The 6 early signs of colon cancer

whenever people are incredibly ill inevitably some people say oh my God I was so worried it was cancer but how do you actually know what are the early signs of cancer and how do you know what are the signs of different kinds of cancers for example now this video isn't meant to scare you but is meant to be educational and many of the cancers that we have today the primary ones that are killing many of us are chronic diseases in nature basically because you look at the statistics most of the people are getting these towards that second half of life so the pathological and the physiological processes that lead to it are developing for decades before you ultimately have symptoms and can potentially get sick from it so let's jump in we'll talk about what are some of the early signs of a very common kind of cancer that I see and from there we'll talk about research on two interesting formulas used in adjunct care in China that have real research behind them hey guys I'm Dr Alex hin board licensed doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book master of the day so let's jump in I had a patient coming one day tell me the story of basically how his father died and what he said to me was that you know my dad ate a terrible diet he just ate pasta all day he was an Italian guy who never ate a vegetable besides a tomato he never really ate anything healthy besides meat and pasta and in general this guy had bowel problems his entire life he'd go to the bathroom like once a week never went to a doctor his entire life but then at 70 suddenly was diagnosed with colon cancer and he died not soon after so that's why I'm so scared of my symptoms potentially being cancer I want to make sure these GI symptoms are actually something that are not life-threatening or serious it's easy for you to jump to conclusions and think if I have any kind of chronic symptom that is cancer that is thankfully typically not true but for many people it's good to know when you should see a doctor and when you should think you know these are actually quite concerning symptoms so I thought I would share six of the primary symptoms here the reason I share these six symptoms is that yes they are evidence-based research that you will see in your doctor's office office in your gi's office in your oncologist office but also these are actually the six signs that my patient mentioned his dad had for decades and never sought any medical help for sign number one is changes in your overall bowel habits sometimes people get alternating stools diarrhea hard stools thin stools right strict ring there's a narrowing of the intestines or colon that's going on that's causing change in the actual physical shape of the stool and where is this coming from and why is this important bowel obstruction or narrowing in this way can be due to a tumor growing inside the colon which basically partially blocks it or Narrows the passage so changes in bowel Habits Like diarrhea constipation or narrower stools are basically a result of the tumor actually physically disrupting your body's ability to get rid of that waste sign number two is rectal bleeding there can be lots of benign causes of rectal bleeding none of these signs and symptoms on their own indicate cancer which is very important to remember because I know what the comments beneath this video are going to look like you can have hemorrhoids there can be inflammatory bowel disease a person can have all kinds of issues that cause bleeding that are not life-threatening and are not cancer keep that in mind but why is this indicative bleeding can actually happen from tumors themselves colon tumors often bleed which can lead to blood in the stool depending on where the tumor is located the blood may be bright red from tumors near the rectum basically near the exit or they can make the stools appear darker if the tumor is further up in the colon so it's more dry sign three abdominal cramping or discomfort the majority of people that come to me with this AKA 99.9% just have IBS if they have abdominal cramping and discomfort with bowel movements usually the result of either a really bad diet over a period of time or the result of high stress influencing the nervous system which affects the gut but in this case it's different this is important because there may be inflammation and irritation going on in the intestines whether it's the presence of a tumor that irritates the intestinal lining causing abdominal discomfort cramps or bloating or the tumors can actually lead to bleeding as they're disturbing local blood vessels within the colon or the rectum sign four the persistent urge to have bowel movements most of the people that come in with this they just typically have IBS if it's more than a few bowel movements a day and it is nothing scary or life-threatening but in this case let's talk about why this is happening the incomplete evacuations or persistent urge can be because tumors interfere with the normal functioning of the colon and make it hard hard to have a complete bowel movement leading to this sort of persistent urge almost like there's a traffic jam in your intestines and the body is trying to get it all out effectively sign five fatigue weakness and anemia of course lots of people have fatigue lots of people have weakness and lots of people have anemia and they don't have cancer of any kind and they will not develop cancer of any kind it's important to understand why it shows up though in this pattern anemia can sometimes come because if the tumor or tumors are causing slow chronic blood loss which are not always visible it can lean to iron deficiency anemia now this can result in symptoms like fatigue weakness or even shortness of breath as the body is struggling to carry enough oxygen to those tissues now sign six is unexplained weight loss when you're going through medical programs practitioners teach you that one of the red flags of cancer is a lot of unexplained weight loss and let's talk about why that is cancer cells grow rapidly and that consumes a lot of the body's energy and on top of that cancer can actually alter your body's metabolism leading to weight loss even without a change in diet or exercise now a lot of what leads to cancer whether it's metabolically related or whether it's something due to an underlying physiological process is predated for decades or by decades by other changes in your body and other symptoms I've put together a free root cause quiz which will help you figure out according to traditional Chinese medicine where certain symptoms are coming from and which organ dysfunctions we attribute them to this is something I see clinically every day the quiz is totally free it's the first link below this video download that and go through that quiz in the next 10 15 minutes because it will help you sus out where's my acid reflux coming from where's my diabetes coming from where are those heart palpitations or where's the anxiety coming from and then we've taken a lot of time to hyperlink to some of my best videos on those exact topics and lots of these symptoms can be the physiological precursors to the development of certain cancers later so I would highly recommend checking out that quiz first link below this video now great I just shared six scary signs that probably half of you are like well I've experienced one or or all of those in my lifetime right many of us have just because you have any of these doesn't mean you have or will develop cancer or colon cancer on the other side there's lots of overlap between these symptoms and IBS General fatigue and bowel changes just from eating a bad diet eating too much spicy food drinking too much coffee these signs on their own basically mean nothing but it's something that's important to keep in mind for people who may have something but what do you do about it if you are watching this video and maybe you have cancer there are herbal formulas that have been well studied in China and in the US actually in laboratory settings that are used in an adjunct way when people are already undergoing chemotherapy and conventional standard of care that actually have great promise and they've been shown to do pretty interesting things so formula number one is something called wangin Tong or scoia decoction this formula is particularly focuses around this Wonder called wangin or scoia scoia is one of the main main herbs we use to regulate inflammation in the intestines when people come in and they have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis the formulas often have sco areia in them and they're very effective for regulating the inflammation this formula is one of my main formulas I use for treating Crohn's disease and preventing people from needing the biologic class of medications but let's take a look at what it does and why it doesn't these herbs in here basically I've even been shown to enhance the effects of chemotherapy when people are taking it for their colon cancer now in one study they found that it helps reduce inflammation in the gut and it protects the intestinal mucosa now another formula or another research piece found that in combination with chemo it accelerates how much it inhibits colon cancer cell growth and it also reduce the toxicity of the chemo itself how does it work it has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties so by reducing inflammation in the colon it potentially slows tumor growth formula number two very famous also has the same Herb in it this formula is called xiaoai Huang minor bulurum decoction now this formula basically has been explored for anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties for a very long time studies show it helps reduce inflammation in colon cancer and improves patients quality of life during chemotherapy similarly this one works via anti-inflammatory properties and it also helps regulate immune system functioning which can potentially be beneficial in slowing cancer progression my advice for anyone who has cancer is just make sure you do integrative care make sure you combine The Best of Both Worlds to give yourself the best shot possible but these formulas have real evidence that they can help and that they do no harm now as always guys don't forget I work with a limited number of new patients in my practice in Los Angeles or virtually via tele medicine if you want to reach out just go to Dr alex.com Clinic also there's some links and our phone number for the clinic and the office right below this video so you can either call or email us directly that way if you'd like to reach out and don't forget before you go I've included some very very interesting herbs with even more research on how they can potentially affect cancer cells up here right above