How to prevent gastric cancer?

Ordering takeout for three meals a day, working until late at night, relying entirely on coffee and strong tea for support, buying something from roadside stalls to fill the stomach after get off work, and drinking a lot of alcohol at social gatherings and dinners. This has become the daily routine for many people. With such excessive eating, stomach diseases will naturally begin to invade the body!

As the saying goes, "Nine out of ten stomachs are diseased." Do you know how long it takes to ruin a stomach due to a fast-paced life and unhealthy eating habits?

According to relevant reports, chronic gastritis and even gastric cancer are not uncommon in young people in their 20s.

The saying “Nine out of ten people have stomach problems” means that nine out of ten people have stomach problems!

The most common gastric disease is gastritis. In daily life, if people do not pay attention to their diet and daily routine, it is easy to get gastritis. As the most common digestive system disease, gastritis can generally be divided into two categories: acute gastritis and chronic gastritis. Among the patients with gastric diseases diagnosed in the gastroscopy clinic, more than 80% of the patients suffer from chronic gastritis to varying degrees.

For people who suffer from gastritis, especially those who have had gastritis for a long time, they are very worried about whether they will eventually develop into gastric cancer! Of course, gastritis will not develop into gastric cancer suddenly. The occurrence of gastric cancer is mainly caused by the transformation of normal gastric mucosal epithelial cells into cancer cells. This is a gradual process. Before developing into gastric cancer, it is necessary to go through a precancerous change process. Everyone needs to take this process seriously.

It only takes four steps from gastritis to gastric cancer!

Our stomach digests a lot of food for our body every day. Once we have stomach problems, if they are not controlled, the development of most stomach cancers follows the following rules:

Chronic superficial gastritis

There is a line of defense on the outer layer of the stomach - the gastric mucosa, which is divided into four layers from the inside to the outside: the mucosal layer, the submucosal layer, the muscularis propria and the serosa.

When a healthy stomach develops into chronic superficial gastritis, it only endangers the mucosal layer and submucosal layer, so the symptoms are only functional dyspepsia or non-ulcer dyspepsia, not chronic inflammation of the gastric mucosa.

Chronic superficial gastritis is a relatively common disease, which is far from gastric cancer, and the vast majority of patients will not develop gastric cancer.

Atrophic gastritis

As gastritis progresses and becomes more severe, it may develop into chronic atrophic gastritis. Symptoms at this time are mostly indigestion, bloating, loss of appetite, etc. People tend to lose weight and feel full after eating a little. But don't worry too much. It takes several years or even decades for atrophic gastritis to develop into gastric cancer, and only 1% of patients will develop gastric cancer. So you have plenty of time to change. If you have Helicobacter pylori, you must eradicate it and have regular checkups.

Intestinal metaplasia (dysplasia)

Intestinal metaplasia is called the prelude to gastric cancer because the gastric mucosal epithelium is stimulated by inflammation for a long time, causing some cells of the gastric mucosal epithelium to become intestinal-type mucosal epithelial cells and lose normal gastric function.

Intestinal metaplasia is divided into complete and incomplete types. The complete type is less likely to develop into gastric cancer. Controlling the disease and reducing inflammation can help reverse the situation. However, the risk of incomplete type is higher and is closely related to gastric cancer. It needs to be actively controlled or removed and regularly examined by endoscopy. If intestinal metaplasia is not controlled, it will cause severe damage to the gastric mucosa and may develop into dysplasia.

Mild dysplasia has a 20% cancer rate, and severe dysplasia has a 70% cancer rate, so once discovered, it must be treated or surgically removed as soon as possible. The last step is gastric cancer. If the prevention work in the previous steps is done well, most people will not reach this step.

What are the culprits that cause gastric mucosal atrophy?

1. Bile reflux

Long-term smoking and drinking, the elderly, and weakened gastric motility can cause bile reflux. Cholecystectomy, pyloric sphincter relaxation, and multiple gallbladder stones can also cause bile reflux. Bile reflux is closely related to chronic atrophic gastritis, because bile salts and bile acids in bile can destroy epithelial cell lipoproteins, inhibit gastric mucosal carbonate secretion, and affect the activity of gastric mucosal protective enzymes, but also increase gastric acid secretion.

