Gut Check: What You Need to Know About Colorectal Cancer

🎙️ March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and we’re getting straight to the gut of it! Erin sits down with Board-Certified Gastroenterologist Dr. Timothy Jenkins to talk prevention, early detection, and what you really need to know to keep your digestive health on track. Don’t miss this essential conversation—it could save your life! 

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Episode Transcript

Erin Brinker (00:00):
Erin, welcome to the making hope happen radio

(00:11):
show. I'm Erin Brinker, and I'mso excited I have a great guest
for you today. But before we getstarted, I want to Well, keep
with the tradition and tell youwhat I'm grateful for. As a
reminder to my podcastlisteners, this program airs on
two radio stations in InlandSouthern California on Sundays.
That's X, 95.7 at 9am and kql,H, 92.5 at 7am and gratitude is

(00:36):
a great way to start your dayand week and and honestly, any
day at any time, I am gratefulfor the rain that we had last
week and the flowers that arecoming. We don't get a long
season of green landscape in ourarea, and spring flowers are
fleeting, but I love them whenthey bloom, the lavender in
Cherry Valley, the poppies inLancaster, and the beautiful,

(00:56):
diverse flowers of our rollinghills and mountains, they're
just joyful. My favorite flowerdoesn't grow here. It's the Blue
Bonnet, which grows wild in theTexas Hill Country. It's worth a
trip just to see them. Storms inthe winter bring flowers in the
spring, and flowers, of course,are emblematic of renewal and
hope. A few weeks ago, I talkedabout my gratitude for the

(01:17):
things that challenged me in mylife, the storms you see, bring
flowers in the spring, and itwas, as was written in
Ecclesiastes and sung by thebirds, for those of you all who
were there in the 60s or justenjoyed it later, for
everything, there is a seasonand a time for every matter
under heaven, a time to be bornand a time to die, a time to
plant and a time to pluck upwhat was planted a time to kill

(01:42):
and a time to heal, a time tobreak down and a time to build
up, a time to weep and a time tolaugh, a time to mourn and a
time to dance, a time to castaway stones and a time to gather
stones together, a time toembrace and a time to refrain
from embracing, A time to seekand a time to lose, a time to

(02:03):
keep and a time to cast away, atime to tear and a time to sow,
a time to keep silence and atime to speak, a time to love
and a time to hate, a time forwar and a time for peace. And so
when you're going through thosestormy seasons. Just know, be

(02:23):
grateful, because the spring iscoming. All right. On to our
guest. Did you know that Marchis colorectal cancer awareness
month? I didn't, but today we'regoing to hear all about it. I am
so honored to be interviewing DrJenkins. He is the Area Medical
Director and Chief of Staff atKaiser in San Bernardino County,

(02:45):
and a board certifiedgastroenterologist, and he's
joining us today to talk aboutall things colon health, which
colon cancer is a scary thingand it hits more people than you
think. Dr Timothy Jenkins,welcome to the show.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (02:59):
Thank you so much, Erin, it's just such a
pleasure to be here. I reallyappreciate the invite, and like
you say, Sure, it sure isColorectal Cancer Awareness
Month, so I do appreciate yourbringing some focus to this
really important topic for thepublic and for everyone's
health. We all have a colon. Youknow that we're born with some

(03:21):
of us don't have one, and wehave conditions that may lead to
it, you know, not be still beingthere. But for those of us that
do have our colon, it's areally, really important part of
our body, and want to take goodcare of it. So

Erin Brinker (03:33):
why don't we start at the very basics? Uh, what is
a colon? Because I think peoplehave an idea, but they may not
really no. And obviously, colondoes include part of the rectum,
or is that not considered partof the colon?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (03:47):
It is Erin.
It is part of the part of thecolon. The rectum is part of the
colon. And you know, and in thecourse of this discussion, we
may be using some words likerectum or anus, or areas like
that that are anatomicaldescriptions, but that's just
the medical term that we havefor that, and those are the
names for those areas. Thesearen't often things that we
discuss kind of at the dinnertable or a polite company, but

(04:09):
you know, it's really, reallyimportant, and it's important
that these areas stay healthy.
So absolutely, the rectum is apart of the colon. And I can
certainly talk about thedigestive tract and where the
colon fits into all this,

Erin Brinker (04:26):
yeah, if you could, because I you know what
people talk about. May I have abelly ache, or I have gas, or
they just, they, it kind of isgeneric for all of the abdominal
organs. So specifically, what isthe colon?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (04:38):
Sure, sure.
Well, the colon is the the finalpart of the digestive tract that
food moves through as it's takenin through the mouth, processed
by the body, and then the wasteproducts are expelled out
through the end of the colon,which is through the anus, and
out through the waste and so sothere are several main major
parts. Of the digestive tractthat I can talk about, but the

(05:01):
colon is the very last part ofthat sequence. So when you eat
some food, of course, you put itin your mouth and chew and and
swallow, and the food first goesinto what's called the
esophagus. And so that's a it'sbasically looks like a tube or a
pipe that connects the mouth andthe throat all the way down to
the stomach, which sits kind ofin the middle part of your

(05:23):
abdominal area, kind of themiddle section below your rib
cage. And the food goes into thestomach. It's then it's, starts
the digestive process. Or thestomach has acid, it churns, it
squeezes, and it breaks the foodinto much smaller pieces after
the stomach and the food sitsthere, typically 123, hours,
maybe a little shorter, maybe alittle longer, depending on

(05:45):
whether it's liquid or solid orwhat you've eaten. Then it moves
out of the stomach into thesmall intestine. The small
intestine is about 20 feet long.
So if you can imagine having a20 foot long digestive organ
kind of all coiled up in yourmidsection. That's really what

(06:05):
it looks like. If you take an xray, it shows it's kind of this
coiled almost like, kind of likea snake foiling around 20 feet,
20 feet. That's crazy. It reallyis, if you think about it. And
so the food goes in there. Andthe reason why the small
intestine is so long is becausehuman beings are designed in a

(06:27):
way that it we are able toextract out all the nutrition
out of that food, and there's alot of surface area and a lot of
link that's needed to be able toreally get squeeze out every
last bit of nutrition out ofthat food. And so the small
intestine is that 20 foot longorgan that food passes through
after it's been kind of brokeninto small pieces, and that's

(06:50):
where the main nutrientabsorption happens as the food
passes through the body. Sothere's a 20 foot long journey,
and when it reaches the end ofthe small intestine, which is
typically located down in theright corner of your abdomen. So
if you look at your right hip,and you kind of kind of push

