Has anyone ever heard of this? A friend ( of course) is seeing a doctor about blood in his stool. Although he is awaiting test results, the doctor thinks it is due to large consumptions of protein. Any input?
I have blood in my stool from time to time, but it is always due to an internal hemmroid(sp?). Heavy squats and such will do that to ya…
Jim
Input? Ahhh, no. Advice, sure. Could be hemorrhoids. If this “friend” is eating a ton of protein and not enough fiber he could be constipated as hell (sound about right?) and this could aggravate a case of the “other” 'roids. Could be a polyp, too. Just make sure the testing is thorough, 'cause you (I mean your friend) shouldn’t mess around with ANY rectal bleeding. That just ain’t good.
A GP doc should be able to rule out hemoroids (sp?) pretty easily. Beyond that, I’d go see a colo-rectal specialist. I had some pretty severe bleeding a few years ago, and it turned out to be ulcerative colitis. Not life threatening, but inconvenient. Controlled by sulfasalazine and an occasional round of prednisone when I gat a flare-up.
Thanks, guys. I will pass this info on. I’m always weary of doctors who jump at the idea of putting down heavy training and or high protein diets. You have brough up some good points.
Some points I left out earlier – I asked my colo-rectal specialist about these things a while back, especially in regards to absorption of nutrients, and certain foods causing colitis. His answer was that all I was losing was the absorption of some water (I only had involvement of the descending colon). Milk and high protien foods do not cause colitis. Though they do know a lot of things that DON’T cause it, admittedly, they don’t really know what does. Once you’ve got it, though, it’s fairly easy to figure out what causes flare-ups.
Have crohns disese myself and allthoug it´s not the same disese I wonder what causes the flare-ups in your case. I have had Crohns in over 10 years but it was only last year it started giving me real troubles so I haven´t had a chans to test any foods without cortison yet.
Regarding the tread: Many of my friends had similar experince when they bulking up for winther but they are to stupid to do a checkup, so I haven´t got any suggestions on an explanation.
It’s my understanding that colitis (specifically ulcerative colitis) and crohn’s are closely related, crohn’s possibly being a very advanced case of UC. As I remember, the treatment protocols are pretty similar as well, using basically the same drugs. I haven’t had to go into food causes, but I’ve found that flare-ups usually follow extended sleep deprivation closely. After about 4 days of less than 5 hours sleep a night (for me) will usually bring on a flare-up. I’m kind of on the balance point right now, as I have a 6-month old daughter who’s teething, and I have a business seminar next weekend. I’ve been managing UC for about 5 years now, so I’ve gotten pretty good at feeling the warning signs, and I haven’t had a flare-up in well over a year. I talked with a guy who had crohn’s several years ago, and his treatment was to use the sulfasalazine, but also the fistula was treated by tying a thread through the rectum and the fistula, and the thread was slowly (over the course of several weeks) tightened, eventually bringing the fistula into the rectum, and the fissure healed behind it. He jokingly said his life was literally hanging by a thread. Any way, hope that answers your questions. I’ll be off the forum for a couple days, so if you want more info, I’ll have to get back to you next week.