Two common bad habits are causing young people’s stomachs to collapse!

From Zibo barbecue to Tianshui spicy hot pot, even snacks hidden in corners can be checked in one by one by contemporary young people. Going to a city specifically because of certain food and experiences has become a driving force for many young college students to travel.

However, in the pursuit of delicious food, the stomach may have already sent out a distress signal: it really can't hold on any longer - the stomach is bloated before even starting to eat; it can't sleep in the middle of the night and has acid in the stomach.

At this time, everyone may realize: Is there something wrong with my stomach? Is it possible that I have stomach problems at such a young age?

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Most young people have poor stomachs.

Here we must first clarify a concept: gastric disease. It does not refer to a specific symptom, but a general term for a series of stomach-related diseases, the most common of which are acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer and benign and malignant gastric tumors (also known as gastric cancer).

The symptoms of these diseases are also very similar, including but not limited to indigestion, stomach bloating, acid reflux, heartburn, stomach pain, etc.

When you see the above keywords and think about yourself, do you feel a little sweaty? In fact, you are not an exception.

A cruel fact is that most people have stomach health problems to some extent. The "2023 Workers' Stomach Health Insight Report" pointed out that as many as 94% of the respondents have experienced stomach discomfort.

Image source: "2023 Workers' Stomach Health Insight Report"

Some people may think that they are still young and strong, and that they can just put up with these minor problems. But this is a big mistake.

Although people tend to think that all kinds of diseases are more likely to affect older people, stomach problems are an exception: they are becoming younger over the years.

According to the research data of Zhongkang CMH, a health industry data and consulting service platform, the penetration rate of gastric disease among young and middle-aged people aged 18 to 35 is about 30%, even exceeding the total of the middle-aged and elderly people over 45 years old.

The research results of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University are more telling: Over the past three decades, the incidence and mortality rates of gastric cancer in China have been declining, but only one age group is lagging behind, that is, the 15 to 49 age group, which has remained high and continues to rise.

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Among all stomach diseases, chronic gastritis ranks first in incidence. According to estimates, more than half of the people in China have it. The most frightening thing is that if you don't pay attention to prevention and treatment, it may develop into stomach cancer. (Related reading: There are only 4 steps from gastritis to stomach cancer, and 5 types of people are particularly dangerous! But one method can avoid it)

Chronic gastritis is often caused by it

Chronic gastritis mainly occurs in the innermost mucosal layer of the stomach. Every time it attacks, it will damage the gastric mucosa, an important tissue that protects and lubricates the stomach.

Since common symptoms of chronic gastritis include abdominal pain, bloating, and acid reflux, which are very similar to other stomach diseases, it is difficult to tell at a glance from the symptoms. However, if not treated in time, it may develop into chronic atrophic gastritis and eventually deteriorate into gastric cancer.

The "culprit" of chronic gastritis is Helicobacter pylori, which has been listed as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization.

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For the stomach, Helicobacter pylori is an extremely terrifying existence. Not only can it escape the sanctions of gastric acid, but it can also reduce the acidity in the stomach, allowing bacteria that originally cannot survive in the stomach to multiply and damage the gastric mucosa.

Most importantly, the infection rate of Helicobacter pylori is extremely high, and kissing, sharing tableware, and picking up food from each other can lead to infection. The 2017 "Chinese Consensus on Chronic Gastritis" pointed out that 70% to 90% of chronic gastritis patients are infected with Helicobacter pylori.

However, your stomach is not only damaged by it. Bad living habits will accelerate the damage of gastric mucosa, and even "collude with" Helicobacter pylori to eat away at your already weak stomach.

How did your stomach break down ?

In our eating habits, "flavorful" food can always bring people the enjoyment of taste buds and liberation of mood, especially after coming back from overtime, eating a hot pot with crayfish, it is so refreshing.

These "flavorful" foods are often what the stomach fears the most - their common characteristic is high salt content.

