Due to poor lifestyle habits like regularly eating cold noodles and spicy hot pot for lunch and maintaining irregular eating patterns, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Adopting a scientifically healthy lifestyle is key to cancer prevention.How can white-collar workers under immense pressure avoid cancer?
23-Year-Old White-Collar Worker Develops Stomach Cancer from Winter Hotpot Habit
A 23-year-old female office worker experienced stomach discomfort for over four months. Initially attributing it to work stress and poor appetite, she consistently chose her favorite foods to stimulate eating. However, her appetite did not improve; instead, she progressed to being unable to eat.
Hospital examinations revealed diffuse cancerous infiltration throughout her stomach. With the cancer having spread extensively, doctors had no choice but to perform a total gastrectomy. Experts note that the trend of younger patients developing stomach cancer is closely linked to poor dietary habits among young adults, coupled with fast-paced lifestyles, high work pressure, and mental stress.
Experts note that a significant number of such patients are young adults with highly unbalanced diets, particularly fond of hotpot, pickled fish, and spicy foods.
Pickled Fish Contains High Nitrite Levels
Pickled foods contain substantial amounts of nitrites, whose carcinogenic effects are well-established.Sour cabbage fish is a popular dish, but the pickled cabbage itself is a preserved food containing high levels of nitrites. These combine with amines in the body to form nitrosamines, a substance with strong carcinogenic potential. Occasional consumption is generally harmless, but daily intake significantly increases the risk.
How to Avoid Excessive Nitrite Intake
After consuming pickled foods, eating vitamin-rich fruits like kiwis or grapefruits and drinking green tea can block the synthesis of nitrosamines—strong carcinogens—potentially reducing the risk of stomach and esophageal cancer.
Frequent Late-Night Snacking Increases Gastric Cancer Risk
Gastric cancer in young adults is closely linked to lifestyle and work habits. A common factor is the tendency to stay up late, which fosters the habit of eating late-night snacks—a highly detrimental practice. Studies indicate that regular late-night eating increases gastric cancer risk. Frequent nighttime meals deprive the gastrointestinal tract of essential rest;Food lingers in the stomach for extended periods, stimulating excessive gastric acid secretion that irritates the gastric mucosa. Over time, this can lead to mucosal erosion, ulcers, and weakened resistance. If the food contains carcinogens—such as those found in fried, grilled, pan-fried, or cured/smoked foods—the adverse effects on the mucosa are amplified, increasing the risk of gastric cancer.
Furthermore, because early-stage gastric cancer often presents with subtle symptoms, young people tend to neglect their health and overlook gastric disease prevention. Consequently, most young gastric cancer patients seek medical attention only at an advanced stage, missing the optimal treatment window.
Stay Vigilant About Stomach Discomfort
Upper abdominal discomfort is the most common initial symptom of gastric cancer, resembling "indigestion" or "stomach ailments." These manifestations are often overlooked by patients, particularly young individuals who are preoccupied with work and neglect their health, naively believing "I'm still young; minor ailments don't require treatment."
Key Differentiation Points and Herbal Formulations in TCM Treatment of Gastric Cancer
TCM treatment of gastric cancer fundamentally relies on distinguishing between deficiency and excess patterns. Deficiency primarily involves spleen-stomach qi deficiency or stomach yin deficiency, with potential involvement of kidney deficiency. Excess patterns require identifying whether food stagnation, qi stagnation, heat accumulation, phlegm accumulation, or blood stasis is the primary cause, or if multiple factors are involved.Gastric cancer specialist Chen Yong emphasizes that tongue coating changes warrant particular attention in differential diagnosis: a thick coating with halitosis indicates undigested food accumulation; a white, greasy coating with a sticky, sweet mouth suggests dampness pathology; a yellow coating with a bitter taste indicates heat transformation; and a peeling coating signifies gastric yin injury.
① Liver-Stomach Disharmony:
Manifestations include epigastric fullness and distension, intermittent pain radiating to the flanks, frequent belching or dysphagia after eating, thin white or thin yellow coating, red tongue body, and wiry pulse.
Treatment Principle: Soothe the liver and harmonize the stomach, descend rebellious qi and relieve pain.
Representative Formula: Modified Chaihu Shugan San.If accompanied by bitter taste, dry mouth, epigastric distension with burning sensation, indicating stagnant heat failure to disperse, omit Angelica, Bupleurum, and Ginger; add Evodia, Coptis, Scutellaria, etc. as appropriate. If constipation with dry stools and intestinal qi obstruction, add Trichosanthes seed, Prunus mume seed, or Fire hemp seed, etc.If stool remains hard after medication, remove Pinellia, Poria, and Ginger, add Raw Rheum (raw, ground), and Mirabilite (dissolve in decoction, boil thoroughly). If belching putrid odors, acid regurgitation, and foul-smelling flatulence indicate food stagnation in the stomach, add Hawthorn, Shenqu, Forsythia, and Radish Seed (crushed) as appropriate.
② Spleen-Stomach Deficiency-Cold:
Symptoms include persistent dull epigastric pain relieved by pressure and warmth, aggravated by cold foods and alleviated by warm meals, occasional vomiting of clear fluid, loose stools, or vomiting breakfast by evening/evening meal by morning. Pale complexion with no luster, fatigue, cold limbs, pale and swollen tongue with teeth marks, white slippery coating, deep and fine or deep and slow pulse.
Treatment Principle: Warm the middle burner, harmonize the stomach, fortify the spleen, and tonify qi.For loose stools or diarrhea due to spleen-kidney yang deficiency, add Chinese yam, euryale seed, chicken gizzard, catechu, psoralea, and processed cardamom. For epigastric distension, belching, nausea, vomiting, thick white greasy coating, and internal cold-dampness, reduce ginseng dosage and consider adding patchouli, Atractylodes, or Amomum.