Primary culprit of gastropathy: more than half of China’s population is infected with Helicobacter pylori

Food is the most important thing for the people. Eating has always been their top priority.

In modern society, we no longer worry about the factors of food shortage, but the stomach trouble that has plagued human beings for a long time has made many people unable to stop.

When we turn on the TV, we often see advertisements about the treatment of stomach diseases. What’s four uncles and two uncles, and a what biscuit also use the banner of “nourishing the stomach”. Looking at the appearance of the biscuit, it is somewhat similar to the surface of gastric mucosa. This implies that the biscuit can “nourish the stomach”? It really takes the way of thinking of taking analogy images in traditional medicine to the extreme.

However, the treatment of gastropathy has never been a simple matter, because for a long period of time, people have been at a loss as to the cause of gastropathy, and it is still quite recent to really lock in the culprit.

The culprit of stomach trouble

In 1983, Australian scholars J. Robin Warren and Barry J. Marshall discovered Helicobacter pylori in human gastric mucosa tissue. In subsequent studies, they found that Helicobacter pylori is closely related to chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and even gastric cancer.

However, this view did not attract enough attention at that time. In order to convince his colleagues, Marshall even risked drinking a large cup of culture solution containing a large amount of Helicobacter pylori, making himself sick before treatment… … …

Until 1994, Only then did the National Institutes of Health recognize Helicobacter pylori as the main pathogenic factor of peptic ulcer and should be treated with antibiotics. Due to the major discoveries of these two pioneers, diseases such as gastric ulcer have changed from chronic diseases that were originally considered difficult to people’s minds to common diseases that can be cured with short courses of antibiotics and acid inhibitors.

The discovery of Helicobacter pylori is regarded as one of the important discoveries in modern medical history. In 2005, Warren and Marshall won the Nobel Prize in Physiological Medicine or Medicine for their discovery of Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer.

Hidden Helicobacter Pylori

Why didn’t people want to believe that Helicobacter pylori was the culprit of these stomach diseases at first?

1. Preference for acid environment in stomach

Some people think, in such a high acidity environment in the stomach, how can bacteria still exist and cause diseases? But in fact, for millions of years, this annoying bacterium has really had a special liking for the special environment of human stomach, and human has become the only natural host of this bacterium.

2. The infection rate is high, which may lead to various diseases after infection.

According to epidemiological studies, Helicobacter pylori has infected more than half of the world’s population and even as high as 90% in developing countries.

Helicobacter pylori is closely related to various gastrointestinal diseases such as peptic ulcer, gastric cancer, chronic gastritis and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma, and may also be related to various parenteral diseases such as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and iron deficiency anemia of unknown causes.

3. Eradicate Helicobacter pylori and make it possible to [cure gastric ulcer]

Before the discovery of Helicobacter pylori in humans, Doctors use acid inhibitory drugs, can also make some gastritis, digestive tract ulcer and other gastropathy patients get relief, but after stopping drugs, often have a very high recurrence rate. However, when the eradication of Helicobacter pylori becomes a necessary step for comprehensive treatment, its recurrence rate is greatly reduced, thus making the vast majority of gastropathy patients completely cured.

4. The deceitful Helicobacter pylori has no single drug to kill

But even today, the cure rate of stomach diseases is less than 100%.

On the one hand, Helicobacter pylori itself has coexisted with human evolution for so long that it has long become extremely deceitful and difficult to deal with.

They are hiding under the mucus layer of the stomach and on the surface of gastric epithelial cells. Injection administration is ineffective for it. Oral administration is greatly reduced by gastric acid environment, mucus layer barrier and continuous emptying of the stomach.

On the other hand, many patients have poor compliance, do not complete the course of treatment as required, take medicine irregularly, reduce the dosage, etc., which can lead to the failure of eradication treatment.

5. Only when antacids and antibiotics are combined can it be possible to kill Helicobacter pylori.

Because, in order to treat stomach diseases and kill Helicobacter pylori, there is no single drug that can be competent at all. What is needed is multi-channel operations and multi-drug combination.

Specifically, on the one hand, acid-inhibiting drugs and gastric mucosa protective agents are used to protect the stomach, and on the other hand, antibiotics are combined to kill Helicobacter pylori. Clinically, triple and quadruple schemes are commonly used, with treatment courses ranging from 10 to 14 days.

What I want to remind readers is that the treatment of stomach diseases is by no means as simple as the TV advertisement implies, and it is unlikely to be cured by taking drugs by oneself.

For the sake of health care, professional matters are still handed over to professional people, and it is better to follow the doctor’s advice to arrange the specific administration, course of treatment and reexamination.

How to prevent Helicobacter pylori infection?

Even the best treatment plan is not as effective as an effective preventive measure.

1. Oral transmission is the main route.

At present, oral transmission is believed to be the main route of transmission. For example, kissing between lovers, therefore, Helicobacter pylori is also called [kissing disease]; Parents chew the food before feeding it to their children. Sharing tableware; Wait.

2. It is really impossible to completely cut off mouth-to-mouth transmission.

However, the fundamental solution to the problem may lie elsewhere. For example, the bad habit of parents feeding by mouth is good for improvement. But is kissing impossible to prevent? Because the infection rate of Helicobacter pylori in the population is so high, you can’t pull people to do a test before kissing, can you?

3. The infection rate of Helicobacter pylori in backward areas is obviously high.

Judging from the current data, Helicobacter pylori is a typical disease, and the infection rate in developing countries is much higher than that in developed countries.

However, in developing countries such as China, the infection rate in backward areas in the mainland is significantly higher than that in developed coastal areas. The data in recent years also suggest that the overall infection rate in China is decreasing, which should have a great relationship with the continuous improvement of China’s economic level.

4. Multidimensional preventive measures

From a personal point of view, infected with Helicobacter pylori, stomach trouble, should be standardized treatment, not self-righteous indiscriminate treatment. In order to prevent infection, daily diet should develop good hygiene habits-wash hands before meals and after defecation this [cliche], still have to continue to talk.

From the national level, developing economy, improving people’s living standards and improving living environment can fundamentally reduce the occurrence of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Small Helicobacter pylori, involved in a lot of things!

Author: Li Morning