(07:11):
down in that area a little bit,that's the typical place where
the small intestine connects tothe final organ in that process,
which is the colon. And so nowwe're in the colon, and at that
point, the food is stillsomewhat liquid. It's kind of
been mostly digested all thenutrients extracted in that when
it heads into the colon. Nowit's a process of extracting out

(07:34):
whatever water and liquidremains in that digested food,
and it also becomes a solid asit moves its way through the
colon, all the way down to therectum, before it passes out
with a bowel movement. And so,so the colon itself is typically
about six feet long. It doesn'treally kind of coil back and

(07:54):
forth like a snake, like thesmall intestine, like I just
described. It's, it's, if youlooked at it straight on, like,
say, I'm looking at you, Erin,and you're just standing there,
your colon is almost like in theshape of a question mark. And so
the and the and the tip of thatquestion mark is over in the
right lower side of your abdomenas you look down, if I'm looking
at you, it's more to my left,and it and that's the end of

(08:17):
that question mark. So it goesup toward the upper part of the
abdomen, toward the rib cage,along the right hand side. It
then crosses over the abdomen,over to the left hand side, up
under the rib cage, and then itgoes back down. So that's like
the top of the question mark.
Then it starts to come down. Itmakes a little little squiggly
turn, like you see with thequestion mark itself. We call

(08:38):
that the sigmoid part of thecolon. And then it and then it
goes down into the area wherethe buttocks and the rectum area
is, and that's the very lastpart of the colon before the
waste products are expelled out,out of the anal area. But that's
the journey that it takes. It'sabout six feet long, and it goes
from a liquid form when it firstenters the colon all the way to

(09:02):
the end, where it's usuallysolid. Now somebody's having
diarrhea, or they're havingloose bowels and so forth. In
those situations, it's moreliquid, but the typical bowel
movement does have a more of asolid form. So

Erin Brinker (09:16):
so how does cancer develop in the colon? In that
and I'm sure there are lots ofdifferent ways to answer that
question, because I you know,people say, Oh, if you eat bacon
and cured meats, that you'regoing to get cancer, or if you
do this, that and the otherthing, you're going to get
cancer. And other people say,No, it's perfectly fine. So
let's talk about how you mightend up with a diseased colon.
Sure,

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (09:37):
absolutely.
Erin, so, so cancer is acondition where there's an
abnormal growth of cells thatare happening inside the colon.
And when we talk about thecancer in the colon, the colon
has several layers to it, if it,if you look at, if you took out
the colon and look at it, it islike a it's like a hollow
channel with that's a tissue.

(09:58):
But there are actually several.
Layers to that. And the cancerthat typically forms in the
colon is the innermost lining ofthat tube, and that's called the
mucosa. That's the medical termfor that. But those cells that
line the inner part of thecolon, those are the ones that
can become a cancer. And what'sa cancer? Well, a cancer is an
abnormal growth of cells thatthat continue to grow, and they

(10:20):
can spread, and they destroy theother tissues that they're
located in, and they canactually dislodge from where
they start, and they can end upin other parts of the body, like
the liver or the lungs or otherplaces and and of course, it's
it's a deadly condition, if it'snot treated. Cancer is often a
fatal condition, and people,people won't survive that when

(10:43):
it's not treated. And so that'swhat we mean by colon cancer.
And the cancer can happenanywhere in that six foot colon
that I was just describing. Itcan happen starting down in the
rectal area at the very end. Itcan happen in the part of the
colon where it first joins thesmall intestine. We call that
the cecum cancer in thatlocation, or really anywhere in

(11:04):
between, and so, so this is whatwe want to prevent. And if we
have, if it's not prevented, ifit's formed, we want to find it
as early as we can so we cantreat it and cure it. So

Erin Brinker (11:22):
well you answered the you've kind of already
answered the question, but I'mgoing to ask you anyway, why is
it important to get screened forcolorectal cancer? Because I
color rectal cancer, and forgiveme, for whatever reason I'm
having a difficult time sayingthat. You know, because I know
that, especially if you're overthe age, I think of 40, you
start getting, if you're amember at Kaiser, you start
getting, once a year, you'll geta little packet in the mail,

(11:44):
say, take a sample and send itin. And I think once you're over
50, you get colonoscopies, youknow, because they're, they're
looking for stuff. So, so, youknow, why is it, why is that
early screening

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (11:57):
important?
Well, thanks, Erin, it's a greatquestion. And you know, there's
many, many different types ofcancer. There's cancers in all
types of the body, all places inthe body, sorry. And colon
cancer is very common. It's,it's the second leading cause of
death from cancer in men andwomen. And there's about 150,000
cases in the United States everyyear. Wow. And so it's a common,

(12:19):
it is a relatively commoncondition. There's about a one
in 25 chance of any of us. Me,you anyone having a colon cancer
over the course of our lifetime?
So we're, we're not talkingabout something that's extremely
rare.

Erin Brinker (12:34):
No, you know, I'm thinking about a classroom that
has 30 kids in it. That meansone kid in that classroom is
going to get colon cancer.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (12:41):
There you go, on average that. That's kind
of how it works out. So it's soit's pretty common. So that's
the So, that's the sobering,that's the news where, you know,
we have to look at that and say,Wow, this is, this is a major
public health issue for forpeople in the United States and
all out and throughout theworld, frankly, and so, so the

(13:02):
goal of cancers is prevention.
And so cancers that are tend tobe slow to develop and slow to
grow, which describes coloncancer. Most colon cancer is a
perfect target for somethingwhere we can try to find it
early, and with cancers earlier,you identify it and diagnose it,
the better the prognosis, themore chance that you'll have of

(13:24):
surviving it, and the lesschance it has of being something
that's going to be a deadlydiagnosis. So we really want to
find these things early. Well,colon cancer is perfect for
screening because it grows, itstarts as something that's not a
cancer that we can identify. Wecan see it if we if we examine
the colon, we can findabnormalities that have a risk

(13:47):
of turning into cancer, but theyhaven't yet. So that's a good
thing, because that's where wecan take action before there's
even a cancer. And then when itbecomes cancer, it's still, it's
still something that doesn'tprogress, say, in days or weeks,
it's still typically months of aprogression that it takes before
it really becomes advanced, andsomething that it's going to be

(14:09):
going to be more challenging totreat and so so it fits in those
categories, it makes it a reallygood target for us to do
screening. And what isscreening? Well, screening means
something where you you sayyou're going to be screened for
something. You have no symptoms,you have no concern, there's no
stomach pain, there's no bowelproblems, there's no bleeding,

