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Southington man gets first colonoscopy at 37 years old after a routine exam lead to a health scare.

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Screening saves lives: Routine exam leads to colonoscopy

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Startling statistic when it comes to colon cancer. And younger adults, younger people are being diagnosed more commonly with colon cancer. We've actually seen the rate since the mid nineties increasing by about 1% a year. Harvard health care gastroenterologist, Dr Adam Schoenfeld says preventative screening is key, the gold standard a colonoscopy that has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of colon cancer. And the way that it does, this is actually by finding these pre cancerous spots called polyps that we could remove during the procedure. Ryan Spyros was 37. So it rattled me when he had his first colonoscopy. Due to a health concern, the doctors removed two polyps and they told me after that if those had stayed in there until I was the age of 50 which was the recommended age at that time to get screening, they would have most likely turned to cancer before then. This husband and father of two sharing his story, the recommended age to start getting colonoscopies recently lowered from 50 to 45. Those with a family history may need to start even earlier. This procedure can literally save your life. And so no one should be delaying it at all. Now, 40 Brian takes us along for second colonoscopy at the Hartford Health Care Digestive Health Center in Bloomfield. The prep the day before is pretty simple. My doctor having me get a few over the counter items including some laxative tablets, some laxative powder and I'm gonna mix this with some Gatorade and then we're gonna start chugging the next morning. Dr Soof inspecting every curve and fold in the colon. No pain. No, nothing was in there for about 25 minutes. And they did remove two small pops. These are not pre cancerous though. We do remove them anyway. I'm doing what I need to do to stay healthy for myself and for my family to schedule your colonoscopy. Visit Hartford healthcare dot org slash, get checked.

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