If you’ve ever suffered through a bout of severe vomiting, you also may have experienced the uncomfortable occurrence of regurgitating a bitter, greenish-yellow fluid. That fluid is bile, a substance produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder that aids in the digestion of fats. If you’re suffering from chronic heartburn or have been diagnosed with GERD that is … Read More

Clostridium difficile infection, also known as C. difficile or C. diff infection, is a condition marked by medical issues ranging from severe diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. It can be extremely difficult to treat, which is why the results of two studies about fecal transplants are so encouraging.

It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie: a drug-resistant superbug bacteria claiming the lives of patients who were infected while undergoing medical procedures at an established hospital. Unfortunately, this alarming news is all too real. News media recently reported that two patients have died and five others were infected after being exposed to CRE, a drug-resistant … Read More

You may have heard about Cologuard, a stool-based colorectal screening test that received FDA approval in 2014 and now is available by prescription. The noninvasive test detects DNA from abnormal cells and hemoglobin from red blood cells that may indicate the presence of certain kinds of growths that could be cancerous, such as colon cancer, or precursors to cancer. While colonoscopies … Read More

“Lose Weight!” “Feel Great!” There are more than 50,000 vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplement products on the market, and many of them make some fairly bold promises about bolstering health and improving your life. Do they really perform as advertised, or do they fall short? Worse yet, could some of the supplements actually be causing more harm than good?

We know that colonoscopies save lives. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, a study by the Yale Cancer Center found that widespread screening has resulted in an estimated 550,000 fewer cases of colorectal cancer over the past three decades. Given the effectiveness of colonoscopies in saving lives, is it ever possible for patients to have too much of a … Read More

There’s good news and bad news in America’s fight against obesity. The good news is over the past year obesity rates held steady in all but six states, while childhood obesity rates stabilized nationwide. The bad news is, the good news pretty much ends there. Even worse news for Tennessee, ours was one of the six states with an increased … Read More

Put down the greasy hamburger and put on your walking shoes. If I told you that losing weight by eating healthy and being more active could cut in half your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, would you listen? What if I told you that in America diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and non-traumatic amputation? Unfortunately, … Read More

Gastrointestinal Associates, along with Endocrinology Consultants of East Tennessee, is proud to be participating in a national clinical trial to explore the effectiveness and safety of an investigational treatment for type 2 diabetes that centers on the use of a thin, flexible tubular sleeve (liner) called the EndoBarrier. The trial, the ENDO Trial, will provide valuable information on the use … Read More

Are you sitting down? A recently published study suggests that too much sitting can increase your risk of developing colon cancer by a whopping 24 percent. Worse yet, the damage caused by long periods of sitting cannot be reversed by exercise. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was conducted by Daniela Schmid and Michael F. … Read More