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Preparing for a colonoscopy.

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Preparing for a colonoscopy

Worse than the colonoscopy itself? Probably. Here's how to make this unpleasant but essential task go more smoothly.

If you shudder at the thought of having a colon cancer*screening colonoscopy, chances are it's the "prep" that's stoking your apprehension. It's certainly a major inconvenience: getting ready for the procedure takes much longer * according to one study, 16.5 hours, on average * than the time you'll spend at a medical center the day of your colonoscopy (usually no more than three hours). But what's most off-putting is the purgative part * taking a powerful bowel-clearing substance and coping with the resulting diarrhea.

Why colonoscopy?

During a colonoscopy, a specially trained clinician (usually a gastroenterologist) examines the lining of the colon (large intestine) with a lighted scope (colonoscope) looking for cancerous lesions and polyps * growths on the inside surface of the colon that sometimes turn into cancer. There are other screening methods * fecal occult blood testing, flexible sigmoidoscopy, double-contrast barium enema, CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy), and a stool test for DNA shed by colorectal cancers * but traditional colonoscopy is preferred. It finds more polyps and lesions than the other methods, and polyps can be removed and biopsies taken immediately during the procedure. Colonoscopy also checks the entire colon. This is especially important for women, because they're more likely to have polyps or lesions deeper in the colon * in particular, in the ascending colon, the area at the furthest reach of the colonoscope. (Sigmoidoscopy, another procedure that uses a lighted scope, only examines the first third of the colon.)

Although no studies have proved it, there's...

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