Breaking Health Taboos: Colorectal Cancer Awareness & Prevention
A conversation with ELG
About this episode
In this empowering episode of the Healthy Projects Podcast, host Corey Dion Lewis is joined by public health advocate and podcast co-host ELG to shed light on a crucial health topic - colorectal cancer. Recorded during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, this discussion gets into personal experiences with colonoscopies, the significance of early screening, and overcoming healthcare barriers in the Black community. Together, they tackle the stigmas surrounding preventive health measures and share actionable advice for taking ownership of one's health journey. Whether you're considering a colonoscopy, seeking to understand the social determinants of health, or simply aiming to live a healthier life, this episode offers valuable insights and motivation to prioritize your well-being.
Chapter Markers
- Introduction to the Episode and Guests
- ELG's Experience with Colorectal Cancer Screening
- The Importance of Colonoscopy and Early Detection
- The Procedure Explained: What to Expect During a Colonoscopy
- The Significance of Finding and Removing Polyps
- Personal Motivations for Undergoing Screening
- Colorectal Cancer Statistics and Risks in the Black Community
- Addressing Healthcare Disparities and Encouraging Screening
- Combatting Stigmas and Misconceptions About Medical Procedures
- The Role of Community and Family in Promoting Health Awareness
- Strategies for Improving Access to Preventive Health Services
- The Power of Hope and Community Support in Health Outcomes
- Sharing Personal Stories to Break Stigmas and Encourage Action
- Closing Thoughts and Where to Connect with ELG
Sources & Further Reading
- ELG on LinkedIn
linkedin.com
Full Transcript
3,799 words · about 19 min to read
Hello everybody. Thank you for listening to the Healthy Projects podcast. I am your host, Corey Dion Lewis. I have with me today another one that's not a stranger to the Healthy Projects podcast, co -host of his own podcast, Healthy With An Attitude, public health advocate. I've been doing this thing for a long time. I got my man, ELG here. Eugene, thank you so much for being here, man. I appreciate you.
I really appreciate it. I love when we're able to get ourselves together and talk about just be able to push out awareness and messaging around what's important for our people and how we can help elevate our, just how we approach our healthcare and our healthcare journey, because each one of us, we're on a journey, whether it's whether you're a diabetic, whether you, you know. maybe a little bit younger, a little bit older. You are a part of the healthcare journeys. We want everyone to take it really seriously and we're here to support as much as possible.
Absolutely. And you know, when I reached out to you to get back on the podcast, it just so happened to be where we were going to schedule it during colorectal cancer awareness month. You were, I had my experience, you have your experience, you literally just had yours, what, last week? Monday, Monday, this week. So we're talking about, you know, colonoscopies. And you know, before we get into,
Yeah.
Monday. It's Thursday. It just happened a couple days ago.
Yes.
Let me know, you know the mentality going into it You know, I have my own but you know tell me how how was that? How was your experience?
Well, I'm going to start just from maybe just a tick back. I almost had to, I have to almost apologize to listening audience because for someone that just kind of pounds the desk when it comes to things around like, you know, making sure that you take ownership of your healthcare and healthcare situation, healthcare journey, I had not had a colonoscopy when I should have. It was probably a few years late. And I take complete ownership of that. I'm glad that you and I were able to connect and I was able to get an appointment quickly, get in there, had a perfectly fine experience. But my previous physician, who I've talked a lot about, whether it's with you or different conversations, I think really very highly of this physician. He has since retired, but before he retired, it was the colonoscopy, he kind of put on a bad burner. And it...
No.
Now that I know more about the process, the procedure, people that have been, black men in particular, that have been suffering from this disease and really at a younger age, I'm kind of kicking myself for that. Hey, listen, I actually really do need to do this thing. When I was working with him, we were doing fecal submissions. And so I would do that and submit it to LabCorp.
Hmm.
They would, you know, run the diagnostics, get back to myself and the physician, thumbs up, and that would be it. And that's just not enough. It's an easier way based on what I thought I knew. But it's really, it's not the most thorough way to make sure that you are absolutely and positively either free of any, you know, I'll say danger or. making sure that you're at least maintaining yourself as much as you possibly could. And I think that, you know, I'm grateful for you for even bringing this whole topic up. So it, because it did motivate me to do something about it. But my experience was, you know, the prep was the worst part. People say that and you're kind of like, it can't be. I'm sure the actual procedure has to be as uncomfortable as you would.
