IBS - News
The necessary, albeit unpleasant, purging to clear the bowel before colonoscopy is quite likely to be inadequate in people who are obese, a study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine shows. A poorly cleansed bowel can interfere with the view through the colonoscope, and potentially cause cancers to be missed.
A Canadian study of people with inflammatory bowel disease shows that they are more likely to become infected with the "superbug" MRSA -- ie, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- than are patients with other gastrointestinal illnesses.
Using just a stool sample, doctors may be able to detect colon and many other cancers of the digestive tract including stomach, pancreatic, bile duct and esophageal cancer, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said the test, which detects genetic material shed from the surface of cancer cells, found nearly 70 percent of cancers present in a group of patients with assorted cancers of the digestive tract.
Almost one in five women with urinary incontinence also experience fecal incontinence, researchers report. Dr. Alayne Markland of the University of Alabama at Birmingham told Reuters Health, "Women with bowel/fecal incontinence often feel as though nothing can be done for their condition.
Although fortifying food with folate as a public health measure reduces the number of children born with spina bifida, new research from Chile suggests that it may also increase the risk of bowel cancer. "Our data provide new evidence that a folate fortification program could be associated with an additional risk of colon cancer," Dr.
People with type 2 diabetes who are trying to bulk up on fiber may need to pay closer attention to their calcium intake as well, a small study suggests. When 13 diabetics doubled their fiber intake, the study participants began to excrete less calcium in their urine -- a sign that their body's calcium absorption had declined, the researchers observed.
Probiotic products, which contain living microbes that aid digestion, may help relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, according to Dr. Nourieh Hoveyda and colleagues from University of Oxford, UK. Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is a common disorder affecting up to 30 percent of the population by some estimates.
Prucalopride (Resolor; Movetis) "significantly and consistently" improves bowel function in patients with severe and chronic constipation, Belgian researchers report in the medical journal Gut. "The present study, which enrolled a group of patients with chronic constipation who did not have a satisfactory response to laxatives, demonstrates an excellent efficacy and safety profile" of prucalopride, lead investigator Dr.
The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) has just released new guidelines for colorectal cancer screening -- the first update to their last recommendations issued in 2000. One key change is that screening tests are now divided into those designed to prevent colorectal cancer and those designed to detect the cancer.
Regular consumption of a yogurt-like fermented milk product containing the digestion boosting probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis appears to ease digestive discomfort, researchers report. An open-label study of healthy adults who ate or did not eat Activia (Danone, Ltd.
Antidepressants and psychological therapies, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), appear to provide relief from irritable bowel syndrome, at least in the short-term, according to published studies. Antidepressants appear to help calm irritable bowels independently of any improvement in coexisting depression, the researchers report in the journal Gut.
Healthier living could prevent about one third of the most common cancers in rich countries and about one quarter in poorer ones, international researchers said on Thursday. Better diets, more exercise and controlling weight could also prevent more than 40 percent of colon and breast cancer cases in some countries, according to the study which urged governments and individuals to do more to cut the number of global cancer deaths each year.
For people with a history of colorectal polyps or cancer, taking aspirin is an effective way to reduce the chances of new polyps appearing, according to researchers in Europe and the US. Polyps in the colon can sometimes be a precursor to the development of cancer.
Children with Crohn's disease have deficits in the muscle and bone that are unrelated to steroid treatment, which can also adversely effect the bones, and these problems do not completely resolve with treatment, according to a report in the journal Gastroenterology.
Use of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for over 5 years may lessen a person's risk of developing cancer of the lower portion of the large bowel, study findings suggest. This risk reduction appears more robust among whites than among African Americans, Dr.
Screening for colorectal cancer by colonoscopy seems to prevent about two-thirds of deaths from colon cancer, rather than 90 percent as has been widely claimed, a study indicates. In fact, the results show that the benefit of colonoscopy in preventing deaths from colorectal cancer is largely limited to malignancies that occur on the left side of the colon.
Some sodium-based bowel cleansing products used before colonoscopies can cause kidney damage and must carry a stern warning on the packaging, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. It said it would require the warnings on Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd's Visicol and OsmoPrep prescription products to caution about the risk of acute phosphate nephropathy, a type of kidney injury.
