Nowadays, as the pace of people's work accelerates and the pressure continues to increase, stomach diseases have gradually become a problem that plagues people's hearts. However, in actual life, people often ignore stomach diseases, and some even develop stomach cancer without knowing it. For stomach diseases, people's general psychology is "who has not yet had a stomach disease, do not have to make a fuss" "endure and pass, rest and rest"... It is this kind of indifferent psychology that makes people indulge in life and eating habits, and in the long run, even the "iron stomach" will not be able to stand it.
In the era of information explosion, the information you want to know can be retrieved anytime and anywhere, but people still have many misunderstandings about stomach diseases, which makes the diagnosis and treatment not timely, so that the wrong medication that should not be treated deepens the damage to the stomach. To this end, I will share with you the misunderstandings of stomach disease summarized in the past 30 years of clinical diagnosis and treatment, hoping that everyone can be the first responsible person for their stomach health.
Stomach disease must take medicine?
There are many reasons for stomach upset, but you would never think that stomach problems are actually a kind of "mental illness".
Once, when recording a popular science program, the host confided to me the hardships and difficulties. She told me that whenever the live broadcast, there will definitely be a high degree of mental tension, then the stomach will be "tight", even if you see the taste of mountains and treasures and seafood, you have no appetite, and you can't eat anything. It can be seen that the feeling of the stomach is closely related to everyone's emotional mood. As early as 1,000 years ago, the famous scholar of the Golden Age of Islam, Ibn Sina, conducted a medical experiment. He fed two lambs in two different cages with the same food, except that one lamb had a wolf tethered to the outside of its cage, while the other sheep was placed in a safe and comfortable place. Shortly thereafter, the lambs "dancing with wolves" were stunted and weight-weight loss, while the other sheep was healthy. Shortly thereafter, Ibn Sinar dissected the lamb that "danced with the wolf" and found that it had a diffuse ulcer on its stomach mucosa. It can be seen that emotional activity is closely related to the health of the gastrointestinal mucosa, such as lambs, and people are no exception. Many times, some symptoms of abdominal discomfort, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, etc., are manifestations of abnormal mental state in the gastrointestinal tract.
Have you ever had the experience of getting into a big fight with someone else because of some trivial matter in your life, or beating your chest in anger because you disagree with the other person's point of view, or always beating your chest when you can't teach your child to do problems? In addition to anger, do you feel bloody veins, dizzy and tinnitus, and your chest is pounding? When people appear angry, the body is equivalent to experiencing a small "storm of inflammation", the gastrointestinal tract is impacted after a series of changes, the internal performance is gastrointestinal mucosa congestion, digestive peristalsis slower; Externally, it is manifested as acid reflux, belching, bloating, abdominal pain and other symptoms.
In addition, a common emotion is anxiety, which is essentially an uneasy emotional state. When you worry about whether the work can be completed on time, worry about your future, worry about your child's schoolwork performance, and always feel that your heart is not solid, it is anxiety that is at work. The mental stress caused by anxiety will also bring great pressure to the human gastrointestinal tract, and even "press out" stomach cancer! There was a very special patient in the clinic, who was the former head of a certain engineer regiment and was assigned by his superiors to go to Libya to help build an airstrip. At that time, there were still two months to go to the local rainy season, the construction period was not waiting for anyone, he studied the drawings during the day, and often could not take care of eating because he was busy; In the evenings he continued his research, sometimes working all night to figure out a problem. Under his high-intensity operation, the work was completed on schedule, but in the process, he began to have stomach pains, and it became heavier and heavier, and he even needed to tie his waist with cloth strips. By the time I returned to China for examination, I was already in advanced stomach cancer. It can be seen how much of an impact emotion has.
Therefore, many times the stomach discomfort is not necessary to take medicine to solve, but to adjust their emotional mentality, adjust their living and eating habits, and related problems will be solved.
Does stomach cancer have nothing to do with young people?
Many people think that stomach cancer is just a disease of old age, and it has nothing to do with young people. But the reality is that surveys in recent years have found that stomach cancer is getting younger. In each outpatient visit, there are young and middle-aged people in their thirties and forties, or even teenagers. In an analysis of 39,000 people under the age of 40 in the United States from 1977 to 2006, the incidence of gastric cancer among young people aged 25-39 increased significantly (the rate per 100,000 people increased from 0.27 to 0.45). In some subtypes of gastric cancer, such as indycillary cell carcinoma, there is an upward trend, which is mostly concentrated in young women. The US SEAR database shows that young women under the age of 45 have a higher incidence and usually stage tumors later. South Korean studies have shown that women have a higher incidence of cell carcinoma and a worse prognosis.
"Rejuvenation of stomach cancer" is not only a relatively novel research direction in medicine in recent years, but also a hot topic that people are paying more and more attention to. Despite the public's growing concern about their own health, some young people still believe that "stomach cancer" cannot happen to them. In fact, stomach cancer is a disease closely related to life and eating habits. Contemporary young people basically have bad habits such as irregular diet and overeating, which are risk factors for stomach cancer.
