Fatigue can happen if polyps or tumors bleed into the digestive tract, leading to a loss of iron over time and possibly iron-deficiency anemia. A direct side effect of iron-deficiency anemia is that individuals to feel tired and short of breath.
Bowel polyps do not usually cause any symptoms, so most people with polyps will not know they have them. They're often picked up during screening for bowel cancer. But some larger polyps can cause: a small amount of slime (mucus) or blood in your poo (rectal bleeding)
Symptoms of bowel cancer can include:
Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason. A pain or lump in your tummy.
Most patients say cancer-related fatigue feels similar to everyday fatigue. This looks different for each patient, which can be a struggle when it comes to treating and reporting, but it may present itself as: Chronic tiredness. Low energy.
The symptoms of bowel cancer can be subtle and do not necessarily make you feel ill. However, it's worth trying simple treatments for a short time to see if they get better.
Colon cancer is considered a silent disease. Most of the time there are no symptoms. The symptoms that people may experience include a change in bowel habits, abdominal pain, blood in the stool, and weight loss. If individuals have these symptoms, the disease may already have advanced.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a symptom-based disorder of gut-brain interactions generating abdominal pain. It is also associated with a vulnerability to develop extraintestinal symptoms, with fatigue often reported as one of the most disturbing.
Fatigue, an overwhelming sense of tiredness and lack of energy, is an all-too-common symptom of Crohn's disease. Fatigue can have a major impact on people who have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, affecting their work, daily life and quality of life.
Fatigue may develop as a symptom of blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, because these cancers start in the bone marrow, which produces red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body.
Cramping, Nausea, and Vomiting – Large polyps in the colon can lead to bowel obstructions, causing cramps, pain, nausea, and vomiting.
It takes approximately 10 years for a small polyp to develop into cancer. Family history and genetics — Polyps and colon cancer tend to run in families, suggesting that genetic factors are important in their development.
In 1 to 7 years, depending on a variety of factors: The number, size and type of polyps removed; if you have a history of polyps in previous colonoscopy procedures; if you have certain genetic syndromes; or if you have a family history of colon cancer.
Most polyps are benign (not cancerous). Your doctor can tell if a colon polyp is cancerous during a colonoscopy by collecting tissue to biopsy. The results of the biopsy are typically sent to your doctor within a week. Only 5% to 10% of all polyps become cancerous.
Most polyps grow slowly and take from between 10 and 15 years to become cancerous. Due to this general time frame, most screenings are scheduled every 10 years which gives Colorectal Surgical Associates time to remove any polyps before they become cancerous.
Most polyps do not cause symptoms. When they do, the most common symptom is bleeding from the rectum. A large polyp may cause cramps, abdominal pain, obstruction, or intussusception. The affected segments block the bowel and block blood flow.
And while most people think of constipation as just an annoying symptom, it can also be the root cause of other symptoms and conditions, including fatigue, weight gain, low mood, and many more.
Fatigue is a common feature of Crohn's and Colitis but is not often talked about. Fatigue affects around 7 in 10 people when they have active inflammation from their Crohn's or Colitis (in a flare-up). Fatigue affects around 4 in 10 people when their Crohn's or Colitis is not active (in remission).
Fatigue is associated with many chronic inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, and leads to an adverse impact on quality of life (QoL).
The 3 main symptoms of bowel cancer are blood in the stools (faeces), changes in bowel habit – such as more frequent, looser stools – and abdominal (tummy) pain. However, these symptoms are very common and most people with them do not have bowel cancer.
Early symptoms of colon cancer might include blood in the stool; persistent problems in defecating (long-lasting diarrhea or constipation); feelings of cramping, distension or pain in the area of the bowel; or a persistent decrease in the size of the stool.
Colon cancer, or cancer that begins in the lower part of the digestive tract, usually forms from a collection of benign (noncancerous) cells called an adenomatous polyp. Most of these polyps will not become malignant (cancerous), but some can slowly turn into cancer over the course of about 10-15 years.
There are many common conditions that can affect the health of our bowels, and many have symptoms similar to bowel cancer. These conditions include (but aren't limited to) piles (haemorrhoids), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), anal fissures, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), diverticular disease, and diarrhoea.
The 2 tests used for this are colonoscopy or CT colonography. Emergency referrals, such as people with bowel obstruction, will be diagnosed by a CT scan. Those with severe iron deficiency anaemia and few or no bowel symptoms are usually diagnosed by colonoscopy.