Colonoscopy Or Stool Test?

Tonight, you'll spend more time picking your next Netflix show than you will deciding whether or not to do colon cancer screening or breast cancer screening or any of the screening tests. That's the truth of it. And colon cancer is becoming the second leading cancer killer in this country. So let's pay attention today. We're gonna fix that right now.

So today we're discussing the body part that nobody wants to discuss at the dinner table.

Ah, our colons.

Yes, there it is.

Yeah, we love to talk about poop. We do. But we don't talk about the colon very much, in particular colonoscopies. We're doing this episode because I just had mine.

Yeah, you did. And I got the pleasure of taking you.

Thank you for that. But I would argue I didn't actually need a colonoscopy. Here's what went down. I was having symptoms of heartburn and reflux, or more so a pressure in my chest after eating. And when I would stretch my arms out and raise them up, I noticed the pressure would go away. So I was thinking, okay, I might have a hiatal hernia. What's going on? So I was going to have an EGD done or esophagogastroduodenoscopy. That's a hard word to say.

Just say EGD.

Yeah, EGD. But my ex-husband's a gastroenterologist. Some of you may know that, and he talked me into getting a colonoscopy in addition. Like, just, you're 51, he said, you are way past due. You have to have a colonoscopy.

I think he called you old, which was rude.

Yeah, he did call me old. So I gave in. I had the colonoscopy done as well. But here's the truth of it. My colonoscopy was spick and span clean.

Yeah, it was. And she— you don't have to have it again. So that's wonderful. This is a huge blessing. Also a testament to everything you've done for your health since you left conventional medicine.

Yes. I was glad to see that the way that I live is actually showing up in my colonoscopy. So that's what we need to talk about. Do you need a colonoscopy? That's a big deal. And I do wanna mention, like, I did have a stricture in my esophagus and a small hiatal hernia. That's why I was having symptoms. I have autoimmune diseases. They are under control. I keep my inflammation at bay, but Those diseases can wreak havoc. And one of the things that I've struggled with is my esophagus creating strictures or being inflamed. And so I literally cannot eat gluten ever. I just don't do it because it contributes to that. But I get a lot of cross-contamination. I will say I'm not very diligent on that, and I'm going to start to be now that I've had this procedure. Yeah. I think that's going to help. Um, but another big piece of it is my nervous system needs more regulation because I tend to be stuck in sympathetic dominance, fight or flight, and that can cause a lot of stomach acid production and excess stomach acid in the esophagus because it will relax your esophageal sphincter. And so it's a complex situation, but There is a time and a place for conventional procedures. You know, God gave us a brain, we're using it. I'm not counting out these procedures. What I'm saying and suggesting today is that it's worth having a conversation and looking realistically at your life and your health to decide what's the best route for you to screen for cancers. Right, because sometimes if we go looking for stuff, we find stuff that we don't need to find and then we cause new problems.

Yeah, so I think the purpose for this episode is because the colonoscopy, there's a lot that goes into the prep for that. Plus you have to be under anesthesia, then the post and all the things. And so this question comes up a lot for us in our 40-day program when women are going through there. It's like, well, I went to my PCP and they're like, well, you're 50, you gotta have your colonoscopy. It's like all these things are just like, well, you have to do it, you have to do it. So our coaches asked, can we create something that we can send to our clients? And so this is why we're creating this episode. But we kind of want to get back to, um, the screening is not the same as building health. And so let's unpack that a little bit today.

Yes, the colonoscopy is a flexible camera that goes in your colon. It doesn't look at your small intestines. So the small intestine is like as long as a football field. It's a— there's a lot of small intestines, and those don't get evaluated. It's only your large intestine. And so it's a small section to look for actual disease. So we term it as prevention, but that's not really, it's secondary prevention. So what's happening is if they do a colonoscopy, they go in there with a camera, they see like a polyp growing, some kind of tumor, they can remove that because there's the potential that that polyp can grow into cancer. So that's why they call it prevention, because they feel like they're preventing But I would love to say, how can we prevent the tumor from growing in the first place? Right. How can we prevent the polyps? Because your body should not be growing abnormal things, tumors, polyps, skin tags, cysts, all those things that are happening, even though they're benign at the time, they're an indication that your cell's repair process is not happening properly. It is being overcome by destruction and growth process. So the colonoscopy is secondary prevention. It's not actual prevention. So that's first and foremost, I think, really important for people to understand. It's a great screening tool, but it doesn't replace lifestyle.

