If you love eating salted fish, beware of nasopharyngeal cancer

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a malignant tumor that occurs in the nasopharyngeal mucosa. Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hunan and other places in my country are high-incidence areas for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Among them, Guangdong and Hong Kong are the areas with the highest incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the world. According to relevant research, this may be related to the local people's habit of eating salted fish. Frequent consumption of salted fish can increase the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, especially for those who often eat salted fish since childhood. The risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is 30 times that of ordinary people.

It is understood that there are two types of salted fish commonly eaten in Guangdong. One is to leave the fresh fish until it becomes spoiled, swollen and smelly, then add salt to it and dry it to become "moldy salted fish" with a special smell; the other is to add salt to the fresh fish in time and then dry it after 7 days. The locals call it "real salted fish".

Some scholars fed rats with the first type of salted fish and found that the incidence of nasal and paranasal sinus cancer in rats increased, and the incidence increased with the increase of salted fish intake. According to further research, first, "moldy salted fish" contains high levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosodiethylamine, and nitrosodiamine has been proven to be a serious carcinogen; second, there are some chemicals in salted fish that can activate Epstein-Barr virus, and infection with Epstein-Barr virus is recognized worldwide as an activator that can cause the proliferation of nasopharyngeal cancer cells.

Therefore, people living in areas with a high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer should pay attention to the prevention of rhinitis and control their intake of salted fish.