Gastric cancer is a type of malignant tumor that originates from the epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa. A high percentage of mortality and morbidity puts this cancer on the second place in terms of danger to human life among malignant tumors, second only to lung cancer. The main risk group is men after age 40, but quite often carcinomas are diagnosed in less vulnerable women and younger people. All this is due to the fact that the modern way of life and the environment have a very negative effect on health. While expressing their recommendations on the prevention of cancer, doctors pay attention to the factors that contribute to their development.
The true causes of stomach cancer are not known to date, but modern medicine defines a number of well-studied factors that increase the risk of tumor formation:
- An improper diet is the excessive use of salt, smoked and dried foods, alcohol, and also a small amount of fruits and vegetablesin the diet;
- Smoking - scientists have proven that carcinogens that enter the body from tobacco smoke significantly increase the risk of stomach cancer;
- Chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - in particular, atrophic gastritis, caused by the presence in the body of a parasitic microorganism helikobakter;
- Heredity - very often this disease manifests itself in people whose family it arose with close relatives or in each previous generation;
- Injuries and surgery - in the group at increased risk for the disease of stomach cancer are those who have undergone surgery to remove part of the stomach.
To avoid this disease and reduce the risk of its manifestation to a minimum, it is necessary to exclude the aforementioned negative impact on the body through prevention measures. The first recommendation is the diagnosis and timely treatment of diseases that can later develop into stomach cancer. According to statistics, this disease is diagnosed in stage IV in 80% of cases, when 95% of patients can no longer help. Therefore, recommendations for monitoring their health are in the first line of prevention of stomach cancer.
No less important is the question of compliance with the right diet. A balanced diet, which contains a large number of vegetables and fruits with a high content of vitamins A, E, C and the exclusion from the diet of pickles, smoking and nitrate-containing food will help prevent further complications of already existing gastritis or ulcers, or avoid their formation.
The next stage of prevention is the rejection of bad habits. Alcohol and smoking have a very strong influence on the development of stomach cancer. The probability of a disease in a person with these harmful habits is 10 times higher than that of a person who leads a healthy lifestyle. In addition, the harm from these substances extends to other organs, provoking no less serious diseases.
People who have gastric cancer - a hereditary disease, should follow all the indicated preventive measures without fail. This applies to those who have had stomach damage or surgery to remove part of it.
Special attention in the prevention system deserves a proven cause of this disease - Helicobacter pylori. This microorganism prefers an acidic environment and is able to survive in conditions unacceptable to other bacteria. And although the majority of people infected with this microorganism are not susceptible to the development of stomach cancer, a measure of preventing a possible cancer will be to identify this bacterium and fight it.