hello, my name is ryan and i am currently living in rhode island. i send all my thoughts and prayers to all of those people who have suffered with cancer and other serious illnesses. my reasoning behind this post was firstly to thank all of you avid posters who have provided me with endless amounts of information on various health topics, this forum has helped me in many, many different ways. the second reasoning behind this post is to ask you all for help with a couple of questions that i have.

i am a 21 year old male, and have had trouble with my bowel movements ever since i was pretty young, due to a poor diet (yep, i lived off off of mcdonalds ... yuck). over the course of the last few years i have significantly improved my diet. wheat breads, veggi's, fruits, etc. and have also maintained a somewhat healthy exersize routine (i say somewhat because it's usually on and off due to an anxiety disorder), however, i am still having a hard time weening myself off of the processed foods, i cannot always afford to buy healthier meals since i'm going to college with no support other than my job.

i am looking for prevention for colon/rectal cancer. what is the main preventative? is it simply a healthy diet? or are there other things i can do to prevent this from happening to me? the reason why i am so worried is because i had been mal nourished a majority of my life and am pretty scared that it may have effected my body a lot.

thank you for taking the time to read my post, and i hope that it may help someone else in the future looking for prevention, if this is a repost i appologize in advance.

ryan