I want you to check out these stats. There is a growing risk for colorectal cancer.
Researchers say one in 23 men, one in 26 women
will develop colon cancer in their lifetime.
It is one of the leading causes of death for men and women under the age of 50.
In light of national colorectal cancer month.
We want to do our part by spreading awareness and
giving new ways that you can reduce your risk.
We have Doctor David Hiller from Nova
Health talking about colorectal cancer and what you should be doing right now.
We're going to address all things, colon cancer screenings,
everything you need to know
before you head to the doctor. And this is the best part.
You get to ask your question to the doctor. The number is 3363795775.
You get to ask your question anonymously and get your question answered right here.
Live on TV.
All right.
So Doctor Hiller,
let's just kind of start with the beginnings like
when is it time for folks to get checked?
Absolutely. So that has recently changed.
Most people have kind of had drilled into their
head age fifties when you first start getting checked
and that's not sufficient anymore.
We're finding more and more polyps and early colon cancers at younger ages.
So now for everybody that age starts at 45 to start getting screened
for colon cancer or sooner if you have family history or other symptoms.
Ok. So how do we kind of prepare for this colonoscopy?
Do we go to our regular doctor first?
And they're gonna, they're gonna say, hey, you need to, you know,
go and see another doctor before you do this.
A lot of different ways.
So, colonoscopy is, is the best test,
the gold standard for screening for colon cancer.
And that's done by a gastroenterologist, a colorectal surgeon,
some general surgeons, other providers that do this.
So different ways to get there.
One is ask your primary care provider for a referral to somebody for it
or you can even call any of our offices up.
You can call a gastroenterologist directly,
call collect a surgeon directly to um ask about getting screened.
Ok.
And so a lot of people would say, yeah,
I know that it's 45 but I don't have a family history.
I can probably leave that for a little while.
I would say don't do that. The signs of colon cancer.
A lot of times show up after something's already been there for a while and the
whole point of a colonoscopy and for screening is to find it before it's a problem.
And that means before you even know something's a problem.
And so the reason these ages are bumping up is we're finding
more and more problems and people don't realize it's going on.
So it's so important to get checked out so we can
stop it before it's even a big issue for you.
Right. Because a lot of people don't have any kind of symptoms whatsoever.
Correct.
Ok. And you don't have to have a family history to have got to be diagnosed with it,
right?
A lot of us now because it's becoming so much
more prevalent in America are going to have family histories.
But going back before this recent increase,
uh we would say that maybe 10% of culture lung cancers are hereditary.
So most of these are coming up on their own.
Ok. This is good to know. All right.
So, um, when we're talking about the colonoscopy,
everybody kind of gets freaked out by the procedure,
the procedure itself is really short.
It's the prep ahead of time. That can be a little bit difficult.
What can we expect and what might make it easier.
Yeah.
So historically used to be this literally giant jug of stuff you
had to drink and that has really gone by the wayside.
Very rarely is that need to be used.
There are several different options now and we can
talk with you about those based on your history.
Uh What's going on what's gonna be best for you.
And they're much simpler.
I mean, I've had my own, my prep was not a large volume of things to drink.
We're able to get through it.
Uh, and so it's, it's not as bad as experience.
Obviously one wants to do it, but it is not, it's not prohibitive.
It's something we can all get through.
Uh, so that you can present to your doctor and have an excellent checkup.
Ok.
And so you're supposed to drink all this stuff
and you drink it the night before the procedure.
Is this something where you need to take the day off of the work for the procedure?
But do you need to take the day off for the work,
the day that you start all of the drinking?
I would say when you start the prep, you wanna be off work.
So, uh, and depending on when your scope,
your colonoscopy is that can dictate when you start.
So if you have an afternoon procedure, they may have, you start later the day before.
And so you may not have to take off work.
If you have a early morning 8 a.m. colonoscopy,
you might be taken off maybe the afternoon before or you're starting
really at the end of the day to get through that.
And that's something you can talk with your doctor about as well.
But sometimes you might be taken off a little bit early the
day before you you wanna be off work when you start,
for sure.
Ok. All right.
So you drink these things to make it ok for you to do the procedure,
someone takes you to the procedure and has to take you home.
What other kinds of things should we be watching out for after the appointment?
Yeah. So when you finish,
um,
you'll be a little out of it but you'll come to pretty quickly
and so you'll be given the results and the person with you,
if you want them to hear them will also be informed.
So you can always ask them later. Like, what did they say?
Do I remember that correctly?
Um And then afterwards you're just gonna be a little tired,
but pretty quickly you'll wake back up.
Um, we say don't operate any heavy machinery.
We don't make any important life decisions that day, but you'll be able to eat,
walk around, you know, other than feeling fatigued, you'll, you'll be yourself.
Ok. Got you. All right.
And so, and then the recommendation then if you are all fine,
is it every 10 years or so that you get another colonoscopy,
correct?
If you're fine,
it's gonna be 10 years unless you've got some really
significant family history where we wanna check you more frequently.
But for most of us, that won't be the case and you'll be given 10 years.
If they find, uh, just a few polyps, then that can be five or seven years sometimes.
And then there are some instances where we say one
or three years just given the findings that we,
we see at that time.
Ok,
we see all these commercials for like the take home tests and things of that nature.
Um,
is that something we should be doing at 45 or something we should be doing before 45?
So that is,
I would say definitely a decision to be made with your
doctor because sometimes those are helpful and sometimes they're not.
Um those tests aren't perfect. Uh No test is, but the colonoscopy is still the best.
Sometimes it's not feasible or it's not the right time to get
a colonoscopy and some of those other tests can come into play.
Now, the best test is the one you're actually gonna do.
And so it's good that we have other options.
But with some of the tests,
the take home tests that you're having to do and send back in.
If they're positive,
then you need to go get a colonoscopy and sometimes they
can be negative and it can be a false negative.
So knowing how frequently that happens and what to
do when you get a positive or a negative,
it's important to have that conversation.
And I think that's one part that might get missed,
people might get a negative and say, well, that's it.
I'm done, but there's some more nuance to that. OK, great. All right.
So what we wanna do is we want you to be able to ask your question?
Remember it is anonymous for you to ask your question.
This is your chance to go one on one with the doctor and have him answer at 3363795775.
We're gonna take a break. We'll be right back.