Gastroenterologist

The average American man is 5 feet 9 inches tall. The average American woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall. It might surprise you to learn, therefore, that the typical human digestive tract — unraveled, unwound and untangled — is approximately 30 feet long from end to end.

If you’re a Gastroenterologist — a Doctor who specializes in treating the digestive system — that means you’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

Working in hospitals, clinics and group practices, Gastroenterologists are experts on the parts and processes that the body uses to digest food, absorb nutrients and evacuate waste. Based on that expertise, your job is diagnosing and treating conditions that affect the esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas and intestines, not to mention all the other parts that help digest food in between. Among the illnesses a Gastroenterologist treats, for example, are colon cancer, hepatitis, heartburn, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, pancreatic cancer, colitis, gallbladder disease and peptic ulcer disease, just to name a few.

Whether it’s a minor discomfort like indigestion or a life-threatening illness like cancer, you’re tasked with examining patients and determining the cause of their digestive problems, then administering appropriate treatments to either alleviate their symptoms or cure their disease. While the examination portion of your job often involves procedures such as colonoscopies and endoscopies, the treatment portion may involve prescribing medications or performing surgeries.

Regardless, symptoms and treatments alike can be uncomfortable and embarrassing, requiring you to be more sensitive than most Physicians, yet just as aggressive. Think of yourself like human Pepto-Bismol healing super-sized stomachaches.