My husband always passes along mainstream news clips on health that he sees relating to my studies. I think he is super happy that we found this new way of eating and thinking, despite our doc-in-a-box trained brains. (It has a made a huge difference in the health of every single family member.)
Anyhow here is today’s tidbit passed on to me by husband who noticed the word BUTYRATE. The article relates to “potential new ways to prevent colon cancer” and discusses how there is growing evidence for a link between bacteria and colon cancer:
“Ahn and her colleagues also noticed lower levels of Clostridia – “good” bacteria – in the gut of cancer patients. Clostridia – of which there are several forms – is important in the fermentation and digestion of fiber and carbohydrates. Clostridia also creates a chemical butyrate, which is believed to moderate inflammation and cancerous mutations in the colon.” (Emphasis mine)
So I continue to encourage you to eat for your bacteria! Whole foods! And I hope with the butyrate series that’s running, that you can say when you stumble across these news clips telling you it comes down to bacteria and the products they help make, “Yeah. I knew that. That’s old news.”
What you eat matters, from colon cancer to headaches to runny noses! Don’t eat processed foods! Here is the link to the article above:
Research points to potential new ways to prevent colon cancer
~~Terri
The HSD 
Don’t you love when you learn about something, it fascinates you, then you see it somewhere? 🙂
Yes! Totally!
Just curious: How much time was devoted to the study of butyrate in med school?
Mmmmmm. NONE. To make sure I was being fair, I asked my husband also. He remembered none. We did learn about it way back in organic chemistry in undergraduate school, but only as it related to structure. I think the medical doctors who may know something about butyrate as a supplement would maybe be gastroenterologists (for use in unresponsive inflammatory bowel disease patients) and hematologists/oncologists (it is being used in several trials now for cancers and blood disorders). They probably would have learned from residency rather than med school.
I live in the Chicago area and we have had a lot of young friends who were med students (yes, we have a lot of gang violence, but we also have great med schools). Anyway, I always ask them how much time they spent studying nutrition — that usual answer is, “One lecture, and that was mainly on malnutrition.”
I know! Do you know how you feel when you see an injustice? And you just want to change it? You can’t stand by and do nothing? This is the only something I have to give right now. That and getting my close med-school friends on board and sharing with good friends who are interested. Sending them links and research articles. I’m very angry yet the only way to effect change is to be a little stream and keep running over the rock; if you come on too hard, you’re labeled and not listened to. Our required continuing medical education is horrible. Just horrible. And expensive. Sorry for the rant. Keep warm in Chicago and stay out of harms way. 🙂
This all is so interesting to me! I love to be able to eat whole foods and did well with that when back in California. It is a little difficult to do while on the road for so long. But I try where I can 🙂
I’m secretly jealous! Thailand has so many foods that I could eat, as they usually steer away from wheat and dairy. I think I’d have a hay day in one of their markets. We love Thai food!
That is very true. The amount of dairy and wheat is fairly low 🙂 the hardest part of eating well on the road is trying not to eat home-y comfort foods. The other countries were much easier to fall into that trap, Thai food is my favorite though, so I rarely feel the need to have anything else.
Haha, I love the education you are offering! And I love saying, “Yeah. I knew that. That’s old news.”
I love saying that too. (Although I usually just try to smile and listen, acting as if it’s new news. That’s polite, they say.)
Haha, well it is better than, “I told you so!”!!
🙂
I just want to say thanks for your posts. Really, a big thanks. I’m adding a good bit of what I learn into my notes on type 1 diabetes and insomnia. Have you seen any info or have any thoughts on butyrate helping to differentiate islet beta cells and glycogen -producing cells in the pancreas during the maturation of pancreatic stem cells? I’ve pegged down one study so far from 1988, but that’s still hardly near conclusive.
Cheers and all. 🙂
I have not read on butyrate helping to differentiate islet beta cells and glycogen-producing cells in the pancreatic stem cells. Bummer. But for some reason this is jogging my thoughts about a comment the other day relating butyrate to thyroid hormone and I looked that up briefly. Haven’t gotten far with that. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7951517) Wish I could help. GOOD LUCK!
Thanks! 😉
Here’s the one indicating a possible butyrate pancreatic role with islet cells: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2843409/
I’ll look at the thyroid link now.
The idea of Butyrate activating insulin-pancreatic cells is.. Making sense. Only a fraction of type 1 diabetics test positive for beta cell antibodies and as missing fasting C- peptide completely. Type 1a and type 1b. A drop in an ingredient in mRNA expression would really push the beta cells dormant.
D3 activity is another item in relation to neutral health and beta cell activity. Canadian research in the past decade pointed out many D3 receptors on beta cell walls, and one of its roles is correct expression of genes.
Another pro-gut diversity argument is segmented filamentous bacteria (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21709219/)
Bless and cheers again. ☺
Loosely related, as I was reading the other day on brewer’s yeast, someone mentioned how Type ones had antibodies to glutamic acid. Just throwing it out there. 🙂 Like you need more!
Thanks for sharing! Butyrate and eating to support that production is just really important, I’m continuing to gather!