If you feel ill with fever, flu-like symptoms or respiratory illness, please call us to reschedule your appointment. Please Do Not Bring Children Under age 16 to Appointments.

Who Should Be Screened For Liver Cancer?

By Christopher S. Cutler, M.D.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 40,000 Americans will be diagnosed with liver cancer this year, and 28,000 will die from this disease. But routine screening of the general population is not recommended. So who should be screened?

The following people should be screened for liver cancer:
All people with cirrhosis (severe scarring of the liver) from any cause should be screened.

The following people with chronic hepatitis B should be screened:

  • Asian males > 40 years of age
  • Asian females > 50 years of age
  • People with a family history of liver cancer
  • African Americans
  • Caucasians with a high viral load and active inflammation for several years (start screening men > 40 years of age and women > 50 years of age)

How should patients be screened?
Screening should be done with an ultrasound every 6 months. Some experts also recommend checking a blood test called an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) every 6 months. Adding an AFP to an ultrasound increases detection rates, but it also increases costs and false positive rates.

What should be done if a nodule is seen on ultrasound?
If the nodule is < 1 cm, an ultrasound should be done every 3 months until the nodule is proven to be stable or disappears (up to 24 months).

If the nodule is > 1 cm, a CT scan or MRI should be obtained, with a possible biopsy thereafter.

Learn more about liver diseases and diagnosis.

To request an appointment with one of our gastroenterologists, please click here.

Is it a Food Allergy vs. Food Intolerance? What’s the Difference?

While food allergies and food intolerances are both caused by reactions to certain foods, they are not the same. Before eliminating any foods from your diet, it is important to see your doctor if you think you have a food allergy or intolerance. By working with a health-care team, you can make sure that you’re getting the care you need.

If you believe you have a food allergy or intolerance, keep a diary of all the food you eat to find what might cause reactions and what exactly those reactions are. The strength and type of your reaction can help you find out whether you are having an allergic reaction to a food or a food intolerance.

Food allergy vs. food intolerance chart Granite Peaks GIFOOD ALLERGY
A food allergy occurs when you feel an urgent, severe reaction after you eat a certain food or food group. A sudden allergic reaction to food can take place within a few minutes to an hour after you eat a certain food.

Common reactions of a food allergy are:
–Itching in the mouth (often at the start of the reaction)
–Throwing up
–Diarrhea (loose stool)
–Belly pain
–Drop in blood pressure
–Problems breathing
–Wheezing due to asthma
–Skin reactions, such as hives or eczema (an itchy rash)

Doctors can do skin and blood tests to find allergies. A food allergy indicates an allergic reaction to a protein in certain food groups.

The big eight food groups that cause the most food allergies in North America are:
–Milk
–Soy
–Eggs
–Wheat
–Peanuts
–Tree nuts
–Fish
–Shellfish

Food allergies are best treated by avoiding foods that cause a reaction.

Those with certain food allergies, such as peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish, as well as other foods linked to sudden and severe reactions where the throat could close, should be under the care of an allergy doctor and carry an injectable epinephrine syringe (EpiPen), which treats severe allergic reactions.

FOOD INTOLERANCE
Food intolerances are fairly common and are harder to figure out.

Reactions from a food intolerance may involve:
–Upset belly
–Diarrhea (loose stool)
–Belly pain

A food intolerance or sensitivity indicates a reaction to sugar in certain food groups.

Common foods to which people have food intolerances are:
–Wheat and other grains that have gluten (gluten intolerance)
–Cow’s milk and dairy products (lactose intolerance)
–Corn products
–Sugar found in fruits and honey (fructose intolerance)
–Wheat starch and starches in other grains (starch intolerance)

Before omitting foods from your diet, it is vital to work with your medical provider if you think you have a food allergy or intolerance. Click here to request an appointment at Granite Peaks Gastroenterology.

 Source: American Gastroenterological Society (AGA)

 

 

Mindful Eating

We all live hectic lives.  The pace of modern life, with all of its technical distractions, can sometimes take away from the joy of eating.  We gulp down our food while watching TV, texting, or tweeting, and don’t really take the time to eat our meals with mindfulness and savor our food.  Thich Nhat Hanh, a well-known Vietnamese Buddhist, teaches there is nothing more precious than the present moment, so even eating becomes an activity worthy of our undivided attention.  Eating with mindfulness will allow us to avoid ingesting all the stress of a distracted mind.  The calmness and presence gained from eating mindfully will bring each of us greater health and happiness and allow us to enjoy life more fully.

Below is an excerpt from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Savor:  Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

Take an apple out of your refrigerator.  Any apple will do.  Wash it.  Dry it.  Before taking a bite, pause for a moment.  Look at the apple in your palm and ask yourself:  When I eat an apple, am I really enjoying eating it?  Or, am I so pre-occupied with other thoughts that I miss the delights that the apple offers me?

If you are like most of us, you answer “yes” to the second question much more often than the first.  For most of our lives, we have eaten apple after apple without giving it a second thought.  Yet in this mindless way of eating, we have denied ourselves the many delights present in the simple act of eating an apple.  Why do that, especially when it is so easy to truly enjoy the apple?

The first thing is to give your undivided attention to eating the apple.  When you eat the apple, just concentrate on eating the apple.  Don’t think of anything else.  And most important, be still.  Don’t eat the apple while you are driving.  Don’t eat it while you are walking.  Don’t eat it while you are reading.  Just be still.  Being focused and slowing down will allow you to truly savor all the qualities the apple offers:  its sweetness, aroma, freshness, juiciness, and crispness.

Next, pick up the apple from the palm of your hand and take a moment to look at it again.  Breathe in awareness a few times to help you focus and become more in touch with how you feel about the apple.  Most of the time, we barely look at the apple we are eating.  We grab it, take a bite, chew it quickly and then swallow.  This time, take note:  What kind of apple is it?  What color is it?  How does it feel in your hand?  What does it smell like?  Going through these thoughts, you will begin to realize the apple is not simply a quick snack to quiet a grumbling stomach.  It is something more complex, something part of a greater whole.

Then, give the apple a smile and slowly,mindfully take a bite, and chew it.  Be aware of your in-breath and out-breath a few times to help you concentrate solely on eating the apple:  what it feels like in your mouth, what it tastes like, what it’s like to chew and swallow it.  There is nothing else filling your mind as you chew – no projects, no deadlines, no worries, no “to do” list, no fears, no sorrow, no anger, no past, and no future.  There is just the apple.

When you chew, know what you are chewing.  Chew slowly and completely.  Chew consciously, savoring the taste of the apple and its nourishment, immersing yourself in the process one hundred percent.  This way, you really appreciate the apple as it is.  Ans as you become fully aware of eating the apple, you also become fully aware of the present moment.  You become fully engaged in the here and now.  Living in the moment, you can really experience what the apple offers you, and you become more alive.

www.savorthebook.com

The physicians at Granite Peaks Gastroenterology are dedicated to helping you achieve your best health possible.  Each of us would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you to discuss mindful eating and other ways to support your optimal well-being.

 

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