Colon cancer is one of the most common types of cancers out there — the number-two cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. Buuut (pun intended!), there are many myths and misconceptions regarding its prevention and treatment. This is really unfortunate, because colon cancer is actually very easy to detect and treat thanks to modern medicine. So here we go — below are five fascinating but completely bogus claims about colon cancer!
Colon Cleansing
Ok fine, we get it. Poop is gross. So we can see how one might reason that colon cleansing could be a good thing. Why not stick a tube up where the poop comes from, and ‘flush’ out the system? Colon cleansing (also known as a colonic, colonic hydrotherapy or colonic irrigation) is a procedure typically offered by alternative medicine practitioners. It involves giving a patient a high-volume enema. The liquid used in the enema consists of water and sometimes also herbs or coffee (excuse me, what?!?). The promise is that it will “detoxify” your colon and eliminate digestive troubles. And of course, since your colon is now clean, it also prevents colon cancer. (Duh!)
The idea of a ‘clean’ colon might sound good, but a healthy body already has great systems in place to eliminate waste material and bad bacteria, making the procedure unnecessary. Also, there are millions of good bacteria (gut flora) which help with everything from mood to immunity that you really don’t want to get rid of! Fine, one might say, but I still want to get one because an occasional purge downstairs could only help, right? Well, hold on there, friend, it’s not that simple! Colon cleansing brings its own share of risks to the table. For starters, it can cause unpleasant symptoms like bloating, cramping, vomiting, diarrhea and nausea. Even scarier, colon cleanses can cause dehydration, a tear (perforation) in the rectum, infection or a disruption to your electrolyte balance (which is dangerous if you have health issues like kidney or heart disease). Most frighteningly, colon cleanses involving additional substances like coffee have been linked to several deaths. So, while colon cleansing might sound like a good idea to some, you’re better off doing…well, just about anything instead!
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is sometimes touted as a highly effective remedy for colon cancer. False! (Colon cancer is a disease of the digestive system, so we get that there is an enduring appeal to foods being both the cause and the cure of all gut ailments.) The myth stems from an alleged study in which lauric acid, a component of coconut oil, was shown to kill colon cancer cells in vitro. The key phrase here is ‘in vitro’. Even if the study were conducted as described, there is a farcical leap (thank you, pseudoscience!) between testing the effects of a chemical on cells in a petri dish and recommending coconut oil consumption as a cure for colon cancer. It’s like saying, oh, well we put some cancer cells under a microscope and then poured battery acid on them and they died instantly. So now we recommend that all people drink battery acid in order to cure their colon cancer. So no, coconut oil is not a remedy for colon cancer. And, oh yeah, please don’t drink battery acid either!
Tongue Diagnosis
This one was a fun one to research! Traditional Chinese medicine claims that colon cancer can be diagnosed simply by inspecting the tongue. Again, we totally get where this comes from. The mouth is the entryway to the digestive system, so it makes convenient sense that there could be visible early warning signs of colon cancer. According to the practice, the color, texture, shape, and coating of the tongue can help in the determination of a variety of illnesses, including colon cancer. Ok, now things get crazier. Apparently unwilling to concede that these ancient practices were not based in science, some Chinese researchers went way too far to prove that there was something valid here. Their study employed modern technology to try and bolster this myth. They took digital pictures of the tongues of healthy patients and colorectal cancer patients and made a computer analyze them to spot differences. But that wasn’t enough! They also took samples from the coatings of patients’ tongues and did a microbiome analysis. A torrent of science-y words, pictures and fancy graphs later, the results are…still nothing to hang your hat on. (Were you about to take a selfie of your tongue and text it to your doctor friend? Be honest!)
Gerson Therapy
Gerson therapy was invented by an American doctor named Max Gerson (yup!). It is an alternative diet-based treatment that claims to cure chronic diseases and cancer, including colon cancer. The therapy focuses on a predominantly vegetarian diet and includes hourly (you read that right!) glasses of organic juices. We’re a little sad about this one, because, per usual, there is an ounce of truth in this bucket of falsehoods. Eating vegetables IS good for you. But not to the crazy (and exclusive) extent that they recommend. The therapy includes the consumption of other dietary supplements, as well as our new favorite weird thing — coffee enemas! (What is with people wanting to put coffee up their butt? How many times have you gone to Starbucks and thought, I’d love to pour this Salted Caramel Mocha into my poophole???) It should come as no surprise to you that there is no evidence that the therapy works. It reached enough people that it had to be debunked by the National Cancer Institute. (They were probably grumbling that there were better uses of their time.) Gerson therapy is not only ineffective but also dangerous! Ineffective in the obvious sense that the excessive juicing and enemas could cause significant health problems, but also dangerous because it recommends its followers to shun standard medical care.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are sometimes touted as having potent anti-cancer effects (unpublished, of course!). The story goes that they have a number of phytochemicals in them which are healthy and disease-preventing. Sweet potatoes apparently have over 600 carotenoid compounds, some of which have antioxidant properties, which gets conflated with decreasing cancer risk. But that’s not the only power that sweet potatoes have, ok? They also have sporamin! What is sporamin, you ask? Well, it’s allegedly a unique protein with anti-cancer effects…and 80% of the proteins in sweet potatoes are (you guessed it) sporamin!
Petri dish tests showed that sporamin effectively fought leukemia (blood cancer) cells. But, you might ask, that’s not enough to prove that sporamin works ‘in vivo’, right? Well, the plot thickens. Sporamin apparently resists digestion in the human body and remains intact in the blood. This feeds into the claim that it can then continue to effectively battle colorectal cancer cells. Slap on the promising label of ‘anti-metastatic agent’, and now you have the makings of a (pseudoscientific) winner! Sweet potatoes are, well, sweet, so it’s like eating natural candy that kills cancer. We wish this were true, because sweet potato fries are delicious!
There you have it! Weren’t those misconceptions strange? Have you heard of a different myth about colon cancer? Please let us know. As we mentioned before, colon cancer is very preventable and it all starts with catching it early. You might think your only option is a colonoscopy, but there are alternatives and a FIT (Fecal Immunochemical Test) is by far the simplest! You can use the non-invasive test to check yourself for colon cancer from the comfort and privacy of your own home. It’s affordable and as simple as a pregnancy test. Early detection saves lives!
