Hippocrates told the world 2500 years ago that all illness started in the gut, and now the Human Microbiome project has confirmed this to be true; here we look at ten cancers which have now been linked to a loss of good bacteria and an increase in pathogens, yeasts, vituses and/or parasites.
There are two scientific facts you need to understand upfront:
1. Your gut microbiome controls your physical biochemistry; and your mental biochemistry
It's enormous! You have 90 trillion gut bacteria but you only have 7 trillion cells yourself. They outnumber you 13 to 1. They have at least 75,000 genes, you have just 25,000. Thus they ‘make’ three times more chemical compounds, proteins and enzymes and, importantly, messages than you make. 38 per cent of the small molecules circulating in your blood stream right now were made by your gut bacteria. Their messages - their micro-RNA can control your micro-RNA and thus they control your biochemistry - both your physical health and your mental health; they keep you working; they keep you healthy. But equally, they can make you ill.
2. Your gut microbiome gets ill, then you get ill.
You lose volume of commensal (good) bacteria and you lose strains of good bacteria. Just 5 days of antibiotcs can cause the extinction of some strains. And then the bad bacteria (pathogens), viruses, yeasts, and even parasites can come out to play. Professor Paul O'Toole of the Cork Microbiome Institute is adamant gut bacteria can cause cancer and that most of these bacteria come through the mouth and attack the existing microbiome.
How can you tell if your gut microbiome is damaged?
What are the most common signs of microbiome disruption? Flatulence, bloating after meals, thrush, cystitis, skin problems, eczema, acne, allergies, night sweats, diarrhoea, constipation, irregular bowel movements, stomach cramps, bad breath, mouth ulcers, fatigue, unexplained tiredness, loss of appetite, a sweet tooth and sugar cravings are typical. But it could be more - too many colds or bouts of ‘flu’; repeated cold sores, being slow to heal; easy to bruise; ear or eye infections; persistent sore throats; or a persistent niggly cough.
The Causes of a damaged microbiome:
These include drugs - especially Proton Pump Inhibitors and Antibiotics. Or you don't feed your bacteria the foods they love like soluble fibre (oats, psyllium, vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds). Or you feed their enemies (glucose, fructose, lactose); or you change the acidity in the gut (binge drinking, smoking, stress); or you pick up a parasite via food poisoning for example.
The real issue is "Do you know how to fix it?" Our easy-to-read Best selling book tells you
Healthy gut bacteria MAKE things you need to be healthy
Your immune system is produced in response to your gut bacteria. Commensal bacteria MAKE your B vitamins (which control DNA replication), they make your vitamin K (which helps keep your liver and bones strong), they MAKE glutathione, melatonin, they make serotonin to keep you happy, dopamine to keep your brain functioning, they regulate your blood sugar and your cellular oxygenating levels.
HOW YOUR CANCER IS LINKED TO YOUR GUT MICROBIOME
1. Colorectal cancer linked to gut health
If you have an unhealthy microbiome, you are likely to develop gut ‘diseases’ like IBS, Crohn’s, lupus and more. Wouldn’t you think that you might have more risk of colorectal cancer too?
Brian Coombes and his team at McMaster University presented research in October 2016, showing that people who had suffered from food poisoning once in their lives (Salmonella, Listeria, or something you picked up on an exotic holiday), still showed adherent-invasive E. coli (AIEC) growth even after the original causal bacteria was cleared from the body. This could be because the original pathogen damaged a group of commensal bacteria, which also kept E.coli in check. E. coli then slowly takes hold over the next 10 to 20 years.
As a result, there was then a much higher risk of Crohn’s disease (abdominal pain, diarrhoea, cramps) and, subsequently, a greater risk of colorectal cancer plus a reduced life expectancy.
Other studies on this website show an increased risk of CRC, if you have taken antibiotics, especially if you took them for more than 10 days in one stretch.
In Europe, one study, the SYNCAN study showed that people diagnosed with colon cancer have less diversity and volume in the different beneficial bacteria in their gut than healthy people. And the bacteria they do have, feature more harmful strains (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, December 2013). Fusobacterium being the main one. Researchers at the Otago Microbiome Institute in New Zealand have shown that there are three types of colorectal cancer. In each case the bad bacreia are 'led' by Fusobacterium, but group make up can differ. Ofen E coli is a factor but not always. In a healthy part of the gut however, fusobacterium is not found.
Patients also had lowered levels of a specific strain of Clostridium, in this case a commensal bacterium known to help control glucose levels by binding with certain foods.
This is interesting because 2016 research by the Broad Institute, Harvard, showed that antibiotics given to very young children could also cause them to lose glucose control and develop auto-immune disease.
