Top doctor reveals simple DIY method that can show if your bowel movements are healthy – as digestion issue is linked to colon cancer
A leading doctor has revealed a ‘simple’ trick which can reveal if you’re suffering from a common problem linked to colon cancer.
In a recent interview on the Channel 4’s daytime show Lorraine, Dr Hilary Jones told presenter Lorraine Kelly that all you need is a tin of sweetcorn to find out if you have ‘gut lag’.
This, he explained can be triggered by changes to the autumn routine, like returning to doing the school run after the summer holidays and changes with work routines, which can affect digestion.
He explained: ‘We call it “gut lag” it’s a bit like jet lag. When we cross time zones it affects the way we think, our concentration and our sleepiness.’
In a similar way, he explained ‘gut lag can occur and cause things like bloating and digestive ill health’.
The phenomenon is when the body takes longer for the food we eat to come out as stool the other end, in severe cases causing constipation.
Studies have shown that constipation is linked to colon cancer, also known as bowel cancer, which is worrying on the rise in young people.
But Dr Jones said there’s a ‘simple test’ to check if have gut lag that involves eating ‘a couple of sweetcorn kernels’ and observing ‘what happens in the loo’.
A top doctor has revealed a test which can reveal if you have a problem linked to colon cancer
He explained: ‘Because these aren’t digested by the gut, they come out looking very much the same.’
‘If you’re passing those things within 12 to 24 hours, your gut is probably pretty health,’ he explained.
In contrast, he said: ‘If it takes shorter than that, you’re not absorbing nutrients, going through too quickly.
Meanwhile, ‘if it is longer than that, you might be having a bit of a sluggish gut, in which case you might be getting more symptoms’.
Dr Jones added: ‘The sweetcorn test has been around for a while. It’s a way of assessing what we call bowel transit time, the time it takes for things to go through.’
His advice comes amid a disturbing rise in cases of bowel cancer in under 50s which has baffled doctors around the globe.
The illness took the life of Dame Deborah James at the age of 40, who was nicknamed the ‘bowel babe’ for raising awareness of the cancer.
It is estimated that over 42,000 Britons are diagnosed with bowel cancer and 17,400 die of the illness every year.
Dame Deborah James, nicknamed the ‘bowel babe’ raised more than £11.3mn for Cancer Research and is credited for increasing awareness of the disease, which killed her in 2022 aged 40
The illness, which claimed the life of Dame Deborah James at the age of 40, has surged by 50 per cent in this age group over the past three decades.
Other risk factors for bowel cancer include smoking, eating too much processed meats, and drinking alcohol.
Early warning signs include blood in stool, changes in bowel habits, weight loss and fatigue, as well as a pain, lump or bowel obstruction.
But just last month, Dr Jack Ogden a GP at The Lagom Clinic in Bristol told the Daily Mail other symptoms are often overlooked.
This included iron deficiency anaemia, which he said can present as ‘unexplained fatigue, pale skin or shortness of breath’.
Anaemia is a condition when the body doesn’t have enough red blood cells to pump oxygen around the body.
It can also cause symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations, headaches and dizziness.
This is because tumours can bleed, causing iron loss and inflammation that produces a protein which interferes with iron absorption.
He added suddenly noticing narrower stools with no clear cause, is another subtle sign of bowel cancer sign.
Pencil-thin stools can be an indicator that a tumour is obstructing the colon causing it to squeeze stool into a thinner shape, Dr Ogden added.
Bloating and abdominal discomfort, equally, is also ‘subtle’ sign of the cancer, he warned.
This may present itself as ‘persistent cramping’ or feeling full quickly after eating, Dr Ogden said.
