December 05, 2024
Esophageal cancer is a serious disease with multiple pathogenic factors. The main causes include emotional injuries, improper diet, and aging and debility, which lead to obstruction and narrowing of the esophagus, resulting in the occurrence of this disease.
1. Improper Diet
Taking alcohol as the staple and overeating rich, sweet, spicy food, or eating too hot or too fast, with rough food or moldy substances. Excessive drinking and irregular eating can damage the esophagus and stomach qi, causing phlegm, turbidity, blood stasis, and obstruction in the esophagus, leading to difficulty in swallowing. Or when depression turns into fire, phlegm and blood stasis generate heat, and heat accumulates in the gastrointestinal tract, the fire burns body fluids, causing body fluid deficiency and consumption, and the esophagus loses nourishment, resulting in difficulty in swallowing. If the esophagus is dry, it will cause pain and obstruction during swallowing. When the body fluids of the gastrointestinal tract are deficient and heat is accumulated, it will lead to dry mouth, throat dryness, and constipation.
2. Emotional Injuries
Taking absurdity as normal and being excessively worried, thinking, angry. Overthinking damages the spleen, causing qi to stagnate inside, water dampness not transported, breeding phlegm turbidity, or anger damaging the liver, causing qi stagnation and depression, phlegm qi struggle, and obstruction in the esophagus, leading to difficulty in swallowing, fullness and distention in the chest and diaphragm, and even pain. Qi stagnation and phlegm obstruction cause the stomach to lose its descending function, resulting in belching, hiccup, vomiting phlegm saliva, qi stagnation, body fluid not rising, and if there is stagnant heat damaging body fluids, it will cause dry mouth, throat dryness, tongue red, yellow greasy fur, and taut slippery pulse. When phlegm qi intersect and obstruct, the pulse channel is unfavorable, or phlegm heat damages body fluids, blood dries up and congeals, blood stasis forms inside, blocking the esophagus, the esophagus becomes narrow and difficult to swallow, food intake is vomited immediately or even water is hard to drink, there is fixed pain in the chest and diaphragm. When collaterals are damaged and blood overflows, it will cause vomiting like red bean juice or bloody stool. As the disease progresses, Yin and blood are further damaged, the intestines lose nourishment and moisturization, resulting in hard stools like sheep dung.
3. Physical Debilitation and Aging
Insufficient true Yin and decline of life-gate fire. Excessive sexual activity damages the true Yin, aging leads to kidney deficiency, decline of life-gate fire, gradual depletion of essence and blood, and the esophagus loses nourishment, resulting in difficulty in swallowing. As the disease progresses, Yin damage affects Yang, spleen and stomach Yang deficiency, food cannot be accepted and transported, body fluid distribution is disordered, so food is hard to be taken in and clear saliva is vomited. If spleen and kidney are deficient, steaming and transforming functions are impaired, resulting in spiritual fatigue, facial and foot edema, abdominal distension and loose stools, pale complexion, cold limbs, shortness of breath, light-colored tongue coating, and weak pulse.
The pathogenesis of esophageal cancer is mainly due to the intersection of qi stagnation, phlegm fire, and blood stasis, obstructing the esophagus and stomach. The disease is located in the esophagus and dominated by the stomach, closely related to the liver, spleen, and kidney. The basic pathogenesis is the dysfunction of the spleen, stomach, liver, and kidney, leading to muscle withering, blood drying, qi stagnation, phlegm obstruction, and blood stasis intersecting, resulting in esophageal dryness and narrowing of the esophagus and cardia. The main pathological factors are phlegm stasis and qi stagnation. The nature of the disease is deficiency in origin and excess in superficiality. Deficiency in origin refers to the damage of Yin fluids, gradually leading to exhaustion of Yin fluids, deficiency of spleen and kidney, and even Qi deficiency and Yang weakness. Excess in superficiality means qi stagnation, phlegm fire, and blood stasis blocking the esophagus, causing esophageal stenosis.