John’s Hopkins Kimmel Center showed in 2009, that glucose starvation might restrict colorectal cancer growth; while a second study showed metformin, the diabetes drug which controls blood sugar, could increase survival times. Clearly these two approaches might compensate for the lost Clostridium commensal bacterium.
The SYNCAN study has also shown that people who take a daily probiotic reduce their risk of colorectal cancer.
2. Pancreatic cancer cancer linked to oral health (and therefore gut health)
Gum disease, or periodontitis is being studied for its links to cancer and other diseases. Bacteria collect on the teeth and, if not flossed or brushed away, they can get below the gum line and into the blood stream where bleeding gums is an issue. Around 60 per cent of UK adults suffer from this condition.
NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have found that people whose oral microbiomes contain Porphyromonas gingivalis have a 59 per cent greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those whose microbiomes did not contain the bacterium. Similarly, people with oral microbiomes containing Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans were at least 50 percent more likely overall to develop the disease. These two bacteria are linked to periodontitis and inflammation of the gums.
Prior to developing Pancreatic cancer there seems to be a sudden rush of gut bacteria and the pancreatic microbiome is elevated a thousand times normal. The presence of a particular yeast has been
linked to pancreatic cancer. On its surface it carries a molecule MBL - this has been shown to cause oncogenesis in pancreatic cancer cells.
3. Oesophageal and liver cancers linked to gut health
Researchers at the Louisiana School of Dentistry have found another gum disease bacterium, Porphyromomas gingivalis, in the cancerous tissue of 61 per cent of patients with ‘esophageal squamous cell carci’ (ESCC) patients, but it was undetectable in healthy patients (Infectious Agents and Cancer).
In
a meta-study from NYU Langone Health’ Perlmutter Cancer Center, scientists showed a 21% increased risk of esophageal cancer if
Tanerella forsythia (a bacterium linked to gum disease was present in the mouth.
Links have also been made to liver cancer. Of course, with the findings that the composition of the microbiome in one area of the body is indicative of the composition in all the areas, it is easy to understand a more widespread danger.
4. Breast cancer linked to gut health
Until 2014 scientists had no reason to believe that bacteria might play any role at all in breast cancer. But then a Canadian, Dr. Gregor Reid, a scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute, felt that this since mothers impart bacteria to their children from breast milk, and the longer a mother breast feeds the more protection she gives herself, maybe there were bacterial factors at work in breast cancer. Sure enough, Dr. Reid and his doctoral student Camilla Urbaniak from Western University, Ontario, Canada, showed that your breasts do have their own set of live bacteria – their own microbiome.
A second study (June 24th 2016 Applied and Environmental Microbiology) by these same researchers looked at how the bacteria in cancerous breasts differ from those in healthy breasts. They compared 13 women with benign tumours to 45 who needed lumpectomies or mastectomies, and 23 women who were healthy.
A much bigger
study in 2016 showed that there was a distinct microbial signature associated with each different type of breast cancer - HER2, or ER+ve, or TNBC. The researchers state that each distinct microbial community has the potential for causing cancer.
Women with breast cancer had much higher levels of E. coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis, both known to induce double-stranded breaks in DNA in cultured human cells (HeLa cells). "Double-strand breaks are the most detrimental type of DNA damage and are caused by genotoxins, reactive oxygen species, and ionizing radiation”.
Not surprisingly, Lactobacillus and Streptococcus, thought of as health-promoting bacteria, were more prevalent in the healthy breasts. Both bacteria are known to protect against cancer. For example, Streptococcus thermophilus produces compounds with anti-oxidant properties known to neutralise compounds which can cause DNA damage, and thus, cancer.
A
study by the Cleveland Clinic showed that breast cancer tissue had lost a ’good bacterium’, Methylobacterium. The urine of women with breast cancer showed much higher levels of gram positive pathogenic bacteria.
The majority of women with breast cancer appear to have greatly reduced levels of strains of the Lactobacillus family. One study showed that you colud increase levels by eating a colourful Mediterranean Diet. Already, researchers in Spain have shown that oral Lactobacillus probiotics taken during mastitis can find their way to breast tissue inside 24 hours – maybe the certain probiotics could correct breast cancer? Or maybe killing off pathogens like E. coli could too? Or, is that a bridge too far?
5. Prostate cancer linked to inflammatory bacteria
Prostate cancer has often been linked to inflammation. The TH Chan Public School of Health in Boston has conducted several studies. In 2013, Helicobacter hepaticus was linked to prostate cancer and worse, infected mice could give it to uninfected mice!
Because polyphenols are known to be very protective, researchers then looked at which bacteria were promoted by a polyphenol diet. They found that healthy mice had high levels of Faecalibacterium praunitzii and Eubacterium rectalie, but those with benign conditions or early stage prostate cancer had much higher levels of Bacteriodes massiliensis.
