Use this toothpaste to fight Helicobacter pylori and prevent cancer? Experts: Don’t be fooled…

"Use this toothpaste to improve mouth ulcers and prevent stomach cancer", "Adopt national anti-HP (Helicobacter pylori) patented technology", "The patented formula kills 100% HP to protect the safety of the whole family"... Currently, the so-called "anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" is selling well on major e-commerce platforms, and the price is much more expensive than conventional toothpaste of the same specifications.

Xinhua News Agency reporter learned from the National Medical Products Administration that Helicobacter pylori colonizes in the stomach and cannot be prevented or cured by brushing teeth with toothpaste. Most of the so-called "anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpastes" currently on the market are under the guise of "patent" and "high technology" and deceive consumers by placing a large number of false advertisements on some online platforms.

Regulatory authorities: "Anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" is suspected of making false claims about its efficacy

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is a chronic infectious pathogen with a high infection rate worldwide, which has made some businesses smell business opportunities.

The customer service of a Taobao store "assured" the reporter that a certain "anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" in the store can effectively remove Helicobacter pylori, improve bad breath and mouth ulcers, and prevent and treat gastric cancer, and the store will compensate ten times the price if the product is fake.

The reporter found that on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo and some offline pharmacies, you can see "anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" claiming to be "a magic weapon to kill Helicobacter pylori" and "prevent gastric cancer". There are many names and considerable sales. For example, Helicobacter pylori star, Helicobacter pylori xin, BiXting, JingXling, etc., the price of a single tube ranges from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan, which is 3 to 10 times the price of conventional toothpaste of the same specifications. According to online store data, many of them have a monthly transaction volume of more than 10,000 orders; some also claim to be named, developed or produced by Sinopharm Group, Xiuzhen Pharmaceutical, and Southern Medical University.

Is the effect as good as advertised? Ms. Guan from Guiyang told the reporter that after she was diagnosed with Helicobacter pylori, she spent 400 yuan to buy four tubes of "BiXting" "Anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" from the Internet. After using it for three months, she found that the Helicobacter pylori count had increased instead of decreased.

Her experience is not an isolated case. Yan Xuemin, attending physician of the Department of Gastroenterology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that Helicobacter pylori colonizes in the stomach, and there is no scientific basis for relying on oral cleaning such as brushing teeth with toothpaste to prevent and treat it. Previously, the "Science Rumor Refutation Platform" sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology and the National Health Commission also published an article denying that "brushing teeth can cure HP."

Jiang Xuan, chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology at Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital affiliated to Tsinghua University, said that currently the treatment of Helicobacter pylori requires a combination of multiple drugs such as acid inhibitors, bismuth agents, and antibiotics, and it takes more than half a month of treatment to achieve good results.

The National Medical Products Administration organized relevant experts to study and believe that Helicobacter pylori may exist in the mouth, mainly concentrated in the periodontal pocket and gingival sulcus, and is related to digestive system diseases such as periodontal disease, bad breath, and gastric cancer, which lacks scientific basis. Toothpaste claims that it can fight Helicobacter pylori are suspected of making false claims.

Comprehensive governance: strengthening supervision and popular science education

Experts generally believe that the reason why "anti-Helicobacter pylori toothpaste" has loopholes is directly related to the limited or even incorrect knowledge of Helicobacter pylori among the general public.

Experts from the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences told reporters that even if patients are confirmed to be infected with HP, they do not need to be overly nervous. Most people can achieve bacterial eradication through oral medication within two weeks. There is also a view in the medical community that the bacteria do not necessarily need to be eradicated, and it is recommended that patients discuss their own indications with their doctors before making a decision.

Liu Junhai, a professor at the School of Law of Renmin University of China, believes that market supervision departments, food and drug supervision departments, Internet information departments, etc. should form a linkage mechanism, continue to increase supervision efforts, and eliminate regulatory blind spots as much as possible.

The reporter learned that the State Food and Drug Administration has drafted the "Toothpaste Supervision and Management Measures" and is actively promoting the State Administration for Market Regulation to issue the departmental regulations as soon as possible. The regulations will regulate the entire process of toothpaste products from filing, production, and operation.

At the same time, the State Food and Drug Administration will also release popular science information in the near future to guide the public to correctly understand the efficacy of toothpaste, and deal with toothpaste products that make false claims in accordance with the law.

Source: Xinhua News Agency (ID: xinhuashefabu1)

The pictures in this article with the "Science Popularization China" watermark are all from the copyright gallery. The pictures are not authorized for reprinting.