Colon cancer is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in the United States. While traditionally a disease of older adults, we are sadly seeing an increase in colon cancer incidence and mortality in young people. Screening for colon polyps with regular colonoscopies is an important way to access your risk of developing colorectal cancer. But what are colon polyps, why do we develop them, and how can we prevent them from forming in the first place?

In this House Call episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to preventing and treating colon polyps. They dive into the importance of eating an anti-inflammatory diet and optimizing gut health to create a terrain in the body where cancer is less likely to grow.

Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing, she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the Functional Medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.

In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss:

• What are colon polyps and are they all dangerous?
• How a high fiber diet can lower risk of colorectal cancer and other factors that increase risk of polyp production
• How insulin resistance and diabetes can drive cancer development
• Does eating meat increase risk of colorectal cancer? Is there a difference between processed and grass-fed meat?
• The importance of good gut health and healthy bowel movements in preventing polyp production and colorectal cancer
• Screening for colon cancer and polyps
• Making your body inhospitable to cancer
• Patients Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham have treated to reduce risk of colon polyp production

We hope you enjoy this conversation!