Posted on 02/26/2015 6:45:15 AM PST by Yaelle
I am so sorry but perhaps copying paragraphs is not allowed on his blog because I can't grab some.
What we are talking about is a good decent layman explanation of the newest cancer studies, incorporating just what our gut bugs, I.e. Our immune system (pretty much the same thing, as will be explained), will do to help you fight cancer.
The most important thing for cancer patients to take away from this post is that before you undergo chemotherapy, you need gut bacteria testing. The makeup of your gut biome, if good, will allow the chemo to kill the cancer. It will kill YOU if the makeup is not good, so first you would need to eat the right fibers and starches to change your biome.
Please give it a look if you are interested in preventing cancer as well. Oncologists tend not to mention the gut bugs when as we are finding out, they are everything. Not just for cancer.
I am not blog pushing. Sometimes the most important info, dare I say Life or Death info, comes from individuals studying it and trying to make this I fo available to the general public. You won't find this in the mainstream media or in your oncologist's office.
Anecdotal need not = false.
Contrariwise, inclusion in a peer-reviewed journal need not = true, *nor* useful
Countdown to snapback in 3...2...1...
One of our acquaintences is a stage 4 breast cancer survivor. She used the Gerson method and it completely cured her. No chemo. No “standard” cancer treatments at all. It actually angered a couple of doctors and they warn her it could “come back”. Yeah, and when is that NOT true? :-)
Meanwhile, going on 5 years...
Physicians aren’t helping our gut health by handing out prescriptions like candy . Read the side effects of most of the chemical garbage that is being prescribed!
Antibiotics and other meds destroy your gut health and it’s very difficult, if at all, to get it back to normal. I know from my own experience of spending three years trying to get my digestive track back after taking Augmentin and Diovan.
Check out:
www.askapatient.com
While I agree there is plenty of room for faith in healing, from what I've read, Gerson Therapy can be downright dangerous. Each to their own. I'm not going to argue with you.
“If the blog poster wants to be taken seriously, write a clinical protocol, conduct a trial, and publish the results. Otherwise, it’s anecdotal.”
If only it were that simple. Some anecdotal results have ultimately been shown to have solid scientific underpinnings, while some treatments developed via the academic model have been useless or even disastrous. In addition, many areas potentially worthy of investigation don’t have sufficient financial potential (i.e., they’re not patentable) to merit the enormous expense of clinical trials. Kneejerk rejection of anecdotal evidence is indicative of a closed mind.
Yeah. I’m a “global warming” denier too, even though it goes against the consensus.
I stopped trusting the medical community in this country when the Chiropractors won their lawsuit a couple decades ago.
I'm just reading an article from the May 2014 journal Cell Death and Differentiation, titled “Gut microbiome and anticancer immune response: really hot Sh*t!.” (hattip Gemma, who also helped me write this!)
I read lots and lots of scientific papers, too many, in fact. But this one has really captured my attention. It kind of cuts through a lot of the BS and narrows into what is really important when it comes to gut health.
Importance of Butyrate
One area we lose sight of too easily is the importance of butyrate production by gut microbes. Everyone has the gut bacteria in-place to produce butyrate. Many different species can turn food we eat into butyrate, these species are mainly in the Clostridium family. I've yet to see a gut test from anyone that doesn't have lots of butyrate producing microbes.
Measuring butyrate is a whole ‘nother issue. I had a butyrate test last summer, and it showed that my butyrate level was in the highest percentile. The low acceptable range was way, way lower than my test. In all of the many papers I've read on the importance of butyrate, none have ever given a specific amount required for gut health.
My Butyrate was 27mM/g. Normal is “above 3.9”
A problem encountered in butyrate measurement is that the amount seen in feces can be misleading. If we have a gut that is starved of butyrate, the cells that use butyrate will be weakened and less butyrate will be utilized, showing up instead in your feces. The accurate way to measure butyrate would be to install a permanent tap on the portal vein and measure the butyrate as it enters your bloodstream. Several studies have done exactly this on pigs and rats, but not humans. A study in the ‘80’s measured blood butyrate as found in human victims of tragic accidents, but unless the autopsy was performed within an hour or so, the results were not conclusive.
As we have no way of accurately accessing the butyrate required to produce beautifully healthy guts, and in turn, a robust immune system, all we can do is eat foods that are known to produce butyrate when fermented by out gut bugs.
