Helicobacter pylori, it is estimated that everyone has heard this term in daily life.
This bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, a parasitic bacterium that lives in the tissues of the gastric mucosa, is highly contagious.
At the same time, this bacterium is also a class 1 carcinogenic factor of stomach cancer, and it is also the culprit of many stomach diseases.
According to conservative estimates by the World Gastrointestinal Organization, at least half of the world's population has been infected with Helicobacter pylori.
The continent, because of its large population base, is also the country with the largest number of infections with Helicobacter pylori, with an infection rate of up to 59%, and about 700 million people are infected.
This also means that --- 3 out of every 5 people have ever been infected with Helicobacter pylori.
What are the dangers of Helicobacter pylori to the body?
1. Gastrointestinal symptoms
At the initial time of infection with Helicobacter pylori, patients develop a range of symptoms of acute gastritis, such as bloating, vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, and decreased appetite. At this time, these symptoms are generally mild and easy to ignore.
Once the disease progresses, patients begin to experience persistent gastrointestinal discomfort, severe abdominal pain, increased bloating, and accompanied by acid reflux, nausea in the morning, and belching.
Second, it deteriorates into stomach cancer
If infection with Helicobacter pylori is not treated in time, the disease will continue to develop, causing a series of digestive tract symptoms that will become more and more serious, and patients will also have peptic ulcers.
If you still don't get timely treatment, once the symptoms worsen, they will become stomach cancer.
Can capsaicin inhibit the growth of Helicobacter pylori?
Recently, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have found that eating chili peppers can effectively reduce the risk of cancer in the digestive tract.
A gastroenterology research team from the University of Toronto in Canada has also confirmed that capsaicin can effectively inhibit the reproduction and infection of Helicobacter pylori, and regular use of chili peppers can prevent stomach cancer.
However, this news, in fact, is not too rigorous, its own research has not yet found the relevant literature, and although there are many studies on whether capsaicin intake has an impact on the stomach, there are no high-quality research results.
In the research literature, there is also controversy about whether capsaicin is good for the stomach, some believe that eating spicy will accelerate gastritis, and some believe that eating spicy will inhibit Helicobacter pylori and related inflammation.
All in all, at present, capsaicin is better for the gastric mucosa, or bad for the lack of evidence, and everyone does not have to eat spicy because of the so-called "good for the stomach".
How exactly is Helicobacter pylori transmitted?
In general, the specific route of infection of Helicobacter pylori has not been cleaned, usually the fecal-oral route, and there may be an oral route.
Helicobacter pylori can be infected through close contact with patients, and behaviors such as mouth-to-mouth feeding and not dividing meals (especially young children at home) can lead to infection with Helicobacter pylori.
Often eat together, will it be easy to infect Helicobacter pylori?
Some people believe that in addition, when going out to eat, if you do not use chopsticks and do not adopt a meal sharing system, it is easy to be infected.
In the process of picking vegetables with others, if someone is infected with Helicobacter pylori, then the saliva stuck to the chopsticks will carry this bacteria, and once you give others a dish, the meal will be stained with bacteria, resulting in infection.
But this is only a theoretical analysis.
For adults, kissing and infecting Helicobacter pylori is not easy, and it is not easy to have a meal, and the current infection of Helicobacter pylori is basically childhood, and there are not many infections in adulthood.
However, even if you are not afraid of Helicobacter pylori infection, it is still necessary to use public chopsticks.
After all, there are too many pathogens that rely on saliva to spread, influenza, measles, hepatitis A, open tuberculosis...
So let's not bother, use public chopsticks, and protect you and me.