Chronic Inflammation and Colon Health

[Music]

[Applause]

do you know what a colostomy bag is

it’s a plastic bag that’s attached to a

hole

that the doctors have inserted into our

abdomen

and we redirect your poop into that bag

because your colon has been ravaged by

cancer

and if we do that it means you’re lucky

because you’re going to live

now i recommend avoiding it if you can

and i recommend avoiding the bellyaches

the constipation

the diarrhea the rectal bleeding

and all the other crappy things that

come with colorectal cancer and its

treatment

so today i’m going to tell you the steps

that you can take

to avoid getting colorectal cancer

especially

at a young age my name is lauren haaseth

i’m the director of the center for colon

cancer research here

at the university of south carolina

now colorectal cancer is the third

leading cause

of cancer death globally so it’s

important

now the good news is for people over 50

years old

old folks like myself colorectal cancer

rates are decreasing

the bad news is for young

adults even very young adults colorectal

cancer rates are

increasing they’ve been increasing for

the last 40 years the lot rises

global and the contributing factors

probably take

hold during childhood so today i’m going

to tell you the steps that you

and your children can take to avoid

getting colorectal cancer

early in life and then i’ll explain to

you the science behind

why these steps

work so meet your colon

your colon’s job is to finish processing

the food

remove the liquid that’s left over and

move it out of your body as poop

inside your colon is your microbiome now

your microbiome

are a bunch of bacteria we’ll just call

them bugs

some are good bugs some are bad bugs but

there’s

trillions literally trillions of these

bugs that govern the health of your

colon

think of them as guardians of your colon

now the good bugs they have long names

like lactobacillus and bifidobacterium

well these bugs help process your food

they regulate your immune system and

they tame

inflammation now the bad bugs

these also have long names like fuso

bacterium

now when there’s a buildup of these bad

bugs this causes

dysbiosis and dysbiosis drives

inflammation and chronic inflammation in

your colon is

really bad over the course of

years if chronic inflammation isn’t

tamed

it will likely lead to colorectal cancer

so the steps i’m going to highlight

today keep your microbiome healthy

tames inflammation and gives you the

best chance

possible avoiding colorectal cancer

so step one more than anything else

across the globe

we have to change the way we eat in the

mid-1900s

the standard american diet began to

change not in healthy ways

this is when we saw the introduction of

processed foods

more fried foods sweets more

artificially

colored foods with a high calorie

content and a low

nutrient value i think fast foods

pre-made box lunches

chips soft drinks now in the latter part

of the century

we saw this the spread of this diet

across the globe think

mcdonald’s for example is in over a

hundred countries

so this food is damaging our colons

across the globe and we’ve actually

parsed out the data to prove it

our lab has fed mice a standard american

diet

and these mice lo and behold get

dysbiosis

they get inflammation and yes they got

colon cancer

now even more convincing was a study

done on

human volunteers of african descent

these were volunteers from the usa and

south

africa and all they did was switch diets

for two weeks

the usa cohort ate the healthy diet from

south africa

the south african cohort ate the

standard american diet

and guess what happened yup

after only two weeks of consuming the

healthy diet from south africa

dysbiosis got better inflammation got

less and there are higher amounts of

butyrate which is a good guy it

tames inflammation after only two weeks

of consuming the standard american diet

the south african cohort had worse

dysbiosis

and worse inflammation so compelling is

the entirety of the data

we now call our standard american diet

by its acronym s a

d literally literally a sad

diet a sad diet really like

our standard american diet is a sad diet

now

so what should we be eating what foods

will

increase the amount of good bugs

decrease the amount of bad bugs

and thereby tame our colon inflammation

well we should be eating a plant-based

diet

or beans some meat more olive oil and

saturated fats more fruits

more vegetables and it’s especially

helpful

to consume foods called prebiotics now

prebiotics

are a part of the plant-based diet

they are the oats they are the barley

they are the legumes

