Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffYou can greatly reduce your risk of colon polyps and colorectal cancer by having regular screenings and by making certain changes in your diet and lifestyle. The following suggestions may help lower your risk of colon polyps and colon cancer:
- Pay attention to calcium. Calcium can significantly protect against colon polyps and cancers, even if you've had them before. Good food sources of calcium include skim or low-fat milk and other dairy products, broccoli, kale and canned salmon with the bones. Vitamin D, which aids in the absorption of calcium, also appears to help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. You get vitamin D from foods such as vitamin D-fortified milk products, liver, egg yolks and fish. Sunlight also converts a chemical in your skin into a usable form of the vitamin. If you don't drink milk or you avoid the sun, you may want to consider taking both a vitamin D and a calcium supplement.
- Include plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in your diet. These foods are high in fiber, which may cut your risk of developing colon polyps. Fruits and vegetables also contain antioxidants, which may help prevent cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Look for deep green and dark yellow or orange fruits and vegetables such as Swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, cantaloupe, mango, acorn or butternut squash, and sweet potatoes, as well as vegetables from the cabbage family, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. Lycopene, a nutrient found in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries and red bell peppers, may be a particularly powerful anti-cancer chemical.
- Watch your fat intake. Certain types of fat can increase your risk of colon cancer, but other types are protective. It's important to limit saturated fats from red meat as well as processed meat such as hotdogs, sausage or brats. Other foods that contain saturated fat include whole milk, cheese, ice cream, and coconut and palm oils. Restrict your total fat intake to less than 35 percent of your daily calories, with no more than 10 percent coming from saturated fats. Healthy fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, walnuts and olive oil, may protect you from cancer. Try to get most of your fat intake from these types of foods.
- Limit alcohol consumption. Consuming moderate to heavy amounts of alcohol — more than one drink a day for women and two for men — may increase your risk of colon polyps and cancer. A drink is considered to be 4 to 5 ounces (12 to 15 centiliters) of wine, 12 ounces (35 centiliters) of beer, or 1.5 ounces (4.5 centiliters) of 80-proof liquor. Curbing alcohol consumption can reduce your risk, even if colon cancer runs in your family.
- Stop smoking. Smoking can increase your risk of colon cancer and a wide range of other diseases. Talk to your doctor about ways to quit that might work for you.
- Stay physically active and maintain a healthy body weight. Controlling your weight alone can reduce your risk of colorectal cancer. And staying physically active may significantly cut your colon cancer risk. The American Cancer Society recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity five or more days a week. Forty-five minutes or more is even better. If you're overweight, lose weight until you're at a healthy level and maintain it.
- Talk to your doctor about aspirin. Studies on the role of aspirin in polyp and cancer prevention are mixed. Some studies show that regular aspirin use can reduce your risks, but others show no benefit. Aspirin use can increase your risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. So check with your doctor before starting any aspirin regimen.
- Talk to your doctor about hormone therapy (HT). If you're a woman past menopause, hormone therapy may reduce your risk of colorectal cancer. But not all effects of HT are positive. Taking HT as a combination therapy — estrogen plus progestin — can increase your risk of breast cancer, dementia, heart disease, stroke and blood clots, so it's not usually used for preventing colon polyps. Discuss your options with your doctor. Together you can decide what's best for you.
- If you're at high risk, consider your options. If you're at risk of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) because of a family history of the disease, consider having genetic counseling. And if you've been diagnosed with FAP, start having regular colonoscopy tests in your early teens and discuss your options with your doctor. Your doctor may recommend having surgery to remove your entire colon when you're in your 20s. Doctors recommend that people at risk of Lynch Syndrome begin having regular colonoscopies around age 20.
References
- Ahnen DJ, et al. Approach to the patient with colonic polyps. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- Ahnen DJ, et al. Epidemiology and risk factors for colorectal cancer. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- What I need to know about colon polyps. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/colonpolyps_ez/. Accessed June 14, 2009.
- Torpy JM, et al. Colon polyps. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2008;300:1480.
- Fletcher RH. Screening for colorectal cancer: Strategies in patients at average risk. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 14, 2009.
- Levin B, et al. Screening and surveillance for the early detection of colorectal cancer and adenomatous polyps, 2008: A joint guideline from the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, and the American College of Radiology. CA, A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 2008;58:130.
- Colorectal cancer screening. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/colorectal-screening. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- How is colorectal cancer found? American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2_1x.asp?rnav=criov&dt=10. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- Seitz U, et al. Endoscopic removal of large colonic polyps. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- How is colorectal cancer treated? American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_4X_How_Is_Colorectal_Cancer_Treated.asp?sitearea=. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- Can colorectal cancer be prevented? American Cancer Society. Accessed June 15, 2009.
- Picco MF (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. June 19, 2009.
- MYH-associated polyposis. Cancer Net, American Society of Clinical Oncology. http://www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+Types/MYH-Associated+Polyposis. Accessed June 19, 2009.
