The gut is comprised of numerous types of bacteria, fungi, protists, and viruses. The complex of all these is coined as the microbiome, which has been long overlooked as a key for the treatment of certain physiological ailments such as cancer, psychological disorders, and other diseases. However, recent research has aided in the understanding that the microbiome holds many secrets to many different questions pertaining to physiological healing. In a paper by Martha Hotz Vitaterna and research associates, improvements in sleep recovery were found through alterations of the bacteria levels in the microbiome with the use of a prebiotic diet including galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose. One bacteria, Parabacteroids Distanosis (PD), is known as a marker for quantity sleep. Their experiments included exposing the animal subjects to stress during sleep, causing increasing sleep deprivation which then caused decreased levels of PD. They found through implementing this prebiotic diet increased levels of PD five to seven times of levels while the animals were exposed to stress, essentially concluding that through correlation the addition of prebiotics increased bacteria that aided in sleep recovery during times of stress-induced sleep deprivation. If the microbiome can be manipulated to improve the physiological condition of sleep deprivation, why can't it also be used to treat actual physiological disorders like cancer?
Cancer is one of the main leading causes of death throughout the world. Cancer mostly has been treated through the usage of developed drugs that poison cancerous cells in the body but also wreak havoc on other healthy functioning parts of the body as well. Immunotherapy has also been used for a long time in various ways as an additional method of treatment, but lately, a lot of promising research on the relationship between the microbiome and immune system strength has led to exciting outlooks on cancer screening and its treatment. Specific bacteria numbers have even been identified to fluctuate with certain cancers and bacterial or viral infections present in the body. In addition, tumor tissue has been found to contain traces of microbial DNA, essentially proving that the microbiome is involved in the health and life span of cancerous cells. "The microbiota produces metabolites, metabolizing nutrients and producing toxins that can block pathogenic invaders, restrict their growth, produce beneficial microbial products and metabolize nutrients and poisons from invading species. (Rahman, Microbiome in Cancer: Role in Carcinogenesis and Impact in Therapeutic Strategies)." On the other hand, the microbiota can even nourish and improve the health of certain cancers. Without a doubt, the microbiome can supply signals of potential cancerous habitats or cancer itself, thus providing the idea that microbiomes have in some sense a direct link to cancer development, prognosis, and treatment.
The treatment of cancer is heading in the direction of immunotherapy. can be very beneficial to some patients, but has its challenges because many cancers have "circulatory abnormalities that help elude them from detection of the immune system (Rahman, Microbiome in Cancer: Role in Carcinogenesis and Impact in Therapeutic Strategies)." Most methods include using synthetic drugs that have been developed to change tumor vasculature back to a structure that can be recognized by the body's immune system. Understanding the essential connection between the microbiome and the immune system allows doctors and researchers to use nanotechnology (detection of biology at a nanoscale) to not only better understand but have the potential to control and manipulate microenvironments of the gut and allow for potential new methods to influence immune system strength thus weaponizing the microbiome against cancer. However, much further research is needed before the implementation of such methods could be used due to the complexity of the microbiome with age, macroenvironmental impact, and nutritional patterns of patients.
Cancer is an unwanted part of us but it importantly capitalizes on the same interconnectedness of the bodily system (the microbiome) as the healthy part of us does. Through macrobiotic research, the world is understanding why cancer succeeds, but even more importantly, the relationships it has with the microbiome; hopefully providing us with the knowledge on how to outsmart it, treat it, and eliminate it.
Cancer is an unwanted part of us but it importantly capitalizes on the same interconnectedness of the bodily system (the microbiome) as the healthy part of us does. Through macrobiotic research, the world is understanding why cancer succeeds, but even more importantly, the relationships it has with the microbiome; hopefully providing us with the knowledge on how to outsmart it, treat it, and eliminate it.
References
1) Rahman, Mominur, et al. "Microbiome in Cancer: Role in Carcinogenesis and Impact in Therapeutic Strategies." Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy = Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Dec. 2021 htt[://PubMed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/353814487/.
2) Summa, Keith C., et al. "522 a Prebiotic Diet Alters the Fecal Microbiome and Metabolome, Improves Sleep in Response to Sleep Disruption, and Promotes Stress Resilience in Rats." Gastroenterology, vol. 160, no. 6, 24 May 2022, http://doi.org/10/1016/s0016-5085(21)00997-5.
