Top anti-inflammatory foods and supplements

With any chronic disease, including heart disease, malignancy or obesity, this condition is usually a key underlying factor, and if you don't deal with it, you may not improve. By choosing your foods and supplements carefully, you can make a signifi...

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of virtually all disease, including cancer, obesity and heart disease. Your diet plays a significant if not primary role as it can either trigger or prevent inflammation
• Leafy greens, berries and mushrooms are potent anti-inflammatory foods. People with autoimmune diseases may want to limit vegetables high in lectins, though, as they may cause more problems than they solve
• Traditionally fermented and cultured foods are anti-inflammatory staples that work their “magic” by optimizing your gut flora. Examples include kefir, yogurt, natto, kimchee, miso, tempeh, pickles, sauerkraut, olives and other fermented vegetables
• Marine-based omega-3 fats found in fatty cold-water fish that are low in environmental toxins are important anti-inflammatories that are particularly crucial for brain and heart health
• Other anti-inflammatory foods and supplements include green tea, spices such as cloves, ginger, rosemary and turmeric, herbal remedies such as white willow bark, maritime pine bark and Cat’s claw, and supplements such as resveratrol, curcumin, capsaicin, vitamin D, zinc and SAM-e

Analysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaFact Checked
September 02, 2019

Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of virtually all disease, including cancer, obesity and heart disease. While inflammation is a perfectly normal and beneficial process that occurs when your body's white blood cells and chemicals protect you from foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses, it leads to trouble when the inflammatory response gets out of hand and continues indefinitely.

Your diet plays a significant if not primary role in this chain of events and is the perfect place to start to address it. Certain nutritional supplements can also be helpful as add-ons.

Below, I’ll review some of the foods, spices and supplements known for their anti-inflammatory power (and the foods known for their inflammatory effects). If you struggle with any chronic health condition, chances are you have inflammation in your body, and would be wise to take a cold hard look at what you’re putting into it.

Anti-inflammatory food basics

A key part of an anti-inflammatory diet involves excluding refined vegetable oils, as they are clearly one of the most pernicious and pervasive poisons in the food supply. Simply avoiding all processed foods and most restaurant foods will go a long way toward helping you avoid them.

As for anti-inflammatory foods to eat more of, vegetables are a key staple. Dark leafy greens such as kale, collard greens and Swiss chard contain powerful antioxidants, flavonoids, carotenoids and vitamin C that can help protect against cellular damage. Ideally, opt for organic locally grown veggies that are in season, and consider eating a fair amount of them raw.

Juicing is an excellent way to get more greens into your diet. There’s a caveat, though. If you struggle with autoimmune disease or have significant inflammation in your body, consider limiting vegetables with high lectin content, as the lectins may pose a problem.

Among the most problematic lectin-containing foods are beans, grains, legumes and members of the nightshade family like eggplants, potatoes and peppers. High-lectin foods can be made safer to eat through proper soaking and cooking, as well as fermenting and sprouting. Using a pressure cooker is particularly beneficial for beans. You can learn more about this in my interview with Dr. Steven Gundry, author of “The Plant Paradox.”

Oxalates are another plant component that can cause problems, as they not only will increase inflammation but will worsen your mitochondrial function. Those prone to oxalate kidney stones typically need to be on an oxalate-free diet as well. Foods high in oxalates include potatoes (white and sweet), almonds, seeds, dark chocolate, beets, beans and many others.

On the other hand, raw berries — especially blueberries — are an anti-inflammatory basic, as most tend to be low in fructose while rating high in antioxidant capacity compared to other fruits and vegetables.

The same goes for mushrooms, which are commonly overlooked. Shiitake mushrooms, for example, contain ergothioniene, which inhibits oxidative stress. Mushrooms also contain a number of unique nutrients that you may not get enough of in your diet.

One of those nutrients is copper, which is one of the few metallic elements accompanied by amino and fatty acids that are essential to human health. Since your body can't synthesize copper, your diet must supply it regularly. Copper deficiency can be a factor in the development of coronary heart disease.

