Colon Disorders - Overview

Colon cancer is the second deadliest cancer, and one of the most preventable affecting five to six percent of all Americans.. Routine colonoscopies can prevent 70% to 80% of colon cancers by removing precancerous polyps before they develop into cancer.

Polyps are small growths in the lining of the colon which occur very commonly in the colon. They can grow for years before they become large enough for symptoms to appear. A small, but significant number of these can turn into cancer. Removed at an early stage, cancer can be avoided.

A low-fiber diet can cause what half of all Americans get at some time in their lives: diverticulosis. These weak spots can bulge outward into pouches, which can become inflamed or infected. A change in diet can control this disease and medications can help with the complications.

With Americans lacking both fiber-rich diets and exercise, constipation has become a common complaint. Stress and a hurried lifestyle can add to the problem. Constipation is defined as:

• less-frequent bowel movements (some physicians define constipation as less than three bowel movements a week)
• the passage of hard, dry bowel movements
• bowel movements that are difficult or painful to push out

The time to contact a physician is:

•  a new change in bowel habit
• constipation lasting more than three weeks
•  normal activities stop because of constipation
•  normal pushing does not expel a stool
•  liquid or soft stool leaks out of the anus
•  small, painful fissures appear in the skin around the anus
•  hemorrhoids

• Bacterial Overgrowth
• Clostridium difficile
• Collagenous colitis
• Colon polyps
• Colonic inertia
• Constipation
• Crohns disease
• Colitis
• Colon cancer
• Dysmotility
• Diarrhea
• Diverticulosis/diverticulitis
• Functional GI disorders
• Hirschprung’s disease
• Inflammatory bowel Disease
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Megacolon
• Microscopic colitis
• Polyposis syndromes (FAP, HNPCC, Juvenile polyposis, Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome)
• Proctitis
• Pouchitis
• Rectal cancer
• Rectal ulcers
• Ulcerative colitis