Archive for March, 2015
Living Healthier: Ways to Prevent Colon Cancer
Diet, exercise, smoking, and other lifestyle choices you make all impact your overall health and your risk for cancer.
6 Signs of Colon Cancer:
- A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days
- A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so
- Rectal bleeding, dark stools, or blood in the stool (often, though, the stool will look normal)
- Cramping or abdominal (belly) pain
- Weakness and fatigue
- Unintended weight loss
Screening could save your life
Colon cancer is often found after symptoms appear, but most people with early colon cancer don’t have symptoms. Symptoms usually only appear after the cancer has grown or spread. This is why getting the recommended screening tests before any symptoms develop is so important. Screening can find growths called polyps that can be removed before they turn into cancer. And screening can find the disease earlier, when it’s likely to be easier to treat.
The American Cancer Society recommends regular colon cancer screening for most people starting at age 50. People with a family history of the disease or other risk factors should talk with their doctor about beginning screening at a younger age.
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