The tragic story of 40 year old Deborah James diagnosed with terminal stage four bowel cancer has been widely broadcast on the media. A podcast host, Deborah is best known for the award-winning 'You, Me And The Big C'. Her fund-raising web site launched to fight this cruel disease has been phenomenal with £1.5 million donated in just two days.
Deborah’s story has struck fear into the hearts of many who desperately want to know how they themselves can avoid falling victim to this life threatening disease. Unfortunately, many doctors do not know the answer and Deborah relates how her doctor actually laughed at her when she told him she suspected she had bowel cancer.
HOW TO AVOID DISEASES OF THE INTESTINE
Some years ago I was fortunate enough to meet a Consultant Surgeon, Mr. Maurice Frohn, FRCS, specialist in diseases of the alimentary canal who later became a personal friend. I asked him to explain what causes diverticular disease, what it is, how it happens and the ultimate complications of the disease, cancer of the bowel. Here, in his own words, is what he said:
Deborah’s story has struck fear into the hearts of many who desperately want to know how they themselves can avoid falling victim to this life threatening disease. Unfortunately, many doctors do not know the answer and Deborah relates how her doctor actually laughed at her when she told him she suspected she had bowel cancer.
HOW TO AVOID DISEASES OF THE INTESTINE
Some years ago I was fortunate enough to meet a Consultant Surgeon, Mr. Maurice Frohn, FRCS, specialist in diseases of the alimentary canal who later became a personal friend. I asked him to explain what causes diverticular disease, what it is, how it happens and the ultimate complications of the disease, cancer of the bowel. Here, in his own words, is what he said:
"The large bowel consists of circular muscle going round as well as bands of longitudinal muscle. The colon is an organ of bulk and that is why the muscles are in bands so that the colon can expand easily. It has been brilliantly designed. Inside the colon is the lining of the bowel which is called the mucosa. It acts as a kind of wallpaper in the colon. In between the muscles there are holes to let in the arteries and let out the veins which supply the blood to the muscles and mucosa of the bowel.
If the pressure rises in the large bowel then the mucosa or lining will be forced through the hole between the bands of muscle forming a balloon which is called a diverticulum (see diagram). The colon, as explained, is an organ designed for large bulk and it has indentations called septa which, in the healthy person, are well separated by the roughage inside the bowel and this keeps the walls apart. When refined food is eaten then all of it is digested leaving no roughage present and therefore there is nothing to keep the walls apart. The walls come together and the septa touch each other. Once this happens it means that when the bowel compresses, the motions cannot move along because the colon is closed in segments. The pressure then rises to a very high level and a diverticulum begins to form. This happens all over the colon, especially in the high pressure area called the sigmoid colon on the left hand side, which is why pain is often experienced there. If the bowel goes into spasm and has to work hard trying to find motions to press on and expel, when there are none there, then it has to work even harder. Any muscle that has to work hard whether it is through gardening or weight lifting, will become bigger the more it is used. In the bowel the same thing happens and the thickened muscle eventually squeezes the neck of the diverticulum that has formed so much that it becomes completely closed off. In British and American societies it takes something like 48 to 72 hours for the motions to pass through. In some cases it takes three weeks and very exceptionally as long as three months. In sharp contrast to this the average transit time, in native populations is 12 to 18 hours. Often patients deny that they are constipated but in fact with such hard motions present all they are doing is ‘shunting trains along’. (Note: A simple way to find out your own transit time is to eat about a dessert-spoonful of sweetcorn which is available in small tins, and then watch for when the sweetcorn shows in the stools.) Diverticular disease is now regarded as very common and some pathologists say that it occurs in everybody over the age of 65. Some would go so far as to say that it occurs in everyone over the age of 40 in our society if the bowel is closely examined. It is a disease which is completely new to the 20th and 21st centuries and is the direct result of removing the fibre and natural roughage from our food. Patients with diverticular disease often go on to get cancer and this raises an important question. Why should there be this link? When people live on a refined diet it has been shown that the type of bacteria in the intestines is changed. They are changed from healthy aerobic bacteria, that is bacteria which breathe oxygen and incidentally do not produce an offensive smell, to anaerobic bacteria, that is bacteria that do not breathe oxygen. Click here for:
Article on constipation A quick recipe for 100% wholemeal bread. The dangers of polyunsaturated seed oils. UPDATE: Deborah James, now Dame Deborah James finally lost her brave battle against bowel cancer and died on Tuesday 28th June, 2022 Aged 40
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HOW TO AVOID BOWEL CANCER
Africans and Asians who live on traditional food do have aerobic bacteria in their bowels while we in the West have dangerous anaerobic bacteria as a result of our refined diet. This is a most important fact because it demonstrates how to avoid cancer of the bowel. The message is filled with hope for the future if only people will take note and change to an unrefined diet." * * * * * * * * * * * WHAT IS MEANT BY AN UNREFINED DIET? An unrefined diet is nothing new and not a diet as such but just a term for eating food that is unadulterated and rich in fibre. It also means refraining from eating sugar as much as possible and everything containing sugar and refined white flour such as biscuits and cakes and avoiding pre-prepared and takeaway food. Instead, eat natural, unprocessed food especially 100% wholemeal bread. EXAMPLES OF FIBRE-RICH FOOD
Vegetables play a major part in this fibre-rich plan above all root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, leeks, turnips, swedes and sweet potatoes. Chestnuts too. Green leaf vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, and cabbage are very important. The latter should be roughly sliced and then cooked rapidly in fast boiling slightly salted water with the lid on for about 5 minutes. Include raw vegetables, as in salads where possible. Eat whole, fresh fruit, preferably raw, again for its fibre content. As for oranges, be sure to eat the flesh of an orange not just the juice because once it is juiced it becomes refined food. When cooking fruit, instead of adding sugar mix in a crushed banana when the fruit has cooled. Honey, while being nutritious is a concentrated form of sugar so should be used very sparingly, just for an occasional treat. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Look at the label and if shop items contain more than five ingredients leave it on the shelf. Shun all polyunsaturated seed oils, (corn oil, rape seed oil, sunflower oil etc) and the processed foods that are made from them. They are toxic to the human body. (See article The Truth about Seed Oils). Instead go back to cooking with animal fats such as duck fat, dripping or lard as people did in the past at a time when cancer and heart disease were almost unknown. |