From the “Hot Sh*t” paper:
Prebiotics refer to indigestible food ingredients that selectively promote the colonization of healthy commensals such as the dietary fiber inulin that promotes Bifidobacteria growth. More specifically, cancer-preventive antioxidants include dietary polyphenols (flavonoids, phenolic acids, lignins present in tea, wine, nuts, fruits, and so on, and ellagic acid metabolized by colonic microbiota into urolithins exhibiting antiestrogenic and anti-COX2 activities). Another polyphenol called ‘daidzein’, a soy isoflavone metabolized by gut microbiota into equol and only detected in a fraction of individuals (harboring sulfate-reducing bacteria), may protect against breast and prostate cancer, mostly in Asia. The fiber has been involved in the prevention of colorectal cancers and butyrate, one of the most abundant short-chain fatty acids resulting from the bacterial fermentation of fibers and selectively transported into the colon epithelium is the most compelling tumor-suppressive molecule. Butyrate has both cell autonomous and cell extrinsic antitumor effects. It decreases proliferation and promotes apoptosis of tumor cells, ameliorates inflammation associated with colitis and favor expansion of peripheral Treg. Most of these effects result from epigenetic regulation, butyrate acting as an endogenous HDAC inhibitor.
Lots of words, and in an article on prevention of cancer, not on “fiber” or gut health, specifically. It says butyrate acts as an HDAC inhibitor (HDI). HDAC inhibition is kind of the ‘holy grail’ in many health problems. Man-made HDIs are used as mood stabilizers and in epileptic treatments as well as cancer and treating auto-immune diseases. HDI’s are a huge industry...yet if we eat right, we can simply make our own!
Also, did you notice the author singled out inulin as a prebiotic, and mentioned its promotion of Bifidobacteria. Had they looked a bit harder they would have also discovered RS, pectin, glucomannan and all the other fibers that act similarly to inulin. It was nice to see them also mention the polyphenols found in foods that are also associated with good gut health and anti-cancer activities. This fits in nicely with what we have been saying all along: Try to eat lots of fiber, but also important are the compounds found in real foods and not available as a supplement.
Here's a bit more from the paper on butyrate from our gut bugs:
Moreover, the intestinal microbiota can also influence systemic immune responses. A recent work highlighted the role of certain metabolites (short-chain fatty acid butyrate and to a lesser extent propionate) produced by commensal bacteria in dictating the extrathymic differentiation of periph- eral regulatory T cells. Butyrate acts within T cells to enhance acetylation of the Foxp3 locus and protein, as well as DCs to decrease their proinflammatory NF- k B-dependent cytokine secretion profile through an HDAC inhibitory activity.
Did you get that? Yes, you probably need a doctorate degree in biology to understand what they are saying, but bottom-line, they are saying that butyrate from our gut bacteria is needed to ensure a healthy immune system. “Butyrate acts within T cells to enhance acetylation of the Foxp3 locus and protein,” without going into a lot of detail, this says that butyrate is the fuel that runs our immune system.
Leaky Gut, Chemotherapy, and Fiber
This “Hot Sh*t” paper is not about butyrate or fiber, it's about a new theory on how chemotherapy works in cancer treatments. This theory revolves around chemotherapy agents creating a “leaky gut” situation which allows certain beneficial bacteria from our small intestines to leak into our bloodstream where it is seen as harmful and our own immune system is called into action.
Gram-positive commensal bacteria translocate during chemotherapy and prime pathogenic Th17 (pTh17) cells contributing to the tumoricidal activity of cytotoxic compounds.
To further this theory, they show that chemotherapy is not effective on animals that have been given large doses of antibiotics. With germ-free animals, there is no bacteria left to leak into the blood to evoke the immune stimulating response.
The skewed gut microbial communities and the leaky gut barrier leads to a generalized activation of self-reactive B and T cells and production of autoantibodies. Therefore, we surmise that any compound compromising the intestinal barrier integrity and/or the innate mucosal immunity and/or directly the gut microbiota will affect the functional equilibrium of this compartment and cause symptoms, as well as distant immunological perturbations.
They are saying here that they believe the effectiveness in disrupting the gut's barrier results in boosting of the immune system. This makes me believe that all of this talk of “leaky gut” is possibly nature's way of boosting our immune system. Unfortunately, when we are eating total crap food, ie. artificial colors, flavors, chemicals, and processed oils, and also having guts that have been destroyed by antibiotics, there is no telling what will leak into our body and what the consequences will be.
First, we observed that certain bacterial species of the SI can selectively and efficiently translocate within 24–48 h after exposure to an alkylating agent, [chemotherapy], yet administered at a metronomic regimen only reducing B-cell numbers. Second, at these early time points, the permeability of the intestinal barrier was readily increased, whereas the number of Th17 cells and CD103þ DCs accumulating in the LP significantly decreased, setting the stage for bacterial translocation.
Possibly when eating as humans are meant to eat (omnivores eating real food) then this leakiness is a natural function to restore immune system health.
Oncologists have been using “platinum salts” for many years in chemotherapy with some good success. One standard explanation is that plantinum salts “trigger apoptosis” or cause the cancer cells to self-destruct. The “Hot Sh*t” paper proposes that platinum salts work by causing gut leakiness and a resulting immune response. The side effects of platinum salts are many: nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, nerve damage, among a long list.
