Letter: Can you have a colonoscopy without sedation?

So what about me? Why did I choose to get sedation? Surely I could have toughed-out the pain of the procedure, right? I truthfully think I would have been fine without sedation. However there is one thing that I've learned from being a physician who does procedures for a living: Sometimes there are unintended bad consequences of going against the standard of care.

Sleep is a drug, and most of us need more of it!

Why do we get tired at the end of the day and then spend roughly one-third of each day unconscious? Here are some basics about sleep in general. Also, does lack of sleep cause dementia? What GI problems come from sleep deprivation? What can we do about all of this?

Last year I wrote down six things that eventually changed my life…this is #5.

I made a list of six things that needed to happen if I was going to turn my life around. I was frustrated with my then-current work-life situation, and kept falling into the same bad patterns but couldn't figure out how to break the cycle. After constantly feeling like I didn't have time to exercise or eat right because I was too tired or spent, one day I literally looked in the mirror and had an epiphany...

Fermented dairy products may reduce the risk of colon cancer!

Fermented foods are known as an excellent source of probiotics, and may have a variety of health benefits. Hard scientific data on these fermented foods is hard to come by however. Read about a recent study that suggests these foods may reduce the risk of colon cancer!

There were no survivors. [Warning: GRAPHIC]

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month continues on! However let’s face it, awareness by itself is not enough! To have an impact, we need to take action against colon cancer. We must also have the necessary tools, tactics, and training to take care of business when polyps rear their ugly head. It's a bad month to be a polyp!!!

What causes colon polyps?

Roughly half of all cases of colon cancer (and by extension, colon polyps) are a result of modifiable risk factors. These are the things that you can control. If we know what these risk factors are, maybe we can make better choices...

Junk food and cancer: Is there a link?

How many "foods" do we eat that were shaped by a machine into some pleasing shape and injected with modified fats and preservatives before being deep-fried, flash frozen and shipped out from a factory somewhere? A new study shows us the harm in eating ultra-processed foods.