By Kris Kucera

In this high-tech age, when the under-50 set hears “digital rectal exam,” they imagine diagnostic computers and state-of-the-art graphics. The over-50 set, however, knows all too well that the “digital” part means super-low tech. But they endure the exam because finding and eliminating precancerous colon polyps, called adenomas, provide the best defense against developing colorectal cancer, the second most deadly cancer in the West. While healthy living and eating habits help prevent adenomas, researchers from Hiroshima University Hospital in Japan found promising news for people who already have them—aged garlic extract. Taken in 2.4 mL daily doses for 12 months, it significantly reduced the size and reoccurrence of adenomas in diagnosed patients, compared to a similar group taking the control dose of 0.16 mL daily. The research suggests that garlic’s anticarcinogenic compounds diminish the growth and proliferation of potential of adenomas.

When adenomas progress to cancer, doctors often surgically remove the cancerous segment, a procedure called a colectomy. Surprising new research from doctors at California’s Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital shows that patients recovering from colectomies who chewed sugarless gum three times a day for one hour healed more quickly, and left the hospital two-and-a-half days sooner, than those who didn’t.