Another excellent anti-inflammatory mushroom is the Reishi, which contains ganoderic acid, a terpene that induces apoptosis (programmed cell death of damaged cells) and enhances the immune system.

Fermented and cultured foods

Traditionally fermented and cultured foods are other anti-inflammatory staples that work their “magic” by optimizing your gut flora. A majority of inflammatory diseases start in your gut as the result of an imbalanced microbiome.

Fermented foods such as kefir, natto, kimchee, miso, tempeh, pickles, sauerkraut, olives and other fermented vegetables will help reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria. Ideally, you’ll want to eat a wide variety of them as each contains a different set of beneficial bacteria (probiotics).

Fermented foods can also help your body rid itself of harmful toxins. Kimchi, for example, has been shown to break down pesticides that promote inflammation. As reported in a study1 in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos degraded rapidly during kimchi fermentation and was 83.3% degraded by Day 3. By Day 9, it was degraded completely.

If you don’t like fermented vegetables, consider yogurt made from raw organic milk from grass fed cows. Yogurt has been shown to reduce inflammation by improving the integrity of your intestinal lining, thereby preventing toxins in your gut from crossing into your bloodstream.

Other potent anti-inflammatory foods

Marine-based omega-3 fats found in fatty cold-water fish that are low in environmental toxins — such as wild Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies — are also important anti-inflammatories2 and are particularly important for brain and heart health. In fact, your omega-3 level is a powerful predictor of mortality.

If you don’t enjoy these types of fish, you could consider using krill oil instead. Research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology3 in 2012 confirmed that dietary supplementation with krill oil effectively reduced inflammation and oxidative stress.

As with vitamin D, it’s advisable to check your omega-3 index on a regular basis to ensure optimization. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain an omega-3 index of 8%. (GrassrootsHealth offers a convenient, cost-effective test4 to measure both your vitamin D and omega-3 levels.)

Many teas also offer anti-inflammatory benefits that can be enjoyed by most. Matcha tea is the most nutrient-rich green tea5 and comes in the form of a stone-ground unfermented powder. The best Matcha comes from Japan.

It’s an excellent source of antioxidants, especially epigallocatechin gallate6 (EGCG), a catechin with anti-inflammatory activity.7 Tulsi is another tea loaded with anti-inflammatory antioxidants and other micronutrients that help protect against damage caused by chemical pollutants, heavy metals and physical stress.8

Anti-inflammatory herbs and spices

Ounce for ounce, herbs and spices are among the most potent anti-inflammatory ingredients available and making sure you’re eating a wide variety of them on a regular basis can go a long way toward preventing chronic illness.

According to a novel study9 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, published in 2012, “cloves, ginger, rosemary and turmeric were able to significantly reduce oxidized LDL-induced expression of TNF-α” or tumor necrosis factor, a cytokine involved in systemic inflammation.

Ginger lowered three different inflammatory biomarkers, suggesting its superior anti-inflammatory action, but rosemary and turmeric also “showed protective capacity by both oxidative protection and inflammation measures.”

The interesting thing about this study is that they used “real world” dosages, meaning amounts you would normally use in your daily cooking, not megadoses you might find in a concentrated supplement. For example, those in the oregano group ate just half a teaspoon of oregano daily for seven days.

Garlic is another kitchen staple that has been treasured for its medicinal properties for centuries. Garlic exerts its benefits on multiple levels, offering antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and antioxidant properties. Most recently, a 2019 review and meta-analysis10 concluded garlic effectively lowered several inflammatory biomarkers, including C-reactive protein, TNF-α and interleukin-6.

It's thought that much of garlic's therapeutic effect comes from its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin. Research11 has revealed that as allicin digests in your body it produces sulfenic acid, a compound that reacts faster with dangerous free radicals than any other known compound.

An earlier study published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods12 found a direct correlation between the antioxidant phenol content of spice and herb extracts and their ability to inhibit glycation and block the formation of AGE compounds (advanced glycation end products), making them potent preventers of heart disease and premature aging.

