"Why me?" How do you get cancer?

This article was reviewed by Dr. Guo Xiaoqiang, a popular science writer in the field of life sciences

When people are unfortunately diagnosed with cancer, their first reaction is, “Why me?” “Why did cancer have to find me?”

How did cancer come about? How did it come to you? You will be enlightened after reading this!

1. Cancer “sucked out”

1. Smoking: Cigarettes and second-hand smoke

Smokers have undoubtedly become "cancer candidates"! The more smokers smoke, the longer they smoke, and the younger they start smoking, the higher the risk and probability of lung cancer.

Smoking harms both yourself and others. The sooner you quit, the better!

2. Suction - kitchen fumes

The impact of kitchen fumes on people, at first glance, is that they have a strong irritation to the nose, eyes, and throat mucosa, which can cause respiratory diseases such as rhinitis, pharyngitis, and tracheitis. Long-term inhalation of fumes can also lead to lung cancer.

In an article titled "The Current Prevalence of Lung Cancer in my country and Its Prevention Measures," it was mentioned that a case-control study of lung cancer in women in Shanghai found that women who did not have indoor fume removal equipment when cooking had about 60% higher risk of lung cancer than women who had no or little indoor fume.

3. Suction - decoration pollution

In June 2019, at an event themed "Indoor Pollution Prevention and Control" held by the Beijing Consumers Association, Mu Xinlin, chief physician of the respiratory department of Peking University People's Hospital, said that indoor air pollution is 2 to 5 times more serious than outdoor air. There are about 500 kinds of volatile organic compounds in indoor air, including more than 20 carcinogens. The most harmful ones are formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and esters.

Formaldehyde, in particular, is known as the "number one killer" of indoor environmental pollution. Children, as a sensitive group, may suffer from mild asthma at the very least, or nausea, vomiting, edema and other symptoms at the worst.

4. Suction - environmental pollution

Environmental pollution is now receiving more and more attention. Fine particles in the air, industrial waste gas, automobile exhaust and their derived compounds lead to smog weather. In 2014, a study published in the authoritative journal The Lancet pointed out that smog can cause PM2.5 to deposit in the lungs, causing inflammation and leading to malignant diseases.

2. Cancer caused by eating

1. Eating too much salt

A high-salt diet is closely related to the occurrence of gastric cancer. Sun Hao, director of the Gastrointestinal Tumor Center of Chongqing Cancer Hospital, said in 2017 that the World Health Organization stipulates that the daily salt intake per person is 6 grams. If this amount is exceeded, the high osmotic fluid in the salt will damage the gastric mucosa, which can easily induce gastric cancer in the long run.

2. Eating too much meat

Eating too much meat is a high-risk factor for colorectal cancer. The research team of Professor Li Menghong of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University found that ILF3, a key gene in the process of tumor carcinogenesis, can promote tumor cells to absorb a large amount of surrounding nutrients, thereby causing malignant proliferation. Excessive intake of nutrients, especially foods rich in serine and methionine, will be more likely to induce cancer.

Especially nowadays, people's dietary structure is becoming increasingly high in fat and protein, which is more likely to induce cancer.

3. Eating food that is too hot

Xiang Jiaqing, chief physician of thoracic surgery at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fudan University, pointed out that Chinese food is very distinctive. Food like hot pot is relatively hot and can easily damage the esophageal mucosa, which requires repeated repairs. Long-term cycles can easily lead to cancer.

4. Love to eat betel nuts

As early as 2003, the International Agency for Research on Cancer listed betel nut on the "blacklist" and classified it as a Class I carcinogen along with arsenic.

As for the causes of cancer: first, the chemical substances in betel nut form nitroso after chewing, which is a clear carcinogenic compound; secondly, betel nut is hard and can easily cause mechanical trauma to the oral mucosa when chewing.

