A 16-year-old girl was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer due to frequent stomach bloating! Gastric cancer at a young age may be caused by "feeding"

April 10, Zhengzhou, Henan. A 16-year-old girl often had bloating after meals. This had been going on for several years, but she never took it seriously, always thinking it was indigestion.

He usually likes to order takeout and eat spicy food. It was not until recently when he developed stomach pain and other discomfort symptoms that he went to the hospital for a check-up, only to find that he was in the late stage of gastric cancer.

When faced with digestive problems, many people, like the girl, have a nonchalant attitude, thinking that it will go away if they “take it easy.” Some people even think that they are young and that diseases are far away from them.

Gastric cancer is the second most common cancer in my country, second only to lung cancer. According to statistics, there are 400,000 to 500,000 new cases each year, and gastric cancer patients under the age of 30 account for 7.6% of all gastric cancer patients. The younger the age of onset, the higher the malignancy.

Gastric cancer does not occur overnight, but requires a long period of evolution, with a latency period of 5-10 years. The onset of gastric cancer is caused by the combined effects of multiple factors, but it is closely related to our daily living habits. In many cases, gastric cancer is almost "fed" by ourselves!

Overeating, staying up all night, excessive drinking and smoking have become a way for many people to vent themselves and find happiness. Some people even take "I would rather suffer pain than poverty" as their life creed and have no resistance to delicious food.

Heavy Taste Food

To reward yourself for your hard work after overtime, order yourself some sizzling lamb skewers and crispy fried chicken wings. Beer + barbecue is simply the best!

After a tiring day at work, I don’t feel like cooking. So I’ll just have a pack of spicy noodles and a bucket of instant noodles. That’ll make do!

What do you eat when you get together with friends? Of course, barbecue!

Spicy strips, grilled skewers, instant noodles, sausages, pickles, and kimchi... have become the staple food for many young people.

Although these smoked and grilled foods are delicious, the incomplete combustion of fat during the production process will produce a large amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which adhere to the surface of the meat and have varying degrees of carcinogenicity. In addition, when the fat in the meat drips into the fire, it will not only produce smoke, but also produce the carcinogen benzopyrene. Benzopyrene is a strong carcinogen.

Pickles, salted fish, bacon and pickled sauerkraut, etc., these salted foods contain a large amount of nitrite, which can be converted into nitrosamines and nitrosamides with extremely strong carcinogenicity. Long-term consumption will greatly increase people's risk of gastric cancer.

In addition, this type of high-salt food can easily increase the burden on the stomach, affect the normal function of the gastrointestinal tract, cause damage to the mucus barrier on the surface of the gastric mucosa, and even make it easy for Helicobacter pylori to "settle down" in the stomach, thereby causing gastric cancer.

Serving utensils

In our Chinese food culture, whether it is a family gathering or a banquet, people usually eat together around the table, and rarely use serving chopsticks or separate meals.

Especially when eating hotpot, people gather together to enjoy the meal and like to use chopsticks to dip in the hot soup pot.

Although this way of eating may seem festive, warm and intimate, it carries the risk of infection with Helicobacter pylori.

Infection with Helicobacter pylori is another major cause of gastric cancer. In places where food is not separated, Helicobacter pylori on chopsticks can increase the risk of gastric cancer by 2.7-12 times.

The HP infection rate in the high-risk population for gastric cancer in my country is over 60%. Helicobacter pylori can convert nitrate into nitrite and nitrosamine, leading to the occurrence of gastric cancer.

In addition, HP infection causes chronic inflammation of the gastric mucosa, and environmental factors accelerate the excessive proliferation of mucosal epithelial cells, leading to aberration and carcinogenesis. The toxic products of Helicobacter pylori may also have a carcinogenic effect.

Using serving chopsticks and eating separately are effective ways to cut off the source of Helicobacter pylori infection.

One meal hungry, one meal full

Getting up early and not eating breakfast, ordering takeout for lunch, having a cup of coffee when feeling sleepy in the afternoon, and having a full meal when hungry at night... is gradually becoming the daily routine of working people in the workplace.

This unhealthy eating style of skipping meals is not good for the health of the stomach. Overeating and gulping down food can easily lead to overload of the stomach, which will cause incomplete chewing of food and affect the digestive function of the stomach. Excessive hunger and lack of food for the stomach to digest can easily lead to edema of the gastric mucosa, which may lead to gastritis and gastric ulcers in severe cases.

If gastrointestinal function is in a disordered state for a long time, it will lead to a decrease in the body's metabolism, failure to repair damaged gastrointestinal cells, persistent inflammation, and even cancer.

I like to drink cold drinks and eat spicy food

Frequent consumption of cold, spicy, overly sour, or overly sweet food, or greasy food, may cause stomach bloating and pain, and lead to gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and other diseases. Symptoms such as stomach bloating, belching, nausea, and pain may also occur.

Excessive consumption of cold drinks will lower the temperature in the stomach, affecting the secretion of gastric acid and the action of digestive enzymes; spicy food can easily lead to hyperemia of the gastric mucosa, accelerated motility, and cause stomach and abdominal pain; high-fat food is difficult to digest and will automatically cause the stomach to secrete more gastric acid.

Don't like eating fruit

Eating too little fruit can lead to stomach cancer. People who eat less than 100g of fruit a day have at least twice the incidence of stomach cancer as those who eat more than 100g.

If you don’t consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables, you may lack vitamins that have antioxidant protective functions. Studies have found that vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, and carotenoids can inhibit the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach , reduce the reproductive capacity of tumor cells, and stimulate the body’s anti-tumor immune system to play an anti-cancer role.

It is recommended to consume more than 300g of fruit per day.

Smoking and drinking

Smokers have a 50% higher risk of developing stomach cancer than non-smokers. Nicotine and harmful smoke contained in smoke can enter the human body through the blood circulation. The oxidants and free radicals in the smoke can consume the body's protective antioxidants, making the body susceptible to carcinogens. Substances such as benzopyrene and dimethylnitrosamine in smoke can also directly irritate the stomach and induce cancer.

When drinking, alcohol will promote the dissolution and absorption of carcinogens. At the same time, drinking a lot of alcohol can easily damage the gastric mucosa, causing gastritis and gastric ulcers. Alcohol can also inhibit the body's immune function, causing the body's immune monitoring function to decline.

╱ Tips for preventing stomach cancer╱

1. Individual factors : Men over 40 years old should be more vigilant and actively undergo gastroscopy screening;

2. Diet and lifestyle habits : Avoid long-term consumption of pickled foods, etc. High-risk groups with smoking and drinking habits should adjust their lifestyles as soon as possible;

3. Infectious factors : If Helicobacter pylori infection is confirmed through scale screening, active bactericidal treatment should be carried out;

4. Genetic factors : Immediate relatives of gastric cancer patients have a higher risk of developing gastric cancer, and gastroscopy and gastrin level testing should be arranged as early as possible.

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