Go Local >> Part 1: Cancer Commonality Factor - Constipation

A few weeks I listened to Dr. Lou Coutinho speak on treating cancer patients and the research that they have done with these patients in finding the commonality factors.  They found 4 factors and I find them interesting as as he puts it, you do not need to spend a lot of money to prevent cancer but make changes in your daily diet and lifestyle.  This I truly belief.  As he puts it, there are all types of cancer patients irrespective of ethnic backgrounds, body size, occupation or financial status and they collected data on patients from many different countries.
One of the factors is constipation.  This makes sense to me as with constipation, your body retains the wastes and toxins longer in your body as well as prevents regular disposal of your body wastes as well as toxins.

If you are constipated regularly, heading for the medicine cabinet is not the answer as it addresses a symptom but does not solve the underlying issue.  It is crucial that the body can get rid of the wastes and toxins efficiently and that it does nor cause issues with your gastro-intestinal system or lead to the toxins and wastes re-entering the blood system as it would mean that these toxins and wastes would then cause problems to other organs of your body.  This would create a conducive environment for the cancer cells in your body to mutate and become active.

Thus caring for the gastrointestinal (GI) system is of the upmost importance and this includes the stomach, pancreas, intestines and colon.  Water is one of the essential elements in maintaining a healthy GI system.  Hence be sure to drink sufficient clean water daily and the amount varies depending on the activity from at least 1 liter.  Coffee, tea, carbonated drinks are not considered to fall into the water category.

Our GI system contains friendly-bacteria that helps in the process of digestion.  Certain things that we do can cause these friendly bacteria to die or reduce in quantity.  Amongst the most often cause is prescribed antibiotics.  Many take costly probiotics and probiotics but there are so many kinds and each person varies in the type and quantity of bacteria present.  After all, each person has a different kind of diet, etc. After thinking about it, I decided to write this article on what we have locally that is low in cost and effective.

We are blessed because we have natural herbals locally grown which contribute towards a healthy GI system.  The top on my list is turmeric and ginger.  They are easily available and easy to grow in our gardens, whether in pots or in the ground.  As long as they get sunshine, water and some fertiliser, they will grow just fine.  As many already know, black pepper is essential in increasing the bioavailability of curcumin (the main phytonutrient we want in turmeric) and we have these grown locally.  I favour Sarawak black pepper or any organically grown black pepper.  We can easily incorporate this into our daily diet.

Many of our normal daily dishes can easily have these ingredients added to it.  When we make soups, just add some turmeric, black pepper and ginger.  When we do stir-fry dishes, again these three


ingredients can be added.  Most of us have rice as the main staple and we can elevate this staple by adding these three ingredients.  We can also add these ingredients to our teas or milk drinks.  Be sure not to use refined sugar as this will help create an acidic environment favourable for cancer cells mutation and growth.

What else can we eat to further improve our GI system.  Try adding tapioca, another easily available, locally-frown ingredient,  to your diet as with its high fiber content, it will help the disposal of toxins in our GI system.  It also has a low glycemic index hence replacing your rice with this as the staple carbohydrate will further add benefits to your diet.  It also helps in the growth of the beneficial bacteria in our GI system.

It is hard to overdose on this when you eat it naturally and I haven't been able to find any adverse reactions or contraindications when taken as normal food.  Simple changes that can make a difference.