By Bob Livingston
Healthy and plentiful gut bacteria are crucial to digestion and elimination and, therefore, good health. But colon cancer patients are found to have significant changes — or an imbalance — in their intestinal bacteria. Researchers are now trying to determine whether this imbalance, called dysbiosis, is a cause or symptom of the cancer.
What is known is that dysbiosis is caused by such factors as antibiotic exposure, abuse of alcohol and an unhealthy diet. And since digestion is affected by dysbiosis, a cascade effect of reduced nutrition and less good-bacteria production begins.
Restoring a healthy gut bacteria environment could be a simple key to preventing cancer and might even starve cancer.
An assistant professor at Harvard is exploring this possibility right now. He has kidney cancer and is exploring what he can do to help himself outside of mainstream doctors’ treatments. We already know that as much as 80 percent of the immune system resides in your digestive tract. He relates to us the fact that it is known that 70 percent of T cells — the body’s strongest cancer-fighting immune cell — live along the gastrointestinal tract.
Your immune system is therefore very sensitive to what you eat, and to pharmaceutical medicines.
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There have been studies that looked at the gut environment of someone who responds well to immunotherapy cancer treatment and what differs in the gut of people who do not respond well. It turns out it’s not the strain of microflora you take as a supplement, or have within you inherently, but that you need more diversity of gut bacteria — and you must avoid antibiotics.
One of the leading causes of death among cancer patients isn’t cancer itself, but chemotherapy which, along with antibiotics, destroys the body’s immune system and the good bacteria that thrive in the gastrointestinal tract.
I have written to you before that a high-fiber diet is the way to keep the microflora in your gut happy and healthy. How many times have you heard this? Well, it is true, and high fiber was natural in our grandparents’ diet. In addition to improving regularity, consuming adequate fiber can and will aid in the prevention of several forms of cancer and heart disease.
At last month’s meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, a finding was presented that showed that a high fiber diet meant your likelihood of cancer treatment success was five-times greater than with a low fiber diet.
The presenter’s findings also stated that “Whole grains and overall diet quality correlated positively with pro-response bacteria, added sugars and processed meat negatively correlated.” Fiber-filled foods mean healthy gut bacteria, and processed foods mean the death of them.
According to the noted British researcher, Dr. Dennis Burkitt, at least 10 of our most serious diseases are directly related to a lack of sufficient fiber in the diet. These include heart attacks, diverticular diseases, appendicitis, colon cancer, hiatal hernia, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, diabetes, obesity (big stomach bloat) and constipation.
Primitive people had none of these diseases because of their high raw food diet and thus fiber containing diet. There is no limit to the amount of fiber that the body can handle. The more fiber—the better the health.
We can’t have a truly primitive diet because it is simply not available. We have to supplement with daily fiber. This is very simple but serious and basic to health.
The problem is, the “fiber” they recommend you eat usually comes from the very processed foods that won’t feed the microflora in your gut. Most modern “fiber” cancels out its own benefits!
Barley fiber is one exception because it contains beta glucan. Advanced research has focused on beta glucan’s effectiveness against cancer by how it strengthens your immune system. Biologic response agents like beta glucan modulate immunity, modify neoplastic (cancer) disease and increase resistance to microbial invaders.
Beta glucan provides support to your immune system. If your body falls short in fighting cancer cells due to an immune system deficiency, barley fiber could be helpful.
Almonds are another great source of fiber. Just one cup of almonds gives you around half the fiber that you should get every day.
Also, eat foods with inulin, a type of prebiotic that encourages beneficial flora in your gut. This fiber resists digestion from the small intestine and reaches the large intestine where your gut flora gets the most benefit from it. Bananas, asparagus, chicory root, dandelion green and high-fiber vegetables like leeks, peas, and beans all have inulin in them.