Yeah, I was here.
imagine and it actually is not. I would say that the prep was the toughest part in the laxative cocktail regimen as I would imagine. It starts about 24 hours prior to the actual procedure. It's uncomfortable. You spend most of those 24 hours in the bathroom just kind of clearing the runway. But
Yo.
you
After that, and once I was able to actually get into the physician's office in the exam room, she immediately made sure that I understood that this is going to take about 20 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes, the actual procedure. So if you'll be completely under, won't feel anything. And the part that I did not know was if she communicated to me, if we do find anything and at meeting polyps, we will remove them immediately. Like during this procedure while you were here. And I was kind of like,
you
I don't have to come back. We're going to knock right here and that'll be that. And she did find two small polyps. And after, yeah, she found two small polyps and she said, you know, nothing to worry about at all. They've been removed. You won't even know, you won't notice, you know, as far as the post procedure goes, but I'm really glad you came in and I said, yeah, thank you for getting me in so quickly.
Right? Yeah.
Oh wow.
So it was a couple of days of being uncomfortable prior to the procedure, but at this point, years of relief. So what I also did learn from her that I don't know that a lot of people know is that if they do find anything and they're able to remove it and we're good to go, there's no follow -up involved, you don't need another colonoscopy for another five years. They...
Right.
don't find anything, it's 10 years. So I'm on the clock for my five years at this point and I am completely fine with that.
Yeah, and you know what, and so what I'm so I'm just happy you you did it and and yes, you know, when I when I did mine, technically, I'm a few years out from having to do it. But I have a history of you know, my mom has all sort of colitis. And even it could have been you know, this, I'm sorry, y 'all, this might be a little gross, but
Hmm.
I had some bleeding in my stool, so I really wanted to like, yo, I really need to get this done. And I'm thankful for my provider because there was no pushback. As soon as I said, hey, I've experienced this and my mother has, I have a history of it. He was like, we'll schedule this, it was a diagnostic colonoscopy. And again, yes, the prep, yes, the prep, the prep be prepping.
guys.
Right? Like the, like there's just no way around it. There's no way that there's no way to, to soften, soften that to make it, no, it's not bad. No, it's not. It is, is what it is, but I don't want this to, I don't want that to be the reason why someone doesn't, especially when you hear the numbers. Like I, I was, um,
for an hour.
No.
It is. Yeah. Yeah.
looking it up and you know 20 percent I think it said African Americans are about 20 percent more likely to get colorectal cancer and are about 40 percent more likely to die from it. 40 percent.
Yeah. That's staggering.
You know what I mean? It is, and it kind of takes you aback, especially when, like you said, you get in there, if they see something, boom, they do it right there. You keep it moving. So, you know, my whole point of wanting to have this conversation with you is not only because it's colorectal cancer awareness month, but also like, people need to know, like, it's your fear of getting it is not.
You keep moving. Yep. Yeah.
It's not that deep.
It's unfounded. It's not unusual to fear this type of procedure. It's a bit invasive. I think the really great thing about it is, I mean, you have the best sleep of your life. So there's that. that for the fourth time as well. You won't ever have another sleep like this ever again. So that part's pretty amazing. But I think it's...
man.
it's so between that part of it and to like pivot to the black male part of it in particular, because out of that 40 % that die from CRC or colorectal cancer, most of those people at a very, very high number, they're black men. And that usually happens because of the usual circumstantial suspects, lack of healthcare.
Mm -hmm.
poor food options or choices. So there's a litany of social and economic factors. But I think some of it is because, and you kind of talked about this a little bit, up until 2018, if you did not have a family history, then physicians did not push you to get a colonoscopy. It was kind of like, you'll be fine until whatever age, 50 or 55, or whatever that thing might be. And we lost a lot of good men because of that also. I mean, that was a -
Uh -uh.
Yeah.
That's a lot of time and it's an aggressive disease. So when it starts to do its thing, it's really difficult to reverse it without surgery that will basically change the quality of your life anyway. So I think there's a lot of factors that really go into it. I think the other thing that, you know, we would be, we would be, it would be a fail if we did not mention. Well, is that similar to prostate cancer? You know, black men have this thing where if it is suggested that a procedure will like, uh, challenge our manhood slash sexuality, then we don't want to do it. If there's anything going, going on back there that we feel like, ah, man, you know, that's, that's not what real men, you know, are into. Um, we, we shy away from it a lot more than other groups would. And that is just the most archaic and caveman like.