Here, cloves were ranked as the most potent of 24 common herbs and spices found in your spice rack. The following were found to be the top 10 most potent anti-inflammatory herbs and spices:

Cloves	Cinnamon
Jamaican allspice	Apple pie spice mixture
Oregano	Pumpkin pie spice mixture
Marjoram	Sage
Thyme	Gourmet Italian spice

Curcumin — A powerful anti-inflammatory with poor absorption

Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, also has a solid foundation in science with numerous studies vouching for its anti-inflammatory effects.13 As noted in a 2017 review in the journal Foods:14

“[Curcumin] aids in the management of oxidative and inflammatory conditions, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, anxiety, and hyperlipidemia. It may also help in the management of exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness, thus enhancing recovery and performance in active people.

In addition, a relatively low dose of the complex can provide health benefits for people that do not have diagnosed health conditions. Most of these benefits can be attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.”

A drawback of turmeric is its poor absorbability and rapid elimination. As noted in this Foods review, taken by itself turmeric typically does not impart the health benefits with which this spice is associated.

Certain components or additives can significantly boost its bioavailability though. One is piperine, the active ingredient in black pepper, which has been shown to increase the bioavailiability of curcumin by 2,000%.15 This is why you’ll typically find piperine as an ingredient in most curcumin supplements. A typical dosage of a standardized curcumin supplement is 400 to 600 milligrams three times a day.16

Anti-inflammatory ingredients can provide natural pain relief

Another interesting paper in the journal Surgical Neurology International, “Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agents for Pain Relief,” highlights several foods and spices already mentioned, specifically omega-3, green tea and turmeric. In addition to those, it also discusses the anti-inflammatory potential of:17

• White willow bark
• Maritime pine bark (pycnogenol)
• Resveratrol
• Cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa)
• Chili pepper (capsaicin)

Interestingly, a 2013 animal study18 found capsaicin “produced anti-inflammatory effects that were comparable to diclofenac,” a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly prescribed to patients with mild to moderate arthritis.19

Frankincense

The Surgical Neurology International paper20 also addresses the use of Frankincense extract (Boswellia serrata resin), noting it “possesses anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, and analgesic properties” and is an inhibitor of leukotriene biosynthesis.

As such, it’s valuable in the treatment of inflammatory diseases driven by leukotrienes,21 such as degenerative and inflammatory joint disorders. According to this paper, Frankincense:

“… reduces the total white blood cell count in joint fluid, and it also inhibits leukocyte elastase, which is released in rheumatoid arthritis. In one recent study, a statistically significant improvement in arthritis of the knee was shown after 8 weeks of treatment with 333 mg B. serrata extract taken three times a day …

A combination of Boswellia and curcumin showed superior efficacy and tolerability compared with nonsteroidal diclofenac for treating active osteoarthritis. Boswellia typically is given as an extract standardized to contain 30-40% boswellic acids (300-500 mg two or three times/day).”

An earlier study22 published in Scientific Reports in 2015 confirmed Frankincense and myrrh are both capable of suppressing inflammation by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory cytokines.

The importance of vitamin D

Some anti-inflammatory supplements have already been mentioned, such as curcumin, Cat’s claw, Frankincense and capsaicin. Other supplements with well-documented anti-inflammatory effects include vitamin D, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM-e) and zinc. As reported by Science Daily, vitamin D inhibits inflammation by reducing inflammatory proteins:23

“… [R]esearchers examined the specific mechanisms by which vitamin D might act on immune and inflammatory pathways.24 They incubated human white blood cells with varying levels of vitamin D, then exposed them to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a molecule associated with bacterial cell walls that is known to promote intense inflammatory responses.

Cells incubated with no vitamin D and in solution containing 15 ng/ml of vitamin D produced high levels of cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha, major actors in the inflammatory response. Cells incubated in 30 ng/ml vitamin D and above showed significantly reduced response to the LPS. The highest levels of inflammatory inhibition occurred at 50 ng/ml.

