Don’t eat it while it’s hot! It can really cause cancer! Be more vigilant if these 3 situations occur

Esophageal cancer has always been among the top five malignant tumors in my country. Among the total incidence of esophageal cancer in the world, Chinese people account for 46%, even at the lowest point. Esophageal cancer often develops under the influence of long-term bad eating habits or long-term living in high-risk areas. Of course, esophageal cancer is caused by multiple factors, and bad eating habits are only one of the more important factors.

In the past, the high-risk age for esophageal cancer was over 60 years old, but now the incidence rate is already very high around 50-55 years old. So, what bad eating habits are likely to induce esophageal cancer? Many people say that dumplings should be eaten hot, and tea should be drunk hot... This is actually a bad eating habit. Most esophageal cancer patients have this habit of "hot" eating.

How is esophageal cancer caused by “burns”?

This "hot" does not only refer to drinking hot water and eating hot food, but also includes a preference for spicy food and strong alcohol. Due to differences in region and food culture, the incidence of esophageal cancer is often closely related to the region, and the most common regions include Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan, Inner Mongolia, etc. People in Guangdong love to drink soup, and people in Chaoshan, Guangdong love to drink Kung Fu tea, and the temperature of these teas and soups is very high; Sichuan's spicy hot pot and other special foods account for the two risk factors of hotness and spiciness at once; Henan people's favorite noodles are also very hot, and there is also the typical regional food Hu La Tang; Inner Mongolia people like to drink strong alcohol, especially strong alcohol with high alcohol content.

The delicacies and habits of these regions can be summarized in one word: "hot". Whether it is the "hot" in terms of physical temperature or the "hot" in terms of chemical high concentration of alcohol, it will stimulate the normal esophageal mucosa. The highest temperature that the esophagus can withstand is 60°C. If it is "burned" repeatedly for a long time, it will be damaged and cancerous. The esophagus is a 30-40 cm long, elastic tubular structure. The entire esophagus can be divided into three sections: cervical, thoracic, and abdominal. In these three sections, due to the relative squeezing of other structures, three physiological strictures appear. These three physiological strictures are the high-incidence sites of food retention and esophageal cancer.

If you have the following symptoms, be alert to esophageal cancer

1. Throat pain and discomfort may be a manifestation of early esophageal cancer. If the symptoms persist for several weeks or even one or two months without improvement, you should be alert.

2. Pain or burning sensation behind the sternum. The sternum is located in the middle of the chest. If you feel a pricking or pulling pain behind the sternum when swallowing, or if you feel a burning or dull pain, you should pay attention to it, as it may be a sign of early esophageal cancer.

3. Progressive dysphagia. Progressive dysphagia is a typical symptom of mid- to late-stage esophageal cancer. At first, food will pass slowly, stagnate, choke, and swallow incompletely. Eating is just a little painful. Then the degree of dysphagia will gradually worsen. Even rice and steamed buns need to be swallowed with the help of water. Some people can only drink liquid food such as milk. It is difficult to swallow even slightly thick paste.

If you suspect you have esophageal cancer, you can use esophagoscopy, gastroscopy, upper gastrointestinal tract barium meal radiography and other examinations to find out whether there are lesions in the esophagus. The final diagnosis depends on pathological examination.

How is esophageal cancer treated?

If esophageal cancer is in the early stage, the lesion only invades the mucosa in the esophagus. In this case, it can usually be removed through gastroscopy, and the five-year survival rate is very high, and the quality of life after surgery is also relatively good. If esophageal cancer invades the muscle layer or even grows outside the esophagus, the treatment effect will not be ideal. Therefore, esophageal cancer must be discovered and treated as early as possible! So, what are the surgical methods for treating esophageal cancer? How is the operation performed? Most esophageal cancers occur in the thoracic segment. There are three most classic surgical methods for esophageal cancer:

The first surgical method is to make a 20-40 cm incision through the left side of the chest cavity, cut off part of the esophagus, and then make the stomach into a tube, pull it up to the chest cavity and connect it to the esophagus.

The second surgical method is that the lesion is too high and the heart is on the left side, so it is not suitable for left-side thoracotomy and can only be performed through right-side thoracotomy. After cutting off part of the esophagus through right-side thoracotomy, the liver and gallbladder are under the right diaphragm, not the stomach. How to reconstruct the digestive tract? The only way is to open the abdomen to free the stomach and make it into a tube. There is a hole in the thoracic and abdominal diaphragm. Through this hole, the stomach is lifted up and then connected to the esophagus.

The third surgical method is for esophageal cancer occurring in a higher position such as the upper chest. During the operation, an additional neck incision is required. It is similar to the second surgical method, except that there is one more incision than the second method, requiring three incisions.

The above three surgical methods all involve relatively large incisions and cause great trauma. With the development of medical technology, this is no longer done this way. It has become minimally invasive surgery. Now we use laparoscopes and thoracoscopes to make a few holes in the chest and abdomen to perform the surgery. The effect of the surgery is the same as that of thoracotomy or laparotomy, but the patient's trauma is much less and the recovery will be relatively faster.