Yeah, we have to kind of dig deep and figure out like what is actually creating an environment where that disease can develop and thrive.

Yeah, so I looked this up because I always want to be giving the most recent statistics. The American Cancer Society estimates 158,000 new cases in the U.S. and 55,000 new cases in 2026 of colon cancer. But here's the thing, even though colon cancer has fallen from its historical peak, like it used to be high, it's coming down. But that's in older adults. Younger people are actually getting more colon cancer, and so they've went from recommending it at age 50 to 45 because of it. And that's really scary. Like, why are young people developing cancer? So we have to start to look at our diet, especially our standard American diet, how toxic our world is, because Smoking has decreased, the overall incidence has decreased, but the increase is happening in younger people. So you guys, it's our diet.

Yes, and ultra-processed food is more than junk food. I think we need to unpack that just a little bit.

Oh my goodness, this could be a whole episode in and of itself. I did an episode. with a food scientist who was hired to make food so hyperpalatable and satiable that you couldn't put it down. That's why you finish a bag of Doritos, because there is science behind the point of satisfaction and desire and all of that. They know exactly what they're doing to get you to eat those foods. But they're— I call those Frankenfoods. They're not real foods. They take parts of real foods and they put together to make these Frankenfoods. Mm-hmm. And it's full of toxins and dyes and chemicals and preservatives that are killing your cells and creating disease in your colon. So I really want you to understand that I'm never having a colonoscopy again, unless something crazy happens, because I know my diet. Overall is not inducing cancer in my colon. That's just what's happening. So, I don't want women thinking like I got my colonoscopy. I'm good. I don't have to think about things, or my lifestyle is on par. I never have to worry about getting a colonoscopy. Either extreme isn't good. You know, I'm glad I had it done. It verified what I already thought to be true, but now I can breathe easy. Having said that, cancers can grow in less than 10 years. If you have a clean colonoscopy, the recommendation is to come back in 10 years. If you've had polyps removed, it's 3 to 5 depending on the type of polyp, and family history can shorten that to every 2 to 3 years. But your colon is a living, dynamic situation. There is so much affecting it every single day. So every day there's insults happening, creating leaky gut, creating disruption, that you can create disease in a shorter amount of time if your diet and lifestyle change. So it's really essential to be thinking like, how am I impacting my overall colon health? And a small piece we don't even have in the notes is HPV. So HPV is the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer and abnormal Pap smears. But that can be transmitted to the rectum and it can be associated with cancer in the colon as well. So there's, it's multifactorial and there's no one right answer for everybody, but it, I just wanna emphasize the fact that it's a dynamic process. So just because you're in the clear today doesn't mean something isn't gonna happen in the future that's not gonna necessitate a colonoscopy. So I think let's talk about the fact that it's a screening tool. If you don't have any symptoms and your only issue is like, hey, I'm 45 to 50 years old now and my doctor's recommending this, if you don't have a first-degree family relative like a parent or a sibling, then you can possibly do a Cologuard test, which is, you know, poop test at home and you send it in and they look for cancer cells, they look for blood in the stool. And when we do our GI map stool testing in the functional medicine space, we look for these same, some of the same markers, not the tumor markers, but we look for calprotectin, which is a measure of inflammation. We look for occult blood, and those help us to determine whether you're at high risk for having a polyp in there or cancer growing, and whether or not we should refer you to. Colonoscopy. So that would be step 1. Step 2 is if you're symptomatic, if you're having irregular bowels, but you feel like it doesn't— it's not justified because your diet is good, I would recommend a colonoscopy. And especially if you're having mucus in your stool or blood in your stool that's not explained, we have to figure out what the source of that is. So, you know, That is a conversation you need to have with your primary care provider or your OB-GYN or somebody in the medical space so that you can decide what's right for you. Another thing for women, unexplained anemia, especially if you've stopped having periods or if your periods have really lightened up and you continue to have iron deficiency anemia, you could have a microscopic bleed in the colon. That requires this screening process. So I am not here to count out a necessary procedure. I just want women to be smart about it and the risks associated with it. The number one risk we talk about is perforation. So putting a little hole in the colon from the camera or from the instruments that they use, it's really uncommon. It's probably 1 in 1,000 people. So a standard gastroenterologist probably does 2,000 scopes a year. They might have one or two perforations. If you have an unhealthy colon, especially if you smoke and you drink alcohol, or if you have inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulosis, that increases that risk of perforation. One note I do want to make: I love my general surgeon friends out there. They are equipped to do colonoscopies. I personally recommend going to a gastroenterologist. I would rather have someone who does it all day, every day, than someone who does it a couple times a month because it is a delicate procedure. And that's— I say the same thing when it comes to hysterectomies and prolapse surgeries. Go to the gynecology surgeon who does it all the time. Don't go to the OB-GYN who delivers babies most of the time and dabbles in surgery. Like, that's just— as a surgeon, there's a really big difference between a proficient surgeon who does something all of the time and someone who's capable of it, who's trained in it, but who isn't doing it all the time. So I just want to put that out there because honestly, I don't have medical insurance and the healthcare share group that I go through to like share my expenses, they tried to put me with a general surgeon for my colonoscopy. And most people wouldn't know the difference.