Through a complex series of experiments, the researchers identified a new location where the vitamin-D receptor appears to bind directly to DNA and activate a gene known as MKP-1. MKP-1 interferes with the inflammatory cascade triggered by LPS, which includes a molecule known as p38, and results in higher levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha.

‘This newly identified DNA-binding site for the vitamin-D receptor, and the specific pathways inhibited by higher levels of vitamin D provide a plausible mechanism for many of the benefits that have been associated with vitamin D,’ said Dr. Goleva.

'The fact that we showed a dose-dependent and varying response to levels commonly found in humans also adds weight to the argument for vitamin D's role in immune and inflammatory conditions.’"

While I strongly recommend getting your vitamin D from sensible sun exposure, if you cannot maintain a protective level of 60 to 80 ng/ml year-round, a vitamin D3 supplement would be prudent, considering its importance for your overall health. 

Zinc and SAM-e

Zinc is a commonly overlooked antioxidant, but research shows it’s a potent anti-inflammatory. According to a 2014 review article25 in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition:

“Zinc supplementation trials in the elderly showed that the incidence of infections was decreased by approximately 66% in the zinc group. Zinc supplementation also decreased oxidative stress biomarkers and decreased inflammatory cytokines in the elderly.

In our studies in the experimental model of zinc deficiency in humans, we showed that zinc deficiency per se increased the generation of IL-1β and its mRNA in human mononuclear cells following LPS stimulation.

Zinc supplementation upregulated A20, a zinc transcription factor, which inhibited the activation of NF-κB, resulting in decreased generation of inflammatory cytokines.”

Similarly, SAM-e is commonly recommended for patients with osteoarthritis,26 as it has both anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain relieving) properties. According to Arthritis.org,27 “Results may be felt in just one week but could take more than a month.”

Inflammatory foods to avoid

Last but not least, it's important to realize that dietary components can either trigger or prevent inflammation from taking root in your body, so avoiding inflammatory foods is just as important, if not more so, as eating anti-inflammatory ones.

As a group, processed foods of all kinds tend to be pro-inflammatory, thanks to ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, soy, processed vegetable oils (trans fats) and chemical additives. So, in addition to adding anti-inflammatory foods, herbs, spices and supplements (if needed) to your diet, you’ll also want to avoid the following as much as possible:

•Refined sugar, processed fructose and grains — If your fasting insulin level is 3 or above, consider dramatically reducing or eliminating grains and sugars until you optimize your insulin level, as insulin resistance is a primary driver of chronic inflammation.

As a general guideline, I recommend restricting your total fructose intake to 25 grams per day. If you’re insulin or leptin resistant (have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or are overweight), consider cutting that down to 15 grams per day until your insulin/leptin resistance has normalized

•Oxidized cholesterol — Cholesterol that has gone rancid, such as that from overcooked, scrambled eggs

•Processed meats

•Industrial vegetable and seed oils (a source of oxidized omega-6 fats) such as peanut, corn and soy oil

•Foods cooked at high temperatures, especially if cooked with vegetable oil

Replacing processed foods with whole, ideally organic foods will automatically address most of these factors, especially if you eat a large portion of your food raw. Equally important is making sure you’re regularly reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, as mentioned above.

To help you get started on a healthier diet, I suggest following my free Optimized Nutrition Plan, which starts at the beginner phase and systematically guides you step-by-step to the advanced level.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/09/02/anti-inflammatory-foods.aspx

Men who eat two portions of yoghurt are less likely to develop bowel cancer, major study finds

Men who have two portions of yoghurt a week could cut the risk of precancerous growths by a fifth, a study suggests.

• Laura Donnelly, health editor

18 JUNE 2019 • 10:30PM

Scientists said that two bacteria commonly found in live yogurt, may lower the number of cancer causing chemicals in the gut

 CREDIT: GETTY

Research by the University of Washington found those eating plenty of it had a significantly lower chance of developing adenoma which can lead to bowel cancer.

The study, published in Gut, which tracked more than 32,000 men for 25 years, found that those consuming at least two portions of yoghurt a week had 19 per cent fewer growths - and 26 per cent fewer of the most high-risk type.

