Ms. Butt Meddler, the singing and dancing gastroenterologist, tells African Americans to Start at 45.

African Americans have a high rate of new colorectal cancers and they are diagnosed earlier in life. And their death rate is higher than the rest of the US population. The American College of Gastroenterology guidelines call for them to be screened beginning when they are 45.

Patricia Raymond MD, AKA Ms. Butt Meddler, sings and dances and recommends that blacks start screening at 45, rather than 50.

Dr. Raymond is a board-certified gastroenterologist who “. . .takes medicine seriously and herself lightly.”  She tells people who are afraid of colonoscopy to Laugh Their Fears Away at Colonjoke.net.

And if you haven’t watched and laughed at Ms Butt Meddler’s Looking Up My Back Door, enjoy!

Before 1980, colorectal cancer death rates were actually higher for whites than African Americans.

But, as rates began falling in the 1980′s for both blacks and white patients, decreases for whites were substantially greater than those for blacks.  Between 1985 and 2008, mortality rates for whites with colorectal cancer fell 40 percent, while black rates declined by less than 20 percent.

The decrease in black death rates was higher than those for whites at every stage at diagnosis, but strikingly different when cancer had spread to distant sites.   For whites whose colon or rectal cancer was first found at stage IV, death rates fell by more than 30 percent, while black rates declined by less than 5 percent.

Over time, five year survival after regional and distant diagnoses grew for white patients but remained essentially unchanged for blacks. Read the rest of this entry »