(14:29):
nothing like that. You're purelydoing a test as a screening,
meaning, do I have anythingthat's showing that could
indicate that I might have acancer or something that could
become a cancer, and so that'sreally where we put all of our
efforts, and not just at KaiserPermanente, but you know,
throughout the nation, there'shealth systems are doing this

(14:50):
everywhere, looking to screenfor colon cancer, and you talked
a little bit about the ages andpart of the. Part of the
challenge that I have as agastroenterologist is keeping up
with the latest guidelines onwho should be screened. And you
mentioned age 40 about ascreening of sewol samples, and
age 50 for colonoscopy. Andthese guidelines have changed

(15:12):
over the years. So I could talka little bit about that, like,
Yeah, please do the screening.
Certainly. Erin, yeah,absolutely. And so there's
really, it used to be severalyears ago that the cutoff for
screening was age 50, and youknow, I, I'm, I'm a little past,
on the other side of 50. I won'tsay exactly about two years, a

(15:35):
few years past that. And so I amin that age category. So when I
turned 50, the guidelines werestill to start at 50, so I
started my screenings a fewyears ago. In recent years, it's
actually decreased to age 45 andpart of that was because what we
were seeing asgastroenterologists is younger

(15:55):
patients coming in with cancer.
And we noticed that, and when welook back at the data and did
the information, we found that,wow, the number of people we're
seeing who were diagnosed withcolon cancer before the age of
50 has doubled since the 1990smostly. Yeah, it's, it's pretty,
pretty amazing to think about.

(16:15):
Just in a manner of a fewdecades. You could have that
kind of a change, and we'restill seeing them, mostly close
to the age of 50. It's it'sstill quite rare for someone in
their 20s or or 30s to have acolon cancer. It happens we do
see it, but that's still on themore rare side. But we were
seeing more patients,particularly in their late 40s,

(16:38):
getting colon cancer. And so afew years ago, the guideline
changed to move it back to 45 soright now, if you have no family
history, no risk factors, nosymptoms, woman or man, we do
recognize, we do recommend thatyou have have screening begin at
age 45 and so that's the currentguideline. And so how do you do
the screening? Well, there'sreally, there's really two

(17:01):
primary ways of doing that, andyou mentioned the most. So Erin,
you you already know a lot aboutthis, and you're, you're sharing
that with the public today, butthey're really these two
methods. So a colonoscopy, wecall, kind of like the gold
standard, that's really the mostcomplete exam of the colon, and
it's a procedure that only needsto be done once every 10 years,

(17:23):
and we can talk about what is acolonoscopy and how we do all
that. I'll get into that alittle later, if you'd like
absolutely, yeah, that's athat's the one of the screening
procedures that we do. I do thatprocedure. I've done 1000s and
1000s of those procedures, and Ijust did a series of them just a
few days ago. And so that's oneoption. The other option is to

(17:43):
give a small stool sample that'stested for a trace of blood. And
so this isn't like a bloodybowel movement. This is just
what looks like a normal bowelmovement, and there's a
microscopic amount of blood thatcould be there, and there's
tests that are able to test forthat. And if that test is
positive for a trace of blood,then we recommend the

(18:05):
colonoscopy. The thing aboutthat test, it requires it to be
done every year, and so if onestarts at age 45 and it's say
they do the stool sample, it'snegative, they've got to come
back and do it again. At age 46it's negative. Age 47 it's
negative. And some people preferthat. I, as much as I enjoy

(18:26):
performing colonoscopies, I It'sa, it's a, I've had one myself.
I do understand not everyonewants to have a colonoscopy. So
that's, that's, you know, that'sjust the way the world is. And
so given that we have this otheroption for them, and as long as
those stool sample tests everyyear are negative, we have
enough evidence and data andscience to show that the risk of

(18:49):
colon cancers is very low. So

Erin Brinker (18:51):
there's you can't have cancer absent any blood. So
is it possible that you have acancerous polyp, or whatever,
and it and you don't have anyblood present the stool, yet,

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (19:02):
it is possible, and so is the test. So
any screening test we talkabout, how sensitive is it, how
accurate is it, those types ofthings, and so those stool
samples are highly accurate, andthey do, they're very, very
effective. They say, withthere's lots of evidence going
back, I'd say 4050, years now,from studies showing they're

(19:23):
very effective at findingcancer, diagnosing it, finding
early cancer, finding otherconditions that can lead to
that, and they save lives. Sothere's proof of that. Are they
100% accurate? No, they're not,and so and so there has to be
the understanding that if I dothat test and it's negative, I'm

(19:43):
very, very unlikely to have acolon cancer. However, I still
need to do that test every year,and it's really the process of
the yearly test that really iswhat makes it really strong, a
strong way of screeningcolonoscopy is highly accurate.
But it also is not 100% andthere's even some situations

(20:04):
where very, very rarely,extremely rarely, where there
may be something that's a smallfinding, or something that's
just not very difficult toidentify that could be there. So
even that test is not 100% but Iwill tell you, both of these
tests are very, very good. Theysave lives. They they, you know,
really should be done. You know,any people you know, family

(20:27):
members, people in the publicanywhere, should be having one
of these tests done. Because ifthey don't, like I said at the
beginning, there's a one in 25chance that someone could have,
you know, a cancer in theirlifetime. And this really,
really lowers the chance of thatever happening so, so it

Erin Brinker (20:42):
strikes me that you said that we've there's been
a doubling since the 1990s ofincidences of this. I'm like,
okay, so what was going on inthe 1990s we saw a dramatic
increase in childhood obesityand and obesity overall. I mean,
before that, you know, peoplewere, you had people all over
the spectrum, but a far, farsmaller percentage of Americans
were overweight or obese, andit's just exploded since then.