Right.

They would just be like, okay. And the ones that were available, I was able to talk to my ex-husband about, and he's like, no, no, no, no. 'Cause he knows what goes on inside the ORs. He knows the complications that happen. And the surgeons that he's had to come and rescue and take over the cases. And he's like, absolutely not, you need to go to this gastroenterologist. And so that's just a little caveat that I wanted to add in there because sometimes we get misguided or we make decisions based on finances, insurance recommendations, and it's not actually the best thing for you. So just keep that in mind.

Okay, so what about the pre and post? So you have to, if you, Let's say you have to get the colonoscopy and you've got to do the prep to start. What do you have some tips for them for that? And then what about when they are done with the colonoscopy, how to come off of letting everything go? What are some tips for that?

I want to talk to the woman who has done the healing work and now feels the pull to help others do the same. You've been through something. Maybe it was your own health journey, but maybe it was watching someone you love struggle and not knowing how to help them. Maybe it's just this quiet knowing that you were built for this kind of work. Fast to Faith Coaching Academy is for her, and I know it's for you. This isn't just the certification program, it's a calling with credentials. I built it because I kept meeting women who had been healed, who understood the mind-body Spirit framework and they wanted to carry it to others. They just didn't have the training or the structure to do it well on their own. So inside the academy, you will learn the clinical foundations: how to balance hormones, how to heal the gut, how to decrease inflammation, how to read labs, how to provide supplementation. You will learn how how to coach women through the 40-day process. You'll learn how to run a business that honors both science and faith, and you'll do it all with a cohort of women who are just as called as you. The academy is open right now. This cohort is limited. If something in you has been saying yes, this is your moment to stop watching and start moving. Comment coach below. I will send you everything. Let's do this together. Let's go. Okay, so I really didn't want to do the colonoscopy because I was deathly afraid of the prep, right? And I'm a doctor, I know what the prep is about. I got the jug, it was about this big, and there's, you know, some powder in the bottom of it. And they're like, just fill it up with water, shake it up, and drink the whole thing. Um, and I was like, I don't think I drink that much in 24 hours. Right. You want me to drink that in like 6 hours? And then you get evacuated. So the whole point of it is that it flushes you clean so there's no stool left in your colon so that when they put the camera in, it's clean. I had a lacrosse game to go to. I didn't wanna miss that game. I was in the middle of the prep and I was thinking, oh my gosh, I need to be near a toilet. This is going to be a mess. It's going to be crazy. Here's the truth of it. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't bad at all. I actually drank half of it, had a regular bowel movement, went to the game, came home, drank the other. You drink every— a certain amount every hour until you're done. I went to the bathroom a few times. It wasn't the most comfortable thing. But I've had worse situations like being sick. So I slept probably 6 hours, woke up, and I went to the procedure. So I wasn't nauseous, I didn't throw up, I didn't have all the things that people freak out about. I think we talk it up in our head more than it actually is, honestly. I

think it's come a long way too.