Oh my gosh, yeah.
Mm -hmm.
thinking, you know, in the history of the world. So I hope that a lot more men, as we talk about it as black men with other black men, we've done with other conditions and other situations with that, you know, black men need a bit of a nudge to get out there and more ownership of it. I hope this has the same effect because it is very important. It is an aggressive disease and it is killing black men. I mean,
Right.
Even if we just pull every pull out of black men and black people, I mean, it's the number one, number two, top two leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. I mean, that is huge. That is a big, big number. And just that alone, you know, should have was be a bit more motivated to go ahead and get this procedure.
Yeah.
Yes, look, I'm just going to say there's nothing gay about trying to save your life. First of all, there's nothing wrong being gay to begin with. Let me just put that out there. Right. But like the time, so many times I've heard grown men would say something stupid like that when this is killing us at dramatic, at a dramatic pace is
There's nothing good about saving your life. And that's perfectly fine as well, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's crazy, like come on, like we gotta be better than this. You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah. And I think absolutely. And I think the more of us that take that type of ownership of our health care journey, as well as communicate out in the way that we're doing, it will motivate others that look like us to do the same. And I know that, you know, is the little bit that I have been able to pollinate over the past year or two with the videos and just the conversations with friends and family, you know, it has helped. But, you know, Black people are very Community based it's it's we're a tight tight crew that the your neighborhood is separate from that neighbor and all those things are completely fine There's nothing really there's nothing wrong with that at all. It is, you know a bit of a tribal approach completely fine with that so that's why it's extra important that you know, the The men in those communities, you know takes charge and takes ownership of the entire
Mm -hmm.
healthcare situation of the community because those people are that influential within those communities and can make some real change. We talked about a prostate cancer, but then we can talk more about things like HIV, kidney disease, things that affect both men and women and black men and black women at a higher rate. And then the halo effect of something like that is more women getting mammograms and those things. So, I mean, if you hadn't heard by now,
Right.
cancer be out here just killing people. And it is vicious. So the more we can support each other on getting in front of it, the more likely we'll have a better quality life, put a few years on our overall life expectancy, which is important when you're Black, and then be able to push that forward to your children and other people in your community.
Yeah.
Right. You talked about something earlier. You said something earlier about, I'm paraphrasing, because I don't remember exactly what you said, but it was really, really talking about how the social determinants of somebody's self really plays a part in the care that they receive or the lack of care that they receive. Right? In your opinion, how do we...
Yeah.
Yeah.
What can we do to kind of soften some of that to where we can make this easier for people who maybe don't have the transportation, who are uninsured or underinsured. Maybe they want to take care and have some of these preventative services, but they don't know how to go about doing it. I'm sure if we had the answers to all this, we would be on a...
Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
on my own island sipping a margarita. But, like, you know, what are some things we can do as a community to, you know, to kind of help with some of these issues?
I think, especially as it pertains to things like colorectal cancer, diabetes, things where you can do a lot under your own roof to maybe not keep it away, keep those things away forever, but absolutely delay and almost kind of milk the shot clock until you're able to get the proper level of care. that you need for just in general, just for your well -being in general. So for example, I mean, it's difficult to find healthy options when, you know, those options are sometimes more expensive, but as often as you can, you know, less red meat, you know, more veggies, more fiber, things along those lines become more active. That's also a really, really big part of it. we are, as far as the American public, obesity is an issue. Within the Black community, it's a major issue. And nothing good happens next, including things like heart disease and an array of cancers and other types of really kind of terminal type of conditions. So those are some of the things that we can do immediately. The other thing is that, and I've talked about this a lot, making sure that the person that either you live with, you live next door to, whoever's in your community, make sure that they understand that someone actually does care about them. Because, and I've heard many times, I think it's again, another archaic concept, but when I hear people say hope is not a strategy, I literally cringe. Because when you say that, you've never been hopeless. That people that say that believe that that's the thing.
Mm -mm. Nah.