they’re the apples they’re the bananas

they’re the asparagus

now the good bugs in our colon consume

these prebiotics and spit out

anti-inflammatory

metabolites in short

these foods help our colon fight the

good fight

now we can also help our microbiome by

consuming

probiotics now prebiotics feed

the good bugs in your microbiome the

probiotics

are the good bugs in our microbiome the

most commonly found

probiotic in the usa is yogurt so these

foods

help build up the good bugs fight off

the bad bugs and tame

inflammation in your colon and if you

can’t imagine

adding any of these foods to your daily

diet

you can walk down to your local drug

store and buy them as

supplements so what else can we do

to lower our risk of colorectal cancer

when we’re young

well you’re going to have to get off

your butts and i’ll tell you why

you might not believe this but recent

studies have shown

that the longer you watch tv

the higher your risk of colorectal

cancer the most shocking study

found that women who watch over two

hours of tv

per day have a 70 percent

increased risk of colorectal cancer 70

percent

now it’s not the tv watching per se

that gives you the colorectal cancer

it’s lounging around it’s a sedentary

behavior

that’s going to increase dysbiosis and

inflammation

and tv watching isn’t the only sedentary

behavior that’s become more popular in

recent years

more of us spend time at desk jobs than

ever before

we spend more time looking at our phones

and

all of us know somebody who spends

hours on a weekend binge watching

netflix

or playing video games so how do we fix

us

well i won’t tell you to quit

your desk job and find one that requires

you to stand all day

but i will join the ranks of advocating

for hourly office laps or walking

meetings

now i won’t tell you to quit watching tv

but i will tell you it’s better to watch

tv while

riding a stationary bike or walking on a

treadmill

so get your steps in every day make time

for exercise

and your colon will thank you for it

so over the last 40 years we’ve seen a

rise

in factors that we must combat

to maintain colon health so far

we’ve gone through a standard american

diet and

increased sedentary behavior but there’s

a third factor one that’s

not so visibly obvious but just as

insidious as the others

and that’s stress stress has been

increasing for the last 40 years

the rise is global and perhaps saddest

of all

stress has been increasing dramatically

in our children now scientifically

more and more studies are showing that

different

causes of stress lead to dysbiosis

and we already know that dysbiosis

drives inflammation

what’s even worse is long-term stress

common amongst all

ages can lead to a slow burning of your

colon

it’s a process called inflammation and

it feels as good as it sounds

so it’d be easy for me to vaguely tell

you to manage your stress levels but

that really wouldn’t be

tangibly helpful to you

and while there’s a hundreds of causes

of stress and i couldn’t imagine

going through them all in the little

time that we have

i will mention a few things that you can

do

to prevent stressors that have been

scientifically proven

to lead to dysbiosis number one

is get your sleep adults need eight

hours of sleep

children ten hours of sleep set a

regular sleep schedule

set the room temperature do everything

that you can do

to get a good night’s sleep every night

number two is create predictability know

what’s in your short-term

future and prepare for it

before you go to bed at night set out

your clothes

pack your lunch to-do lists are great

check them off imagine like a to-do list

for colon health that’d be cool prepare

for things that upset you every day

if you’re an angry driver understand

there will always be idiots on the road

accept that fact let it go and your

colon will thank you

so all these things seem a bit hyper

vigilant

but they’re actually simple and they’ll

knock a bunch of stress off your

shoulders

so number three is social support

community

family a happy marriage all

will reduce your stress levels

exceptionally stressful moments will

always

arrive but honestly they’ll always

recede

managing your ongoing stress is a surest

way

of preventing inflammation and it’s key

to colorectal

health now we don’t

know yet everything there is to know

about colorectal cancer but what we do

know

is diet exercise and stress

are important for colon health and key

to preventing colorectal cancer

we’re also finding out that dysbiosis

can pass

from parent to offspring so for your

own sake and your future family’s sake

i urge you to eat well

stress less and move more thank you

[Applause]