March is colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
It’s observed to highlight the importance of screening for colorectal cancer, as well as to promote healthy lifestyle habits that can decrease a person’s chance of developing the disease.
Changes in bowel patterns, unintentional weight loss, and rectal bleeding are the most common warning signs.
Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Weier sat down on the WCUB Breakfast Club recently to discuss the importance of early detection.
“The sooner you can get in and we can evaluate it, the better. A lot of times you can have symptoms early on, and that’s a sign that things could be changing,” she told host Craig Dillon. “We want to try to catch it early. If we do a colonoscopy we can take out that polyp that could be pre-cancerous, and now we’ve removed that risk for cancer.”
Weier also says as with all forms of cancer, prevention is key.
“Just keeping that bowel moving by getting more water and fiber throughout the day, exercising, not smoking, eating a healthy diet and keeping your weight under control,” she explained. “Pretty much all the other things that we say in keeping with general health.”
For more online information, there are several websites you can visit such as cdc.gov and cancer.org.