The study was observational, and could not demonstrate why the foodstuff might have such an impact.

But scientists said that Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, two bacteria commonly found in live yogurt, may lower the number of cancer causing chemicals in the gut.

The anti-inflammatory properties might also reduce gut leakiness, which could also protect against disease, they said. The study tracked a total of 32,606 men and 55,743 women, all of whom had a lower bowel endoscopy, which enables medics to view the inside of their gut.

Every four years they provided detailed information on lifestyle and diet - including how much yoghurt they ate. During the study period, 5,811 pre-cancerous growths developed in the men, and 8,116 in the women.

While men who ate yoghurt had a far lower risk of developing the growths, called adenoma, no association was seen in women.

Katie Patrick, health information officer, from Cancer Research UK, said: “The colon is home to trillions of microbes and how the bacteria in our gut might affect bowel cancer risk is a fascinating area of research. Lots of things affect the types of bugs in our gut and our overall gut health, including the foods we eat.

“But men don’t need to fill their shopping trolleys with yoghurt because it’s too early to say from this study whether eating more yoghurt could reduce the risk of bowel cancer. However, there is good evidence that you can reduce your risk by eating more foods high in fibre, like wholegrain bread or brown rice, and cutting down on processed and red meat.”

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with almost 42,000 diagnoses annually.

Related Topics

• Colon and Rectal Cancer
 
• Cancer
 
• Scientific research
 
• Health

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/18/men-eat-two-portions-yoghurt-less-likely-develop-bowel-cancer/

Curious Cook: A time for gut feelings – Part 2

Scientists now think that human gastrointestinal microbiota should be classified as a human organ after discovering hormones that it produces can affect the body, brain and the enteric nervous system.

February 25, 2018 Food, Food News

By CHRIS CHAN

Overindulging in food can distress your human gastrointestinal microbiota. Photo: VisualHunt

People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes too.

This quote from The Economist (2012) reflects the realisation that human gastrointestinal microbiota (HGM) is not just a collection of icky bugs lounging around in our guts. In fact, scientists now think that HGM should be classified as a human organ – many endocrinologists (specialists in hormonal disorders) certainly view the HGM as an organ in its own right after discovering hormones produced by HGM can affect the body, brain and the enteric nervous system (ENS, our body’s second brain).

Influential HGM-produced hormones include serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline, gamma-aminobutyric acid, acetylcholine, histamine, etc. The hormones are not produced by single strains of bacteria either – as an illustration, dopamine is output by bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, B. mycoides, B. subtilis, Proteus vulgaris, Serratia marcescens, S. aureus, etc.

Not all kinds of bacteria can survive in the HGM, being restricted to four specialised groups called Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. A recent revision indicates there are about 100 billion (instead of the oft-quoted 100 trillion) bacteria in adult human guts and there are probably over a thousand species and sub-species of bacteria.

Investigating HGM bacteria is difficult as many are so specialised that they survive only in intestines and cannot be cultured. They are crucial for various digestive processes – without HGM, many foods are simply indigestible. For example, humans have no enzymes for digesting most complex carbohydrates – these can only be processed by HGM. The outputs from HGM include vitamins, minerals, short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and other nutrients which are passed through the gut walls into the bloodstream – it also supplies between 10% and 15% of the energy for adults.

HGM also enhances the immune system; intestinal bacteria produce antimicrobial compounds which help attack and destroy pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) present in the intestines and these compounds can be adopted by the body – an example is anti-inflammatory compounds produced by Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.

Cohabiting bacteria within HGM do not attack each other – they manage themselves via a fascinating mechanism called quorum sensing.

How quickly things change

The microbial balance of HGM can change quickly, within a day or less, and this is a direct result of what the body has ingested. Problem foods are not always obvious and can mutate over time – what is easily tolerated before may trigger severe issues later, and nobody is really certain why. Idiosyncratic human differences mean that problem foods are not always the same between people, even if they share the same diet.