You've never, you know, uh, woken up in the morning and felt like I have no idea how I'm going to make it to tomorrow. Like literally, and I don't even know if it's worth it. Um, when you don't, when you have, when you have that level of hopelessness, hope is a strategy, but a lot of times you need somebody to pull you along and kind of, um, you know, inspire a little bit of inspiration. a little bit of determination, a little bit of, you know, let me show you the way. Let me almost kind of demonstrate some behaviors that I think will help all of us as a community become a lot more healthy, both mentally and physically. So I think those are some of the ways, because it's going to be, it's really tough. Like you said, if we had a magic answer and a silver bullet to that, we would be, you know, we would be on a different podcast and they will be throwing tons of dollars at us.
Mm -hmm.
It's difficult to say, get a better job, make more money, move out of that neighborhood and go to a zip code where, you know, people are, there's a lot more access. It's difficult to just snap your fingers and make those things happen. Get better insurance. Like, that's easy for a lot of people to say, but very difficult for most to actually make happen. But as much as we can do individually,
Right.
and then in small groups and within our communities, within our neighborhoods, to make sure that we're understanding that, you know, you are an important part of our extended family. And I'd like for you to hang around a little while. I think those things help a lot as well.
Yeah, I also, you know, there was something to just telling your story too. Like ever since I've had my colonoscopy, anybody, and I don't say it like in a weird way, like we can't, I'm not gonna be talking about basketball and being like, so you know I got my colonoscopy last week. But I think there's something to.
Yeah.
making sure, letting people know, like, hey, have you had one? You know, and just having that conversation. I'm like, I had a homeboy mind text me and say, hey, man, thank you so much for even just letting me know about, you know, the prep and how you're feeling and what's going on, because that's really encouraging me to when it's time to get mine. And it's just little things like that that we can do to just...
Yeah.
break the stigma around taking care of your of your body.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think communicating as much as you're comfortable communicating about your own healthcare story and journey, I think is really very important. Sharing others as much as they will allow, I think is very important. Because people, the storytelling, I'll often say, especially in my line of work, just don't tell the story, be the story. Because when you're able to actually be the story,
Mm.
And as you're communicating a story, that emotional connection will have people take action. Like you don't, when someone makes an emotional impact on your life, they could talk to you for three minutes in the elevator about nothing, or for 30 minutes in a podcast about CRC. They don't forget that information. They take it with them. They may share it with others, but it's on their mind. And the next time they see their physician, now it's like, Hey yo, I'm at a certain age and you know I'm black. Like.
Right. Right.
why have you never recommended a colonoscopy at this point? I'm trying to take ownership and if you're not going board, I might need to find another physician. The impact of being the story that you're communicating to someone and allowing that emotional nugget to just sink into their soul is really very impactful and people don't forget that. They do take it with them and it winds up being more important to them than we realize.
Yo, that's real. Hey, with that, I'm gonna stop it here. I know I took way too much of our time before we started the conversation. I know you guys can't get home. But ELG, thank you so much. For those that are listening and they wanna learn more about you, connect with you, kind of see what you're doing out here with your storytelling and the things that you're doing on social media, where can they connect with you?
Yeah. Yeah. I think the easiest way is on LinkedIn. Um, Eugene L green is absolutely easiest way. This is March, colorectal awareness month. Um, but April is a national minority, uh, health month and we're, we're putting together a nice short film to show people exactly, um, what it means when a family unit, um, cares about each other and they're able to, um, not only, I guess, do something about her from a, you know, from a tangible perspective, but the emotional connection that, um, motivates others to do something about their health because I want to remain healthy for Corey. So I am going to get a colonoscopy and I'm going to, you know what, that plate of salty chips that I cannot resist. You know, not tonight. I'm good on that. Or whatever the, you know, just kind of altering the behaviors a little bit because, you know, this guy is that important to me and not only do I want to be around.
No.
for him, but I also want to show that if we take care of each other, if we demonstrate healthy habits, then, you know, our quality of life goes way up and we just generally feel better and live happier. So, I'm excited about that short film, excited about everything that we're talking about today, we're going to talk about in the future. And yeah, I just want everybody to take care of each other and live better together. Yeah, man.
Awesome. Well, hey, Matt, brother, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for coming back on the platform and everybody. Thank you for listening to the Healthy Project podcast. I'll holler at you next time.
All right, thanks.
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