(21:05):
And so I imagine that thatweight has a big in sedentary
lifestyle has have dramaticimpacts. Kind of talk about
what, what you can do with yourwith your lifestyle, to help
prevent it? Yeah,

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (21:18):
it's a, it's a really great question.
And and when I say doubling,it's doubling in the young
people. So and to be, you know,just to just to be clear, it
most colon cancers are still acondition that happens in people
over the age of 50, or even overthe age 60 or 70. It's more
common that colon cancer happensin the older population. But we

(21:39):
did see a doubling in the underage 50 cancers. And so we asked,
like the question you justasked, Well, why? How could that
be? And there's a lot of debatehappening in the medical
community, just like you justsaid about, well, what was going
on between 1990s and 2025 thatcould result in this? And you
are spot on in terms of yourconclusion that obesity is one

(22:04):
of those areas where where wehave seen a significant increase
in the public and so and so. Ifwe look back at obesity rates
from the 70s, 80s, 90s andbeyond, those rates have been
going up, and we also see moreconditions like diabetes
happening, which is associatedwith obesity. And if you look at

(22:24):
those two risk factors, both ofthose are associated with with
colon cancer. There's a risk ifsomeone has obesity or diabetes
or both, there is a higher riskof developing several cancers,
not just colon cancer, butseveral and so those are a
couple factors. So I do agreewith you. I think from

(22:44):
everything I've read and andstudied, I do think that's a
factor from the 1990s you know,some other, some other medical
experts have really looked at,well, is it anything in you
know, how we process our food,for example, is that different?
And you could think about, well,the types of diets that people
had years and years ago, whenour country was much more of a

(23:08):
rural, rural society. We kind ofgot things directly from the
farm, and there wasn't a lot ofprocessing and all that. And you
flash forward to today, andit's, you know, everyone's on
the go, and we, you know,there's processed food and fast
food and all that, and we kindof get things quickly, but
there's a lot more processinginvolved there. There is

(23:28):
evidence to show that some ofthe you know, like highly
processed types of foods, can bea risk factor as well. And so it
could be, not only that, andthese all may be connected, it
can be maybe that the processedfoods that have our high fat
content and a lot of processingare also associated with
obesity, and those are thingsare associated with diabetes,

(23:51):
and they're also connected tohigher rate of colon cancer. So
I think it all starts to connecttogether. It can have to do with
the fact that we're eating moreprocessed foods, higher fat
content foods, there's moreobesity. And all those things
are working together, especiallyin young people, you know, these
days, to to increase thosecancer rates, you know, I

Erin Brinker (24:13):
I've got to thinking you talked about when
we're a more we were a moreagrarian society. But even even
in before screens becameubiquitous, young people,
especially, maybe they wereeating that high fat diet, but
then they were active. They wereoutside. I mean, kids would go
outside all day long and play,and they're moving their bodies
and not they're not eating a bigmeal and then sitting, which is

(24:36):
very much, especially sinceCOVID very much what the world
seems to be doing, or at leastthe United States seems to be
doing, and I and physicalinactivity. Okay, so I'm, I'm
going to ask a so for those ofyou all who have sensitive
stomachs, be warned, I'm goingto

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (24:52):
ask a very good question. It's all fair
game.

Erin Brinker (24:55):
I would imagine that the presence of material
filling your. Colon sittingthere for a long time would make
it more likely that you wouldthat things would go sideways,
whereas opposed whereas movingimproves motility. Is that
correct? It

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (25:11):
well? So that's interesting, and that's a
it's a wonderful topic, and Iget in a lot of my patients ask
me about that, and they could,because I see patients with
different gi conditions, and oneof them is constipation, though,
you know, I get referred apatient from primary care, and
then Dr Jenkins has got thisconstipation, and I just have
difficulty with bowel movementsin my everything sits in my

(25:32):
colon for a long time. And oneof the questions is like, what
you just asked Is Dr Jenkins, amI at higher risk for colon
cancer? And you'd think, youknow, well, this waste product
is sitting in the colon for along time. Gee, Shouldn't that
be something that's that can be,you know, cause cancer. It's,
maybe it's, you know, wastematerial sitting there. You'd

(25:53):
think that would be somethingthat you'd reason would be the
case. But it turns out that wereally, we really don't see that
that's the case, which is, whichI find very interesting. And it
actually if we, if we take thatone step further, and we have a
group of patients that havesomething called inflammatory
bowel disease, and this includessomething called Crohn's disease

(26:16):
and ulcerative colitis, thesepatients tend to have diarrhea,
and so these patients havefrequent bowel movements, and
they're always needing to go tothe bathroom. And you think,
well, well, maybe that's a goodthing, because they're getting
the waste out of their body. Butas it turns out, there's
inflammation in the colonlining, and that predisposes
them to colon cancer. We doactually, for patients who have

(26:39):
those can diarrhea, inflammatoryconditions like Crohn's disease
and ulcerative colitis. It'sthose people, those patients,
are needing colon cancerscreening even at an earlier
age. Some of them I'm, I'mseeing in their teens or 20s, to
do their colonoscopies andscreen because of the risk. So
it's, it's a little bit of theopposite of what you think, like

(27:00):
the constipation is, is not therisk factor. It's more
inflammation, diarrhea, withCrohn's and colitis that do
that. But it's a really goodquestion. And you're, you are
definitely not the first one whothat, who asked,

Erin Brinker (27:15):
Well, that's good, that's good. I'm going to ask a
dumb question. I hope it's beenasked before.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (27:19):
No, no.
It's a really good question.
It's an excellent question.

Erin Brinker (27:23):
So, you know, it's interesting, because I've talked
to other physicians about theimpact of inflammation on the
body, and and, and, you know,maybe people are are consuming
more products that causeinflammation. You know, whether
or maybe our lifestyle, maybeit's environment, you know,
maybe they're drinking sodas ordiet sodas, or maybe they're, I

(27:43):
don't know, eating fast foodthat causes inflammation. And so
it seems like inflammation is abig risk factor.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (27:50):
It really is, and it's and in particular,
that those two conditions I justtalked about, Ulcerative Colitis
and Crohn's disease, and thoseconditions are, are where the
body's immune system, in whichis your body's defense against
infections, overreacts to a partof the body, and in this case,

(28:12):
it's the colon. And so if you ifyou look at the colon, and some
patients that have Crohn's andColitis, it's damaged. It has
ulcers. It's inflamed. It's red.
It sounds miserable, those poorsouls. Yeah, it really is. It's
a, it's a very difficultcondition. And it's, it's, it's,
it's fairly common, actually,and so and so that's what's

(28:33):
happening. And it's the body'simmune system, if, if you kind
of back up from that, and thinkabout it, that the body's immune
system is designed to preventinfections from getting into
your body. So you have, you mayknow about your white blood
cells, and you have all thedifferent types of white blood
cells. So if a bacteria getsinto your body where it isn't

(28:55):
supposed to be, like in yourbloodstream or in your lungs or
places like that, the body'simmune system goes in and
attacks and kills that bacteria,that virus, whatever that might
be trying to invade your body.
Your immune system is yourdefenses. Well, so patients who
have inflammation conditionslike Crohn's and Colitis, the

(29:15):
immune system, there's somethingabout it that it makes it the
body itself is what it needs tofight. And it goes in and it
starts damaging the colon, andthat's where you have have the
issues. And it's, you know, as Ithink about it, I always have
been fascinated with GI for fora long time, since medical
school and my internal medicinetraining. But the here you have

(29:38):
a large organ in the body.
You've got the small intestine,20 feet long, colon, six feet
long, filled with bacteria,because the waste product
includes bacteria inside yourbody. And what's amazing is your
immune system is not attackingthat colon. If here it is, a
full of waste products andbacteria going through your
body, and the immune system not.

