Bowel Cancer - Early Detection

Surviving bowel cancer or colorectal cancer, as it's also known, depends on a number of factors.

Your best chance and the number one priority is early detection. This poses the question, should I have a colonoscopy just to be sure or do I want to see if I display some symptoms first. In some ways this is a no brainer, of course you want to be checked but the dilemma for most people is a little more complex.

Do I go to my doctor and tell him I want to have a colonoscopy to check if I have any signs of bowel cancer only to be asked, 'what symptoms do I have?' and for me to have a blank look on my face because I don't.

This is a dilemma that a lot of people have. Should I waste my doctor's time, after all I don't have any symptoms. Isn't it wrong to take up resources that should be used for people who are really sick? I won't get cancer that happens to other people. All these things come into play because it's human nature. Most of us have done it, put off going to the doctors or don't go because we feel we are wasting their time.

Maybe we are wasting their time but in the big picture so what? How many people go to a doctor to be treated for a cold, a viral infection that anti-biotics won't treat. Take some paracetamol, drink fluids, keep warm and rest is the advice you will get. Most of us know this but some still go to the doctor anyway. So yes, a lot of people probably do waste their doctor's time. Maybe you are sick and maybe you aren't, but until you've been examined by a doctor you won't know.

If you have the slightest thoughts that you may have symptoms of bowel cancer (colon cancer) go and see your doctor and have that colonoscopy, with a blank look on your face if need be. The main thing is to look after your health, after all good health is the only thing between you and death and for most of us death is too long term for the time being.

Naturally, there are some people who are going to be more at risk of getting bowel cancer and a number of other cancers because their risk factors are high. Some of these factors can be eliminated and some can't. In my next article I will be talking about the risk factors that can influence our overall health and the risk of getting bowel cancer.

Roger Cuff is a freelance writer living near Sydney, Australia. He has currently just finished his book about long term survivors of bowel cancer and the strategies they used to survive. To learn more please go to:
http://www.survivingbowelcancer.com