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Colon Cancer and Diet

lginger — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:32:10 +0000

Of all cancers, lung cancer kills the most Americans. But the kind of cancer that occurs in the colon and rectum is the second biggest threat, stealing the lives of approximately 55,000 Americans per year.

In case you are wondering, the colon, or large intestine, is designed to collect the waste products of digestion and shuttle them out of your body via the rectum. Evidence suggests that exposing this organ to large amounts of certain harmful chemicals or digestive by-products can trigger either benign pre-cancerous growths or outright malignant tumors in an otherwise healthy colon.

A Colon-Friendly Diet

It is not surprising that what you or you do not consume plays a big part in preventing colon cancer. In fact, scientists who have studied colon cancer say that up to 80% of all cases are preventable. And prevention starts with food.

Here is how:

1. Fill your grocery cart with crops

More than 20 scientific studies have shown that eating more fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of colon cancer.

Health experts even insist that the evidence that a sufficient intake of fruits and vegetables helps protect against colon cancer is stronger than the evidence for any possible protective factor.

How much do you have to eat to lower your risk? According to some professors of medicine in the cancer prevention and control program in the U.S., increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables until you are eating the equivalent of five full servings a day will definitely lower your risk of getting the disease.

2. Enjoy soy

In a study of nearly 1,000 Californians, the people who ate soybeans in some form, at least once a week, had half the risk of developing polyps as compared to people who did not eat soybeans. Polyps refer to the growths in the colon that are precursors to colon cancer.

3. Slice some meat from your diet

In one study, women who ate red meat, like lamb, beef, or pork, five days in a week had a three-to-four times higher risk of developing colon cancer than women who did not any. Fried or broiled meats may be particularly risky because they may increase levels of mutagens. These are substances that can trigger tumors.

4. Get plenty of calcium

Calcium appears to be a significant agent in the reduction of risk for colon cancer. According to some researches, calcium worked in the same way as fiber, reducing the level of possible cancer-promoting bile acids in the colon.

Health experts recommend an intake of 1,500 milligrams of calcium per day, which can come from both dietary sources and supplements. Good sources of calcium in the diet include dairy products such as skim milk and non-fat yogurt and cheeses; fish such as canned salmon with bones and sardines with bones; green vegetables such as collard greens, broccoli, kale, and mustard; and calcium-fortified orange juice.

5. Water therapy

Researchers in at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Center in Seattle studied 400 middle-aged men and women with a history of colon cancer, comparing their diets to those of cancer-free counterparts. They found that among women who drank more than five glasses of plain water a day, there were fewer cases of colon cancer. In fact, their risk was about half of what it was for women who drank fewer glasses a day.

These are just some of the many ways to prevent colon cancer. Indeed, there is a definite truth in the saying, “You are what you eat.” Hence, it would be better to be wary on what you eat in order to avoid the risk of getting colon cancer.

Treating Colon Cancer

lginger — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 04:18:38 +0000

One of the leading causes of cancer in the United States is Colon Cancer. This refers to the part of the body that is responsible for storing food and waste until it is time to be released.

The early symptoms of this disease can be seen if there is blood in the feces, a change in the bowel movements that can either be in the form of diarrhea or constipation and pain experienced in the lower abdomen. Given that this is quite serious, it is best to consult the doctor immediately for proper examination.

Although modern medicine has not yet been able to determine the cause of this disease, research has shown that over the past 20 years, the survival rate of people that have succumbed to this illness has dropped.

This is because of new methods that can detect it during the earlier stages and the new techniques that have been developed to fight this.

Colon cancer is treatable. The various procedures to be used will depend on the progress of the cancer on the patient.

1. Surgery is always the best way to get rid of the cancerous section. This means taking out the organ and the adjacent tissues surrounding it.

2. Chemotherapy is a systematic procedure that involves the use of different drugs to slow the growth of the tumor and to destroy the cancer cells. The medications given can be taken in orally by the patient or through a tube injected in the body.

The doctor can administer this before surgery or can be done together with other forms of therapy. The side effects of chemotherapy are mouth irritation, diarrhea, hair loss and low white blood cell count.

3. Biological therapy otherwise known as immunotherapy can be conducted to stimulate the immune system inside the body and to protect itself from the side effects due to chemotherapy. The agents that can be used to fight this are levamisole and Calmette-Guerin.

The patient may suffer similar side effects to that of chemotherapy and may also experience chills, fever, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting and loss of appetite.

4. Radiation therapy can also be used to fight this disease. This painless procedure is carried out using high energy x-rays to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. The possible side effects of this disease are hair loss, swelling and reddened skin which can be reduced through prescribed medication.

Follow up treatment should be done to make sure that all the cancer cells were removed and that these do not recur. This can be done using x-rays, CT scans, colonoscopies, blood and feces samples that can be collected from the patient.

The digestive system is an important part of the body that is constantly at work. When an individual decides to eat something, this goes into the stomach and is converted into energy for the person to carry out the tasks required for the day.

Nobody can ever understand how it feels like to be diagnosed with colon cancer unless the person has been there.

Some people who are diagnosed with colon cancer are only given 5 years left to live but some have proven to live even longer. By getting information about the treatments available, the patient can make the right decision with the help of the doctor on how to proceed to fight this disease.

Identifying The Symptoms Of Colon Cancer

lginger — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 19:38:31 +0000

Colon cancer is the third most distinctive cancer in the United States. Although it does not get much attention unlike the breast cancer and prostate cancer, it is considered as the second leading cause of deaths when it comes to cancer. It should be alarming to many individuals the possibilities that they may have the symptoms of colon cancer the chances to have an early treatment and prevent the tumor from developing in the colon.

