Many people will ask: what is a “breath test” recommended by doctors during medical examinations? Sometimes when we go to the hospital with an upset stomach, the doctor will also recommend this test, why exactly? The “breath test” is very simple, the purpose is to see whether we have Helicobacter pylori inside the stomach or not. It is a very common bacteria, especially in the Chinese, the average infection rate is more than 60%. In fact, scientists have long been concerned about the relationship between H. pylori infection and the risk of gastric cancer. In the 1960s, scientists in the United States, after a twenty-year follow-up study, found that patients who had experienced H. pylori infection had a much higher rate of stomach cancer than those who had not been infected with H. pylori. In scientific terms: the bacterium is a very clear risk factor for gastric cancer. What do we mean by risk factor? It means that a patient who has H. pylori infection is far more likely to get stomach cancer than other people who do not have H. pylori. Of course, it does not mean that all patients who have gastric ulcer will eventually have gastric cancer, but their risk is relatively higher than others. However, since the five-year survival rate for gastric cancer, especially for progressive gastric cancer, is still only 50%, and it is a type of cancer that is difficult to achieve good treatment results, we must emphasize the prevention of gastric cancer risk factors. How does H. pylori cause gastric cancer? The exact mechanism is complicated, but it can first give us gastric ulcers, and then if left untreated, the localized condition can worsen and eventually turn into gastric cancer. What should we do once a breath test reveals the presence of H. pylori? In fact, it is not difficult, we just go to a regular hospital, see the gastroenterology department, the doctor will give you some very common antibiotics. We take antibiotics for a period of time, we will be able to kill the bacteria to a large extent. After that, we will have a test to check if there is still H. pylori, and if not, we are safe for now. Why is it safe if it is eradicated? This is because the eradication of H. pylori effectively reduces the inflammatory response in the stomach and gives the atrophy of the gastric mucosa a chance to be reversed. In this way, the occurrence of gastric cancer can be prevented to a certain extent. Is it true that if you kill H. pylori once, you will never get infected again? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Why? Because H. pylori can be transmitted. The disease enters through the mouth. Chinese people in particular are used to eating with chopsticks, so when you put food in your mouth through chopsticks and then go to another dish, the bacteria may spread from the mouth of the patient with H. pylori to the plate. Then you go back to that plate, and then you may be infected, so even after killing it once, you may be infected again in the future. This is why we recommend that if one person in the family is found to have H. pylori, all of them should be checked for related infections. If there is a problem, the whole family should be treated together. Another good and simple way to prevent H. pylori is to share meals with public chopsticks. It is possible that Chinese people are not used to sharing meals, but they can slowly get used to it by using public chopsticks. Just putting two or three pairs of chopsticks and spoons on our table can effectively stop the transmission of H. pylori. Moreover, this measure is very cheap, but its effect may be crucial for our health.