On the Scene for Colon Cancer Awareness Month

It is Colon Cancer Awareness Month meant to highlight the importance of screening and prevention of the disease. So Cheddar zone channel appears on the scene to find out more. Good morning everyone. Yeah, it's so important. We talk about this because colon cancer is affecting more and more people every year as well as younger and younger people. So don't think if you're not 45 50 60 you don't have to worry about this. It is also a disease that is impacting men and women. So don't think it's just men, you have to worry about get tested. So right now, I want to bring in Dr Paula Burstein, who's an oncologist here at N Y U Langone. And I wanna talk a little bit more about some of the symptoms because a lot of people don't know when they should get tested. And a lot of times we're following symptoms. But for colon cancer, the symptoms are a little different than most diseases, right. Correct. So, thanks for having me on. This is a really important topic to talk about. It makes people uncomfortable, gotta acknowledge that. But we're talking about going to the bathroom pretty much So the colon is where stool is made and people go to the bathroom and the symptoms, we really worry about our blood. Any blood in the stool is a real red flag and something that you should definitely discuss with the doctor and get, get that evaluated. And I was reading up on this online and I was reading that there are other symptoms out there, but a lot of them are associated with other things. So it's hard to tell is this colon cancer? Is this something else like stomach pains and diarrhea and different things like that? And it's always not directly related, correct. So everyone's got some issues with their bows and certainly most of the time it's not colon cancer. But if someone is having persistent problems going to the bathroom, constipation or losing weight, unintentionally, those are concerning findings and always better to discuss it with the physician. And the key is to find it early. So it's not stage four or something like that. And it's not always an invasive test. You talk about these at home tests as they are and you put a sample on there and they can test that. Now are those as effective as coming in and getting a colonoscopy, for example. So those tests are important and we try to encourage them for those who won't get a colonoscopy. But colonoscopy is the gold standard and the reason it is the gold standard is that it can also remove polyps which prevent cancer from actually happening. So, rather than just diagnose it, it can actually prevent it. Are there any things we can do in our lifestyle? For example, to help us be able to maybe avoid it in the first place? So this is our tricky question. The answer is probably yes, but we're trying to figure out what that is. We know colon cancer has increased among young Americans and young people. Overall, we don't exactly know why we suspect it has to do with diet or other things in our environment that are changing. But we don't know for sure. There are certainly studies showing that people who exercise more, people have less alcohol and eat more fruits and vegetables in their diet have lower rates of colon cancer. And for those people that are out there watching and they're like, you know, I don't think it's for me, I don't think I need to go get tested or I'm afraid to go get tested. What's one message you would like to say to them? So if it's caught early, it's almost always curable. And we've seen so many cases of people in which we caught it too late and unfortunately not able to save their lives. So get tested tested. That's the main idea. We want to continue to push home, get tested for colon cancer, it can save your life. And if it's a friend or family or friends try to extra make sure they get tested as well. All right. Thank you so much, Dr We appreciate your time.