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You’ve spent your life eating fast food, smoking, and binge drinking.  When you hit forty, you changed your ways and got your cholesterol down.  But how’s your colon?  If you’re over fifty and haven’t had a colonoscopy, now is the time. 

Staff Report

April 26th, 2004

Colon cancer kills over 1,500 NYC residents every year. It is the leading cause of cancer death in NYC after lung cancer.  Colon cancer screening can reduce the likelihood that colon cancer will kill you by catching the cancer at an earlier stage and by allowing doctors to remove polyps that may turn into cancerous tissues.  The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recommends that all city residents over the age of 50 see a doctor and get a colonoscopy.

Greenpoint has the lowest rate of colonoscopies or sigmoidoscopies, at less than 32%, while almost 70% of Kingsbridge-Riverdale residents have had their colons screened for cancer.

The Health Department reports the following risk factors for colon cancer:

• Being age 50 or older
• A parent or sibling had colon polyps, colon cancer, or (possibly) other cancers.
• Smoking·     
• Typical “Western” diet (refined sugar and flour, high-fat from red meat, low-fiber).
• Inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease).
• African-American or Eastern European Jewish (Ashkenazi) ancestry.
• Excessive alcohol intake.\
• Sedentary lifestyle.
• Being overweight.

Preventing colon cancer is fairly simple, just like preventing many other diseases: lose weight, eat fruits and vegetables, don’t drink too much, get enough fiber in your diet.

No matter how well you’ve been eating, it pays to get your colon checked if you’re over fifty.  Some bad news, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that virtual colonoscopy, using CT scans instead of the more invasive traditional colonoscopy, is not yet ready for mainstream use.  A multi-center study of 615 participants found that virtual colonoscopy missed 2 out of 8 cancers and did not detect small polyps when compared to traditional colonoscopy. 

If it makes you feel any better, study participants did not express a preference for either type of testing.

“Colon Cancer,” New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Accessed on 4/20/04