(30:00):
Is just kind of, you know,looking at it, but not really.
You're not really attacking thatin a normal condition, which to
me, is just fascinating,miraculous. It really is. It's
miraculous how that actuallyhappens. And it's only when the
body's immune system turns onitself, is when these
inflammatory conditions happen.
So so your body is designed totolerate bacteria going through

(30:21):
the digestive tract. When youeat some food, you know, we, you
know, our foods clean and allthat, we have to make good
precautions of it. But there'salways some bacteria. There's
bacteria in your mouth that livethere. There's some bacteria in
different you know, andbasically, in everything, we
wash it, we clean it. Butthere's bacteria, and there's
bacteria that live inside yourbody, and your body just

(30:43):
tolerates that, and it does okaywith it. So, so that's where
there's a lot of research interms of, well, what causes that
switch from the body toleratingeverything with the bacteria in
that and doing okay, to going tosaying there's a problem, and it
starts attacking the colon, andthen you've got inflammation. So
So that's just one example.

(31:06):
There's other other examplesthat we could talk about, but
that's, I think that's probablythe best one I can think of,
involving the colon.

Erin Brinker (31:14):
So what are some of the symptoms of colorectal
cancer? We've talked a littlebit about blood in the stool,
whether it's visible or not.
What are some other symptoms?
Sure.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (31:22):
Yeah, so, so bleeding is one of them.
Although bleeding tends tohappen visibly, like a patient
has a bowel movement and theysee they see blood, and that's
something anytime someone seesthat, that's that's not a normal
condition, and that's somethingyou should check with your
doctor about if you see bloodwith a bowel movement. But it
tends to happen when the colonis down there, near the rectum

(31:44):
of the very end of the colon, ifthere's a colon cancer over at
the beginning of that questionmark that I talked about, and
there's some bleeding thathappens by the time it passes
through that waste and it kindof goes all the way through the
colon. You don't really seeanything. It just looks like a
normal bowel movement. Sobleeding is is can be a sign it
often is not. Hemorrhoids canbleed. There can be other causes

(32:07):
of bleeding, but that's onesymptom. But in terms of the
other symptoms, as colon cancergrows inside the colon, it can
do a couple of things. It cancause abdominal pain. So
patients with a colon cancer, ifit's reaching a larger size, it
can put pressure on the nervesand the nerve endings around the
colon area where the cancer islocated, and that can be

(32:30):
painful. So if someone has, say,abdominal pain in a certain
area, you know that's alsosomething they need to see their
doctor and be evaluated for mostof the time. It's not a colon
cancer. There's many causes ofabdominal pain, but that is one
of the symptoms that it can be.
The other could be a change inbowel habits, and it can be
either constipation or diarrhea.

(32:53):
And so the way to think aboutthat is the colon is like a it's
like a hollow tube. It's, it's,I'd say, 234, inches across as
the bowel movement moves throughthere. And a colon cancer is a
very hard, firm growth insidethe colon. So as that colon
cancer grows, you can imagine,like, say, you had, you know, a

(33:15):
tube, and there's something inthere increasing in size, what's
going to happen? Well, it'sgoing to start to cause a
blockage, and the blockagedoesn't happen all at once. It
tends to, tends to increaseslowly over time. And so what
can happen is, a patient's hadnormal bowel movements their
whole life, and then they say,Well, Dr Jenkins, last two or

(33:36):
three months, I've noticed, youknow, I'm having trouble with
bowel movements. I've becomeconstipated when I never used to
have that. And so that'ssomething that needs to be
evaluated as a change in bowelhabits. The other thing that can
happen is it can go from normalto diarrhea. And that can be
just because it all that can getthrough the partial the partial

(33:57):
blockage of the colon is justsome liquid. And so they go from
having normal bowel movementsinto liquid. And so if you, if
you're going along normal, andwe're not talking about just
like a one day change, because,you know, you might eat some
food or something that that'snot good, and you have to

Erin Brinker (34:12):
have a to Taco Bell. I'm joking. I'm joking,
but just

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (34:16):
joking. But you know what I'm talking about?
Like, there's, there's kind of,what you know, these, as I
mentioned, colon cancer takedon't grow in days or weeks.
They progress over a longertime. So we're not talking about
a one day change in bowelmovement, but if it's something
that happens over a period ofweeks, either diarrhea or
constipation, it really issomething you need to see your
doctor and and be evaluated forand so so those would be the two

(34:40):
other so abdominal pain andchange in bowel habits in
addition to bleeding. Now thereare some other general symptoms
of cancer. One of them isprogressive weight loss. And
weight loss doesn't tend tohappen when the colon cancer is
still just contained in thecolon. But if you recall I
mentioned about colon cancer canspread to other. Parts of the

(35:00):
body, like the lungs or theliver. And so when, when it
spreads, it starts to cause likewe call an anorexia, where
people just don't want to eat.
They're not hungry, and they'rekind of just, we say, wasting.
They're losing weight. And soprogressive weight loss that
can't be explained. The person'snot on a diet. They're not, you
know, they're eating, they maynot be so hungry, but they're

(35:24):
losing progressive weight. Weekafter week after week, their
weight is going down. That's,you know, that's potentially a
serious symptom, that could be asymptom of a colon cancer that's
spread to other parts of thebody and is causing those
symptoms. And what happens is,the tumors produce different
factors that go through thebloodstream, and they they can

(35:44):
shut down appetite, they cancause nausea, they can cause
weight loss, and so, so that's,that's another symptom, but that
tends to be the progressiveweight loss tends to be a more
advanced symptom of cancer.

Erin Brinker (35:57):
So, you know, I, I've known people who have had
what I'll call irritable bowelsyndrome, or what is called,
maybe it's not called thatofficially, but that's what I
know it as, where they have theycycle that. Sometimes they have
constipation, sometimes theyhave diarrhea, and, you know,
they've gone to their primarycare physician or whomever, and
they're really just kind oftold, yeah, you have IBS. Sorry.