In April 2018, the Chinese Stomatological Association and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a survey on the current situation of betel nut chewing and oral cancer among people in Hunan Province. At that time, in the oral and maxillofacial surgery ward of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, 45 out of 50 inpatients suffered from oral cancer, and 44 of them had a history of long-term and excessive chewing of betel nut.

5. Drinking

In August 2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s official website published an article titled “A Canadian study shows that some cancers are related to drinking.” The article cited a study in the authoritative journal The Lancet Oncology that confirmed:

Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen defined by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and is the leading cause of cancer worldwide, and the number of cancers will further rise as alcohol consumption increases.

The article stated that a modeling study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) showed that 7,000 new cancer cases in Canada in 2020 were related to heavier drinking patterns, including 24% of breast cancer cases, 20% of colon cancer cases, 15% of rectal cancer cases, and 13% of oral cancer and liver cancer cases.

3. Cancer Saved

1. Don’t be reluctant to throw away moldy food

Gao Qilong, director of the first ward of the Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine oncology at Henan Cancer Hospital, pointed out in 2018 that aflatoxin is a highly toxic substance that was classified as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization as early as 1993. Its toxicity is 68 times that of arsenic, 10 times that of potassium cyanide, and 70 times that of dimethylnitrosamine. It is extremely destructive to liver tissue. Frequent intake may increase the risk of liver cancer.

To prevent aflatoxin, avoid eating moldy food. Once you eat bitter or rancid nuts, be sure to spit them out and rinse your mouth immediately. Especially peanuts, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, etc. Peanut oil should not be stored for a long time. Once moldy, it should be thrown away immediately.

2. Don’t want to throw away leftover food

Many of the older generation came from an era when they were hungry and cold, so they were very frugal with food. They would often put the food they couldn’t finish in the refrigerator and continue to eat it the next or third day.

Song Yi, a nutritionist at the Clinical Nutrition Department of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, introduced that vegetables usually contain nitrates. Under the action of bacteria, nitrates will be converted into nitrites which are harmful to the human body. The longer the storage time, the higher the nitrite content.

It’s okay to eat it occasionally, but if we eat such leftovers for a long time, we will ingest a lot of nitrite, which will have some effects on the human body. The most important hazard is that it may cause cancer.

4. Cancer caused by laziness

1. Too lazy to exercise

Some people seem to spend all their time sitting for work or sleeping every day; they would never walk if they could take a car, and would never climb stairs if they could take an elevator... They are not willing to spend any effort on exercise. If they lack exercise for a long time, their risk of cancer will really increase!

In 2019, Chai Li from Shaanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital said that as early as 2013, the World Health Organization announced that laziness to exercise has become the fourth risk factor for death in the world. Lack of exercise can lead to a decrease in immune cells in the body, greatly increasing the risk of cancer. Regular and continuous physical activity can prevent cancer in certain parts of the body.

2. Too lazy to go to the toilet

Being busy with work, playing cards, and not being able to find a bathroom outside…if you are too lazy to go to the bathroom, your health will be affected.

Chai Li pointed out that if you are used to holding your urine, it will not only damage your bladder, increase the risk of frequent urination and urinary incontinence, but also reduce the resistance of the bladder mucosa, easily cause urinary tract infections, and even harm the kidneys, stimulate the prostate, and induce inflammation. Studies have shown that people who have the habit of holding their urine are more likely to develop bladder cancer.

3. Too lazy to have a physical examination

I was too lazy to go for a physical check-up or to the hospital, wanting to save myself some trouble, but I didn’t expect to end up with a serious illness!

Many cancer patients do not go to the hospital until late-stage symptoms appear. By then it is often too late to detect the cancer. The best treatment period has been missed and the doctors are helpless.

5. Cancer caused by “familiarization”

1. Staying up late for a long time

For many young people, staying up late means playing games, chasing TV series, watching short videos... They simply can't stop. However, they are not staying up late at night, they are staying up late at night.