Gut Enterotypes
Just as people can be genetically thin, fat, or of medium build, it seems that our gut flora also tends to gravitate towards three types:
Recently, an interesting but still controversial notion has emerged as to the existence of ‘enterotypes’ characterized by dominant genera ( Bacteroides , Prevotella and Ruminococcus ) and their co-occurring phylogenetic traits that could be associated with long-term dietary habits.
The Bacteroides enterotype was associated with animal protein and saturated fats,
The Prevotella enterotype was predominantly observed with high fiber/plant-based nutrition and high carbohydrates (low meat and dairy consumption).
The Ruminococcus enterotype often merged with the Bacteroides one.
I am simply amazed at how hard these cancer researchers looked into the contributions of the gut when writing this paper!
These findings represent a paradigm shift in our understanding of the mode of action of many compounds having an impact on the host–microbe mutualism.
It appears the gut is no longer being overlooked by cancer researchers! Let's hope this trend continues.
The microbiome present in the distal gut performs myriad functions protecting the host against pathologies. Indeed, the host–microbiota symbiosis has evolved in three directions.
First, colonization by commensal microorganisms is key to immune development.
Second, the commensal community keeps in check invading pathogens and prevents them from expressing virulence.
Third, the intestinal microbiota appears to digest glycans and regulate fat storage in mice and potentially in humans. Exemplifying the host–microbe mutualism, the microbial genome is highly enriched in hundred families of glycoside hydrolases and in more than 20 families of polysaccharide lyases, whereas the human genome is relatively devoid of these carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes.
Implications for cancer
I think it has been well-established that a healthy immune system is the first line of defense against diseases like cancer. But how, exactly, to get a healthy immune system has eluded us. Here we see these researchers recognizing the gut microflora as a key contributor to the immune system:
Recently, we and others reported that gut microbiota is indispensable for the immunomodulatory and antitumor effects of certain anticancer therapeutics including chemotherapy and platinum salts.
If anyone reading this has cancer, or knows someone who has cancer, maybe this advice will help:
Future prospects for a better management of cancer patients aim at:
(i) diagnosing patients dysbiosis (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, epidemiology on diet, medications and exercise, and so on),
(ii) compensating dysbiosis by appropriate ‘immunogenic probiotics’
(iii) prebiotics synergizing with probiotics to set the stage for a healthy intestine that has been compromised by DNA-damaging agents,
(iv) monitoring the immune responses raised against the relevant commensals to establish a correlation with longterm benefit and immune fitness.
In other words: No cancer treatment should proceed without consideration of prebiotics, probiotics, and testing to ensure there are healthy levels of “good” microbes in the gut!
Conclusion
My thoughts are that if you want to avoid a date with platinum salts, just keep your immune system in top-notch condition at all times! This simply involves eating foods that produce butyrate (prebiotic fibers) and a wide range of colorful fruits and veggies, nuts, and other healthy foods every day. Fermented foods and probiotics are also important!
As of now, we don't know exactly what the “perfect” microbiome looks like, how much butyrate we need exactly, and which fibers are required for immune system perfection. Might as well just eat the foods we know are good for all this and avoid the ones that we know cause harm. A fiber supplement on top of a healthy diet will help to ensure enough butyrate!
Plugged “Gerson method” and “cancer” into a search and came up with nothing. What is it?
You’re a little bit beyond layman understanding, which is cool, but what would you recommend to change, diet wise? Supplementing inulin? What food contains daidzein?
Thank you so much for pinging the list.
I think it is so important for the PATIENT to know that health can depend on the condition of your gut biome. And to understand that your oncologist may not even MENTION this extremely important fact, nor have a clue how to help you prepare your gut for chemo. To me, this is malpractice if I already know how important the gut bacteria are to health and survival, and I’m not a doctor at all!
I am not promoting cures. Specifically for cancer patients, it is ESSENTIAL to know that your gut biome as it is today might have a LOT to say about how the rest of your CANCER treatment goes. Isn’t that an important thing to know?? Believe me, I would never offer false hope to my FRiends in the trenches fighting. But this could lead patients and their families to do more research about the gut and its influence on both the disease and the treatment. More info never hurts.
Go to youtube and search “The Beautiful truth”. The story is amazing and you will never look at the AMA the same way again.
Good fats are essential for all of us!
Try gerson therapy
Rofl! Smiling.
You gotta juice!
Very interesting and informative. Thank you for posting this.
Great thread !
The blog post in question is synthesizing info from clinical trials.
There is no Giant Man with Flowing Beard who runs Science (apart from the Almighty, and even He makes you run your own studies). All studies start from ideas and conjecture, and lead in directions after being run through studies.
Rather than shoot the messenger, study what you can about the gut biome and its effects on CANCER and treatments and maximize your potential. You can’t deny that this is one part of treatment, and that you may have to do this yourself since the doc doesn’t have a little pamphlet on it yet.
I’m so glad to see cancer research going in this direction.
I also think learning more about our gut population will be beneficial for all conditions, not just cancer. We are at the beginning of a huge and interesting field of study that is taking apart the “it’s just genetic” response.
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