2. Bad living and eating habits

Eating too few vegetables and fruits, eating too much meat and eggs, liking to eat hot and high-salt foods and other irritating foods, and abusing salicylic acid drugs can also cause chronic atrophic gastritis.

3. Helicobacter pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori infection has been listed as a class 1 carcinogen, which is the main cause of chronic gastritis. Helicobacter pylori adheres to the gastric mucosa for a long time and secretes some cytotoxins, such as urease, protein and vacuolar toxin, which weaken the killing ability of gastric acid, thereby destroying the gastric mucosal barrier and even causing damage to the gastric mucosa.

4. Lack of vitamins in the body

Research has found that patients with atrophic gastritis lack folic acid and vitamin B12 in their bodies, and some patients also have long-term Helicobacter pylori infection, which can inhibit the secretion of vitamin C by the gastric mucosa and weaken the ability to remove nitrite and oxygen free radicals, thereby aggravating the severity of chronic atrophic gastritis.

5. Immune factors

Autoimmunity is also related to atrophic gastritis. When the immune system receives wrong signals, it will directly attack the healthy cells of the gastric mucosa, leading to chronic damage.

So what exactly is the reason for the increase in gastric cancer incidence?

8 bad habits that are ruining your stomach

1. Love to eat barbecue and fried food

"Gastric cancer is a typical disease related to eating habits. It is well known that barbecue and fried foods can induce cancer." Clinically, it is found that more than half of gastric cancer patients aged 30 to 40 like to eat barbecue or spicy hot pot. In particular, people in some areas have a strong taste and like to eat barbecue. However, after grilling or smoking, foods are prone to produce substances such as 3-4 benzopyrene and cyclopentane, which are clear carcinogens.

2. Eating too much salt

In addition to barbecue, high-salt diet is also closely related to the occurrence of gastric cancer. The World Health Organization stipulates that the daily salt intake per person is 5 grams. If it exceeds this amount, the high osmotic fluid in the salt will damage the gastric mucosa, and in the long run, it is also easy to induce gastric cancer. Pickles, sausages, bacon, etc. are also high-salt foods, so you must eat less.

3. Irregular diet

The risk of stomach cancer in people who often have irregular meals is 1.3 times that of the normal population, 1.5 times that of those who eat when angry, and 4.22 times that of those who like to eat hot food. If you have all of the above, the relative risk of stomach cancer will be significantly increased.

4. Staying up late often

Although it is currently difficult to determine the relationship between gastric cancer and lack of sleep, studies have shown that lack of sleep can reduce blood flow to the stomach, reduce the stomach's self-protection ability, and greatly increase the chance of developing gastric ulcers.

5. Smoking and drinking

Smoking is also related to gastric cancer. Smoking contains a variety of carcinogens such as benzopyrene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are predisposing factors for gastric cancer. Drinking alcohol can easily damage the gastric mucosa and cause gastric bleeding. The safest drinking value is 0.

6. Helicobacter pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori is listed as a Class I carcinogen by the World Health Organization, especially for gastric cancer. Therefore, it is best to separate meals in daily life, do not chew food before feeding children, avoid cross infection with Helicobacter pylori, and develop good dining habits.

7. Too much pressure

We often encounter patients who develop gastric problems when they are under great work pressure or unhappy in life. These patients have long-term excessive mental stress, which leads to autonomic nervous system disorders: gastric juice secretion disorders, reduced blood supply to the gastric mucosa, etc. In mild cases, they have poor appetite, and in severe cases, they can cause gastric ulcers and even acute bleeding. Therefore, we gastroenterologists often tell patients that gastric ulcers are "a disease caused by worry."

8. Obesity

With the increase in the number of obese people, more and more people are suffering from gastroesophageal reflux. The proximal part of the stomach is repeatedly stimulated by the refluxed gastric acid, which significantly increases the chance of cancer. Therefore, controlling weight is not only beneficial for preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but also for preventing cancer, especially gastric cancer.

Warm suggestions from Jinan Traditional Chinese Medicine Cancer Hospital:

In addition to healthy eating and developing good living habits in daily life, we should also maintain a good attitude and learn to reduce stress, otherwise we will fall into a vicious cycle of "bad mood → stomach discomfort → worse mood → more severe stomach symptoms".