(36:19):
Stinks to be you, you know, whatis that? Why does that happen?
You know? Yeah, really

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (36:27):
good question. And in medicine, in
some aspects, we're still askingthat question a little bit,
because it's, I think there'sstill more research being done
and trying to understand that.
And you're absolutely right. Itis called irritable bowel
syndrome. You're correct on themedical terminology. It's a it's
a real diagnosis. It's acondition that's extremely
common. So if we were to say onein 25 lifetime with colon cancer

(36:50):
we're talking about, I'm tryingto remember, I mean, it's
common. It could be 2010, 20% ofthe have irritable bowel at some
point in their lifetime. Sothat's like one in three, one
and four. And in irritable bowelsyndrome, if I do a colonoscopy
and look inside of the person'scolon who has irritable bowel

(37:11):
syndrome, it looks completelynormal. It there's no cancers,
there's no abnormalities.
There's nothing like thatcausing it. There's no
inflammation. The lining lookshealthy. The bowel looks
healthy, you know, all of that.
And so you look at that and say,well, wow, it's normal. Why am
I, you know? Why am I havingdiarrhea, one day constipation,
one day of my gut, stomachcramping and all that kind of

(37:34):
thing, you know? Why is that?
And the reason behind that isdue to something called
motility. And so how does thiswaste product make it through
the colon? You know, I've justdescribed that you've got
something shaped like a questionmark that goes down in your by
your right hip. It goes upacross to the rib cage, across

(37:55):
the side, and then back downagain. So clearly, it's not
gravity that's, you know, that'spulling all that stuff through
there. That's because it has, ithas to go up. It's going, you
know, away from the ground. Yes,you're standing on your head.
You're standing and you'reright. And as we know we did
that, we we don't, you know,that's, that's the amazing thing
about our bodies. We don't haveto stand on our head, I guess,

(38:17):
our food and get our colon towork. So, so how can that be?
Well, it's something calledmotility. So if I'm in, if I'm
doing a colonoscopy, performinga procedure, and I'm inside with
a camera inside, say I'm sayyou're having the procedure, and
I'm doing that, so I'm insideand looking at the colon, what
you see is this contractionmovement, and it's and it

(38:40):
contracts down, and it opensback up. And it's kind of like,
I don't know if you see like aninch worm, or an earth worm or
something, where you'll see howthe worm, part of the worm
contracts, and then it elongatesand, yeah, like a wave. It looks
exactly like that, except you'reon the inside, and what that's
doing is for the material that'sin there. It's propelling it

(39:03):
forward. So it's a squeezingmotion that propels everything
through. And so when it's in anormal condition, you're not
even feeling that like I'msitting right here right now, I
feel fine. My colon is working.
I think it's working. I

Erin Brinker (39:17):
hope it's working.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (39:19):
No problems today, and it's but if you if I
were to have a way right now oflooking at what my colon is
doing, it's doing that constantcontracting motions, and it it's
about three or four fullcontractions every minute. And
there are these waves ofcontraction that come down. We
don't feel it, we don't knowabout it. It's happening. And

(39:41):
then what happens is, it pusheseverything to the end. And then,
you know, the average bowelmovement seems to be about two
or three a day to two or three aweek. There's a range that's
normal. Then there'll be a bowelmovement, and that's kind of the
end result of all thosecontractions. So what happens
with back to irritable bowelsyndrome? Them is that people

(40:01):
start perceiving thosecontractions, and it can show up
in several ways. It can be painin the abdomen, it can be
constipation, difficulties. Itcan be diarrhea, or it can be a
mixture of the two,conservation, alternating or
diarrhea, and all of those wecall irritable bowel syndrome,

(40:22):
we have different abbreviations,like IBS is the abbreviation
irritable bowel syndrome, dash cfor irritable bowel syndrome,
constipation, and you have IBSthat's mixed for the alternating
and you have IBS with pain as apredominant symptom. And we
believe that there's somethingabout something that changes or

(40:43):
happens in the body where peoplestart to feel those contractions
as pain, and it causes abnormalbowel movements. And so, so
that's and so the treatments forirritable bowel syndrome are
really more aimed at the nervesthat control the colon and cause
those motions to happen, andthat's really where our best

(41:04):
treatments have been. Nowthere's other treatments as
well, like a high fiber diet. Wefind that people with a low
fiber diet tend to have morepain and more difficulty with
their bowel movement. So that'sa that's a recommendation. We
find people that don't drinkenough fluids and water
throughout the day, have canhave difficulty. We find people
that don't exercise can haveworsening of the symptoms. So

(41:27):
there's things you can do if youhave irritable bowel syndrome
that can help with it, that arenot medication and that don't
give medicine that's going to goafter the nerves in the in the
GI tract and then the colon. Butreally, that's what that means.
But if you look at the colonitself again, it's normal.
There's not an increased riskfor colon cancer. We don't find

(41:48):
more cancers in patients withirritable bowel or normal. It's
there's not an association withthat. And so, so hopefully that
summarizes a little bit aboutit, does

Erin Brinker (41:58):
it? Yeah, it does.
And it makes me wonder, youknow, is, is the volume, how the
volume of food that a personeats impacts their their colon
and their digestive system? Isit better? You know, you hear a
lot of hubbub about intermittentfasting, but you know, is it, is
it better to have less food inyour digestive system on a more
regular basis. And, you know,save the feast for those special

(42:21):
days. You know, are we justeating too much?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (42:26):
Right?
Really good question. So, youknow, the colon is, is not so
much the gatekeeper. We call itlike the gatekeeper, what food's
coming in, what, how's it goingthrough? That part is really
more the upper part of thedigestive tract, and especially
the stomach. And so the stomachis like the gatekeeper. The
stomach has a certain amount ofspace that it's enabled to
accommodate, as far as food orliquid, and once it reaches that

(42:49):
point where it's pretty full, itit tells your brain, and it
tells your, you know, your mouthand everything else, it says,
stop eating. You should you arefull. Do not eat anything more,
because your your stomach isfull, and then the stomach
spends the next two or threehours churning that food into
kind of a liquid, solid materialthat then goes into that 20 foot

(43:10):
small intestine. And so I thinkwhether someone eats small
meals, they'll get hungryfaster, faster, because the
stomach empties out quicker.
They'll be hungry again in anhour or two or 30 minutes. Or if
they eat a large meal, it takeslonger for the stomach to empty,
and they won't be hungry formany hours after that. It's more

(43:34):
the stomach that governs whatyou're asking about. By the time
it gets down to the colon, it'slike a conveyor belt. By the
time it gets there on a conveyorbelt, you're just seeing like a
constant, very slow stream andsome liquid, solid kind of going
into the colon from when you putsmall intestine. And in the
small intestine kind of averageseverything out. But if you just

(43:57):
look at the small intestine, youdon't know whether that person
had a big meal a small meal,because it's been churned and
it's been kind of gatekeeperaction from the stomach leading
into that small intestine.

