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Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

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Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of canned things that don’t have added sodium or oil though.

In my part of the world this is the norm.

Here too. If I were to pick a can up on the shelf it would likely have 800-1200mg of sodium. But if I look for low sodium beans it has like 100mg.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#122

Had my first colonoscopy 4 months ago, after going for a couple of years with every red flag symptom under the sun. The procedure was a piece of cake. As the standard is where I'm from (Norway), I was only administered some sedatives - but honestly I couldn't feel much difference. I watched the procedure on the screen, which was quite fascinating. The worst part, by far, was the emptying / prepping. A month prior to…

Okay, so another pro-tip for prep. I can promise it's not bad at all if you're already very regular.

So what you do is, schedule it for weeks or months out as you can and use that to develop good eating and fiber habits over that time. You have a deadline and real stakes in the game. You will literally hurt more unless you get that straight before then.

Win-win.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#123
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is better? If the stool test can find something that isn't in the colon but isn't as good for things that are in the colon which is better? The important part is both are good, so get one.

What is better? My colonoscopy came with a dose of propofol that made me understand why Michael Jackson went out the way he did. Best sleep I've ever had.

I hope that is forever the only difference. However if you actually have a deadly form of cancer (not all are worth treating, but that is a different discussion) better is whichever one gets you the correct treatment sooner. By contrast if you don't have cancer is whichever doesn't have side effects.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#124
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My doctor recommended a combination FIT+DNA test instead of colonoscopy (brand name "Cologuard"). She said it's not quite as good as the "gold standard" colonoscopy, but it also doesn't have the risks of colonoscopy. And the FIT+DNA test is so cheap and easy, you can do it every year or three instead of every 10 years with the colonoscopy. She still recommends colonoscopies for high-risk patients, but she thinks the…

Risks? The risks of a colonoscopy are crazy low though.

The risk is the primary reason the age for first colonoscopy is so high. Even with cologuard it's not typical before 40 unless you have family history.

There's also risks of false positives/negatives for some tests which complicate matters as well.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#125

Personally I am hesitant to do colonoscopy after a relative had a botched procedure. Just this month two celebrities revealed botched colonoscopies. I hope they figure out ways to make this procedure safer. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/kathy... https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/202...

As someone with colon cancer, I'd rather the complications than what I'm going through. 8" of colon removed, 6 weeks of recovery then 7 months of chemo treatments. If I could go back in time and get my colonoscopy at 35 instead of 46 and get only do a night in the hospital, I would in a heartbeat. Colon resection and chemo suuuuuuuuuuuuck.

My mother had it. I saw this kind of thing with her. I hope you get through this.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#126
post #26

I guess cancer is the new climate denial Did you miss the BILLIONS in lawsuits against RoundUp and other herbicides? Did you miss all the deregulation by the first and now second Trump administration allowing crazy levels of pollution and toxicity among all the industries? They are still using leaded fuel in prop aircraft at hundreds of airports around the country and world, spraying it on unknowning population Our e…

There are many things causing cancer unfortunately and I think these are just two of them.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risks? The risks of a colonoscopy are crazy low though.

>"Risks? The risks of a colonoscopy are crazy low though." Not at the statistical level. Death rate from complications is about 1 in 10,000: https://www.endoscopy-campus.com/ec-news/risk-of-death-from-...

The risk of serious complications like major bleeding or perforation is closer to 40-80 per 10,000, significantly higher than the roughly 3-5 per 10,000 annual chance of actually having colorectal cancer for low-risk groups.

My doctor says that since Cologuard catches a large percentage of those 3-5 per 10,000 without any of the colonoscopy risk, the marginal benefits from colonoscopy really aren't justified since FIT+DNA testing is almost as good, at least for low-risk cohorts.

Very few things in medicine are zero risk. I wish more doctors would help balance the risk of doing A vs. the risk of doing B vs. the risk of doing nothing.

It's all Bayesian conditional probabilities, considering your own individual risk factors, and considering the false positive rate and false negative rate of each test.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#128
post #17

People should be reminded that colonoscopy is not just a screening, it is also preventative. They often find growths that may develop into cancer, and remove them during the procedure.

Does insurance see it this way? I've had a couple precancerous moles (melanoma in situ) removed, which seems similar, and my health insurance provider billed me more than I was expecting because they didn't categorize it as preventive care.

In situ should be medically necessary and thus should be widely covered. That's surprising.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#129

Had my first colonoscopy 4 months ago, after going for a couple of years with every red flag symptom under the sun. The procedure was a piece of cake. As the standard is where I'm from (Norway), I was only administered some sedatives - but honestly I couldn't feel much difference. I watched the procedure on the screen, which was quite fascinating. The worst part, by far, was the emptying / prepping. A month prior to…

I’ve also done it, without finding polyps or anything. Obviously it’s normal to run through the entire Bristol Stool Chart in one sitting.

Re: Is "colorectal cancer" rising in "young people"?

#130
post #42

Had my first colonoscopy 4 months ago, after going for a couple of years with every red flag symptom under the sun. The procedure was a piece of cake. As the standard is where I'm from (Norway), I was only administered some sedatives - but honestly I couldn't feel much difference. I watched the procedure on the screen, which was quite fascinating. The worst part, by far, was the emptying / prepping. A month prior to…

My doctor recommended a combination FIT+DNA test instead of colonoscopy (brand name "Cologuard"). She said it's not quite as good as the "gold standard" colonoscopy, but it also doesn't have the risks of colonoscopy. And the FIT+DNA test is so cheap and easy, you can do it every year or three instead of every 10 years with the colonoscopy. She still recommends colonoscopies for high-risk patients, but she thinks the…

The main issue with those tests is they have a relatively high false positive rate. If you pop on that one you need to follow up with a colonoscopy to confirm.

The big issue has been that in the US, the followup colonoscopy was often no longer covered by insurance as it was no longer classified as part of the preventative medicine tier, and instead was now a different sort of procedure. My understanding is that this is no longer true though.

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