Mind, Body & Heart: All you need to know about...

Worsens colorectal cancer

While stress is known to significantly contribute to the onset of various health issues, a new study on Sunday showed how stress can worsen colorectal cancer (CRC).

Gut microbiota
A team of Chinese researchers showed that chronic stress disrupts the balance of gut microbiota, which then hastens the progression of CRC.
By eliminating some gut bacteria and inducing stress, they found a particular bacterial species as a potential therapeutic target.

Chronic stress
The team from West China Hospital, Sichuan University of China, used an antibiotic cocktail -- vancomycin, ampicillin, neomycin, and metronidazole -- to eradicate gut microbiota. It was followed by faecal microbiota transplantation to find whether gut microbiota was necessary for chronic stress to fasten the progression of colorectal cancer. The results showed that while chronic stress increased tumour growth, it also decreased gut bacteria, particularly the Lactobacillus genus, -- essential for a healthy immune response against cancer.

Reasons

“Stress-related CRC progression can be attributed to a reduction in beneficial gut bacteria, as this weakens the body’s immune response against cancer,” said lead researcher Dr Qing Li from the varsity.

Lactobacillus -- being sensitive to vancomycin and ampicillin -- was found depleted in both the control and stress groups by the antibiotic cocktail.

Lactobacillus therapy

“Restoring beneficial bacteria in the gut, such as Lactobacillus, could strengthen the body’s natural defences against colorectal cancer,” concluded Li. -