Preparing for a colonoscopy? An expert offers tips to help make things easier

Everyone knows that colonoscopy saves lives, but that doesn’t make drinking large amounts of liquid laxatives in preparation for the procedure any less daunting.

Luckily, one expert has some helpful tips on how to make the process easier.

The purpose of a colonoscopy is to examine the colon and rectum for abnormalities such as polyps, colon cancer or inflammation. To do this, you need to cleanse your colon, and the only way to do this is to use a variety of laxatives.

But Dr. Derek Ebner, a gastroenterology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, offers some tips to make bowel prep for a colonoscopy easier.

“The whole point of preparing for a colonoscopy is to make sure there’s nothing in your colon,” Ebner said.

However, “we often hear that colon prep can be challenging,” he added in a Mayo Clinic press release.

So when should you start bowel prep?

Review preparation guidelines a week or two before your colonoscopy; You may be asked to make small changes to your diet starting in the week before your procedure.

Often the day before colonoscopy “That’s when you start drinking the bowel prep solution, and that’s where people often have difficulty,” Ebner noted.

But there are ways to simplify the task.

“There are a few tricks. It is often helpful to cool the solution and drink it through a straw. Others like to have a small wedge of lime or lemon with them that they just take a bite of after drinking some of the solution,” Ebner said.

Chewing gum between sips of the solution may also help reduce bad taste and dry mouth. And if you take the solution over two days, as often happens, this can also help.

“Half the volume is done the day before the procedure, the other half on the day of the procedure. This helps make it more tolerable. And, essentially, we get better purification by doing this separation.” he noted.

Some people also experience abdominal cramps, bloating, or nausea while taking it. intestines preparation process.

“For those who have nausea, slowing down the rate of fluid intake can often be very helpful,” Ebner added.

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