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Doctors stress health benefits of `friendly bacterium'

Health foundations and doctors yesterday alerted the public to the benefits that an increase in intake of acidophilus, a probiotic or "friendly" bacterium, can have in the prevention of intestinal cancer.

The Taiwan Association for Lactic Acid Bacteria said at a press conference held yesterday to kick-start a health awareness campaign that intestinal cancer has become a major cause of death in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Chairman of the association Tsai Ying-chieh (蔡英傑) said that a cancer white paper published in Japan even predicted that the illness would replace lung cancer and become the leading cause of death in the developed world in 2015.

`bad' bacteria

In a study conducted on 185 healthy Taiwanese adults by Tsai last year, he found a high amount of Closridium perfringens, a "bad" intestine bacterium, in the fecal samples of 90 percent of the examinees.

Compared to the results of Japanese research published in the science journal Bioscience Microflora this year, the quantity of bad bacteria in the average Taiwanese person's intestines outnumbers that of a Japanese person's 100-fold, Tsai said.

He added that these harmful bacteria may turn people's daily intake of cholesterol, fat, protein and nitrate into substances which can contribute to various cancers such as breast cancer, liver cancer and cancer of the womb.

Tsai suggested that people increase their intake of acidophilus as a means of preventing intestinal cancer.

Acidophilus is available at most health food and nutrition stores and comes in two forms, capsules and powder.

stay regular

Cheng Yung-shan (鄭勇山), chief of the Gastroenterology Department at Wang Fang Hospital, told the press conference that regular bowel movements are also particularly important in preventing the disease.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the Department of Health suggested that there was a 16.2 percent increase in deaths caused by intestinal cancer.

The tally last year prompted the health department to include the illness in its future cancer prevention goals.
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