Ouyang Xuenong, chief physician of the Oncology Department of the 900th Hospital of the Joint Logistics Support Force of the People's Liberation Army, said that staying up late for a long time is a predisposing factor for the high incidence of tumors, because staying up late can lead to disorders in endocrine hormone levels, abnormal cell metabolism, affect the normal division of human cells, cause cell mutations, and increase the risk of cancer.

2. Long-term overwork

Nowadays, the pace of social life is fast, and more and more people are working overtime, staying up late, and running around to work hard. Some people don’t even rest for several days.

However, the human body is like a spring, and excessive fatigue will directly lead to a rapid decline in the body's disease resistance.

Li Junling, chief physician of the Department of Oncology at the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that to prevent cancer, one should not overwork. In the past, the lung cancer patients I saw were all older than me; later, their ages began to be similar to mine, and some patients were even younger than me.

This change made me start to pay attention to the common characteristics of lung cancer patients. I found that many patients were extremely tired, had a lot of work pressure, had poor sleep, stayed up late, and had other bad lifestyle habits, such as heavy smoking.

3. Irregular diet

Ji Jiafu, director of Peking University Cancer Hospital, pointed out that some bad eating habits greatly increase the risk of gastric cancer.

For example: in order to save time, people eat in a hurry; they have an irregular life and often eat "one meal hungry and one meal full", and often even skip breakfast, and sometimes overeat; smoked meat, fried, baked, burnt food and high-temperature cooking oil that has been used many times contain a large amount of carcinogens.

6. Cancer caused by infection

In March 2020, Pan Zhanhe, deputy chief physician of the Department of Oncology at Xiamen University Zhongshan Hospital, wrote on his WeChat official account that "infection" refers to bacterial and viral infection. Studies have found that certain viruses and bacteria may be closely related to the occurrence of certain cancers.

1. Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) increases the incidence of liver cancer.

2. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with the occurrence of cervical cancer, anal cancer, vulvovaginal cancer, penile cancer and oropharyngeal cancer.

3. In addition to viruses, certain bacteria are also related to the occurrence of cancer. The most clear and representative of these is the relationship between Helicobacter pylori (Hp) and gastric cancer and gastric lymphoma.

Other factors related to cancer

In addition, other factors that affect the incidence of cancer include: genetics, emotions, age, and occupation.

1. Genetic factors

Yi Lin, deputy director of the Oncology Laboratory of Chongqing Cancer Hospital, introduced that a large number of studies have shown that genetic factors play a very important role in the occurrence and development of tumors. Tumors are a multi-gene genetic susceptibility disease that often runs in families.

2. Emotional factors

Song Shaojun, director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Hainan Cancer Hospital, said that negative emotions play an important role in the occurrence and development of tumors. Studies have shown that gastric cancer, liver cancer and even intracranial malignant tumors are related to irritability, pettiness and excessive suppression of one's emotions.

3. Age factor

Pan Zhanhe pointed out that there is a clear relationship between age and the occurrence of cancer. Generally speaking, the incidence of cancer increases with age, and it can even be said that age is the most important risk factor for cancer.

Children are more likely to suffer from Wilms' tumor, neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, and tumors of the lymphatic hematopoietic tissue (such as acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, lymphoma, etc.).

Adults are more likely to suffer from epithelial cancers, such as lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer.

4. Occupational factors

Pan Zhanhe pointed out that occupational exposure also affects the occurrence of cancer, and different occupations have different working environments.

1) People who work with dyes have a greater chance of being exposed to aniline, which may cause bladder cancer;

2) People working in coal mining, petroleum, chemical, and steel industries are exposed to and inhale coal dust, mixed dust, and other harmful substances for many years, and have a relatively high risk of lung cancer.

3) The incidence of lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma among asbestos miners is also relatively high; as early as 1986, my country listed lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma caused by occupational exposure to asbestos as occupational tumors.

Source: Health Times

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