{"id":154902,"date":"2025-09-23T07:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T07:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/154902\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T07:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T07:55:10","slug":"expert-reveals-five-pain-free-symptoms-of-bowel-cancer-as-cases-surge-in-young-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/154902\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert reveals five ‘pain free’ symptoms of bowel cancer – as cases surge in young people"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leading doctor has warned that thousands of adults could be mistaking little-known signs of the disease for common health issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The disturbing rise of colorectal cancer\u2014also known as colon or bowel cancer\u2014in under 50s has baffled doctors around the globe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The disease\u2014which also claimed the life of Dame Deborah James<\/a>\u00a0at the age of 40\u2014has surged by 50 per cent this age-group over the past three decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts have long warned that\u00a0changes in bowel movements such as consistent and new diarrhoea and blood in the stool, are tell-tale signs of the cancer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But other ‘subtle’ warning signs are ‘often overlooked’,\u00a0Dr Jack Ogden a GP at The Lagom Clinic in Bristol told the Daily Mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If spotted early, around nine in ten patients survive at least five years\u2014but once the cancer has spread, survival drops to just 10 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Dr Ogden has urged Britons to be vigilant for five specific ‘silent’ and pain free signs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Awareness of these silent signs can save lives. Paying attention to subtle changes and acting promptly is the best defence against colon cancer,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"'Subtle' <\/p>\n

‘Subtle’ warning signs of bowel cancer are ‘often overlooked’, Dr Jack Ogden (pictured), a GP at The Lagom Clinic in Bristol, told the Daily Mail\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

\"Dame <\/p>\n

Dame Deborah James, nicknamed the ‘bowel babe’ raised more than \u00a311.3mn for Cancer Research and is credited for increasing awareness of the disease, which killed her in 2022 aged 40<\/p>\n

The first, commonly overlooked sign is iron deficiency anemia, which can\u00a0present as ‘unexplained fatigue, pale skin or shortness of breath’, Dr Ogden said.<\/p>\n

Anemia is a condition when the body doesn’t have enough red blood cells to pump oxygen around the body.<\/p>\n

It can also cause symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations, headaches and dizziness.<\/p>\n

This is because tumours can bleed, causing iron loss and cause inflammation that produces a protein which interferes with iron absorption.<\/p>\n

Equally,\u00a0constipation, diarrhoea, or suddenly noticing narrower stools with no clear cause, is another key easy-to-dismiss subtle bowel cancer sign, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pencil-thin stools can be an indicator that a tumour is obstructing the colon causing it to squeeze stool into a thinner shape, Dr Ogden added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, losing weight without changing diet or exercising more is the third pain free sign, that may indicate the condition.<\/p>\n

Worryingly, he said it doesn’t have to be sudden\u2014it can also be subtle or gradual.<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Often this weight loss can be caused by increased metabolic demand, loss of appetite and tumours preventing the absorption of nutrients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bloating and abdominal discomfort, equally, is the fourth ‘subtle’ sign of the cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This may present itself as ‘persistent cramping’ or feel full quickly after eating, Dr Ogden said.<\/p>\n

The fifth sign, he warned, was blood in the stool\u2014which\u00a0isn’t always necessarily as obvious as it may seem.<\/p>\n

The blood can be dark or hidden and only detectable via stool tests, Dr Ogden said.<\/p>\n

If stools are dark red or black it can be a sign bleeding is taking place higher up in the bowel due to cancer.<\/p>\n

In contrast, bright red blood is most commonly caused by haemorrhoids, also known as piles.<\/p>\n

According to the NHS, anyone experiencing these symptoms for three weeks or more is advised to speak to their GP.<\/p>\n

\"James <\/p>\n

James Van Der Beek, who lives in Texas , revealed in November that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer in August 2023, aged just 46<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Bowel cancer symptoms can also be caused by other conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, but it’s important to get checked so the disease can be spotted as early as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the vast majority of bowel cancer diagnoses affect those aged over 50, rates\u00a0in older age-groups has either declined or held stable while diagnoses in younger adults have risen by 50 per cent over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

Cancer Research UK estimates that over half (54 per cent) of bowel cancer cases in the UK are preventable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doctors have suggested obesity, antibiotic over-use, mobile phone radiation and even invisible particles of plastic in drinking water are potential triggers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A recent global review found rates of colorectal cancer\u2014also known as bowel cancer \u2014in under-50s are climbing in 27 out of 50 countries.<\/p>\n

England has one of the steepest increases, with cases in younger adults rising by an average of 3.6 per cent a year, while in the US, the rate is going up by around two per cent annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leading doctor has warned that thousands of adults could be mistaking little-known signs of the disease for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-154902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}