Taise Spolti – What do all bowel cancer patients have in common?

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One topic that has taken over the internet in recent weeks has certainly been the incidence of bowel cancer, as many famous people have been diagnosed, and others have died. However, many thousands more are still in the daily struggle.

The data is alarming: according to Inca (National Cancer Institute), intestinal cancer occupies the fourth most common type of cancer in Brazil, being the third most common in men. It is also estimated that from 2023 this number will increase even more, about 12% more cases.

There are correlations between cancers and an individual’s lifestyle. Although our society today has access to more information, more literature, more accessible science with data open to all, we still find resistance from the population regarding the awareness that their attitudes can increase the risks of certain diseases and conditions. Cancer is one of them.

What every bowel cancer patient has is a history of poor eating or lifestyle habits. Even in very rare infantile cases, there is a favorable genetic condition and food habits inherited from the family. Intestinal cancer in children becomes rarer (about 1 case in 100,000), and the cancer formation process is another factor that justifies eating habits in childhood: the malignancy of the cells that form intestinal polyps, a process that can take about 10 years.

Precisely for this reason, one of the guidelines for adults, until then, was that every 10 years they undergo investigative examinations, especially when there is a family history of cancer, pathological history of the patient (such as hospitalizations, repetitive infections, lifelong intestinal diseases and conditions, continuous use of antibiotics and medications, among others) and, most crucially, bad habits.

Eating habits are certainly the determining factor for bowel cancer to settle down or, even with a genetic predisposition, for it never to appear in an individual’s life. Every decade of life, the person has the responsibility to change some lifestyle habits that favor the appearance of bowel cancer, especially if they already have the conditions mentioned above in their history.

It may seem rude, but when it comes to a professional warning to a patient, you have to be serious and incisive, even if, unfortunately, the patient, knowing what needs to be done, goes there and continues to make mistakes.

The Ministry of Health in Brazil, with some public policies adopted years ago, and with the creation of the Food Guide for the Brazilian Population, has become an example in all developed and developing countries. In this easy-to-read guide, Brazilians receive all the guidelines for leading a healthy life for free, without having to spend more money on family structure.

It is a general and common understanding that eating ultra-processed foods, eating little fiber, drinking little water, consuming a lot of sugar, consuming alcohol, self-medicating, and not exercising is dangerous, it is harmful, and these are habits that lead to innumerable types of diseases. To say you don’t know is ignorance (from the verb to ignore, one who is ignorant of information).

It takes years of bad habits for something to become chronic, for a chronic disease to set in, for bowel cancer to appear. And the opposite is also true: it takes years of good habits for health to become something chronic, for pathological conditions to be treated effectively.

There are a few signs that your gut health isn’t doing well and you should keep an eye out for them, at any age:

Constipation as a model: there are people who spend years like this, since adolescence, or as they say in consultation, since childhood. Chronic constipation is an important warning sign and should be investigated, the causes of constipation can be different, such as intestinal motility disorders, dysbiosis, irritable bowel syndrome, malabsorption of nutrients, high consumption of carbohydrates and fats, among other.

Constant and frequent episodes of diarrhea: chronic diarrhea is classified in that individual who has an increased frequency of bowel movements, loose or runny textures and which lasts for more than four weeks. However, there are patients who, while not classified as chronic diarrheal patients, have weekly or frequent episodes of diarrhea for years of their lives. This may be due to the motility disorder mentioned above, but is more clearly involved in poor eating habits and food intolerances, where the patient insists on consuming a certain food –even with intolerance– and these episodes of diarrhea lead to loss of important enzymes, vitamins, cause inflammatory processes and can be linked to intestinal permeability.

Stuffing, belching and pains in the abdomen region: patients who mention frequent attacks of gas formation, abdominal pain, belching (eructation), poor digestion of food, frequent headaches are patients who already know that they have a pathological intestinal condition. The investigation is performed to understand in which stage the patient is and what treatment or intervention must be performed immediately to prevent the progression / evolution towards a disease such as cancer.

Patient who smokes, eats ultra-processed foods daily, drinks alcohol frequently: this patient is a candidate for cancer, not only of the bowel, but of others as well. With particular attention to bowel cancer, these habits are capable of creating an inflamed environment, intestinal permeability, infiltration of intestinal toxins and other substances and pathogenic microorganisms out of the intestine. In the long run, this creates an environment that is not at all positive, neither for the intestine nor for other nearby organs which will receive chronically toxic charges.

Heredity: While heredity isn’t a deciding factor these days, having the genetic burden makes cancer much easier to develop. Why is it not a deciding factor? In epigenetics we manage to modulate, through environmental actions (such as habits), to silence or activate certain genes found in our DNA. This means that, even with some cancers having heredity, with the use of the information we have today — especially with regards to supplementation and nutrition — we will be able to silence the bowel cancer gene and prevent it from appearing. For all life. . Similarly, we can, with negative attitudes, anticipate its appearance. A disease that could appear or be easily avoided after the age of 65 can appear at 30, 35, 40…

If you fit any of the data above, talk to your doctor or nutritionist, there are some tests that can be performed that will help you map the health of your gut, predict possible diseases or conditions. The sooner you start prevention or treatment, the better the chances of cure and remission of the disease.

Some tests that can help you better understand your intestinal health and which will facilitate the diagnosis: