Doctor shares five early warning signs of stomach cancer that most people miss
A doctor has come out to reveal the five most common signs seen in early stomach cancer, which if caught, can increase the overall chances of being treated.
Dr Yoga Andredi, a UK trained gastroenterologist at the Bangalore Gastro Centre Hospitals, revealed his top five symptoms of stomach cancer that typically appear that the early stages in a YouTube video aiming to warn people of the not-so-obvious effects of the cancer type.
The doctor explained: “Most people think stomach cancer is rare and will only come with a lot of pain and serious symptoms. What if I told you that there are five early signs a lot of people completely miss and unfortunately in some people it can cost their life.”
He explained that while ‘no cancer is good, stomach cancers, however are ‘aggressive’ and can be easily dismissed until being too far gone to cure.
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Indigestion
He revealed that the first sign of stomach cancer is a ‘persistent burning sensation’ that is also known as indigestion.
He explained that ‘this is a common gastric issue’ because it is usually caused by ‘heavy food, oily, spicy’ and rich foods that trigger acid reflux.
So, when a person gets indigestion often, it can be easy to put it down to your diet.
He said if it starts to last for weeks or months and no remedies are helping with the symptoms, it ‘can almost be a sign of early gastric cancer because gastric cancer symptoms can resemble some of that of simple acidity gastritis. So, if you're experiencing
frequent burning sensation in the abdomen, uneasy feeling, uncomfortable feeling, you should not be ignoring this.”
Feeling full
“Secondly, feeling full quickly - what we call early satiety,” said Dr Andredi, is another sign.
He revealed that this can present itself as eating less because it begins to make you feel ‘heavy’ and ‘uncomfortable’ as the cancer grows.
“So, the size of the tumor itself is causing or limiting the stomach's capacity to hold more food ]which] can cause irritation, inflammation and also can affect how the stomach muscles are contracting.”
Unexplained weight loss
Thirdly, unexplained weight loss is another sign according to the doc.
Thich means that ‘you're not actually trying to lose weight, but the weight starts to drop.’
“There are [a] variety of reasons why you might start to lose weight once the stomach cancer sets in,” he said, which includes lacking an appetite.
Nausea
“Fourthly, nausea,” said Dr Andredi. “Persistently feeling nauseous, feeling pukish, that vomiting sensation or sometimes intermittently vomiting. Occasional nausea anybody can get. It's not something we should be worried about. But as the stomach cancer grows, the
tumor grows, it can start increasing in the size.”
He said this is when it can start impacting how your stomach fills and empties.
Bloody stools
Lastly, you might experience black stools.
He explained that bleeding can occur in the stomach ‘that gets digested through the small intestine comes out as black’ stools, that are like ‘tar on the road’.
He said it’s common for patients experiencing this to have a low blood count due to blood loss, and it’s a red flag for cancer.
Britt Jones