How Are Bowel Issues With Gas Treated ?

Posted on Sun, 22 Apr 2012

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?

Answered by Dr. Robert Galamaga (1 hour later)

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

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