'Delhi belly' bacteria may protect against cancer

The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 11, 2003 | Roger Highfield

[MadIvan]

Travellers suffering from "Montezuma's revenge" or "Delhi belly" can take comfort from the discovery that the bacteria responsible for the runs may protect against cancer. The find also suggests a new way to treat colorectal cancer.

Researchers were struck by how the cancer strikes disproportionately more often in industrial nations than developing countries.

Conversely, traveller's diarrhoea, caused by intestinal Ecoli infections, is more prevalent in developing countries.

Dr GianMario Pitari and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the growth rate of a population of actively dividing cancer cells soon slowed to a crawl after they added the toxin produced by Ecoli.

[MadIvan]

Let the potty jokes begin. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Solamente]

Frenchman's Frappe?

[LibKill]

Hmmmmmm. A lifetime case of the trots lowers the risk of cancer.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking!

[Eala]

Let the potty jokes begin. ;)

No, please flush 'em.

[weegee]

Are doctors recommending intestinal Ecoli infections?

When one eats yogurt, one consumes live cultures that protect against bacteria.

I've been told that the locals can drink the water without ill effects because of things that live in their digestive tract. When the locals move away, those things die off and they are just at vulnerable as we are.

Perhaps those are the things the doctors should be looking into "protecting against cancer" and not the ecoli bacteria.

[Eala]

But... hmmm... remember the laetrile hope/hype in the 70s? One had to go to Mexico get laetrile, and who'd pay more than the, er, obligatory attention to a case of turista whilst there?

[expatpat]

Does an attack confer lifetime protection?

I'd like to think so (after having a bad case years ago during a vacation in Spain), but suspect you need regular attacks of the trots.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Speaking of potty jokes, I think it may have to do with toxic things coming out of your intestinal tract to be deposited, so a lifetime of the runs means your body doesn't keep any toxic things inside.

Hmmm.

[JudyB1938]

My grandmother was born in 1897. She believed that people need to "clean themselves out" at least once a month to "flush the germs out". That usually meant a laxative and an aenema.