Bloody stools are not only hemorrhoids, but also hidden bowel cancer! How to distinguish hemorrhoids from bowel cancer?
Hemorrhoids are the most common perianal diseases in life. In the past, middle-aged and elderly people were mostly affected.
In recent years, with the changes in the nature of young people's work, sedentary, diet and other influences, hemorrhoids are becoming younger and younger, and the number of patients is increasing.
Therefore, there is a saying that "nine out of ten people have hemorrhoids", and one of the most common symptoms of hemorrhoids is "blood in the stool".
Therefore, when many people find blood in the stool, they will immediately think that they have hemorrhoids. But in fact, blood in stool is not just a factor of hemorrhoids, there may be another big devil hidden behind it: colorectal cancer!
Colorectal cancer actually includes the canceration of the colon and rectum. Since the perianal area is connected to the intestinal tract, the symptoms of hemorrhoids and bowel cancer also have certain similarities. For example, blood in the stool is one of them.
Clinically, many bowel cancer patients have already had symptoms of blood in the stool, but they just think that they are common hemorrhoids, thus ignoring the examination!
Therefore, it is necessary to understand the difference between hemorrhoids and bowel cancer in normal times!
- Hemorrhoids
From a scientific point of view, hemorrhoids are divided into two types: internal hemorrhoids and external hemorrhoids. Blood in the stool and secretions are typical manifestations of hemorrhoids.
Generally, the blood in the stool caused by hemorrhoids is bright red, mainly in the form of dripping blood and jet blood, and most of them appear after the stool, and the stool is not mixed with the blood.
At the same time, hemorrhoids with blood in the stool are also cyclical, appearing for a few days may stop, and then recur again;
In addition to the symptoms of blood in the stool, hemorrhoids can also form incarceration in the anus, especially internal hemorrhoids are more likely to have similar manifestations. Patients often have anal tearing pain during defecation, which can radiate around.
When hemorrhoids develop to a certain extent, due to the continuous growth of hemorrhoids, they may drop with the feces during defecation and protrude out of the anus.
- Symptoms of bowel cancer
Blood in the stool cannot be said to be an early symptom of bowel cancer, and it usually occurs in the advanced stage of bowel cancer. The closer the bowel cancer is to the anus, the more prone to symptoms of blood in the stool.
Generally, the color of blood is dark red or purple red. Only low rectal cancer is more likely to have bloody stools. Early colorectal cancer has less blood in the stool and is usually mixed in the stool.
With the continuous development of intestinal cancer, patients in the later stage may have pus and blood in the stool, mucus-like blood in the stool, which is obviously different from hemorrhoids;
At the same time, after the appearance of blood in the stool, colorectal cancer is often accompanied by other abnormal stools, such as changes in the frequency of defecation. In the past, it used to be 1-2 times a day, but now it has increased to multiple times a day, or it has decreased to one day. Have a few bowel movements. Some patients also have symptoms such as unclean stool and tenesmus;
In addition, when the cancerous tumor forms an abnormal space-occupying in the intestinal lumen, when the stool passes, the cancerous tumor will squeeze it, resulting in a change in the shape of the stool.
For example, during defecation recently, sunken marks, thin or flat stools suddenly appeared on one side of the stool, etc., which may be the result of cancer extrusion.
If the stool is too dry, it is easy to cause the surface of the cancer to rupture when passing, resulting in symptoms of blood stains on one side of the stool.
Therefore, although bowel cancer and hemorrhoids both have symptoms of blood in the stool, there are still certain differences between the two in essence. During the stool process, if you find blood in the stool, as well as changes in the frequency and shape of the stool, you should increase your vigilance against bowel cancer and actively perform colonoscopy screening to detect problems early.