Worldwide, stomach cancer completes the top five most often diagnosed cancers. While incidence rates are highest in East Asia, there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of stomach cancer among people under the age of 50 in both high and low risk countries. , notably in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Although salt consumption has been associated with dementia and the risk of Type 2 diabetes, the jury is still out on how this contributes to stomach cancer risk. A few studies suggest that high amounts of dietary salt disrupt the stomach lining, making it more susceptible to colonization by H. pylori bacteria, a well-known risk factor; others indicate a positive association between stomach cancer and the amount of salt consumed, independent of H. pylori infection.
Only a few studies have examined the association between salt intake and gastric cancer, and the majority of these have focused on Asian populations. In a new study, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna) examined whether there was a link between adding salt to foods at the table and the risk of stomach cancer in British adults.
The researchers obtained data from the UK Biobank, a large population-based study of British adults, involving 471,144 individuals. The average age of participants was 56 years and 53.9% were women. Participants were asked, “Do you add salt to your food?” (Do not include salt used in cooked dishes)” and could answer “never/rarely”, “sometimes”, “usually”, “always” and “prefer not to answer”. The researchers also collected data on the participants' stomach cancer status. , H. pylori their infection status and whether they had coexisting health conditions.
Over nearly 11 years of follow-up data, 640 cases of stomach cancer were identified. Controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors as well as coexisting conditions, participants who reported always adding salt to foods at the table had a 41% higher risk of developing stomach cancer than those who have never or rarely done it.
“Our research also shows the link between the frequency of added salt and stomach cancer in Western countries,” said Selma Kronsteiner-Gicevic, from the MedUni Vienna Center for Public Health and lead and corresponding author of the study. .
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Researchers say that asking someone how much salt they add to their food at the table is a simple way for health professionals to assess their salt intake. Additionally, this easily translates into a public health message that could help reduce the overall salt consumption of individuals and populations.
The study has limitations, as the researchers pointed out. Although a large cohort was used, the number of cases was not high enough to assess the influence of potential modifiers such as age, gender, ethnicity, H. pylori infection or smoking status. As mentioned, H. pylori Infection is a well-known risk factor for stomach cancer. The estimated prevalence of infection among UK biobank participants was 0.3%, compared to an estimated UK-wide prevalence of 35.5%, meaning that the effect of H. pylori the infection “was probably underestimated”.
There is also the problem of not having detailed dietary data for all participants on the salt content of the foods they ate.
“(We) did not have data on salt intake via food for the full UK Biobank cohort, although current analyzes of a subset of participants with detailed dietary data indicate that individuals who add more salt are also more likely to consume foods with higher sodium content; Thus, and given that dietary salt intake is subject to measurement error, the true associations between salt intake and gastric cancer risk may be stronger than those observed in this study,” they said.
Despite its limitations, the study is informative in linking frequency of salt intake to stomach cancer risk in non-Asian populations.
“We want to raise awareness of the negative effects of extremely high salt consumption and provide a basis for preventive measures against stomach cancer,” said study leader Tilman Kühn.
The study was published in the journal Stomach cancer.
Source: Medical University of Vienna