You can't stop eating one bite after another, and the salt continues to enter the stomach and damage the gastric mucosa. Some salt will work hand in hand with Helicobacter pylori to destroy your stomach. Data shows that people who consume a high amount of salted food have a 1.7 times higher chance of developing stomach cancer than those who consume a low amount.

Foods that are pickled, smoked, and grilled, such as barbecue, sausage, and ham, are even more harmful to the stomach. In addition to being high in salt, these processed meats often contain carcinogens such as nitrites and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

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South Korea once conducted an interesting study on the incidence of stomach cancer among Asian immigrants who came to the United States. The results were astonishing: each generation has continued to decrease. Experts speculate that this is due to changes in eating habits: the intake of high-salt pickled foods such as kimchi has decreased, and the stomach has become better.

In addition to unhealthy diet, irregular work and rest schedules are also damaging young people's stomachs.

Many young people have this pain point: if they work overtime until 10 o'clock, how can they reward themselves without a big meal? Before they have digested the food, they collapse on the bed and sleep until 12 o'clock, so breakfast and lunch are combined together; as for not being able to make it in time for dinner, they hold a temporary meeting to catch up on the work, which is even more normal.

You think you are still young and can adapt to the changes, but your stomach may have already started complaining.

The human body has a "circadian rhythm", which is what we call the biological clock. If you have eaten dinner at 6 or 7 o'clock before, the stomach will remember this rule and secrete gastric juice to digest food. However, if you eat late, there is no food to digest, and the gastric juice will directly erode the gastric mucosa. If you eat at a new time, the stomach will not be able to cope with it, causing indigestion.

The holiday has just passed, and you know the pain of adjusting your vacation, so how can you let your stomach be tortured by this every day?

Protect your stomach , try these 2 steps

If you have realized the importance of stomach health and want to change it from now on, it is not too late.

The stomach protection plan is divided into two steps: treatment and prevention.

First of all, it is best to go to the gastroenterology department of the hospital to register and check whether there is Helicobacter pylori in the body. It is not complicated, just empty your stomach and blow into the instrument. If confirmed, take triple or quadruple medicine on time under the doctor's advice. In daily life, try to use public chopsticks as much as possible to avoid cross infection.

Secondly, we should pay attention to the regularity and health of eating. No matter how busy we are, we should try to eat within the prescribed time, and do not perfunctorily use fast-made processed foods with high sugar and salt. We should also pay attention to it at ordinary times. It is okay to indulge once in a while, but we cannot make "beer barbecue crayfish" a daily routine.

Many people have a consensus: when you are extremely hungry, you will want to eat everything. Normally, you may be full with ten skewers of lamb, but now you may want to order twenty or thirty skewers when placing an order to make up for it.

It is not difficult to prevent this: develop a good work and rest routine. Going to bed, getting up, and working at fixed times will greatly reduce the possibility of irregular and unhealthy eating.

Of course, this may not be something you can decide. But at least, we can create as many conditions as possible in a limited environment. Otherwise, it is very likely that we will work hard to make money now and use the money we earn to maintain our stomach in the future.

References

[1] Zhongkang CMH. (2022). 2021 China Healthcare Consumer Insight Report - Gastrointestinal Diseases.

[2]Alfarouk KO, Bashir AH, Aljarbou AN, Ramadan AM, Muddathir AK, AlHoufie ST, et al. Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Cancer and Its Management. Frontiers in Oncology. 2019-02-22, 9: 75.

[3]Brown LM. Helicobacter pylori: epidemiology and routes of transmission. Epidemiol Rev. 2000, 22 (2): 283–97.

[4]Paula Jakszyn, Carlos Alberto Gonzá lez. Nitrosamine and related food intake and gastric and oesophageal cancer risk: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence. World Journal of Gastroenterology. 2006-07-21, 12(27).

[5] China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control: Do you really understand gastritis? retrieved from https://ncncd.chinacdc.cn/mbfkyjkx/zxdt/201610/t20161020_134915.html

[6] “2023 Workers’ Stomach Health Insight Report”

[7] Consensus on Chronic Gastritis in China

Author: Li Mi, popular science creator

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association