What Has Squatting Got To Do
With Constipation and Cancer?

For more than a hundred years, doctors have known about the connection between constipation and cancer.

One of them was British surgeon Sir William Arbuthnot Lane (1856-1943).

Sir William repeatedly emphasized that in his surgical practice, he had never came across a single case of cancer where the patient had not suffered from a prolonged intestinal stasis (chronic constipation).

Another doctor, Professor Aviles of the Biochemistry of Cancer Department in Guadalajara, Mexico, found that out of 7,715 cancer patients he had examined over a 15-year period, virtually all of them (99%) had suffered from constipation.

Prof Aviles also discovered that degree of malignancy was parallel to the degree of constipation.

Western Diet, Constipation and Cancer

In his remarkable book Cancerproof Your Body, Australian author Ross Horne also identified the Western diet as one of the two root causes of constipation and cancer:

"Not only does the Western (high fat, high protein, low fiber) diet directly cause blood pollution and high blood viscosity, it is guaranteed also to cause constipation. "The Western diet (also) causes auto-intoxication when unexpelled wastes putrefy in the colon (large bowel). "The Western diet is further conducive to cancer in that it lacks not only the necessary fiber but lacks also the anti-carcinogenic substances contained in the missing raw fruit and vegetables."

Horne also revealed the reason why constipation is the most common factor associated with all forms of cancer:

"Not only is the colon therefore constantly exposed to these carcinogens…at the same time, the toxins are taken up by the bowel veins and so enter the already polluted bloodstream to exert their carcinogenic effect throughout the entire body."

Constipation and Cancer - A Lesson from The Navajos

What sets Ross Horne’s book apart, however, was his argument that the Western habit of using the sitting position (toilet) was also to be blamed for constipation and cancer.

In the chapter "The Importance of Squatting - A Lesson from the Navajo Indians", he described the work of Dr De Lamar Gibbons, who had studied North American Indians in San Juan County.

In 32 years of practice, Dr Gibbons noted that despite the Navajo's appalling diet (containing large amounts of fat and junk food, and no vegetables), cancer was almost non-existent, even though they were generally in bad health, most commonly with diabetes, sclerosis of the liver, and hypertension.

In one area where the Navajo represented 40% of the whole population, Dr Gibbons found that they accounted for only 3% of the cancer cases. In another reservation, during the period 1960-73, there were only 13 cases of cancer out of 13,000 admissions (ie: 0.1%).

Ross Horne wrote about the surprise Dr Gibbons and his colleague Dr John Heinerman felt with regard to the absence of cancer among the Navajos…

Dr Gibbons:

"The nutritional content of their diet is a disaster. Their sanitation in many cases is unbelievably bad. Many draw water from open creeks and have no sanitary facilities (not even outhouses, much less indoor plumbing and running water). In short, they do everything wrong. And yet they do not get cancer! "They must be doing something right that the rest of us are doing wrong."

Dr John Heinerman:

"Neither Dr Gibbons nor ourselves ever found any recorded cases of lung cancer among them. Equally amazing is the epidemic of obesity among both tribes, particularly the women. Yet no cases of breast cancer or colon cancer have ever been detected."

In closing, Ross Horne told readers what he thought was the 'right thing' that Navajos did that the rest (of America) were doing wrong:

"Dr Gibbons noticed that Navajo had a taboo against eating chicken or other birds, and wondered whether this abstinence had any connection with their freedom from cancer. "This taboo aside, perhaps they suffer less stress, less air pollution, maybe get a little more exercise, but one thing sets them apart is the fact that they have 'no sanitary facilities, not even outhouses'. "This is, perhaps, the key - the thing they are doing right that we are doing wrong...They (Navajos) are squatting to defecate while the rest of America is sitting on a pedestal toilet."

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