Posted on 10/01/2023 10:39:29 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Patients who have undergone pelvic radiotherapy may live with low-grade chronic inflammation of the lower intestine 20 years after the treatment. This has been shown in a study.
Radiotherapy is often necessary to cure or slow down a cancer. Even though today's radiotherapies feature a high level of precision, healthy tissue in and around the radiation field is still affected.
The mucous membrane of the large intestine is normally protected against contact with bacteria in feces by a thin barrier of mucus. In the current study, researchers have shown that radiotherapy to the pelvic area affects this thin layer of mucus, allowing bacteria to come into contact with cells on the surface of the intestine. This could be a reason for the low-grade inflammation that the researchers also found in intestines that had been exposed to radiotherapy several years previously.
"It can be hard to detect low-grade inflammation," says Sravani Devarakonda. "We saw signs of low-grade inflammation as late as twenty years after radiotherapy."
It is common for those who have received radiotherapy for cancer of the cervix, prostate, or rectum, for example, to experience intestinal symptoms many years after completing their treatment. The severity ranges from tenesmus (a feeling of not having emptied the bowels properly despite multiple toilet visits), to very frequent diarrhea (15 times a day or more).
The study is based on samples from 28 people, including 24 cancer survivors.
Research is already being carried out to find ways of strengthening the intestines' resistance to radiotherapy, so that long-term symptoms which affect quality of life can be alleviated or even prevented entirely. In an extensive study involving more than 300 patients, researchers are trying to strengthen the protective mucosal barrier by adding extra dietary fiber to the diet before beginning radiotherapy.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Dietary fiber, specifically soluble fiber, can help create this mucous barrier in the gut. This can happen with people who never had radiation therapy, or even with those who already did.
The many new low-carb/Keto breads are an easy way to increase your soluble fiber intake.
Knock on wood. Only very minor issues after prostrate treatment.
It seems to me that very article on a medical revelation/breakthrough is really just things that have been common knowledge for years that somebody just got another grant to write another article about.
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Interesting about the keto bread.
Interesting, but the sample size in study is very small, only 28 people.
So, they nuke your innards and you get inflammation?.....
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