[Fat Bear Science] Do you like hot food? Do you like hot tea? Do you love spicy food? Beware that this cancer is caused by eating

During festivals, people naturally eat and drink, such as hotpot, barbecue, etc., so it makes sense that people gain three pounds during festivals. It doesn't matter if you lose your figure, but it's not worth it if you get cancer from "eating"!

"Food is the most important thing for people." We are born in a country of delicious food. Although we enjoy the happiness brought by various delicacies, we are also facing the greatest risk of cancer. my country is a country with a high incidence of esophageal cancer in the world, and it is also one of the countries with a high mortality rate of esophageal cancer in the world. Nearly half of the world's esophageal cancer occurs in China. In the past year, there were nearly 320,000 new cases of esophageal cancer in my country, and about 300,000 people died of esophageal cancer.

What factors affect the occurrence of esophageal cancer? How to prevent it in daily life? What are the early symptoms of esophageal cancer? How painful is it in the middle and late stages? How should we check for esophageal cancer? Let's talk about esophageal cancer today.

Expert Profile

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Jiang Yuequan

Chief physician, doctor of medicine, master's supervisor, chief expert on esophageal cancer at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Chongqing University, and director of the Thoracic Tumor Center of the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Chongqing University.

He has been engaged in clinical and scientific research work in thoracic surgery for 30 years. He is good at thoracic surgery for esophageal cancer, lung cancer and mediastinal tumors, especially thoracoscopic and laparoscopic combined esophageal cancer radical resection, single-port lobectomy and segmental resection.

Clinic hours: Monday morning

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Divine Stone

Doctor of Medicine.

He is good at the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mediastinal tumors and other tumors, and is proficient in minimally invasive thoracic surgery.

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Middle-aged and elderly people are more susceptible to the disease, and men are more likely to suffer from it.

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In my country, 80% of patients develop the disease after the age of 50, and an average of 150,000 people die each year. In addition, esophageal cancer is a disease that favors boys over girls. Why do men have a higher risk of esophageal cancer?

This may be related to several well-known risk factors for esophageal cancer, such as smoking, drinking, low fruit intake, long-term "heavy taste", chewing betel nuts or tobacco, etc. In addition, most Chinese men have a common hobby, that is, drinking tea! Drinks with a temperature above 65 degrees may be carcinogenic to the human body, so it is not that tea causes esophageal cancer, but tea is generally drunk at high temperatures, which irritates the esophageal mucosa.

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Bad eating habits are the culprit

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Love hot food

The normal temperature tolerance of the esophageal mucosa is 40℃-50℃. If it exceeds 65℃, it will be more harmful and may cause damage, ulceration and other problems. In addition, drinking hot drinks above 65℃ may also increase the risk of esophageal cancer. When overly hot and rough food passes through the esophagus and contacts the mucosal epithelium, it will burn the esophageal mucosal epithelium, causing damage, ulceration, bleeding and other lesions.

Eating preserved foods and leftovers for a long time

Long-standing food will produce a large amount of nitrosamine compounds and mycotoxins, which will irritate the esophageal mucosa and cause cancer if eaten for a long time. Especially when the temperature is higher than 20℃, the nitrite content in the food will increase. The higher the nitrite content, the greater the carcinogenicity. In addition, barbecue, smoked food, fried food, etc. also contain a lot of nitrite.

Spicy food

Frequent consumption of spicy food can easily damage the esophageal epithelium, causing epithelial cell degeneration, mucosal inflammation, and esophageal cancer. Northern Sichuan, where people love to eat chili peppers, is also a high-incidence area for esophageal cancer in my country.

Eating too fast

Eating too fast will prevent the food from being fully chewed, and coarse-grained food can easily damage the esophageal mucosal epithelium and cause acute inflammation. Over time, it is likely to turn into chronic inflammation and increase the risk of esophageal cancer.

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Four major symptoms of early esophageal cancer

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Difficulty swallowing food

When eating, even when drinking porridge, patients with esophageal cancer will feel that it is difficult to swallow, and it seems that the food is stuck in the esophagus. As the disease progresses, this situation will only become more and more serious. Because the symptoms are mild and only occur occasionally, they are easily neglected by patients.

Dry throat

When the human body is extremely dehydrated, the patient will feel thirsty and have a dry throat. At this time, the body urgently needs to replenish water to relieve the problem. If you drink water frequently, it is impossible to have a dry throat. This may be caused by esophageal cancer. Therefore, thirst is something that may happen at ordinary times and is easily ignored by patients.

Chest pain

Some patients are confused about how esophageal cancer can cause chest pain. In fact, chest pain is not a typical symptom of esophageal cancer. Only a small number of patients experience this symptom. The chest pain caused by esophageal cancer is characterized by burning, tingling, and pulling pain behind the sternum, especially when eating. This feeling is obvious and strong, especially when eating rough or hot foods.

Foreign body sensation in the esophagus

When eating, the patient feels that there is food stuck in the esophagus wall, and can't spit it out or swallow it. The patient feels uncomfortable and feels that there is a foreign body stuck in the throat. Only when swallowing saliva or drinking water, the patient feels that the foreign body sensation is relieved or disappears.

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Gastroscopy

The secret weapon to prevent esophageal cancer

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If esophageal cancer is discovered early, the survival rate will be greatly improved. However, early esophageal cancer is in the early stages of the disease and often has no obvious symptoms, or the symptoms are very atypical and easy to be ignored. It needs to be carefully identified and recognized as soon as possible.

Gastroscopy is the preferred method for discovering and diagnosing esophageal cancer. The morphology of the lesion can be directly observed, and a biopsy can be performed under direct vision to confirm the diagnosis. Using "toluidine blue" or "iodine solution" to stain suspicious lesions can increase the detection rate of early esophageal cancer.

The following five groups of people are at high risk of esophageal cancer and are recommended to undergo gastroscopy once a year:

(1) Aged over 40, especially men.

(2) There are upper gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, acid reflux, and discomfort when eating.

(3) Family history of esophageal cancer.

(4) Patients with a history of head and neck malignant tumors.

(5) Having some of the bad habits mentioned earlier in this article (risk factors for esophageal cancer).

If it is found through gastroscopy in the early stage before it develops into esophageal cancer (esophageal intraepithelial neoplasia), then congratulations, timely removal under gastroscopy can achieve a radical cure. If it has developed into early or even mid-stage esophageal cancer, then the best way is to remove it through surgery. If it is already advanced esophageal cancer, it can only be treated with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, etc. Of course, according to individual circumstances, it is still necessary to consult a professional thoracic surgeon for evaluation.

Text/Fat Bear Photos/Partially from the Internet (Please contact us to delete if there is any infringement) Review/Chest Tumor Center

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