Erin Brinker (44:09):
Okay, so now I have to ask an influencer kind
of question, because all overInstagram and and other social
media platforms, there arepeople talking about, quote,
unquote, leaky gut, and then youhave people say, yeah, that's
not actually a thing. So isleaky gut a thing?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (44:25):
Well, I know people talk about it, and
it's out on social media andInstagram and all that and x
and, you know, it's definitely alarge point of discussion. There
are conditions that medicalconditions that increase, what
we call the permeability of thesmall intestine, and so they can
increase flow of fluids out ofthe lining of the intestine into

(44:50):
the intestines and makes moreliquid. But really it's not that
can that description leaky gut.
That's not really a medicaldiagnosis in and of itself.
Itself. It's more a descriptionof some condition that can be
happening. It can really becaused by a lot of different
things. And so one example ofthat would be gluten
sensitivity. So this is glutenis a component of things like

(45:12):
wheat, and wheat has proteinsthat are called gluten, and
there's some people that arevery allergic to that, and that
can trigger an inflammatorycondition in the small
intestine, and the smallintestine can become leaky as a
result of this allergiccondition to gluten. And there's
something called celiac sprue,which is, which is the main the

(45:33):
medical condition for that. Youknow, that's a very serious
condition. Well, if it'suntreated, it absolutely can be
people lose weight, they becomeiron deficient, they become
anemic, and they can become comequite ill from that. The
treatment for it is to avoid theprecipitant, which is the
gluten. So they have to be on avery special diet to avoid what

(45:54):
triggers that. But yes, if theytake the gluten, it causes a
reaction of the small intestineto the gluten, inflammation,
leaky gut, and then they'relosing weight, they're becoming
anemic, and they don't feelwell, and so they they need
treatment for that. So yes,that's, so that's one example.
So it's, again, the leaky gut ismore a description of the
process, as opposed to, like adiagnosis. And so that's, that's

(46:19):
how I see it. As a GI physician.

Erin Brinker (46:25):
Now, do you have recommendations for people like
I know that there's a push tohave be, have a plant based
diet. There are some people outthere saying it should be.
People should eat a carnivorediet. And you know, Jordan
Peterson is, is famous forsaying that he eats steak, and
that's about it in his his wholefamily is like that from a from

(46:45):
a gastro and enter a logicalposition. I hope I said that
right. What? What do you thinkabout the type of diet that
people should and I'm not reallytalking about fast food, because
we all know that's that that'snot good. But you know, the
average person where what hasthe best results?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (47:00):
Yeah, I would my own recommendation when
I'm asked about is this balanceddiet and human beings over, you
know, 1000s, however long, manyyears, we've, we've, we've been
here, have adapted to having adiverse diet. And it's it
include, has included meat andplants and everything in

(47:21):
between. And that's what our GItract has has adapted to. If you
look at it at an animal, forexample, that's a plant eating
animal, they have a verydifferent structure to their GI
tract. They often have verylarge stomach. Their intestines
are much longer than what I justdescribed, the 20 feet and the
six feet and and that's becauseit takes longer to extract all

(47:44):
the nutrients out of plants. Sothe GI tract has to adapt. If
you look at more like acarnivore, like a lion or
something, their GI tract lookis more adapted to protein and
meat more than the othervegetable matter and humans,
we're kind of in between. We hitover, over many, many years,
we've developed a GI tractthat's used to just many

(48:06):
different things coming in. AndI think that has to do with
humans are very resourceful, andthey find what's in their
environment to be able to eatand sustain their nutrition. So
one day it might have been amammoth, you know, years ago,
and one day it might have beenberries and plants, and we kind
of adapt to that over the years.
Well, Flash forward to today.

(48:27):
You know what's what's the bestthing to do? Well, we do know
what can be harmful, and so wedo know that that diets that are
very high in meat, protein andfat do increase the risk for
colon cancer. Now, that's not tosay, you know, we should
completely avoid those because Idon't believe there's any

(48:49):
evidence that you know that ifyou avoid that, that's a that's
a cure completely will preventcolon cancer, because we see, we
see people with who are fullvegetarian, that that can get
that condition as well. Butthere are benefits to having a
moderate and less amount of fatand high protein meat in the

(49:10):
diet, as opposed to a balanceddiet that includes, you know,
plant material, vegetable based,you know, foods and so that's
really how I see it. It's morethe balance. Absolutely, there's
benefits to plant based diet.
It's it's healthier if youcompare it to the other diets of
just the high fat, high meatcontent diet, definitely
healthier to have the plantbased but, but I would say it's

(49:32):
not required. It's not somethingthat you you absolutely should
do. My daughter, it has a plantbased diet, and she says, Dad,
that's what I believe in, and Ifeel good, and I eat that, and I
think, you know, and she has alot of reasons for that, and
it's healthy, and I encourageher in that, but I don't have
that kind of diet. I have moreof a balanced diet, and that's
what works for me. And, youknow, and I try to keep that all

(49:55):
in balance. So, so that's,that's my thought about the
diet. And we. Can get into moredetail about specific elements.
It's important you know that youhave your vitamins and you have
your different nutrients thatyou need, if you know. So again,
the human body is developedaround diverse food sources,
different types of food sources,and that's what we're best

(50:15):
adapted to, and that's what ourdigestive tracts adapted to. So
I

Erin Brinker (50:21):
know that smoking is terrible for vascular health
and I and I have to imagine thatthat's that it has its same
negative impact on the colon asit does every other part of the
body. But what about alcohol?
Is,

Unknown (50:33):
Well, yes and yes, I would say yes and yes. So so
tobacco use is a risk factor formany cancers, and it's it's a
risk factor for colon so, so youdon't want to smoke. There's no
good reason. That's one thing.
We were talking about, diet,plant based and all that. But I
would say for tobacco smoke,cigarette smoking, please avoid

(50:54):
that. That is does no good foryour body. It increases many
risks of cancer, lung disease,heart disease, you name it. So
that's a big problem. That'ssomething to stay away from.
Alcohol is a risk factor forcolon cancer as well. And you
know, I can't really tell youthis, what is the safe amount,
but we do know that people whohave you know frequent alcohol

(51:15):
use, daily alcohol use, do havea higher risk for colon cancer,
and the alcohol does seem to bean independent risk factor for
colon cancer. And what I mean bythat is it's not like the
alcohol is causing obesity, andit's the obesity that causes
colon cancer. We see people whohave higher alcohol use, who
don't have any other riskfactor, obesity or anything

(51:39):
else, have a higher risk ofcolon cancer. So So both of
those are a risk factor. Avoidthe smoking, you know, alcohol.
There's many people whocompletely avoid that as well,
and that's and that's a goodthing, because it's not
something that you need to behealthy. If it is used, I would
say, definitely in moderation.