In Taiwan, my intestinal cramps were so severe that I thought I had developed gluten intolerance. Later, it seemed the Taiwanese buns and noodles made from heavily-processed white flour were a more likely cause – and I never had problems with flour before.

HGM is loosely divided into three enterotypes (effectively a catalogue of the types of bacteria within the HGM), and enterotypes are influenced by diet. The three types are simply classed as Type 1 (where the genus Bacteroides dominate the HGM), Type 2 (where Prevotella is prevalent), and Type 3 (where Ruminococcus is plentiful). Other genera of bacteria always exist within each enterotype – the Types simply indicate the largest bacterial group by proportion.

Problem foods are not always obvious and can mutate over time.

Enterotypes can alter over time, normally due to prolonged dietary changes. Type 1 is associated with digestion of proteins and saturated fats. Type 2 is linked with carbohydrates and simple sugars while Type 3 prefers complex carbohydrates and insoluble fibres – note that these types are only fuzzy classifications which can overlap substantially. A sudden change in diet can promote certain bacteria temporarily (though in general the original enterotype will revert eventually) – but while the enterotype is disrupted, the event may manifest itself as bodily discomfort and/or diarrhoea or constipation.

Other enterotype disruptive agents include tobacco, medications (especially antibiotics), alcohol, stress, pesticides, pollution, bacterial invasion, etc.

Persistent disruption of HGM balance via long-term exposure to problem diets and disruptive agents will simply end up with HGM deterioration.

The effect of a dysfunctional HGM

Dysbiosis (impairment of the HGM) manifests itself in ways which may not appear connected to dietary issues – this is the disconcerting peculiarity: certain health problems do not seem linked to the probable root cause. However it is still too early to confirm direct causal relationships between HGM and disease – but, as an example, some findings about Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are worth noting.

Compared to normal people, patients with PD have much higher concentrations of E. coli bacteria in their guts, along with more bacteria associated with the production of lipopolysaccharides, an endotoxin which aggravates tissue inflammation. PD is also associated with constipation and “leaky gut” syndrome, where intestinal walls are weakened, allowing the dangerous interchange of pathogens and toxins between the intestines and the blood stream – this may be due to degradation of the intestinal mucus lining caused by excessive numbers of bacteria such as Akkermansia muciniphila. An initial major event during the development of PD appears to be damage to the neurons in the ENS which then spreads to the central nervous system and motor neurons in the brain.

Pathologies of other disorders such as autism, kidney disease, liver disease, metabolic syndromes (such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease) and gastrointestinal issues (such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, Clostridium difficile infection, etc) now also appear traceable to dysbiosis. Whether a malfunctioning HGM is always the prime cause of these conditions is debatable – but regardless of the root cause, it is indisputable that dysbiosis can be a contributing factor in the progression of many diseases.

Oops – now what?

So if a bout of overindulgence or encounter with a disruptive agent distresses your HGM, there are some things to consider. Firstly, chances are good that balance will be restored over time, though recovery is affected by age – older people take longer to restore their normal enterotypes. However, in some cases, the HGM may never recover if the disruptive event is overwhelming – more on this later.

Next is awareness of the symptoms of disruption, and avoiding things which may further aggravate matters. As a personal example, a sense of unease and constipation are signals which prompt abstinence from alcohol and rich foods. It is now time for fructans and dietary oligosaccharides (insoluble fibres used as food by HGM), eg. inulin (found in leeks, okra, etc) and galacto-oligosaccharides (lentils, chickpeas, etc). By weight, the HGM in adults weigh around 500g – and normal daily excretion removes up to 20% of this mass. With this amount of attrition, HGM needs to feed well to propagate itself, especially after some trauma.

Third point is drink lots of water, particularly if suffering from alcoholic dehydration. Insoluble fibre also needs water to progress through the gut better.

Aged cheeses and natural cheese rinds contain lots of good bacteria and can help counter HGM. Photo: The Star/Yap Chee Hong

Yoghurts and drinks fermented with probiotic bacteria are sold in many supermarkets. However, in almost all cases, over 99% of the bacteria (usually from the genera Bifidus and Lactobacillus) are killed by stomach acids before it reaches the intestines – so an alternative may be pills of bacterial spores which can survive stomach acids. Or ingest aged cheeses and natural cheese rinds which contain lots of good bacteria. Whichever option you choose, eat some insoluble fibre beforehand.

