NBC’s Chloe Melas Shares 1st Symptoms of Bowel Disease She Almost Ignored

In her early 20s, NBC’s Chloe Melas was trying to make her way in New York City as a busy young journalist. But she was plagued with digestive issues.“I started noticing that I needed to go to the bathroom a lot. And when I say a lot, (I mean) sometimes 15 to 20 times a day,” Melas, an entertainment correspondent, recalled during a Nov. 9 segment on the TODAY Show. Sometimes, Melas says, she would also find some blood in her stool. “And at first, I ignored it,” she added. It wasn’t until her mom urged her to see a gastroenterologist that she started to take her symptoms more seriously.After a colonoscopy, Melas was diagnosed in 2012 with ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Her new book, “The Girl’s Guide to Guts: Everything Your Doc Didn’t Tell You (But Your Bestie Would),” chronicles her experience with IBD and offers tips to navigate life with a digestive condition.What Is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?Melas was first diagnosed with proctitis, a condition involving inflammation of the rectum. Her doctor prescribed medication, she told TODAY.com previously, but she began feeling backed up and unable to defecate. And she was still seeing blood in her stool. After two years of these symptoms, her doctor ordered a colonoscopy, which revealed an underlying disease: ulcerative colitis, a condition that causes inflammation and sores in the colon, according to the Mayo Clinic.Ulcerative colitis is one of the two most common forms of IBD, the other being Crohn’s disease, Dr. Natalie Azar, NBC medical contributor, said on the TODAY Show. These conditions are auto-inflammatory diseases, she explained, meaning they arise when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells.IBD is distinct from another similar-sounding issue, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is instead thought to be caused by a problem with the body’s gut-brain connection, Azar added.People with IBD may also have symptoms that show up in the eyes, joints and skin, Azar noted, and they’re at a higher risk for colon cancer.Digestive Symptoms to Never IgnorePart of why Melas is so open about her IBD experience is because she knows other people, particularly women, may not get the care they need without this type of knowledge. Some symptoms of IBD and IBS can also be signs of issues including diverticulitis (an inflammation of the walls of the large intestine) and even colon cancer, Azar noted.“So many women that I have talked to over the years, they might have had some blood in the stool be dismissed by a doctor as a hemorrhoid, and it turns out to be colon cancer. And these are women in their 30s,” Melas said.“That’s why we wanted to put all this information in one (book),” she explained, “so that people feel less alone and laugh a little, but also get the information that they need.” Azar said it’s important not to ignore symptoms such as:Blood in the stoolUrgency to go to the bathroomAnemiaLow-grade feverUnintentional weight lossIt may be uncomfortable to talk about bathroom issues like these, but, “If you have those things, please go to a doctor,” Melas said. “Do not ignore them.”