Bowel cancer: Dr Philippa Kaye lists the symptoms
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One of the best ways to prevent cancer of all kinds developing is through good lifestyle habits.
This includes quitting smoking, reducing alcohol consumption, exercising regularly, and eating a balanced diet.
A recent study published in the Europe PMC journal has found consuming pickled vegetables can increase a person’s risk of developing bowel cancer.
Conducted by Sichuan University, the study concluded: “Excessive intake of pickled vegetables may be a risk factor of [bowel cancer].”
While pickled vegetables increased an individual’s risk of bowel cancer, “tea and bean products” were shown to reduce the risk or be “antagonistic to the risk imposed by pickled vegetables” on bowel cancer.
Symptoms of bowel cancer to look out for include:
• A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit
• Bleeding from the bottom
• Blood in the poo
• Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason
• A pain or lump in the tummy.
Although these symptoms will be unnerving if experienced, it doesn’t mean cancer is definitely the cause; other medicinal maladies can cause similar symptoms.
Bowel cancer has been top of the cancer agenda in recent months amid the news cancer campaigner and former BBC presenter Dame Deborah James has entered end of life care.
Dame Deborah was diagnosed with the condition in 2016.
Since then, she has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of cancer and funds for research into new treatments.
Earlier this year she entered end of life care after all treatment avenues had been extinguished.
Despite her cancer status the campaigner has not stopped working, setting up a crowdfunding page that has so far raised over £6 million.
Even in her final months Dame Deborah continues to act as a beacon of inspiration and hope to never give in despite great odds.
The plan is for the funds to go into the development of new treatments for cancer so fewer lives are lost.
Even though bowel cancer mainly affects older patients, Dame Deborah’s example shows young people are not immune to risk.
Bowel cancer has continued to remain in the minds of many, not least because of the recent passing of Amelia Grace, who died of the condition at the age of just 24.
Based in Cornwall, Grace reportedly repeatedly told GPs she was experiencing blood in her stool but was never tested for bowel cancer.
She died just 10 months after eventually being diagnosed with the condition.
Grace’s mother, Therese Grace, said in a statement: “You can now go to the doctors at any age and ask for a FIT test to rule out bowel cancer. Be assertive, you aren’t too young. That’s what Millie’s legacy is, that’s what she wanted.”
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