Nine Taboos for Stomach Care for Office Men
Office workers often face high work intensity and numerous social engagements, leading to irregular diets and excessive physical strain. Consequently, they are a high-risk group for stomach ailments. To maintain a healthy stomach, remember to avoid these nine taboos.
1. Avoid Mental Stress
When a person is tense, anxious, or angry, these negative emotions can spread from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system, affecting the autonomic nervous system. This directly leads to gastrointestinal dysfunction, causing excessive secretion of gastric acid and pepsin, contraction of gastric blood vessels, pyloric spasms, delayed emptying, and damage to the gastric mucosal protective layer, resulting in self-digestion and ulcer formation.
2. Avoid Overexertion
Whether from physical or mental labor, excessive fatigue can cause insufficient blood supply to the stomach, disrupt secretory functions, lead to excessive gastric acid and reduced mucus, and damage the mucosal lining.
3. Avoid Excessive Drinking
Alcohol can directly damage the gastric mucosa. It can also cause cirrhosis of the liver and chronic pancreatitis, which in turn exacerbates stomach damage.
4. Avoid Irregular Meal Patterns
When hungry, gastric acid and pepsin in the stomach are not neutralized by food, resulting in a high concentration that can cause self-digestion of the mucosa. Overeating, on the other hand, can damage the stomach's self-protection mechanisms; excessive expansion of the stomach wall and prolonged food retention can also contribute to stomach damage.
5. Avoid Unhygienic Food
*Helicobacter pylori* infection is a significant cause of stomach and duodenal ulcers. The detection rate of this bacterium in ulcer patients is as high as 70-90%, and it disappears after the ulcer is cured. Ulcer patients can transmit the infection through close contact such as utensils, toothbrushes, and kissing. Contaminated food is also a source of infection.
6. Avoid Overeating at Dinner
Some people concentrate their daily nutritional intake at dinner, or enjoy late-night snacks or something to eat before bed. This practice not only leads to poor sleep and obesity but can also stimulate the gastric mucosa to secrete excessive gastric acid, triggering ulcer formation.
7. Avoid Eating Too Quickly
After food enters the stomach, it is stored, ground, and digested into a chyme-like substance before being expelled into the intestines. If food is chewed poorly and swallowed hastily, its rough texture increases the stomach's burden, prolongs its stay, and can damage the gastric mucosa. Additionally, chewing slowly increases saliva secretion, which reduces the secretion of gastric acid and bile, helping to protect the stomach.
8. Avoid Coffee and Strong Tea
Coffee and strong tea are both central nervous system stimulants that can reflexively cause gastric mucosal ischemia,破坏 the protective function of the gastric mucosa, and promote ulcer formation.
9. Avoid Misusing Medications
Medications that can easily damage the gastric mucosa mainly fall into three categories: acetylsalicylic acid drugs like aspirin; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as phenylbutazone, indomethacin, and ibuprofen; and steroid drugs like corticosteroids. Therefore, the use of these drugs should be avoided as much as possible. If they must be taken, the dosage and treatment course should be controlled, and it is best to take them after meals.