guideline moved • The symptoms that get explained away as hemorrhoids, IBS, or "just stress" • Why women dismiss themselves first, and what it costs when the clinician dismisses them second • The two-way instruction that catches this early: circle back with your doctor, and doctors, circle back with your patient • Why this is one of the few genuinely preventable cancers, and her "mow the lawn" way of explaining it • Diet, exercise, inflammation, and what the microbiome research actually supports • The colonoscopy, discussed honestly by two physicians who have both had one • What robotic surgery changes in the narrow pelvis, and where the technology is heading • What it was like being on the patient side, with a husband in a wheelchair and eight and a half months pregnant • Her mother, 92 and in the audience, the night she became president If you have been told your symptoms were nothing, or you are overdue for a screening and you know it, this one is for you. This is The Kind Revolution — where we bridge science, compassion, and courage. 🔗 CONNECT 🌐 kindhealthgroup.com 📱 Instagram: @kindhealthgroup 👤 Sonia Ramamoorthy, MD, FACS, FASCRS — UC San Diego Health, Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery 🏥 American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons — fascrs.org ⚕️ This conversation is for education and is not medical advice. Talk to your own physician about your situation.