Qingqing has just turned 30. Having grown up in a small county, she loves the colourful life in the big city. On weekends, she meets colleagues and friends to eat and shop. Qing Qing had no food taboos and ate everything she wanted.
However, in the last year, Qingqing has been feeling uncomfortably bloated after meals, with occasional regurgitation and nausea.
At first the symptoms were mild and she didn't take them seriously, thinking she had eaten something bad.
Until recently, Qingqing felt a vague pain in her upper left abdomen, sometimes so severe that it caused nausea and vomiting. What alarmed her even more was that the vomit was accompanied by blood, so Qing Qing made an appointment for a gastroscopy.
The tests revealed that Qing's case was a progressive form of stomach cancer. Fortunately, it was caught early and could still be treated with surgery to remove it.
I,From gastritis to stomach cancer in just 4 steps
Clinical findings show that nearly 65% of gastric cancer patients have a history of gastric disease, and the duration of gastric disease is more than 4 years. But in fact, it is not far from gastritis to gastric cancer.
Generally speaking, mild gastritis, i.e. superficial gastritis, does not increase the risk of gastric cancer, but if not adjusted in time, it may further develop into atrophic gastritis, which is the state of "precancerous lesions".
Precancerous lesions have an increased risk of becoming cancerous, and if diagnosed and left untreated, they may develop into intestinal epithelial hyperplasia, where the epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa appear to be abnormally proliferating, and once atypical hyperplasia occurs, there is a high risk of developing into gastric cancer.
What is the "turning point" for chronic gastritis to develop into gastric cancer?
Chronic gastritis is mainly caused by bacterial infection, with Helicobacter pylori being the main cause of gastritis. Long-term infection by the virus can aggravate the condition through toxins and immune damage, and promote repeated damage to the gastric mucosa.
However, H. pylori is not the only culprit of gastric cancer. Irregular diet and poor structure can also damage the gastric mucosa. The combination of these factors can lead to the "persistence" of the gastric mucosa, which eventually leads to the transformation of gastritis into gastric cancer.
The process is accelerated by these undesirable behaviours:
1,Uncontrolled drinking
Alcohol can directly damage the epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa, causing damage to the gastric mucosal barrier and also stimulating the gastric mucosal vessels, causing repeated congestion of the gastric mucosa.
2,Heavy smoking
Smoking not only causes direct damage to the lungs, but the nicotine in cigarettes also stimulates the gastric mucosa, causing mucosal ischemia and hypoxia, and also relaxes the pyloric sphincter, causing bile reflux, resulting in gastric mucosal erosion and bleeding.
3,Eat too salty
Eating too salty and having a high concentration of salt in the stomach can also cause damage to the gastric mucosal barrier and can lead to gastric mucosal degeneration and diffuse erosion.
4.Take medicine for a long time
Certain medications can also have a damaging effect on the stomach, especially if they are marked in the instructions.
If there are 4 changes in the body, it means that the stomach disease is "getting worse".
Most patients with stomach cancer do not have any obvious clinical symptoms, most of them feel discomfort in the upper abdomen, burping easily and a bit of regurgitation, but these symptoms are similar to indigestion and are often confused by patients.
However, there are still subtle distinctions between stomach cancer and stomach diseases such as gastritis. Patients should pay attention if they experience the following 4 symptoms:
1,Heartburn and acid reflux
Heartburn refers to the obvious burning sensation near the lower part of the sternum, which is caused by the acidic contents of the stomach running into the esophagus and corroding the mucous membrane; acid reflux is the reflux of food into the mouth through the esophagus.
If this feeling persists for a period of time, we should be aware that it may be caused by stomach problems "going bad".
2,Irregular stomach pain
Both gastritis and stomach ulcers have their own pain characteristics.
For example, gastric ulcers usually occur about an hour after a meal; gastritis, usually after eating irritating food, may appear. Once the pain becomes irregular, it is important to be alert to the possibility of cancer.
3,Sudden weight loss
Without diet or exercise intervention, patients should be highly suspicious if their weight changes rapidly in a short period of time, there is a significant loss of body weight, and taking medication is unable to relieve diarrhoea and bloating.
4,Touching a lump
When touching the abdomen, feel the obvious lump, hard texture, squeeze with pain, need to be alert to whether the tumor enlargement performance.
3,Helicobacter pylori is the biggest culprit of stomach cancer, how to eradicate it?
With 50% of the world's population infected with H. pylori, it is clear that H. pylori is highly contagious.
H. pylori infection is a major cause of stomach cancer and analysis has found that people infected with H. pylori have a nearly six-fold increased risk of non-cardia gastric cancer and a three-fold increased risk of cardia cancer.
Therefore, treatment of H. pylori is a key means of preventing gastric cancer: 1:
1, Adhere to quadruple therapy treatment
At present, H. pylori is mainly treated with quadruple drug therapy, i.e. a drug that inhibits stomach acid (PPI), two antibiotics and bismuth, twice a day for 10 or 14 days as a course of treatment.
Some patients may experience allergic rash, fever and liver function impairment during the course of the medication, which should be discontinued and seen in hospital as soon as it occurs.
In addition, the end of the course of treatment is not the end of treatment. The success of eradication treatment is usually reviewed 4 weeks after the end of the course. Even if eradication is successful, regular check-ups at the hospital are recommended.
2,Good diet and hygiene habits
H. pylori can be transmitted in many ways, so practising good diet and hygiene habits will help to keep the germs away.
If one person in the family is infected with H. pylori, it is important to share meals and to use communal chopsticks and spoons to serve food.
3,Regular check-ups
If one member of the family is infected, the infection rate of other members will also increase, so regular check-ups are needed for early prevention and treatment.
The internationally accepted test for H. pylori is the C13 and C14 breath tests, which are currently one of the most commonly used tests and have an accuracy rate of up to 95%.
The increasing incidence of stomach cancer at a younger age is a warning to young people not to spoil their stomachs by eating and drinking indiscriminately just because they are young. Although stomach cancer is not an acute disease, it is likely to cause irreparable damage to the stomach if left unattended.
