Diseases and ailments that affect the colon and the rectum include constipation, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, abscess, colitis, polyps, just to mention but a few.
These diseases could be just irritating in mild cases or life-threatening in extreme cases.
Research has revealed that early treatment of colon and rectal diseases improves treatment outcomes and survival rates.
However, many people delay or don’t seek professional care because they lack relevant knowledge about symptoms and the advantage of early treatment.
- Constipation
You know that you have constipation when you have difficulties stooling or when your stools are small, hard, and infrequent.
Constipations are majorly due to:
- Sub-optimal fiber/roughage in diet
- Delayed use of the toilet
- Slow or uncoordinated movement of the bowel
When you are constipated, you may feel varying degrees of pain whenever your bowel moves or when you pass extremely hard stool(s).
Moreover, there is a slight probability that when you pass hard stool, you could develop anal fissures or hemmoroids.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome(IBS)
Also known as sensitive colon, or spastic colon, this happens when your colon muscles contract (tightens) haphazardly, which could result in nervous complications.
In your case, it could be diarrhea, while others might have constipation. These are frequent symptomps for people who take weight loss supplements. Check my article to answer the question: does thrive give you diarrhea.
The haphazard contraction could potentially lead to pressure build-up in the colon. The condition builds up to form a chain reaction. Abdominal cramps, wind, bloating and frequent use of the toilet are the physical effects of IBS
- Hemorrhoids
This is a condition in which the veins in and around the anus are swollen and inflamed, leading to varying degrees of pain. There are two types of hemorrhoids:
- Internal hemorrhoids
This occurs when the blood vessels lining the inner anal opening are strained due to any number of reasons-pregnancy included. They become inflamed, possibly leading to bleeding. And in extreme cases, they grow so big that you can see them on the outside of the anal opening.
Surgical procedures might be required to treat this condition, however, there are other non-invasive treatments available like the stapled hemorrhoidectomy.
- External hemorrhoids
These are the external counterparts of internal hemorrhoids. These guys don’t showcase symptoms, only non-life-threatening blood clots. If you have an external hemorrhoid it will most likely heal itself, and if it doesn’t, the clot can be removed In the clinic under anesthetic.
- Anal Fissures
This is a condition in which there is tearing in the lining of the anus. It majorly occurs after trauma. Hard stools and diarrhea are the most common causative agents.
Anal fissures cause bleeding and acute burning feelings after the bowel moves. The exposure of the fissures to air leads to convulsion of the sphincter muscle, that in turn causes high levels of pain, often described as a sensation of defecating tiny knives.
Fissures mostly heal naturally. However, in extreme cases of sphincter spasms when the fissure cannot heal naturally, you might need to contact a colorectal surgeon to perform a surgery for you.
- Polyps and Cancer
Polyps occur when cells in the colon lining and the rectum grow and divide uncontrollably like in cancer cells. This uncontrollable growth can be attributed to several factors such as loss of control, our diet, and even inheritable genetics.
Early discovery coupled with chemotherapy and possibly surgery depending on your colorectal surgeon’s discretion will ensure that your colon and rectum are back to normal in no time.