Go to: Gut bacteria have linked to prostate cancer
nfection could well be the biggest cause of inflammation in prostate cancer. It could also be the cause of prostate atrophy. What is becoming clear is that there are many potential forms of this infection.
6. Brain cancer linked to gut health
It has now been established that the brain has its own microbiome. This has been found true in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Ultimatelyit is not different to the gut microbiome; the membership quals out and many articles not talk of a gut-brain axis. A bacterium called Borrelia bergdorferi has been shown by Dr. Alan B MacDonald to be in every one of five brain tumour patients he examined. It is the bacterium which is the principal cause of Lyme Disease.
Go to: Lyme Disease link to brain cancer
At CANCERactive we find that there is a high incidence of parasite infection in people with GBM.
7. Stomach cancer is linked to gut health
An excess of a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori has been linked to stomach ulcers, acid reflux and stomach cancer. The National Cancer Institute confirms that H. pylori makes an alkali that neutralises stomach acid, and reduces the immune system to protect itself. Most people have an infection and IARC have classified the bacterium as a known carcinogen. The bacterium can weaken the body in many ways - from migrains to B-12 deficiency.
8. Bile Duct cancer, bladder cancer linked to gut health
Both of these cancers have been linked to increased levels of E coli. Indeed UTIs in general are associated with increased E. coli levels Indeed, the bacteria involved in the infections seem to be at war with each other and can lead to cancer. There's an Oxford University research study on this.
9. Lung cancer linked to gut bacteria via the Gut-lung axis
It is now firmly established that each of us has a lung-gut axis. The lung-gut axis or the gut-lung axis has been proven to exist in cases of asthma, chronic lung disease and cystic fibrosis. It is now known that there is a vital cross-talk between the mucosae in these to body systems. It is now thought likely that the lungs have their own immune system, and damage could even result in lung cancer. This could be why the numbers of lung cancer cases are increasing in situations where the patient has never been near a cigarette. In a 2017 study, changes made to the gut microbiome in mice could cause or curb inflammation in the lungs.
10. Ovarian cancer linked to pathogens in ovaries and fallopian tubes
It came as a big surprise when scientists found bacteria and pathogens in the upper reproductive tract of women with Ovarain cancer. In fact, there seem to be different bacteria in the fallopian tubes to those in the ovaries.
In fact the bacteria can come the other way! E.coli is present in infections such as UTIs. It is present in higher levels in endometrial cancer. But then it is also found in higher levels in Bladder cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and even in breast cancer.
And while we all know that the Human Papilloma virus (HPV) is linked to cervical cancer, it too has been found in higher levels in breast, prostate and ovarian cancer.
There can be little doubt that infection is linked to cancer, and at a far higher rate than the 15-20% level talked about by Cancer Research UK.
Your gut bacteria and the foods you eat increase or decrease cancer risk
It is simple to understand. If you eat certain 'healthy' foods you make more bacteria in your gut that produce anti-inflammatory molecules. Examples would be extra virgin olive oil, fish oils and berries which contain elagitannin. On the other had if you make poor food choices you feed bacteria that make inflammatory molecules and these are more likely to make you ill.
In 2017, Dr. Meredith Huller of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center confirmed this gut bacteria role saying that gut bacteria and diet could increase or decrease cancer risk; for example, gut bacteria feeding on broccoli produce compounds that greatly reduce risk.
Huller also named Fusobacterium nucleatum, certain types of E. coli and Streptococcus gallolyticus, as well as communities of bacteria that congregate to form layers in the gut that are called ’biofilms’, as increasing cancer risk.
However, in 2018 research it was shown that just one 5-day course of antibiotics could render some strains of some commensal gut bacteria extinct forever.
You are a super-organism of 100 million cells that all need to be completely well
You are, in fact, a ‘Super-organism’ of 100,000 genes and 100 million cells. It is quite wrong to think of your body as having two separate entities - your cells and the bacterial colony in your gut.
Already, Doctors in America and Australia have been using Faecal Transplants, made from the stools of healthy people, to regenerate a healthy microbiome in the guts of the sick. And, so far, it works!
In fact, it’s not new.
Dr. Josef Issels was doing it in his German clinic in 1951 – he used it as part of his early ‘immunotherapy’ treatment. He was dubbed a ‘quack’ at the time. Now, probiotic supplements have been shown to improve the effectiveness of common chemotherapy and even the new cancer immunotherapy drugs. There is also research that show how probotic supplements can heal your gut lining, keep pathogens in check and even alter your mental state and mood.
How the world goes full circle.