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In support of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, read on for a deep dive into gut health. This article will highlight some of the microbes living in your bowel. You’ll discover how they support not only gut health but also your whole body.
How Common is Bowel Cancer?
Bowel cancer, often called colorectal cancer, is the third most common cancer in the UK. Over 40,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. It has traditionally mainly affected older people, but nowadays it’s increasingly being seen in younger ages. Early detection is key, but so is an awareness of the factors increasing your risk of developing the disease.
Cancer can be seen as an end product of a longstanding deterioration in digestive system function. And since the gut is key to whole body health, too, it makes sense to ensure your gut is in tip-top shape.
Why Does Bowel Cancer Develop?
Your colon, also often called the large bowel, is responsible for the final stage of digestion. Here, your body absorbs water and electrolytes from your food. Bowel cancer can affect the rectum, too. This is where faeces are stored before they are released into the toilet.
When cancer develops, cells multiply out of control and don’t die when they should. This means cells with damaged DNA continue living, causing problems. The first stage of bowel cancer usually sees growths called polyps forming on the bowel wall. However, not all cases of polyps will develop into bowel cancer.
The contents of your colon contain all sorts of substances your body doesn’t want to be absorbed into your bloodstream. These may have come from food or your body might have produced them when releasing energy. Therefore, the cells lining your colon are vulnerable to damage because they can come into contact with these substances, particularly if the bowel contents move along sluggishly.
The Importance of the Microbiome to Gut Health
Your colon is home to the vast majority of the bacteria resident in your gut, collectively known as your microbiome. Trillions of microbes live inside you in a complicated ecosystem, naturally designed to support your health.
When researchers looked at the types of bacteria resident in the guts of people diagnosed with bowel cancer, they found differences in the bacterial makeup to those living inside healthy people (1). Specifically, they saw changes in the ratio between two major types of gut bacteria, called Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.
Both types of these bacteria release substances called short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, acetate and propionate. These fatty acids help keep the intestinal lining healthy, and they travel around the bloodstream to affect the functioning of cells and tissues elsewhere.
However, as in any ecosystem, the balance between the two types is important. An overgrowth of certain types of bacteria can encourage inflammation in the cells lining the colon.
How to Reduce Your Risk of Bowel Cancer
If you experience any warning signs of bowel cancer, it’s important to seek medical advice. They include blood in your stool, a persistent change in your bowel habits, fatigue, weight loss or a pain or lump in your stomach.
However, some simple healthy dietary changes can reduce your risk.
- Bin Processed Meat
When meat is processed into sausages, salami, ham and bacon, chemical substances called nitrates and nitrites are added. These are capable of damaging the cells in the colon. Studies have consistently linked eating processed meat with a higher risk of bowel cancer. In fact, because of this, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classes processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is a definite cause of cancer.
A similar relationship exists with burnt or charred meat, for example when it’s barbecued. If you burn or brown meat, substances called heterocyclic or polycyclic amines are produced. These can also damage cells lining the colon.
- Feast on Fibre
Fibre from plant-based foods encourages the helpful types of bacteria in your gut. These in turn out-compete the inflammation-causing ones. Fibre helps to keep your stools moving along your colon, too. This reduces the time the toxic substances contained in faeces are in contact with the cells lining the walls.
On the other hand, sugar and processed foods encourage the types of bacteria in your gut that promote chronic inflammation.
- Enjoy Fermented Foods
These naturally contain a variety of bacteria. Although they don’t take up residence in your colon, these bacteria help create a favourable environment for your anti-inflammatory bacteria to thrive. Many cultures have enjoyed foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, or kefir for centuries to support good gut health.
- Stay Hydrated
Constipation is an early sign of dehydration. Ideally, sip water throughout the day. Vegetable juices are super-hydrating as they contain electrolyte minerals.
- Keep Moving
Physical activity is a great way to reduce bowel transit time and discourage constipation. Choose an activity you enjoy, so it becomes a hobby instead of a chore.
Lifestyle factors like the above, including a sedentary lifestyle, ongoing stress, poor sleep, and environmental toxin intake, all adversely affect the gut microbiome, making it more likely to release inflammatory substances. But the good news is you can modify these factors, thus improving your microbiome and reducing your susceptibility to poor colon health.
New Ways to Assess Gut Health
Exciting cutting-edge functional tests can now accurately assess the health of your microbiome. Tests can reveal not only the relative quantities of microbes in your inner ecosystem but can also discover the types of chemicals, known as organic acids, released by gut bacteria. A small sample of your stool is all that’s needed.
The GI Map test examines the DNA of organisms including bacteria, fungi and viruses present in your stool and therefore your gut. Furthermore, it highlights the chemicals your gut bacteria are producing along with the substances released by your gut while it digests your food. These substances reveal how your digestive system is coping as they are markers of intestinal health. The test also measures inflammation levels in your gut.
The test includes a 30-minute interpretative consultation by one of our expert practitioners, because results can be complex. You’ll then receive personalised, targeted lifestyle and nutritional strategies to help correct the root causes of your gut health issues.
The first stage of your journey is an Integrated Health Assessment which includes expert-led functional testing. We may recommend supportive therapies to enhance your health path, if appropriate to you, once factors impacting your gut health are identified. For example, if stress is having an adverse effect, specialist therapies like Emotional Freedom Technique, or Felt Sense Polyvagal Model may be appropriate.
However, if you are confident you can act on the results of your test without therapist support, we offer a broad range of convenient standalone at-home self-test kits without the need for a prior consultation. For example, the OAT test analyses a sample of your urine to gain a broad picture of how your digestive health may be affecting your overall health. This comprehensive test looks at the substances produced by your gut bacteria, which particularly influence energy production, detoxification, and mood.
With the range of therapies and functional tests available at our disposal, your path to health is as personal as you are. Start your journey to optimal bowel health today.
References
Microbial Dysbiosis in Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Patients | PLOS ONE
