Many women who had colon cancer years ago still feel stomach problems. This is what a new study has found.
Lots of Women Affected: About 4 out of 5 women who had colon cancer face stomach problems like bloating and gas even many years after. The women in this study had their cancer found about eight years ago on average.
Life Troubles: Women with these tummy problems also felt bad about their bodies, had a hard time in their daily life, and didn’t feel good overall.
More Than Just Tummy Troubles: Apart from stomach issues, some of these women also felt very tired, had sleep problems, felt sad, or were worried a lot.
The Backstory
Claire Han from The Ohio State University led this study. She used to be a nurse and heard many women who had colon cancer talk about their lasting stomach problems. This made her want to study it more.
The study looked at 413 women. They were around 71 years old on average. Most of them had surgery for their cancer, and some had other treatments too.
This study is special because it looked at each stomach problem separately. For example, over half of the women said they had bloating and gas. Others talked about problems like constipation, diarrhea, or pain.
What’s Causing These Problems?
It’s not clear why these women have these problems. Maybe it’s because of where the cancer was or how it was treated. It might also be because of the tiny living things in our gut.
Claire Han said that when people are very worried or sad, it might make their gut feel bad too. But it’s hard to say if the stomach problems come first or the other way around.
What Can Be Done?
The study suggests that women who had colon cancer might need more help. This can be talking to someone about their feelings, learning how to eat better, getting help with pain, or doing exercises to feel better.
It’s important for these women to get the right care so they can live their best life after beating cancer.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing higher intake of dairy foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk.
The study was published in PLOS ONE.
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