Guide To Colon Cancer Causes And Risk Factors

Low-Fiber And High-Fat Diet

An individual who primarily lives on a low fiber and high-fat diet is at a higher risk of developing colon cancer than someone who consumes a healthier diet. Fiber is a dietary nutrient known to be essential for optimal colon health. Fiber helps the food move through the gastrointestinal tract faster because it adds bulk to the stools. Fiber is also effective at helping to clean the colon of waste product buildup and bacteria that can cause inflammation. Finally, fiber assists with keeping the bowel movements regular, soft, and healthy. However, all these benefits of fiber are significantly reduced when a low-fiber diet is continuously consumed.

A high-fat diet can help promote the carcinogenesis and growth of malignant cells. Fats are the hardest type of nutrient for the gastrointestinal tract to digest and longer than other nutrients to digest. When an individual consumes a diet full of fatty foods, their liver, pancreas, stomach, and intestines may have trouble producing enough bile acids to metabolize and digest it all properly. This mechanism can cause an imbalance in the intestinal bile acids, which consequently triggers a hormonal response. This hormonal response can promote the growth and proliferation of precancerous and cancerous cells, leading to colon cancer.

Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a form of inflammatory bowel disease where an individual experiences tissue damage, long-lasting inflammation, and ulcers throughout their digestive tract. Most patients experience the effects of ulcerative colitis in the interior lining of their large intestine. The body is continuously repairing the damage to the tissues and cells that make up the inner intestine lining in an ulcerative colitis patient. This high turnover and repair rate in the intestinal tissues provides more opportunities than usual for a change or mutation to occur in the DNA of the intestinal cells.

A DNA mutation in one of the intestinal cells that causes it to grow rapidly and replicate out of control can cause an individual to develop a growth of malignant cells. When a growth of malignant cells forms in the large intestine, it is referred to as colon cancer. Out of all individuals affected by ulcerative colitis for twenty years or longer, eight percent will develop colon cancer.