getting a colonoscopy not exactly on anyone's list of favorite things to do but it is a crucial screening and diagnostic procedure we're joined by Dr Kumar Mercy's GI clinic here in Cedar Rapids good morning Dr thanks for being here thanks for having me here we were just talking in the lobby there's a lot of things that people hear that aren't necessarily true so we're going to work our way through and first off it's not the most Savory topic that we're about to dive into but it is very importan
t and can be life- saving too that is true that is true uh colonoscopy it is uh it is one of the most common GI procedures that we do in the world uh it's it's it's very common it gives us uh it gives us an access to the bowel we can visualize the bowel look for abnormalities such as the polyp which in some cases can lead up to become colon cancer it's an outpatient procedure people end up going home the same day and it's some people say the ball prep is worse than actually going through the pro
cedure itself and we're going to talk about that prep coming up but before we get to that we're looking at just some file video here to kind of supplement what we're talking about tell me about screening guidelines who needs to think about this who needs to get on a list and who needs to really get serious about it how does that changed so until until very recently pre previously the guidelines were that people used to start uh screening colonoscopy at at the age of 50 MH but more recently they
have have been an update we start screening konos uh we start screening for colonoscopies at the age of 45 for an average risk individual now suppose in in certain cases when there are some people who have more than average risk like a family history or so on so forth then we increase we decrease the age to to say 40 uh 40 40 40 years old if you have a history or if you're at increased risk yes all right you mentioned the prep let's talk about the prep because some people say the prep is worse t
han the procedure we have a full screen graphic here Sean if you'd be so kind doctor three different versions here tell me a little bit about what we're looking at here so there's a large volume prep there's a slow volume prep and there are pills which have which is more of a recent uh entrant mhm so large volume prep is we have to drink about a gallon of gallon of prep the low volume prep and uh it's a small bottles that you have to chug but it is a misnomer because you still have to drink abou
t a gallon of water with it and the same goes on with the with the pills you still have to drink a lot of water for it is important to understand for us to do a good job for us to visualize uh those subtle abnormalities we need to have a clean colon and for us to have a clean colon it's important that you do a good cleanse and these are these are the few things that help us get a good cleanse and obviously you guys are going to know if somebody didn't follow through on the on the prep you somebo
dy can't just cheat their way through that right yeah you can find qu and again we're we're having a kind of a light-hearted moment with a serious topic here 40 years old if you're at risk how do you get people to get over the fear some of the it's that unknown that people are worried about when it comes to colonoscopy so colonoscopy is not all that bad but you have to keep in mind colon cancer is amongst the top three leading cancers in both men and women every year over 50,000 people die from
colon cancer and off late more recently the trend has been it's been increasingly common in young individuals which are less than 50 so it's a small inconvenience and I would say go through it get it done because it can save your life not just life it it will have a big impact on your on your future uh morbidities we have about just under 60 seconds left here somebody goes through the test goes through the colonoscopy how soon will they know what you guys found typically we we right after the co
lonoscopy we give them the results right there and then right right there and then but suppose in a colonoscopy when we've taken a biopsy it takes a it takes a few days days to come for the results to come if we need additional testing and we have to send it to an outside lab it takes a little longer but typically we are uh we give the results right there and then right immediately after the procedure okay right there and then final question get a hold of you guys at Mercy we're going to put the
information on the screen there uh the the GI clinic has its own web page and everything so we can learn about you guys and what you do and how to be a part of it so we can always uh you can always get in touch with the clinic give us a call we are more than friendly more than welcome and or you can log on to the website at mercycare.org GGI and you can get some more information about it don't put it off don't be afraid that's the big takeaway yes I think it is very very important Dr Kumar than
k you so much for being here this morning we appreciate it
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