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 (
`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.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching