At a Glance:
- About 80% of your immune system cells exist along the digestive tract! Meaning, the health of your immune system is intricately linked to the health of your gut/digestive system.
- Microbe Formulas created a Foundational Protocol that provides a 4-phrase approach to put you on the path to wellness and guide you through a true detox experience.
- For millions of people, SIBO causes a wide range of digestive symptoms like gas, constipation, and diarrhea––and many have never been diagnosed. Shivan Sarna is here to tell us how to fix the real cause of SIBO! Click here for a FREE copy of her SIBO SOS Cookbook!
- Breast cancer is an accumulation of many illnesses and weaknesses in the body. Parasitic or viral infections can weaken and stress our immune system daily, leading to cancer and other diseases.
Gut health and cleaning out parasites should be a big part of your healing journey. According to the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), one of the main causes of cancer is chronic infections, whether viral, bacterial, or parasitic. The mechanism for causing cancer may be direct by producing oncogenic proteins, or indirect by creating chronic inflammation and burdening the immune system.
Everyday metabolism and digestion of foods can create internal toxins. If the detoxification pathways are stagnant and not functioning properly, toxins can accumulate in your body. This increased toxic load affects your health on a cellular level and impedes your body’s natural healing ability. Learn more about this in the Essential #2 chapter in my book, Heal Breast Cancer Naturally.
The Gut & Digestive System
Before we take a journey into the gut, I want to share a fact that shocks most people: About 80% of your immune system cells exist along the digestive tract! Meaning, the health of your immune system is intricately linked to the health of your digestive system. This is why the 7 Essentials System® is focused on healing the whole self since every part of your beautiful body is connected.
The “gut” technically refers to the gastrointestinal tract. The word itself is sometimes used in a general sense to indicate the entire digestive system (for instance, when experts refer to “gut health” and “gut imbalance”).
The digestive system is made up of the GI tract, the liver, the pancreas, and the gallbladder. The GI tract is the largest component of the digestive system. It is made up of the mouth, the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine (i.e. the colon), and the anus.
The main job of this system is to move food and liquid steadily along and break it down into smaller parts to ultimately absorb the nutrients from our food to the areas of the body that need them most. It is also the job of certain mechanisms, like the liver and colon, to expel the waste and toxins left over from the digestion process. The nervous system and the hormones (i.e. the cellular endocrine system) play important roles in digestion as well. A great way to keep your system healthy is with the Microbe Formulas Foundational Protocol which provides a 4-phrase approach to put you on the path to wellness and guide you through a true detox experience.
IBS vs. SIBO
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is a medical condition caused by an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. Gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and pain could
actually be the root cause of 60-70% of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) cases. And everything that has to do with gut health directly contributes to cancer and your overall well-being. Since I never stop researching and talking to experts who have healed themselves, I am thrilled to share that Shivan Sarna, founder of SIBO SOS (Save Our Selves!), is my latest guest on The Dr. V Podcast!
Listen in to learn how to test and see if SIBO is actually the cause of your miserable symptoms, who should be taking probiotics, and if a hormone imbalance is at the root cause. She has done the work, researched everything possible, talked with all the experts that came before her, and put it all into her latest book, Healing SIBO – Fix the real causes of IBS, bloating, and weight issues in 21 days! Healing is for you. Check out the podcast episode and her book to discover warm, no-nonsense, useful advice and treatment approaches from someone who has been there herself!
As a free gift to readers of Breast Cancer Conqueror, Shivan is giving away her SIBO SOS Cookbook! Click here to get your copy!
Parasites
According to the CDC, millions of Americans have parasites that can lead to cysticercosis, linked to DNA damage and tumor growth. Additionally, parasites have clever ways of “tricking” the immune system. As they grow, they strip us of the vital nutrients needed to fuel our bodies.
How You Are Exposed to Parasites
Foods that contain parasites:
- Some foods from the sea and lakes: Crabs, frogs, crayfish, snails, and aquatic plants.
- Undercooked foods such as beef, wild game, lamb, or pork.
- Commercial pork is saturated with toxins. This is because pigs have such a short digestion time that does not allow them to reduce their toxic burden. Plus, they do not have sweat glands to release toxins through the skin. On top of all of that, pigs are loaded with parasites like trichinella and tapeworms. If you do eat pork, I suggest rarely consuming it and choosing only pasture-raised.
Other ways to get infected with parasites:
- Unclean food sources and the many hands that touch your food from the fields to the grocery store.
- Other people who have poor sanitary habits.
- Through your skin, especially the bottom of your feet.
A very easy-to-read but very compelling book about parasites is “Guess What Came to Dinner” by Anne Louise Gittleman. I read this book decades ago, and it forever opened my eyes to the prevalence of parasites in our “clean” society.
Parasite Cleanse
Gut health and parasites go hand-in-hand. If you have never done a parasite cleanse, the odds are you have them. Parasites are a toxic burden and stress the immune system. Their waste matter can also leave your body feeling tired and toxic. Gut health issues and parasites may also affect you via yeast infections, digestive problems, headaches, anxiety, food sensitives or cravings, itchy rectum, and so forth. It can be beneficial to do a parasite cleanse during a full moon, that contains a blend of botanic extracts with a long history of supporting a healthy intestinal tract. The full moon is a perfect time to start your cleanse since parasites are most active around the full moon Learn more about it here.
What do the gut and parasites have to do with breast cancer?
A 2019 study conducted by researchers at the University of Granada in Spain and published in the British Medical Journal found that “the risk of breast cancer could be associated with the composition and functionality of the mammary/gut microbiota and that exposure to environmental contaminants (endocrine disruptors, EDCs) might contribute to altering these microbiotas.”
Let’s break this down. In very general terms, gastritis (gut inflammation) is when the stomach lining becomes inflamed. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including excess alcohol consumption, bad diet, and stress. The result is the same, however: an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in the gut.
Now, let’s get to the microbiota part. Did you know that there are bacteria living in literally every part of your body? In fact, there are more bacterial cells in the human body than there are purely human cells! This community of bugs is called your microbiome.
Many people believe that all bacteria can make you sick. However, research has confirmed that many forms of bacteria are absolutely beneficial for your health and proper functioning. However, when “bad” microbes crowd out “good” microbes, your immune system gets weak and chronic inflammation can develop. Your gut is home to most of the microbes, but your breasts have their own balance of microbes. And researchers now believe there are distinct differences in the bacteria in healthy and cancerous breast tissue.
This imbalance of good and bad microbes is called dysbiosis, which could contribute to inflammation and breast cancer. A study from the Cleveland Clinic shows this via a study done on women who either had a mastectomy or just cosmetic surgery. Results showed that healthy women and breast cancer patients had different microbes in their breast tissue.