\u201cThat gave me nine years of basically living with effectively a ticking time bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n
His case is a rare one. Others with the same genetic mutation don\u2019t typically present symptoms until their 40s.<\/p>\n
He finally had an operation called a J pouch, around six months before his 18th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they did operate and basically chop my large intestine out of my body \u2013 the first surgery for that was about 10 or 11 hours \u2013 when they biopsied it, there were two tumours growing on the wall of my gut at that point in time.”<\/p>\n
If the cancer got through the gut, it would have spread elsewhere in his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey take your small intestine, turn it back on itself, slice down it, and sew it back together, which basically doubles the diameter of it and then that reconnects you back up,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
While he healed, McIntosh had an ileostomy bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a hole in the side of my body with my small intestine poking out … that was basically the next four months, just to get that reconnection to heal up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second, three-hour operation followed to \u201cput it all back together\u201d.<\/p>\n
As a teenager, recovering from two major operations was \u201cisolating\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
Nik McIntosh, founder of The Science Of and bowel cancer survivor. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the stuff that people are doing at that age, alcohol, going out drinking \u2013 that all has a massive impact on your gut. [With] my situation on top of that, it gets incredibly challenging. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 18, 19, that was the social life. Now, I think people are a lot more aware and probably doing a lot better in terms of not relying purely on alcohol to have a social life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maintaining his health amid his cancer recovery was challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that happens is that your diet\u2019s just completely flipped on its head. All the stuff that\u2019s good for everybody \u2013 all your good, healthy fibres and vegetables and everything else \u2013 you have to cut all of that stuff out of your diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe large intestine\u2019s basically where all of that stuff gets fermented and broken down, and you lose that part of your process … your body\u2019s ability to break down all that fibrous material and everything else basically disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n
His body became \u201ca science experiment\u201d, he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to figure out how to get the nutrition in your body while avoiding all the things your body can no longer digest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five years after the procedure, McIntosh got the all clear, but that \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen again\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still monitoring today, so basically it will never stop. That\u2019s going to be the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIntosh has founded his own supplement brand The Science Of, with the first product designed to support gut health. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
He\u2019s spent the past 15 years experimenting with his diet to see how he can handle certain foods and nutrients, not wanting to rely solely on medical solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I can\u2019t physically eat a bunch of stuff, that turns you towards different forms of supplementation … I\u2019ve had to rely on supplementation pretty heavily over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, it\u2019s obviously much broader than gut health, but gut health is the cornerstone of everything. If my gut\u2019s off a little bit, then I could be in bed for most of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIntosh went on to become a plumber and gasfitter by trade, followed by several years at engineering consultancy Beca. He then created Trade Lab, an online education platform for tradespeople, and Tame, a men\u2019s grooming e-commerce business.<\/p>\n
Now, his trial-and-error approach to looking after his health has led him to create supplement brand The Science Of. The first product, The Science Of: Gut Health, is a powder formula that McIntosh says has been rigorously tested.<\/p>\n
Nik McIntosh’s The Science Of: Gut Health. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
There are countless supplements on the market in New Zealand, and he\u2019s well aware that the scientific claims behind some of them can be \u201cpretty weak\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when people say stuff is clinically backed, you\u2019ve got to look at the clinical research,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd sometimes the clinical research is basically, \u2018We gave this person this thing and they didn\u2019t get sick\u2019 \u2013 but the research is not on the benefit they\u2019re claiming it provides.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, through this process, we want to make sure that where there are claims specifically around clinical backing, we can put a hand across the heart and say this thing is clinically backed in the specific area that we\u2019re saying should be benefiting people. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone through thorough processes with lawyers that operate specifically in that space to make sure that any of the claims that we are making are backed by enough research.\u201d<\/p>\n
With The Science Of, he plans to expand into other areas of health from sleep and immune support to performance and recovery.<\/p>\n
Following his ordeal as a teenager, McIntosh has had to be vigilant when it comes to looking after his health \u2013 and he wants Kiwis to do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Bowel cancer] is something that\u2019s on the rise, it\u2019s obviously pretty closely linked to diet and what you\u2019re putting through your body, even fibre intake and how little people are getting from processed foods,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of screening measures in place now. Go and get screened and don\u2019t be afraid, because the impact that it\u2019s going to have on your life and your quality of life is not worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be too proud to get screened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat gave me nine years of basically living with effectively a ticking time bomb.\u201d His case is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15140,1975,36334,2534,797,8493,692,42,26098,6036,36333,43,36332,13744,61,40,38,41,39,14638,6736,18324,6923,102,197,4741],"class_list":["post-40053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-15140","tag-at","tag-bowel","tag-cancer","tag-diagnosed","tag-exactly","tag-he","tag-headlines","tag-heres","tag-know","tag-mcintosh","tag-news","tag-nik","tag-shock","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wants","tag-was","tag-wasnt","tag-what","tag-with","tag-you","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}