It has. We really have dialed in The amount. And honestly, I don't think I drank the bottom fourth of the jug and I was still completely cleaned out and just fine.

Yeah. Okay, so what about post? What are some suggestions that you have from what did you do from what you ate, supplements that you took and things like that?

So I definitely took our Gut Lift after the procedure because those microscopic cells in our colon, they get damaged. The little gap junctions that act like the doors to prevent bad things things from going in, they all get broken from the flush that, you know, I just talked about, the disruption of the microbiome, and then the actual procedure itself. I don't think people realize that when the doctor puts the camera in the colon, they're constantly also flushing water into the colon to keep the vision and the colon open so that they can see. And so there's a lot of mechanical damage that's happening to the cells throughout this procedure. And Gut Lift will repair those little doors, those little gap junctions, a lot quicker than on your own. So that can be really helpful to decrease the inflammatory response afterward or developing food sensitivities or chronic issues, that kind of thing. And I just took it slow that day, stuff that was easy to digest. But honestly, by the next day, I felt back to normal. Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast2Face supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season. Tell people how you use the Gut Lift protein powder because I just— you're adorable.

So I make a shake bowl. I have made a shake bowl every day for years, and I just simply take my Gut Lift protein powder, I add canned coconut milk or any other kind of fat to it Sometimes I switch up what kind of fat it is, a little bit of water, and I mix it up so it's kind of like a brownie batter. And then I will top it with sometimes granola, sometimes nuts, sometimes fruits. It just kind of depends on the mood. What I love about this protein bowl is you can do this at home, but you can also do this— so when I was still in education, my students could tell you that every day at lunch I literally walked around with a bowl with my GutLift protein powder in it, and I would I would eat that. It was how I would break my fast every day at lunch duty. You can do it. I would make it straight up in my office with just a little bit of water and I would go. I take it to my son's sports games. I pour water in it on the go. Tabatha knows I do it when we travel. So it is, it is just really crucial and I like the way that it makes me feel and it's a really nice meal. A lot of times if we're going to a party or maybe we're going to a dinner where I'm kind of skeptical that I'm gonna be able to eat anything, Being gluten-free, I will have this before I walk out the door just to get that protein in. So it is a powerful supplement.

And I love it because it's not cold. Like, I don't like drinking shakes. They make me cold with my thyroid issue. Like, I just don't tolerate that.

Neither one of us are shake people. And that's, that's like the first thing that people will say when I, I'm like, so excited, you're on Gut Lift protein powder, and they're like, I hate shakes. I'm like, that's great. Let me tell you about the Shake Bowl. So yeah, this is a really awesome product.

But you can just drink it with almond milk or like— Absolutely, you can. It's so versatile.

And by all means, be a shake person. We're just not.

Yeah. So this is the product I talked about in the last episode. It was like how I met you and it got my bowels moving regularly. But there's so much more in there because it's not just a protein shake. Protein powder, right? It's an anti-inflammatory powder.

This is, this is one of my favorite products too. It's so impactful so quickly. I mean, if you are a person who struggles with IBS, whether that's constipation or diarrhea, if you feel like you get kind of bloated, if you just kind of feel like you get a little bit just painful, my goodness, this definitely would be the product for you because you, you do feel so different so quickly. I always take it when I travel. I'm like, I gotta have some anti-inflammatories in here because you don't know what you're gonna be consuming. The beauty of this is I really actually refer to this as a medical food because that's actually really what it is. I love that. Now, is there— are there 19 grams of protein? Organic brown rice, absolutely. It's easy to digest, and you— that's a great amount of protein. I mean, as women, oh my goodness, we need a lot of protein to keep our muscles rocking and rolling. Well, when you can give your body protein but all these other nutrients just to help support your gut. I mean, it's just a game changer for people, and it tastes really good. Like, it's delicious flavor.