To prevent stomach cancer, young people should pay special attention to the following points:
The first is hereditary factors. If there are first-degree relatives (parents and siblings) with stomach cancer, the probability of stomach cancer will exceed that of the general population, such as the Napoleon family, his grandfather, father and three sisters have died of stomach cancer, and a total of 7 people in the whole family, including himself, have stomach cancer. This group of people should be vigilant about abdominal symptoms at any age, consult a specialist if necessary, and make an appropriate plan for regular physical examinations when asymptomatic.
The second is Helicobacter pylori infection. More data show that the decline in the incidence of gastric cancer is closely related to helicobacter pylori eradication. Therefore, good eating habits, such as adhering to the meal sharing system, should continue to be maintained. The Beijing Municipal Regulations on the Promotion of Civilized Behavior have added a meal sharing system and public chopsticks and spoons, which is precisely to reduce the infection and spread of Helicobacter pylori. If a family member is found to be infected with Helicobacter pylori, other members of the family should strictly divide meals. Infected people should take drugs and re-examine in strict accordance with medical instructions to avoid drug resistance problems or recurrence after radical treatment as much as possible.
Is a total belch is just a sign that you're full?
Full burp, professionally called belch. "Full burp" is a common phenomenon in life and one of the common symptoms of various digestive tract diseases. However, there are some differences between belching and hiccups, although they are all gases coming out of the body, but the sound of hiccups is louder and clearer, generally several in a row, uncontrolled. The belching sound is not obvious, it feels like a gush of air comes up and squirts out of the throat, there is no obvious sound, often accompanied by a sour and rotten taste. Be aware that these two symptoms are different. Belching is the sound made by the gas in the stomach that is reversed and exited the throat, and its sound is long and slow, which is called hiccup in ancient times. Belching in the Roman standard is divided into: swallowing and nonspecific excessive belching. Occasional belching is a normal phenomenon, but frequent belching may be a manifestation of stomach problems, and many people with bad stomach will often belch.
Belching is caused by gastrointestinal disturbances and is commonly ingested from gas-producing foods or from swallowing disorder (unconscious swallowing of air). Belching is a coping method for the body to alleviate most of the symptoms of nausea, heartburn, indigestion, and flatulence, and the core problem is insufficient gastric motility. Common causes of gastric hypomotility include gastroesophageal reflux disease, peptic ulcer, or Helicobacter pylori infection.
Therefore, in the face of long-term continuous hiccups, it should be noted that there may be problems in the gastrointestinal tract. The first step is to identify the cause. If there is a gastrointestinal disease, it is necessary to systematically standardize treatment, and the key to treatment is to standardize the medication of the foot course. If gastrointestinal diseases are not present, then the symptoms of belching are relieved mainly to improve living and eating habits. For example, when some people eat or drink, they always like to drink very hot, eat while eating, the esophagus is afraid of heat, if you often eat things that are too hot and too hot, it is prone to problems, resulting in belching. The belching caused by the problem in this situation is often accompanied by the phenomenon of reflux. Problems with the intestines can also trigger belching. Due to diet and living habits, people with poor intestinal function have problems such as slow intestinal peristalsis and constipation, internal flora disorders, easy to generate gas in the body, and frequent belching.
Therefore, in daily life, we should pay attention to diet, eat less cold food, eat less spicy and stimulating food, eat less greasy food, eat less hot food, and eat less foods that are easy to produce gas, such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, taro and so on. Eat lightly, eat more vegetables and fruits, eat more coarse grains, slow down when eating, chew food thoroughly before swallowing. Three meals a day should be regular, the diet should be well adjusted, the digestive system will be better, and the belching situation will be improved. A walk after a full meal is also a good way to relieve belching, which can make the food better digested and the stomach will become stronger.
Is bad breath simply because the mouth is not adequately cleaned?
In daily life, we have all encountered the situation of oral odor, which is what we often call bad breath. Sometimes, bad breath disappears naturally in a few days, but sometimes it lasts for a long time, even affecting daily interpersonal interactions, resulting in "having a hard time speaking". When it comes to the reason, many people will say that it is on fire. So what exactly causes bad breath?
The first thing that comes to mind is that the mouth may not be clean. Indeed, some of it has to do with the mouth. For example, tooth decay or carious holes in the mouth, causing food debris to hide in it, and bacteria breeding to cause bad breath; Periodontal disease, plaque and calculus can also produce bad breath; Smoking and drinking alcohol can also produce oral odors. For these situations, we can solve them by cleaning the mouth regularly. But sometimes we find that some patients with bad breath can still smell the smell of the gas exhaled from the nose even if they don't speak.
