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How Are Bowel Issues With Gas Treated ?
Question: recently had some bowel issues..I suffer from severe anxiety and during this episode...I had a lot of gas...and irregular movements sometimes with a bit of food in my stool...once had eaten red licorice and found it in my stool in which case I freaked and thought it was blood...however since my anxiety has calmed down..my bowel movements are very regular and back to normal I am wondering if I should be concerned that maybe I have bowel cancer...would I have symptoms and then could they disappear if I had something seriously going on with my colon?
Hello and thanks for submitting the query.
Your question is a good one and I will try to provide some information and recommendations regarding what is going on.
We have known for a long long time that the mind-body connection in the setting of anxiety can cause significant issues with the gastrointestinal tract.
Let me reassure you that I am quite confident that you do not have bowel cancer.
In the absence of a strong family history of bowel cancer and because you really have never had blood in the stool - there is no reason to think you have bowel cancer or any cancer for that matter. I understand your concern here and please trust in my assessment.
Patients with bowel cancer have symptoms which are progressive - pain, bleeding in stool, loss of appetite ,loss of weight and also intestinal obstruction are often part of the constellation of symptoms which affect these patients.
I thank you again for your query and hope you can tale some comfort in my answer. I am here for you if you have any followup concerns.
Sincerely,
Dr. Galamaga
Your question is a good one and I will try to provide some information and recommendations regarding what is going on.
We have known for a long long time that the mind-body connection in the setting of anxiety can cause significant issues with the gastrointestinal tract.
Let me reassure you that I am quite confident that you do not have bowel cancer.
In the absence of a strong family history of bowel cancer and because you really have never had blood in the stool - there is no reason to think you have bowel cancer or any cancer for that matter. I understand your concern here and please trust in my assessment.
Patients with bowel cancer have symptoms which are progressive - pain, bleeding in stool, loss of appetite ,loss of weight and also intestinal obstruction are often part of the constellation of symptoms which affect these patients.
I thank you again for your query and hope you can tale some comfort in my answer. I am here for you if you have any followup concerns.
Sincerely,
Dr. Galamaga
Note: For further follow up on digestive issues share your reports here and Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Raju A.T
Answered by
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