How can young people stay away from stomach cancer? Avoid three sins

In the past five years, the incidence of gastric cancer among young people aged 19 to 35 in my country has doubled compared to 30 years ago, and gastric cancer has shown a clear trend of becoming younger. In fact, gastric cancer can be prevented by changing lifestyle habits and dietary structure.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in my country, and the current number of gastric cancer patients in my country is estimated to be 760,000. Every year, there are 420,000 new gastric cancer patients and 300,000 deaths. Although the age of onset of gastric cancer is mostly between 40 and 60 years old, patients under 40 years old still account for 15% to 20%. The proportion of young people under 30 years old has increased from 1.7% in the 1970s to 3.3% at present. A gastric cancer patient recently admitted to our department was only 16 years old.

The “three sins” that cause gastric cancer

One sin - long-term smoking and drinking strong liquor.

Smoke contains a variety of carcinogenic or cancer-promoting substances such as benzopyrene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dibenzocarbazole, which are one of the causes of esophageal cancer and gastric cancer. Although alcohol itself is not a carcinogen, strong alcohol can irritate the gastric mucosa, damage the gastric mucosal tissue, and promote the absorption of carcinogens. If you smoke while drinking, the harm is even greater because alcohol can enhance the permeability of cell membranes, thereby increasing the absorption of carcinogens in smoke.

The second sin is long-term consumption of smoked, salted and moldy food.

Smoked fish and grilled meat contain a lot of carcinogens. Fried, baked, burnt food and repeatedly used high temperature cooking oil also contain such carcinogens and should be consumed as little as possible. Food mold is caused by mold, some of which are toxic fungi and are strong carcinogens. At the same time, some foods, under the action of toxic fungi, will also produce a lot of nitrites and secondary amines, which can synthesize nitrosamine compounds and cause cancer after being consumed by humans.

Pickles contain a lot of nitrite and secondary amines, which can synthesize nitrosamine compounds under the action of suitable acidity or bacteria in the stomach, which are highly carcinogenic. Therefore, it is recommended to refrigerate food that cannot be eaten at once.

Three deadly sins: obesity, long-term mental depression, etc.

How much do you know about the signs of gastric cancer?

People who did not have stomach pain in the past may have repeated stomach pain recently; or people who had stomach pain in the past may have had changes in the intensity, nature, and regularity of the pain recently, and the drugs that were effective in the past may become ineffective. If the above situations occur, you should be alert to the possibility of gastric cancer. In addition, if you have a loss of appetite for a long time, upper abdominal fullness, discomfort, or dull pain, you should also pay attention to it. If you have weight loss or black stools for unknown reasons, you should seek medical attention in time.

The high-risk group for gastric cancer is 40 to 60 years old, especially those with a history of smoking, unclean diet, and chronic gastric diseases (such as chronic atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcer, gastric polyps, residual stomach after subtotal gastrectomy, etc.). These high-risk groups should go to the hospital for a gastroscopy every 6 to 12 months. In the screening of early gastric cancer, gastroscopy combined with pathological examination has the highest correct judgment rate and the highest early gastric cancer detection rate, and painless electronic gastroscopy is the most intuitive and advanced means of gastric cancer examination.

Fight stomach cancer with food

Garlic: Garlic is a recognized anti-cancer food with obvious anti-cancer effects. Epidemiological surveys show that the incidence of gastric cancer is very low among people who eat raw garlic. The reason is that garlic can significantly reduce the nitrite content in the stomach and reduce the probability of nitrosamine synthesis, thus playing a role in cancer prevention. Some experts suggest that slicing garlic cloves and eating them appropriately can better play its anti-cancer role.