Worldwide, abdomen most cancers rounds out the highest 5 mostly identified cancers. Whereas incidence charges are highest in Japanese Asia, there’s been an alarming rise within the incidence of abdomen most cancers amongst folks underneath 50 in each high- and low-risk international locations, together with the US, Canada and the UK.
Whereas salt consumption has been linked to dementia and the danger of kind 2 diabetes, the jury’s nonetheless out on the way it contributes to abdomen most cancers danger. Some research recommend that top quantities of dietary salt disrupt the abdomen lining, making it extra vulnerable to colonization by H. pylori micro organism, a widely known danger issue; others point out a optimistic affiliation between abdomen most cancers and the quantity of salt consumed, unbiased of H. pylori an infection.
There have solely been a number of research inspecting the affiliation between salt consumption and gastric most cancers, and nearly all of these have centered on Asian populations. In a brand new examine, researchers on the Medical College of Vienna (MedUni Vienna) checked out whether or not there was a hyperlink between including salt to meals on the desk and the danger of abdomen most cancers in UK adults.
The researchers obtained knowledge from the UK Biobank, a big population-based examine of UK adults, for 471,144 people. The imply age of members was 56, and 53.9% have been feminine. Contributors have been requested, “Do you add salt to your meals? (Don’t embrace salt utilized in cooked)” and will reply “by no means/not often,” “generally,” “often,” “at all times,” and “choose to not reply.” The researchers additionally collected knowledge on members’ abdomen most cancers standing, H. pylori an infection standing, and whether or not they had co-existing medical circumstances.
Over virtually 11 years of follow-up knowledge, there have been 640 instances of abdomen most cancers. Making an allowance for demographic, socioeconomic, and way of life elements in addition to co-existing circumstances, members who reported at all times including salt to meals on the desk had a 41% elevated danger of creating abdomen most cancers than those that by no means/not often did.
“Our analysis reveals the connection between the frequency of added salt and abdomen most cancers in Western international locations, too,” mentioned Selma Kronsteiner-Gicevic, from MedUni Vienna’s Middle for Public Well being and the examine’s lead and corresponding creator.
60 Seconds of Science! Frequent salting will increase danger of abdomen most cancers
The researchers say that asking somebody how a lot salt they add to their meals on the desk is a straightforward method for medical professionals to gauge salt consumption. Furthermore, it simply interprets right into a public well being message that would assist scale back general salt consumption by people and populations.
The examine has limitations, as identified by the researchers. Whereas a big cohort was used, case numbers weren’t excessive sufficient to judge the affect of potential modifiers like age, intercourse, ethnicity, H. pylori an infection, or smoking standing. As talked about, H.pylori an infection is a widely known danger issue for abdomen most cancers. The estimated prevalence of an infection amongst UK Biobanks members was 0.3% versus an estimated UK-wide prevalence of 35.5%, that means that the impact of H. pylori an infection “was most definitely underestimated.”
There’s additionally the problem of not having detailed dietary knowledge for all members in regards to the salt content material of the meals they ate.
“[W]e didn’t have knowledge on salt consumption through meals for the complete UK Biobank cohort, though the current analyses in a subset of members with detailed dietary knowledge point out that people, who add extra salt are additionally extra prone to devour meals with larger sodium content material; thus, and provided that dietary salt consumption is vulnerable to measurement error, true associations between salt consumption and gastric most cancers danger might be stronger than these noticed on this examine,” they mentioned.
Regardless of its limitations, the examine is instructive in linking the frequency of salt consumption to abdomen most cancers danger in non-Asian populations.
“We need to elevate consciousness of the adverse results of extraordinarily excessive salt consumption and supply a foundation for measures to forestall abdomen most cancers,” mentioned examine chief Tilman Kühn.
The examine was revealed within the journal Gastric Most cancers.
Supply: Medical College of Vienna
