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Diarrhea Bug May Offer Cancer Cure

Posted by timothy on from the pays-yer-money-takes-your-chances dept.

Makarand writes "Researchers now think that the diarrhea bug may be of help in building resistance to colon cancer. The toxins produced by E. coli, the diarrhea bug, irritate the lining of the bowels and also interact with the cells in a way that prevents them from becoming cancerous. This may very well explain why colorectal cancer is common in the developed countries but rare in the developing countries. Researchers who added E. coli toxins to a dish containing rapidly dividing cancer cells could almost brought the cancerous growth to a halt."

1 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. What else causes diarrhea? by fobside · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not always the bacteria that does it, right? When you eat chips that contain Olestra, that gives you the runs as well. If you really flood your system with fluids, you soften the stool as well. IF you eat food containing lots of fats, it happens as well. This poses a problem of explaining causality to a normal person.

    I see a bunch of people thinking, "Hey, diarrhea is a good thing!" Then people will start trying to cause themselves diarrhea any way they can, which is not a good thing. It's the cause of the largest loss of water in humans. I see people screwing their bodies up so they can be "healthy."