Potty Talk
March has been designated as Colorectal Cancer Awareness month, and since gut health is such a integral part of Valley Functional Wellness’s practices, this month’s news letter aims to focus on it.
Colorectal cancer is the 3rd most diagnosed cancer in the United States and the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2023, there will be over 150,000 new cases diagnosed with over 50,000 deaths. Of those statistics, patients who are UNDER the age of 50 will make up nearly 20,000 of the new diagnoses, and over 3,750 of them are expected to die. It is the 2nd leading cause of death from cancer and the number one cancer that causes death in men under the age of 50.
Scary statistics yes, but the good news is that colon cancer is largely preventable and easily detected.
Your colon is what you also may know as your large intestine or your large bowel, with the rectum at the base. The large intestine is the means by which you secrete waste products from your body in the form of ….let’s say it all together and get it over with….Poop.
The topic is dirty (and smelly) and no one really likes to talk about it, but it MATTERS. A LOT. Remember that book, Everyone Poops? It’s an oldie but goodie, and from where I sit, it could use a revised title of Everyone Should Poop…at least 2-3 times per day. That’s right friends. I said 2-3 times per DAY. Not once a day, not 2-3 times per week, but ideally, 2-3 times per DAY. At least.
Passing a bowel movement, powdering your nose, going number 2, however you are most comfortable referring to it….POOPING is CRUCIAL to your health. If you aren’t doing it easily, every day, multiple times per day, there’s some investigating and evaluating that should happen.
Simply put, if you aren’t pooping, your body is not ridding itself of toxins. If your body isn’t ridding itself of those toxins, they are sitting in your insides festering and causing trouble. Eww.
Constipation is one of the most common diagnoses for which people in the United States seek medical care, but it’s not the most common chief complaint. People don’t always know or understand that they are constipated. Common symptoms of slow transit and constipation include abdominal pain and cramping, feelings of fullness, fatigue, back pain, difficulty passing urine, pain during sex, hemorrhoids, hiatal hernias, bloating and heartburn, to name a few. Plenty of folks believe that if they poo once per day, they’ve checked the box and there’s no way that they can be constipated—when in reality, they may have slower transit, meaning they are moving food that they ate last week. You could have hemorrhoids or a hiatal hernia because you have been regularly straining to poo. Heartburn, could simply be a back up in your plumbing, not a stomach acid issue.
Stagnant waste in the lower intestine can disrupt the microbiota/flora that lives in the mucosal lining of your colon. These good bacteria play a part, not only in the protection of the mucosal layer of your intestine, but also in your overall immunity. If you are not moving waste effectively through the colon, there is an increased risk that the cells in the lining of your colon could start to change and become atypical and later cancerous.
The easiest way to support your colon health is to alleviate risk factors that are in your control. Smoking, regular consumption of processed foods (that includes processed meat and fast food), and heavy alcohol consumption (> 3 drinks per day) are well established risk factors. The other easy way to support your colon health is through your diet.
Studies have shown that eating a healthy diet, high in fiber (both soluble and insoluble) can help support the health of the colon by relieving and preventing constipation, and supporting the large intestine’s natural microbiome, thereby, protecting the mucosal layer. Simply adding high fiber foods into your diet such as fresh fruits and vegetables, berries like strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blue berries, beans and legumes, and asparagus—to name a few—not only provide fiber to aid in motility, but they can help the good bacteria in your large intestine to grow, and inhibit the growth of bad bacteria (like strains of e-coli). This helps protect your colon and the naturally occurring good bacteria that call your colon home.
Check out the links below for easy, delicious ways to show your colon some love.
Other things that you can do that can support your colon health include increasing your physical activity, staying hydrated and SCREENINGS. Yes, yes, it’s awkward, never has there ever been a line out the door of people anxiously awaiting their colon screening, though unpopular opinion here…. there should be! Screening allows for early detection of polyps (which are usually benign, but can later become cancerous), removal of polyps that appear suspicious or cancerous, and early treatment should cancer be detected. If you can’t bear the thought of a traditional colonoscopy, ask about other options, such as Cologuard and sigmoidoscopy.
If you are 45, it’s time to ask your doctor about screening. If you have an immediate family member who has been diagnosed with colon cancer, your screening may need to be even earlier. If you are experiencing persistent bloating, abdominal pain, changes in your stool patterns (is it long and skinny, like a shoestring?), blood in your poo, itchy anus, painful poos, or feeling as though you are unable to fully evacuate your poo—-you need to have a talk with your medical provider, asap. Don’t be embarrassed.
It’s okay, we talk about poo all of the time (or at least, we should be)…let’s keep your bathroom emergency from turning into a preventable health emergency.
Resources
American Cancer Society https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/colorectal-cancer-facts-and-figures/colorectal-cancer-facts-and-figures-2023.pdf
Greger, M., & Stone, G. (2016). How Not To Die. Macmillan.
Jiezhong Chen, Luis Vitetta, Inflammation-Modulating Effect of Butyrate in the Prevention of Colon Cancer by Dietary Fiber, Clinical Colorectal Cancer, Volume 17, Issue 3, 2018, Pages e541-e544, ISSN 1533-0028, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clcc.2018.05.001.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1533002818301397)
Makki K, Deehan EC, Walter J, Bäckhed F. The Impact of Dietary Fiber on Gut Microbiota in Host Health and Disease. Cell Host Microbe. 2018 Jun 13;23(6):705-715. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2018.05.012. PMID: 29902436.
O'Keefe, S. Diet, microorganisms and their metabolites, and colon cancer. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13, 691–706 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2016.165
Zeng H, Lazarova DL, Bordonaro M. Mechanisms linking dietary fiber, gut microbiota and colon cancer prevention. World J Gastrointest Oncol. 2014 Feb 15;6(2):41-51. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v6.i2.41. PMID: 24567795; PMCID: PMC3926973.
