Prednisolone & Red Bull

Ok this really has nothing to do with ostomies, but something's been on my mind lately and just wanted to ask if anybody knew anything about it.

I was taking steroids (Prednisolone) for about a month and half or maybe 2 months, I forget, before getting surgery. I think I started at either 40 mg or 30 mg and started tapering down from there. During this time, I was so worried about gaining weight so I worked out a bunch and even drank a can or two of Red Bull daily. It gave me a lot of energy.

I'm just wondering if it has any correlation to me getting cancer (right by the rectum). I had a colonoscopy done in March 2012, and at that time, I did not have any cancer cells, but then when my GI did a colonoscopy in September 2012, he found a cancerous polyp. I had the steroid treatment from May 2012 to June 2012.

Just wondering whether the steroids and the Red Bull had anything to do with it....?

I also posted the same post in the Ostomies forum to see if anybody has any feedback over there.

Wish you the best with your recovery penny471! That redbull is some dangerous stuff in general but I dont think you should worry about placing blame, get yourself better thats the main priority.

Thanks for the feedback. The cancer was rectal cancer. Last September, they told me it was about 2.5 cm in size. I had my surgery done last November, and just a few weeks ago, the surgeon tells me that the cancer was 5 cm wide but a very shallow one.

My mother was shown the actual colon that was taken out while I was in surgery, and she said that it didn't look that big.

Yeah, I read that Red Bull is really not all that good and that it's banned in places like France, Norway, and Finland. I loved that stuff, though.

I suppose my cancer came from all that bleeding that wasn't stopped.
My surgeon says he's still not sure whether that cancer came from the UC or not. I was just wondering whether the steroid plus the Red Bull increased my blood flow even more speeding up cancer cell growth.

Obviously overdoing it on caffeine/sugar isn't healthy. And I know there's controversy, but I'd be willing to bet the sugar-free ones are probably worse. And i think we can all agree prednisone is an often necessary evil. However, I agree with everyone else, that it'd be hard to place the blame on any one thing or another. And like soldieroftafari said, I think you're better off focusing on getting better. I definitely wish you the best, friend. :)