1. A person may experience a stomach that is cramping or bloating. The bloating of the stomach is the cause of a bowel malfunction while the cramping of the stomach is the effect of untimely diarrhea and constipation. In most cases when the cancer is in its critical stage, a person may encounter severe abdominal cramping where the tumor is drilling through the bowel wall of the stomach.

2. A person may experience total weight loss. If he has encountered an unexplained weight loss, he must consider that there is a problem in his metabolism. The total weight loss that he may experience could be the cause of the tumor that blocks the bowel along the intestines and in the stomach.

3. He may also feel tiredness and being stressed out in a constant basis. One reason for a person to be tired all the time could be the cause of being anemic. This is a condition where the red blood cells are not doing their work for some reasons. They may not be bringing the needed oxygen on the cells. An anemic person may be lacking sufficient Iron in his diet.

4. If a person who always vomit without any reason may be showing signs of colon cancer. Bowel malfunction can be the cause of dizziness and vomiting where the stomach may have a tumor that throws anything that a person takes in his diet.

5. He may be experiencing changes in his bathroom habits. The tumor might be developing in the in the colon where it prevents normal flow of the waste that is supposed to be thrown out as solid waste.

6. A person would see blood in the waste that he excretes because tumors in the colon have the tendency to bleed especially if they are in the right side of the colon. There are also cases where the tumor is dried and the stains will no longer be visible by the time the waste is removed from the stomach.

7. A symptom would also be when a person experiences that his stool is becoming thinner. If a tumor starts to grow in the colon, it may affect the flow of waste that is released in the body. When he thinks that everything is just doing well in his bowel metabolism, he may experience a malfunction in his bathroom habits if he has colon cancer.

8. Another sign is when a person feels like he is going to defecate all the time. The tumor that may be present in the colon can give him this kind of feeling. He may feel that there is something that is ready to be released but there is none. He may not know that there is a tumor that is attached nearer to the exit.

It is important that an individual will determine early if he has the symptoms leading to a colon cancer. There are surgical procedures that can remove the tumor from the colon as long as the cancer is still in its early stages. It is important that a person should see a doctor immediately to check if he is in danger of acquiring a cancer in the colon.

8 Common Symptoms of Colon Cancer

lginger — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 20:55:35 +0000

Here are some of the most common symptoms of colon cancer:

1. Weakness 2. Feeling of extreme exhaustion 3. Presence of blood, either dark or red, in the stool 4. Constipation or diarrhea 5. Shortness of breath or gasping 6. Feeling of bloating 7. Excruciating pain in the abdominal area 8. Weight loss

Diagnosis

Half of the cancers of the colon or rectum can be felt by examining finger or is seen by visualizing the rectum. Over 70% can be visualized by a sigmoidoscopic examination. Therefore, these procedures should be a part of the annual physical examination and the nurse should encourage the patient to have them.

Indeed, symptoms of colon cancer may be associated with the common bowel problems. But once the abdominal pains are already present and whenever blood is present in the stool, it is important to undergo physical examination right away.

As they say, it is better to be safe than sorry, and paranoid than dead.

Colon Cancer Symptoms That Everyone Must be Aware of

lginger — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:27:06 +0000

Tumors of the small intestine, as in the case of duodenal tumors, are rare. Fatty tumors, connective tissue tumors, and blood vessel tumors are all benign in character. Some of them may take the form of polyps projecting into the intestinal lumen.

Tumors of the colon, on the other hand, are relatively common. In fact, cancer of the colon and rectum is now the most common type of internal cancer in the United States. Benign polyps are much more common in the large than in the small intestine. They may be very numerous. When multiple, the condition is referred to as polyposis — often, apparently, a congenital abnormality. These polyps are not often cancerous in the end.

In its basic sense, benign polyps may not pose instant danger. However, it must be removed immediately through colonscopy. This is because once these benign polyps become malignant, they become cancerous and, thus, develop colon cancer.

Basically, cancer of the colon and the rectum always arises from the epithelium lining of the intestine. The effects produced depend largely on its location.

As in the case of cancer elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract, the chief symptoms are the passage of blood in the stools, anemia, obstruction, and perforation.

A suddenly developing obstruction may be the first symptom of cancer involving the colon anywhere between the cecum and the sigmoid, for in this region, where the bowel contents are liquid, a slowly developing obstruction will not become evident until the lumen is practically closed.

Cancer of the colon and the rectum causes earlier symptoms of partial obstruction, with constipation alternating with diarrhea, lower abdominal painful cramps, and distention.

Any person with a history of inexplicable change in bowel habit and the passage of blood in the stools should be studied carefully to rule out cancer of the large bowel.

The possibility that a rectal carcinoma or cancer of the colon exists is when the polyps are detectable but still asymptomatic and can still be operated. This condition is one important reason for the inclusion of a rectal examination as part of every routine physical examination.

Helpful additional symptoms, often present, are those of progressive weakness, anorexia, weight loss, anemia, and lower abdominal pain. The most important diagnostic procedures are the abdominal and rectal examinations, sigmoidoscopy, repeated examination of the stools for the presence of blood, determination of the blood-hemoglobin, concentration for anemia and, usually the most conclusive of all, the barium roentgenologic examination.

However, these symptoms are generally detectable mostly through physical examination. But for those who are not aware that they may be experiencing some extraordinary conditions that may suggest colon cancer, it is important to submit themselves for physical examination in order to detect the possibility of colon cancer.