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Colon Cancer

Colon polyps

04/02/2007

Question:

When I was 21 I went on the Atkins diet. About 1 month later I started bleeding every time I passed a stool. The whole toilet was filled with blood. It lasted 3 months. I went to the doctor, they did a colonoscopy in my large intestine, and found 3-4 polyps. They removed them and said that they had to go to the lab to get tested. I never got the results, and I moved and thought it wasn`t a big deal because the bleeding stopped when I went off the atkins diet. I started the atkins diet 6 months ago was on it for two weeks and the same thing happend. I started bleeding heavily. I`m 25 now. What should I do? Do you think it`s colon cancer?

Answer:

I would suggest getting the pathology reports - depending on type of polyps, you may need another colonoscopy. If it's impossible to get the reports, you would probably need a colonoscopy to be on the safe side.

It sounds like the bleeding is related to the diet - with lower fiber on Atkins, it can irritate things like hemorrhoids or fissures.

For more information:

Go to the Colon Cancer health topic, where you can:

Response by:

Gregory S Cooper, MD Gregory S Cooper, MD
Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University