Some of the "bad breath" does not come from the mouth, but is accompanied by a bitter taste. This is caused by diseases of the esophagus and gastrointestinal tract. Diseases such as cardia sphincter contraction insufficiency, hiatal hernia and other diseases lead to stomach acid, food back into the mouth, these digested foods and stomach acid will produce odor, but also may be accompanied by heartburn, chest pain, and even affect normal rest.
But there are some unexpected causes of bad breath that need to be paid attention to, that is, Helicobacter pylori infection. Helicobacter pylori is parasitic in the stomach and hydrolyzes urea by urease, producing ammonia. We know that ammonia is a foul-smelling gas, not only that, Helicobacter pylori can also cause chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, and even lead to the occurrence of stomach cancer, it has been identified by the World Health Organization and the Mainland Food and Drug Administration as a class of carcinogens.
Globally, many people have been infected with Helicobacter pylori, a higher proportion in developing countries, and the average continental infection rate is about 50%. Helicobacter pylori infection can cause symptoms such as epigastric discomfort, pain and nausea, and can increase the probability of stomach cancer by 5.9 times within ten years of infection. Therefore, it is recommended to check regularly for Helicobacter pylori infection. At the same time, the results of the study published in the New England Journal in 2020 showed that in first-degree relatives with a family history of gastric cancer, eradication of Helicobacter pylori can reduce the risk of stomach cancer. Some people will ask, I have found chronic gastritis or chronic gastric ulcers, is it still useful to treat Helicobacter pylori? Of course, treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection can reduce the risk of stomach cancer by 50%. If the physical examination finds that you have Helicobacter pylori infection, you must carry out formal radical treatment in the hospital.
How can it be prevented for people who are not infected? Helicobacter pylori transmission routes include mouth-to-mouth transmission, fecal-oral transmission, or unhygienic eating habits. In layman's terms, it is to avoid eating unclean water and food, avoid long-term close contact with infected people and use common tableware. Everyone will have daily dinner activities, and the best way is to use public chopsticks. I hope that you can firmly remember this habit and really implement it.
At the end of the day, when you have bad breath, be sure to check the cause. If it is not an oral problem, remember to check the gastrointestinal tract and kill the disease in the cradle.
Is gastritis all benign?
If you suddenly want to do a gastroscopy today on a whim, there is a high probability that you will see the words "chronic gastritis" on your gastroscopy report in a few days. The first reaction of many friends is, my stomach actually has inflammation? Isn't inflammation benign? Is it better to take some medicine? At this time, if you go to a professional doctor, he will definitely let you carefully read your gastroscopy report, whether it is chronic superficial gastritis, or chronic atrophic gastritis, or with "enteration", "intestinal epithelial metaplasia", and even "intraepithelial neoplasia". These different words, although they all have the word gastritis, but they are very different.
The gastric mucosa is like a forest, and Helicobacter pylori is the most common pest in this forest. The gastric mucosa infected with Helicobacter pylori can be seen under the microscope as atrophy of the gastric mucosa and a decrease in glands, leading to the occurrence of chronic gastritis. Gastritis caused by Helicobacter pylori tends to occur in the antrums, and this bacterium can even increase the risk of stomach cancer. Duodenal reflux is like a flood, long-term reflux stimulation can lead to chronic inflammation of the gastric mucosa, reduced gastric acid secretion, and may also cause severe anemia, which is why many friends with stomach diseases have anemia. For various reasons, the forest of the gastric mucosa is destroyed, and the lymphocytes of the forest police will move, and inflammation will occur. If the infiltration range of lymphocytes and plasma cells is limited to 1/3 of the upper layer of the gastric mucosa, this is superficial gastritis, and the surface of the gastric mucosa of most friends is in this situation. If the causative factors continue to act, the glands are constantly destroyed, the number becomes smaller, the inherent layer is fibrosis, the mucous membrane becomes thinner, that is, atrophy occurs, at which time it progresses to atrophic gastritis, which is seriously damaged under the vegetation and the risk of cancer increases. Long-term chronic inflammation can also lead to the replacement of the epithelium of the surface layer of the gastric mucosa by other cells, such as gastroscopy reports the common "intestinal epithelial metaplasia", that is, the intestinal glands characterized by goblet cells replace the original glands of the gastric mucosa, which can be analogous to the fact that due to changes in the environment, the original vegetation disappears and is replaced by another batch of plants, and there is a risk of gastric cancer. Atypical hyperplasia is the excessive proliferation and loss of differentiation of gastric mucosal epithelial cells under the influence of disease, regeneration and repair, just as the vegetation here is subjected to radiation mutation, specifically under the microscope can be observed to enlarge the nucleus, increase mitosis, glandular structure disorders and so on. Atrophy, metaplasia, and atypical hyperplasia of the gastric mucosa are all precancerous lesions of gastric cancer and require vigilance.
Therefore, when the physical examination finds chronic atrophic gastritis, or with the words entericization, etc., it must be paid attention to, regular monitoring, early detection of cancer, and intervention.
(Author: Tian Yantao, Director and Chief Physician of pancreatic and gastric Surgery Division, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily