A Comprehensive Guide to Stomach Cancer

Stomach cancer starts when cancer cells form in the inner lining of your stomach. This is a slow-growing disease that usually grows over many years.

If you know its symptoms, you and your doctor might be able to spot it early, when it's a lot easier to treat. 

 

What Causes Stomach Cancer?

Doctors don't know what causes cancer cells to start growing in the stomach, but they do know a few things that can increase your risk of getting the disease. One of them is infection with a common bacteria, H. pylori, which causes ulcers. Growths in your stomach can also increase your likelihood of getting stomach cancer. 

 

Other things that seem to play a role in increasing your risk include: 

 

• Being overweight or obese 

• Smoking 

• Type-A blood 

• A diet that is high in smoked, pickled, or salty foods 

• Certain genes 

• Exposure to asbestos 

• Working in coal, timber, metal, or rubber industries 

• Epstein-Barr virus infection

Symptoms  

Early on, stomach cancer may cause: 

 

• Heartburn 

• Indigestion 

• Feeling bloated after a meal 

• Slight nausea 

• Loss of appetite 

 

Just having heartburn or indigestion after a meal doesn't mean that you have stomach cancer. However, if these symptoms occur a lot, talk to your doctor. They will be able to see if you have other risk factors and give you some tests to detect any problems. As the stomach tumor starts to grow, you may have more serious symptoms, such as:

Blood in your stool 

• Stomach pain 

• Vomiting 

• Weight loss for no apparent reason 

• Trouble swallowing 

• Yellowish eyes or skin 

• Swelling in your stomach 

• Constipation or diarrhea 

• Weakness or feeling tired 

• Heartburn

Getting a Diagnosis 

Your doctor will give you a physical exam. He should also ask you about your medical history to see if you have any risk factors for stomach cancer or any family members who have had it. Then, he might give you some tests, including: 

 

• Blood tests to look for signs of cancer in your body. 

 

• Upper GI series test - You will drink a chalky liquid with a substance called barium in it. The fluid coats your stomach and makes it show more clearly on X-rays. 

 

• Upper endoscopy - Your doctor will place a thin, flexible tube with a small camera down your throat to look into your stomach. 

 

• Biopsy - Your doctor takes a small piece of tissue from your stomach to look at under a microscope for signs of cancer cells. 

 

• CT Scan - This is a powerful X-ray that takes detailed pictures of the inside of your body.  

 

Treatment

There are many treatments that are used to fight stomach cancer. The one that you and your doctor choose will depend on how long you have had the disease or how much it has spread through your body.

 

Surgery

Your doctor might decide to remove part of your stomach and other tissues nearby that have cancer cells. Surgery gets rid of the tumor and stops it from spreading further. If your disease is advanced, the doctor might need to remove all of your stomach. 

 

Chemotherapy  

Drugs kill your cancer cells or keep them from growing. You can take them as pills or through an IV at a hospital. Chemo usually takes several weeks, and the drugs often have unpleasant side effects.  

 

Radiation  

High-energy waves or particles can destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. Your doctor may use an X-ray or other machines to beam radiation at the tumor. 

 

Targeted Drugs These newer drugs are different because they only fight the cancer cells. Other treatments, such as radiation and chemo, can kill healthy cells along with diseased ones. As a result, targeted therapies have fewer side effects than other treatments.

How Can I Prevent Stomach Cancer?  

Eat Healthy

Put more fruit and vegetables on your plate every day. They're high in fiber and vitamins that can lower your cancer risk. You should avoid very salty, cured, pickled, or smoked foods, processed lunch meats, and smoked cheeses. Keep your weight at a healthy level too, as being overweight increases your risk of the disease. 

 

Don't Smoke  

Your risk of getting stomach cancer is doubled if you use tobacco.

 

Treat Stomach Infections 

If you have stomach ulcers from a H. Pylori infection, get treatment. Antibiotics can kill the bacteria, and other drugs will heal the sores in the lining of your stomach to decrease your risk of cancer.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Coronavirus: People with Type-A blood more susceptible to virus, claims study

Results of a new preliminary study from China have stated that people with Type-A blood are more vulnerable to coronavirus. The same study has concluded that people with Type-O blood could be more resistant to coronavirus.

Researchers conducted this study at two hospitals in Wuhan, the place of origin of the coronavirus outbreak, and one hospital in Shenzhen, China. The study compared blood types of 2,173 patients, who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 using the SARS-CoV-2 test, with more than 3,694 healthy inhabitants of Wuhan.

 "A total of 1,775 patients with COVID-19, including 206 dead cases, from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan, China were recruited. Another 113 and 285 patients with COVID-19 were respectively recruited from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan and Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China," says the study.

"ABO group in 3694 normal people in Wuhan showed a distribution of 32.16%, 24.90%, 9.10% and 33.84% for A, B, AB and O," says the study. This showed that people with Type-A blood are the most common in Wuhan while people with Type-O blood are the least common. More results were deduced when the healthy samples were compared with people infected with the virus.

According to the study, among the 1,775 patients studied in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, 37.75 percent were Type-A and 9.10 percent were Type-O. This meant Type-A blood was most common among patients infected with the coronavirus while Type-O blood was the least common.

Among the 206 patients who died from the virus, 41.26 percent, had Type A-blood. While only around 25 percent of the deaths were of people with Type-O blood.

The observations from the study stated that the proportion of people with Type- A blood infected or killed by the virus was found to be much higher than other blood groups. It also clearly demonstrated that in comparison to other blood groups the proportion of people with Type-O blood infected or killed by the virus was lower.

"People of blood group A might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection," wrote the researchers at the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine based out of Wuhan, according to the New York Post.

"If you are type A, there is no need to panic. It does not mean you will be infected 100 percent," Gao Yingdai, a researcher in the city of Tianjin, told the daily. "If you are type O, it does not mean you are absolutely safe, either. You still need to wash your hands and follow the guidelines issued by authorities," added Yingdai.

The team leader Wang Xinghuan has said that the study is just "preliminary" and more research needs to be done before concrete results can be observed.

Across the world, around 196,000 people have been confirmed positive for the coronavirus. The virus has already claimed more than 7,800 lives from all over the world.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
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