(52:01):
And you could talk with yourdoctor about what that means,
how many drinks, some of thatdepends on whether you're a man,
a woman, your age, your weight,things like that, but definitely
needs to be in moderation,because if it's more than that,
it can increase risk for coloncancer. You

Erin Brinker (52:17):
know, it used to be that when and people heard
the stories of, oh, you can havea glass of wine a night and it's
good for you. And there'selements or compounds in the red
wine, especially that are thatare healthy. And then now, more
recent studies seem to suggestthat any amount of alcohol can
have a negative impact oncertain organs in the body,
including the brain. And so, youknow, it's hard to know what's

(52:40):
good and what's not good.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (52:42):
Yeah, you're exactly right. There's
been a lot of rethinking ofthat. And I remember years ago
in medical school and beforethat, back in the 80s and 90s.
Well, look at the, you know, theFrench people, for example, they
drink a red glass of wine everynight. Look how healthy they
are. But there was more to that.
And I think now that we'relooking deeper into that
question. Just like you said,it's very difficult to define,

(53:03):
you know, what, if any, is thehealthy amount? So we say, you
know, moderation, but the bestmoderation is completely
avoided. It's not necessary tohave that, but we know a lot of
people enjoy that, so they wantto know, well, what is a healthy
amount, and I think there'sstill active debate about that.
So

Erin Brinker (53:24):
one of the other things that people are, shall we
say, enjoying now in, especiallyin states where it's legal, is
cannabis. And is there anythingabout cannabis consumption that
increases the risk factors forcolorectal cancer?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (53:41):
Cancer?
Yeah, it's a really goodquestion. And I haven't. I would
have to go back and look at thissome more, because I don't, I
don't, I don't have a study Ican quote to you, but I do. I
can let you know that I do seepatients who have gi problems
from cannabis, and specifically,it seems to affect the upper
part of the GI tract, more andspecifically severe nausea and

(54:02):
nausea vomiting. And so there'sa condition called cannabis
hyperemesis condition andhyperemesis disorder. Emesis is
vomiting medical

Erin Brinker (54:16):
morning sickness from your weed.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (54:19):
We're still at this dinnertime conversation,
but it's, it's vomitingsyndrome, and that's very
unpleasant. And I've hadpatients who, who I've seen, who
say, Doctor, I'm just, I'malways nauseated. I'm vomiting,
you know, I, you know, I justdon't feel good. And we in
nausea can come from manyplaces. It can come from, from

(54:40):
start in the brain. I mean,conditions in the in the head
can cause nausea. Conditions inthe body can cause that. So
there's a, there's a kind oflong evaluation for nausea, but
in younger people, that's one ofthe first questions I asked
were, are you using cannabis,and how much and And inevitably,
these folks with a lot ofvomiting and nausea. A It's a

(55:00):
daily thing, and they're usingit all the time, and they're
getting sick from it. So, soI've seen that a number of times
in my career and and it'sremarkable how, after they
abstain, their symptoms markedlyimproved. Wow, yeah.

Erin Brinker (55:16):
So nobody's talking about that. I had no
idea. Yeah,

Unknown (55:19):
yeah. So we're can. So, yeah, cannabis emesis, or
hyperemesis, is something thatwe do see.

Erin Brinker (55:27):
So we only have about a minute and a half left.
What are some, you know, partingcomments about colorectal cancer
screening? You know, shouldpeople call their doctors today
and get a get an appointmentscheduled to get to do some kind
of screenings, right?

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (55:42):
So it's your perfect question to close
out. And so like I said, we haveour colons, and we need to take
care of them. And so if you havenot been screened, meaning if
you're over the age of 45 andyou haven't done a stool sample
screening test in the last year,or you haven't done a
colonoscopy in the at least thelast 10 years, that was normal.

(56:04):
You need to be screened. And sothat would be something where,
you know, you check with yourdoctor and you and you go in and
have the screening. And I don'tknow that, I'd say, like, call
them all the day. I'd say, youknow, it's not, it's not
something you have to do thisminute. But I would say, you
know, the next time you see yourdoctor, you do need to do that.
And if you're not planning tosee your doctor here soon, it

(56:27):
would be worth a call to theiroffice and to say, you know, no
emergency or anything. But Iwould, I do want to be screened.
And they can give you youroptions, refer you for a
colonoscopy, get that set up asan appointment. They can send
you the stool sample test, andyou can take care of it, and
you're good, you get it, and ifit's fine, something, that's a
good thing as well, because thenyou know, then you know, and

(56:49):
you've caught it early. And I,and I just just saw a patient
just a few days ago who wediagnosed cancer, and he's in
his 40s, from a screening test,didn't expect it, and I told
them the, you know, the we thisisn't the news I wanted to give
you after your procedure, but Ican tell you the best thing you
ever did was turn in that test,and it came out positive and and

(57:10):
we've identified it, and we'regoing to take really good care
of you, and we're going to,you're going to do everything we
can to cure this now, but you Iknow that had you not done that
test and this was more advanced,that would be much more
difficult, so get screen,contact your doctor and and
let's do this, and let's, let'sstamp out this disease. Well,

Erin Brinker (57:31):
Dr Timothy Jenkins, thank you so much for
for spending time with us today.
This has been an absolutelyengaging conversation. It's
something that every singleperson, if you are alive, this
applies to you. And so thank youso much for joining us.

Dr. Timothy Jenkins (57:47):
Thank you so much, Erin, it's been an
honor, and I really love yourshow and appreciate you. Thank
you for all you do. Thank

Erin Brinker (57:53):
you. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm
Erin Brinker, this has been themaking hope happen radio show.
For more information about themaking hope happen Foundation,
go to www.makinghope.org That'swww.makinghope.org Have a great
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mouth watering cuisine, aninspiring student art auction
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