And we have 3 flavors: strawberry, um, chocolate mint, and vanilla chai.

I just keep all 3 around. I like to mix it up. Like I said, I like vanilla chai in hot water, like pretending it's a latte. Chocolate mint is fabulous in a shake bowl with some nuts and berries. Strawberry, I think, is great if you do want to do a shake or just drink it straight, you know, with—

I like the strawberry in the summer. I feel like I do vanilla chai more in the winter, and I feel like strawberry just seems more summery. And then I wanted to just make sure that it was clear that our vanilla chai is our pea protein. So the other 2 are rice, a rice blend. So I think what I'm hearing is the call to action from this episode is a lot bigger than just book a colonoscopy. There's some stuff that you've got to do beforehand.

Absolutely. You need to stop outsourcing your health to some procedure. You know, and we talk about that when it comes to breast health and mammograms. Like, you have to live a healthy lifestyle. That is the only way to actually prevent disease. You still can't guarantee you're going to prevent it because There's so much in the environment that is affecting our health as well.

And genetics play a huge role.

Absolutely. But the genes don't get turned on unless we activate them. And diet is a key component of turning on bad genes. So that is what I would prescribe is like, evaluate your diet, take a look at what you're putting in your colon to see is it actually helpful or harming it. So That is what I would say. And I just want to close with Proverbs 4:26, because the truth is the Bible has the answer for everything. It really does.

It does.

Proverbs says, give careful thought to the paths for your feet, and be steadfast in all your ways. So to me, what I hear is, Pay attention to your diet. And if most of the time you're eating healthy, your path is going to lead toward health. You know, if the majority of the time your path is full of fast food and processed foods and soda pop, you're not on the path to health, you're on the path to disease. Mm-hmm. And so, uh, you really have way more Self-responsibility in all of this. We have to stop outsourcing our health to our doctors. The screening colonoscopy is not going to save you.

Yeah, I think something just hit me, and you kind of said it earlier about how if you get a colonoscopy, a lot can happen in 10 years. So let's say you get a colonoscopy and everything looks great, and maybe you're just lucky and you have been eating like garbage. It doesn't mean that for the next 10 years, if you continue to eat like garbage, it's going to change anything. Like, it could change, like you could potentially get cancer. So I think it's really about just looking at what you're eating and what you're consuming every single day.

Oh, okay. Gosh, that's a really important point. Before we go, I want to talk about that because menopause is this big transition in a woman's healthspan. So when that estrogen goes away, even if you are on replacement levels, you're still never getting the same amount that you had before menopause. And so your immune system reacts differently. Mm-hmm. Your cardiovascular system, all your systems, they act different. You are like a different person after menopause. And so what we see is autoimmune disease pop up out of nowhere. I've never had Hashimoto's and now I have it. And I've never had celiac, now I have it. Heart disease rises drastically, the risk of insulin resistance and developing diabetes Having a heart attack and stroke, which is actually the number one killer of menopausal women. These things happen, and so your colon health changes after menopause. Absolutely. So this is a dynamic, ongoing journey until your last day. There's no end-all be-all answer, and I probably shouldn't have said I'll never have a colonoscopy again. But I do like to speak life over myself so that. I do say those words. Doesn't mean I'll never have it again. I will absolutely if I have symptoms or if my circumstances change.

Absolutely. I think it's just all about educating yourself and making good choices.

Yeah. So go out there. I would meditate on Proverbs 4:26 this week. See, what are you laying your path with? What are you putting at your feet every day? What is guiding your decisions? Be Steadfast with your health. Consistency creates change. Consistency is where the healing is at. So we love you. We want the best for you. Please let us know if you have questions or if you, um, are more confused about colonoscopy after this. We wanna tackle this with you because an informed decision is better than no decision. We'll see you next week.

Have a good week, ladies.

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