#Liquid diet before colonoscopy professional

(Fair warning: Pill formulations can require taking around 30 tablets between the evening before and day of your colonoscopy.But the death rate has been falling for several decades, in part because of screening by colonoscopy, which can find colorectal polyps and remove then before they have a chance to progress to cancer. If this sounds like an overwhelming amount of liquid to drink, ask your doctor if you can use one of the prep solutions that comes in a smaller volume or in pill form, but is similarly effective. Your doctor may also want you to take a laxative pill to help make sure you’re totally cleaned out, the ACG says. In general, you drink half the solution the afternoon or evening before you go in for your colonoscopy and the other half around five hours beforehand. The afternoon or evening before the colonoscopy, your doctor will likely have you drink a gallon of polyethylene glycol (PEG, a liquid that will cause diarrhea), according to the ACG.

Learning all you can about what it entails and the available options can help you avoid some of the unpleasantness. Here’s a simultaneously reassuring yet unfair fact: “The procedure itself is easy compared to the prep,” Ashkan Farhadi, M.D., a gastroenterologist at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center and director of MemorialCare Medical Group’s Digestive Disease Project in Fountain Valley, California, tells SELF.

#Liquid diet before colonoscopy professional

“It has great capacity to hold or store stool inside your body until it is more convenient for you to eliminate.” Enter prep, which causes some pretty intense diarrhea so a medical professional can spelunk inside your colon as easily as possible. “The colon is long and stretchy,” Christine Lee, M.D., a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic, tells SELF. Prep is essentially a laxative that helps clean out your colon so your doctor can see everything in there. Learn all about your options for the colonoscopy “prep,” a solution that will probably make you poop more than you ever thought possible. (A low-fiber diet is really only necessary when your doctor recommends it for a medical reason like a colonoscopy-otherwise, getting enough fiber is essential for making sure you're pooping regularly.)ģ. Limiting fiber may make it easier for your body to expel all the, well, crap in your colon, Rudolph Bedford, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, tells SELF. But since your body can’t digest it, it could be harder to fully clear things out. You might think loading up on fiber pre-colonoscopy would be your best bet, so you poop as easily as possible. It’s in things like beans, whole grains, and the skins of many fruits and vegetables. Fiber is a nutrient your body can’t digest and that helps soften your poop, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Your colon has to be totally empty for your doctor to examine it thoroughly (more on exactly how that happens later). Eat a low-fiber diet a few days before your procedure so you can poop out every last bit of food.