Study Shows Link Between Sugar Consumption and Disruption of Colon Health

The study, whose results were published in the Journal of Liver and Digestive Diseases, said that excess sugar consumption disrupts cells that maintain colon health, and causes inflammation of the intestine.

Commenting on the study, Timothy Hand, a professor of immunology at the American University of Pittsburgh, said: “The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease is increasing all over the world, and it is higher in countries with industrial and urban lifestyles, whose citizens usually eat meals rich in sugar.”

Hand added: “Excessive sugar intake is not good for several reasons, and our study adds new evidence to this, as this substance can be harmful to the intestine and colon.”

During the study, the researchers fed mice a standard or high-sugar diet, then simulated symptoms of IBD by exposing them to a chemical called DSS, which damages the colon.

All the mice fed a high-sugar diet died within nine days, while all the animals fed a standard diet lived until the end of the 14-day experiment, according to the Scientific News website Studyfinds.

To find out why things went wrong, the team looked for answers inside the colon, which is normally lined with a layer of epithelial cells, which are frequently replenished by stem cell division, to keep the colon healthy.

In some mice, the protective layer of cells completely disappeared, filling the colon with blood and immune cells.

This indicates that sugar may directly affect the colon, impeding the division of stem cells that maintain this organ.

Hand summarized his study by saying: “We found that stem cells divide much more slowly in the presence of sugar, and are likely to be very slow to repair damage to the colon.”