A 58-year-old man defecated 5 times a day and was diagnosed with bowel cancer! Reminder: 4 abnormal stools are body alarms

Uncle Wang is 58 years old. In the past four months, he felt that the frequency of defecation has increased, five to six times a day, and the stools are always loose and shapeless, and he feels unclean, but Uncle Wang always thought it was ordinary gastroenteritis .

So I went to a small clinic to prescribe traditional Chinese medicine for conditioning, and took Chinese medicine for two months as required, but the symptoms of abnormal stools did not improve, and even began to have blood in the stool, and mucus attached to the surface could always be seen after stool.

The son who came home from a business trip saw that his father had lost a lot of weight, so he immediately took him to the hospital for an examination. However, through the digital anal examination, it was found that Uncle Wang had a cauliflower-like mass in the lower rectum , which showed bumps and hard texture, and there were even blood clots and mucus on the fingers of the digital examination.

After a comprehensive analysis, the doctor's initial diagnosis should be a malignant rectal tumor , and the follow-up colonoscopy and pathology reports confirmed the doctor's guess.

In fact, Uncle Wang's rectal cancer is not without any warning, and the abnormal stool was a signal before. Many people say that stool is a barometer of human health. We can detect the signal of some diseases through the abnormality of stool.

1. The excreted stool looks like a "ball of sheep dung", what does it imply?

How does the process of food enter the stomach, be digested and absorbed, and become excreted in stool?

The food we eat is mainly digested and absorbed in the small intestine, while ingredients that cannot be absorbed, such as dietary fiber, will enter the large intestine.

The large intestine mainly absorbs electrolytes and water. At this time, food residues will gradually lose water and form. With the continuous peristalsis of the large intestine, food residues will also reach the rectum from the colon and be stored there . After reaching a certain amount, it will trigger defecation Reflex, when a person feels the urge to defecate, the stool will be excreted.

Normal stool should be yellowish-brown or tan, with a water content of about 60%, so it is moderately hard and soft, with a diameter of 2 to 3cm, a total length of 15cm and a weight of about 250g. The stool is shaped like a banana or a pyramid, and generally defecates within a week 3 to 21 times are normal and vary from person to person.

Of course, some people will find that the stool looks like a "sheep dung ball". What's the situation?

Ma Jinping from the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University said that if the stool is dry or if the sheep manure is granular, it indicates that food residue may stay in the large intestine for too long, and the water is excessively absorbed , resulting in a constipation phenomenon.

In addition, the following four stool forms imply different situations:

Elongated stools , or suggestive of inadequate food intake or abdominal muscle weakness, usually listless and incapable of defecation;

The stool is black and sticky like mud , which is mostly caused by the insufficient absorption of water in the large intestine. Long-term defecation of this kind of stool can easily cause "allergic bowel syndrome";

Watery stools , that is, diarrhea. The water from food residues is hardly absorbed in the large intestine and has a foul smell. It is more common in people who are under stress or overeating;

Small particles that are dark and hard are rabbit feces . Most of them are caused by long-term accumulation of feces in the intestinal tract. They can also cause discomfort such as constipation and abdominal distension. Sometimes they have a smell and sometimes they may be tasteless.

2. The more frequent bowel movements, the higher the risk of colon cancer?

After the occurrence of colorectal cancer, it will change the individual's bowel habits. So, if we have more bowel movements, does it mean that the risk of colorectal cancer is higher?

Generally, there are many reasons for the increased frequency of defecation, including cold in the abdomen , endocrine disorders, gastrointestinal dysfunction, chronic enteritis, overeating , etc., all of which will lead to increased frequency of defecation.

Although the frequency of defecation in patients with colorectal cancer will increase, it cannot be said that increased frequency of defecation is colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer often needs to be combined with other symptoms to be diagnosed.

Abnormal bowel movements caused by colorectal cancer are mainly manifested as:

Constipation and diarrhea occur alternately; the number of stools has changed from once a day to several times a day; the original stool is irregular every morning, or constipation or the desire to defecate is frequent; stool characteristics change, such as stool becomes thinner, with Mucus or bloody stools.

It should be noted that if the stool grows into the following 3 shapes, it may be a sign of cancer

1. Red stool

Red stool means bloody stool. If the cause of hemorrhoids has been ruled out, you should be alert to lower gastrointestinal bleeding.

2. Green poop

Generally, if you have green stools, you should first suspect whether you have eaten a lot of green fruits and vegetables. If not, you should consider intestinal problems. Especially if it is accompanied by watery, mushy or sour stool, be alert to the possibility of indigestion, acute enteritis or even bowel cancer.

3. Black stool

Generally, eating pig blood, black sesame and other black foods or certain drugs may cause melena, but if these reasons have been ruled out, you should be alert to upper gastrointestinal bleeding, especially intestinal cancer can also cause upper gastrointestinal bleeding And cause black stool.

4. Gray and white stool

For the gray and white clay-like stool, it is suspected that it is caused by bile blocking the intestinal tract, which is closely related to pancreatic head cancer, bile duct cancer, and liver cancer.

3. What problems can be found by checking the stool in the physical examination?

Many people may have the habit of physical examination, but why are there still many patients with bowel cancer who cannot find bowel cancer through physical examination?

One is that there is a "occult blood in feces & immune method" item in the inspection, which is of great significance to the screening of colon cancer, but many people do not give up this inspection because they are afraid of trouble.

Second, digital anorectal examination is also an examination to detect bowel cancer, but because of shyness or fear, the rate of abandonment is very high.

Doctors can also find a lot of information from the routine stool inspection items in the physical examination.

For example, fecal occult blood can detect a very small amount of bleeding in the stool that is invisible to the naked eye. Generally, liver cirrhosis, ulcers, tumors, biliary tract diseases, and inflammatory bowel disease can cause fecal occult blood.

If parasite eggs are found in the routine stool test, it means that you may be infected with parasites; high white blood cells mean that there is inflammation, and you should suspect whether there is infection or inflammation in the digestive tract.

Judging from the fact that the incidence of bowel cancer has been increasing in recent years, screening for bowel cancer is very necessary, especially for the following high-risk groups, who should have fecal occult blood testing every year and colonoscopy .

• Those who have a history of intestinal polyps or precancerous lesions of intestinal cancer, and have gastrointestinal symptoms such as blood in the stool, abdominal pain, mucus stool, and chronic diarrhea;
• First-degree family members of patients with bowel cancer and bowel polyps;
• Unexplained weight loss recently, and unexplained anemia;
• Those with a history of pelvic radiotherapy and chemotherapy;
• people with diabetes;
• Those with chronic biliary tract disease, or a history of cholecystectomy;
• History of adverse life events, chronic appendicitis, history of appendicitis resection;
• Older men who smoke, drink excessively, and are not physically active.

The incidence of bowel cancer in China is not low. Especially in recent years, both new cases and deaths have been on the rise.

What we can do, in addition to correcting bad habits, is to arrange regular physical examinations, so that even bowel cancer can be detected and treated early.

References:

[1] "Attention! These signals in the morning may be the body calling for help! ". Health Times. 2022-09-21

[2] "Whether the stool is smelly or not is a "health signal"!" These 4 colors appear, beware that cancer will find you." Popular Science China. 2022-11-04

[3] "Is bowel cancer late when it is discovered?" Physical examination and stool are really important... ". Life Times. 2022-01-26

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