Two Australian doctors won the 2005 Nobel Prize for discovering the correlation between Helicobacter pylori and gastritis and gastric ulcer.
Statistics show that the infection rate of Helicobacter pylori in different regions of China is between 30% and 80%.
70% of gastric ulcer patients and almost all duodenal ulcer patients can detect Helicobacter pylori infection.
This is an amazing number.
Therefore, Helicobacter pylori infection has attracted more and more attention.
Can Helicobacter pylori be transmitted to family members? Can Helicobacter pylori infection develop gastric cancer? How to deal with this infection correctly?
Dr. Metcalf JV from the Department of Digestive Internal Medicine of Qilu Hospital will answer one by one.
How did you catch Helicobacter pylori?
The online statement that “one person has stomach trouble and spreads it to the whole family” is somewhat bluffing, but there is some truth.
Children are more susceptible to infection than adults. Some elders have the habit of chewing food and feeding it to their children. This bad habit should really be changed.
Kissing, eating together and sharing toothbrushes can all be contagious. Therefore, Helicobacter pylori infection often has family aggregation. Children in the family need to pay more attention to avoid infection.
Using public chopsticks, using one’s own toothbrush, paying attention to washing hands, and remembering to clean food dishes can reduce the risk of Helicobacter pylori transmission to a certain extent.
Infected with Helicobacter pylori has what manifestations?
Most people infected with Helicobacter pylori do not have what symptoms. That is, they are infected, but they do not know it.
A small number of infected persons will have early satiety, abdominal distension, etc.
Helicobacter pylori infection is closely related to digestive tract ulcer, and irregular diet and taking certain drugs will further increase this risk.
What about… Gastric cancer?
Can Helicobacter pylori cause gastric cancer?
Helicobacter pylori is indeed a category 1 carcinogen, which does not mean that infected with Helicobacter pylori will definitely lead to gastric cancer, but what is certain is that timely eradication of Helicobacter pylori can effectively reduce the risk of gastric cancer.
A large-scale study in Shandong found that the incidence of gastric cancer decreased by 39% after 15 years of follow-up after eradication of Helicobacter pylori.
Eradication of Helicobacter pylori is an extremely important preventive measure for gastric cancer at present.
Before treatment, it is necessary to make sure that you are really infected.
How do you know if you are infected?
The first is the blowing test.
In short, after taking the reagent, you can detect whether you are infected with Helicobacter pylori by blowing air into the instrument.
This examination is cheap, convenient, accurate and painless, and is currently the most commonly used clinical detection method.
If ulcers, inflammation, etc. are suspected, doctors will also recommend gastroscopy. During gastroscopy, a very small piece of stomach tissue can be taken by the way to detect the presence of Helicobacter pylori.
As for the method of blood test for Helicobacter pylori antibody, it cannot accurately reflect the current infection situation. Because if you have been infected with Helicobacter pylori in the past, even if it is eradicated later, the blood can still detect positive antibody.
Confirmed the infection, do you want to treat it? How?
If you feel uncomfortable in your stomach, you should consider whether there is Helicobacter pylori infection during the examination. If Helicobacter pylori infection is found, no matter whether there are symptoms or not, regular eradication treatment should be carried out.
At present, the recommended scheme is [proton pump inhibitor + bismuth + two antibiotics] quadruple therapy, which generally requires 14 days of treatment time.
If it is the first time to be infected with Helicobacter pylori, eradication is relatively simple, please be sure to be under the guidance of experienced doctors, sufficient treatment course, at one stroke [wipe out] the bacteria, weeds and roots.
If the first treatment is not eradicated, it will be relatively complicated when the treatment is continued, and the types of antibiotics need to be specially selected according to drug resistance.
Remember here that those traditional Chinese medicines and health products that are effective in eradicating Helicobacter pylori are most likely mixed with antibiotics. This method of unknown dosage and type is very undesirable.
Go to a regular hospital, reasonable treatment, remember.
Finally, Dr. Zhang will help you sum up again:
1. In the face of Helicobacter pylori infection, don’t panic too much. Regular treatment can be completely eradicated.
2. Compared with adults, children are more likely to be infected. Reasonable treatment and attention to daily meal hygiene are beneficial to themselves, relatives and friends and other people around them.
3. As for gastric cancer, it is caused by complex multiple factors, not only Helicobacter pylori. Therefore, the prevention of gastric cancer is not just sterilization.
Quit smoking and limit alcohol consumption, eat less salt, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat three meals regularly and other healthy eating habits, do not abuse drugs, regularly review old stomach diseases… Only by paying attention to these aspects can we really play a role in preventing gastric cancer.
Readers and friends, after reading the article, do you know?