Recovering from dysbiosis

Frankly, some people may never recover fully from dysbiosis. Once gut pathogens are firmly established or the intestinal lining is severely compromised, there is no easy return to a harmonious gut environment – for example, treatments such as medications/antibiotics would likely damage the remaining good bacteria as much as the pathogens. Faecal transplants from healthy donors appear thus far the best option to treat dysbiosis-related gastrointestinal problems.

Prevention

As for other diseases now qualitatively linked to faulty HGM, the best preventive options are care and vigilance as reliable diagnostics are presently unavailable. Paying attention to your HGM may really save your life.

I enjoy overindulging occasionally with family and friends, and I do not intend to stop – however I am aware of the obligation to my HGM afterwards and this is something I then manage fastidiously via a temperate diet, or else risk damage and dysbiosis.

https://www.star2.com/food/2018/02/25/curious-cook-time-for-gut-feelings-part-2/

" Why I believe that giving up milk is the key to beating breast cancer..."

By Prof. Jane Plant, PhD, CBE 

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant. 

I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist - surely there was a rational explanation for this cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK?  



I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country's most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live. 

Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.

Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that certain risk factors - such as increasing age, early onset of womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast cancer - are completely out of our control. But there are many risk factors, which we can control easily. 

These "controllable" risk factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because I have done it. 

The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back from working in China while I was being plugged in for a chemotherapy session. 

He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in China.

The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer. Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast cancer in China, then it was little wonder that Chinese women avoided getting the disease.

Those words echoed in my mind. Why didn't Chinese women in China get breast cancer? I had collaborated once with Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.

The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country. Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country, with less urban pollution. In highly urbanized Hong Kong, the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame. 

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also expect to find some radiation-related cases, too. 

The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima, she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half. 

Obviously this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman's chance of contracting breast cancer. 

I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn't genetic.

Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community. 

The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong. In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as 'Rich Woman's Disease'. This is because, in China, only the better off can afford to eat what is termed 'Hong Kong food'. 

The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as "Hong Kong food", because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China. 

So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle. 

There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my research that much of the data about prostate cancer leads to similar conclusions.

According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible, only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England, Scotland and Wales, however, this figure is 70 times higher. Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups ¨C those that can afford to eat rich foods. 

I remember saying to my husband, "Come on Peter, you have just come back from China. What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so different?"

Why don't they get breast cancer?' 

We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach it logically.

We examined scientific data that pointed us in the general direction of fats in diets. Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4% of calories in the average Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in the West.   

But the diet I had been living on for years before I contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre. Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years. 

Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said: "The Chinese don't eat dairy produce!"

It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional 'buzz' you get when you know you have had an important insight. It's as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear. 

Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties. 

I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.

Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very   strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s. 

On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds. 

At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!

Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergies . Over 70% of the world's population are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency. 

Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.

Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow. 

In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with 'good' bacteria. 

Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer . Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record in detail what they normally ate. wish I'd been made aware of his findings when he had first discovered them.   

Following Peter's and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese, butter, milk and yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish. 

It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups, biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. Even many proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive oil spreads can contain dairy produce . 

I therefore became an avid reader of the small print on food labels.

Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth. 

My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect - the lump was still the same size.

Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink . 

About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller. 

And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour's decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour. 

One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn't find it. Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps - I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either. 

On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, "I cannot find it."

None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty. 

My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably skeptical. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer portality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients. 

I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me. 

It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as 'natural' as milk might have such ominous health implications. But I am a living proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan. 

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.

The above article is from an email i received on Dec 17, 2007 8:39 AM which I have just come across again.

Also:

'Give up dairy products to beat cancer’

Is This ‘Nature’s Perfect Food’?

Milk: It doesn’t do a body good