While there are many screening tests designed to catch colon cancer in the early stages, there is a simple test that everybody can do to check for symptoms of the disease, a colorectal surgeon said yesterday.
Wang Hwei-ming (王輝明), deputy director of China Medical University Hospital’s surgery department, advised people to observe their stool, which he said could tell them a lot about their intestinal health.
“There are seven things to look for: color, shape, odor, volume, the amount of time spent passing stool, how much toilet paper is used and whether the feces float or sink,” said Wang, who is also the director-general of the Taiwan Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
Ideally, feces should be golden yellow in color, shaped like a banana, odor-free with just a hint of sour smell, two to three pieces in volume, half-floating, passed within three minutes and wiped clean using less than two sheets of toilet paper, he said.
Failing to meet all seven conditions does not necessarily mean a person has colon problems, but it could indicate a dire need for a healthier, high-fiber diet to ward off colon cancer, he said.
“People with the four following types of stool should be especially vigilant for colon cancer symptoms: soft and paste-like stool, suggesting a meat-centered Western-style diet; hard excrement, indicating insufficient water consumption; mud-like feces, which are signs of a cold constitution and engorgement; and round-shaped stool, which is common to individuals who are overly stressed and lead an irregular life,” Wang said.
Wang said colon cancer has topped the list of the 10 most common cancers in Taiwan for six consecutive years, with one person affected by the disease every 37.3 minutes.
“Adopting a high-fiber diet and eating probiotics regularly are not only conducive to maintaining healthy bowel movement, but also allow good gut bacteria to help a person avoid many health problems,” he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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