Risk Factors that May Lead to Colon Cancer
Colon cancer begins as pre-cancerous polyps develop in the colon or rectum. These polyps can be present in the colon for years before invasive cancer develops. They may not cause any symptoms, especially early on, which means your parent often won’t know if he has colon cancer until it’s spread. But fortunately, there are easy tests that your parent can take for early detection.
There are certain lifestyle and hereditary risk factors that may increase your parent’s chances of developing colon (or colorectal) cancer. If these are prevalent in your parent’s life, you will want to talk to his doctor about more pre-screenings to help your parent catch any polyps as soon as they begin to develop.
Risk Factors that Your Parent Can’t Affect
Senior Care Herendon, VA: Colon Cancer
While your parent can’t control these risk factors, awareness of their possible ability to increase his risk of getting colon cancer is important for preventative actions to be taken in the risk factors he can affect.
- Age. Colon cancer risk increases as a person gets older. It most often occurs after the age of 50, which is why doctors recommend patients to start getting their colon screenings at the age of 50.
- Family History. If your family has a history of colon cancer, your parent’s doctor may recommend screenings to start earlier than 50 or happen more often than those without a family history.
- Inflammatory Bowel Diseases such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis may increase the risk of your parent of getting colon cancer due to the damage to his colons after years of battling these diseases.
- Certain genetic syndromes such a familial adenomatous polyposis or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome) may increase his risk.
Risk Factors That Your Parent Can Affect
These risk factors should be reduced as much as possible, especially if your parent already has some risk factors in his life that he cannot affect, such as those listed above.
- Lack of physical activity. Helping your parent get regular, daily physical activity will make his body stronger and helps the colon to work better. Set up a daily walk with his senior care provider to start out with and then increase it as he builds up stamina.
- A diet low in fruits and vegetables. The natural fibers and roughage that comes with fruits and vegetables will help keep your parent’s colon in good shape. A few simple changes to his shopping list will help him incorporate more fruits and vegetable to his diet.
- A high-fat diet filled with processed meats. Again, helping your parent make some adjustments to what he buys and what he eats can help him reduce his chances of developing colon cancer. If your parent shops with his senior care provider or has his senior care provider shop for him, let your provider know about the new changes to your parent’s diet.
- Obesity. Work with your parent’s doctor to find the best way for him to shed some pounds. Even a 10% weight loss can have great health benefits.
- Tobacco Use and Drinking Alcohol. Both contribute to a higher risk of colon cancer.
Making an effort to combat the risk factors your parent can affect will help reduce the risk the other factors in his life have on his chances of developing colon cancer.