Cancer in the body, fingers know?

The 65-year-old Liu is a veteran smoker, recently, he was surrounded by two decades of "smoking friends" have gone due to lung cancer, other smokers are scared to quit smoking, but also advised Liu to quit together, but he said his body has been very good, usually there is no major disease, so do not listen to advice. The company's main goal is to provide a better solution to the problem.

But in a recent medical checkup, a CT showed a lesion in his right lung, which was diagnosed as early-stage lung cancer after biopsy, which scared him.

Lao Liu said his finger did slowly thicken in the past year, but it didn't hurt, so he didn't bother, thinking it was just too much rough work. The doctor explained that this is a typical pestle finger sign and a common harbinger of lung cancer that might have been avoided if it had been detected earlier.

Fortunately, Lao Liu is now in the early stages of lung cancer and is being treated aggressively and with a high degree of curability.

So what is this pestle finger and why is it a predictor of lung cancer? Besides the pestle finger, what other signs and symptoms may indicate lung cancer?

Many people think that the only symptoms of lung cancer are coughing and coughing up blood, but this is actually wrong. The causes of lung cancer are complex, and the signs and symptoms vary for each individual.

Generally speaking, the symptoms of lung cancer are diverse. The most common are respiratory and chest symptoms, such as cough, blood in sputum, hemoptysis (common in central lung cancer), chest pain, fever, and difficulty in breathing.

But many people also present with extra-pulmonary or extra-thoracic symptoms, such as hoarseness, shoulder pain, headache, and the development of cervical sympathetic syndrome or superior vena cava syndrome.

One of the easiest to miss is the thickening and enlargement of the ends of the fingers, or the "pestle finger" described in the previous case.

Pestle finger, also known as mallet finger, is a thickening and swelling of the end of a finger or toe that becomes like a mallet, as the name implies.

It is not a disease per se, but only a disease feature, so the pathogenesis is unclear, but is generally thought to be related to chronic hypoxia at the end of the limb, inadequate arterial oxygenation, metabolic impairment, toxic injury, and increased blood flow.

In the early stages of lung cancer, patients may develop pestle fingers due to hypoxia in the lung lesions, resulting in dilated end vessels and soft tissue hyperplasia.

Clinical statistics have found that pestle finger is related to all systemic diseases. Just 75% to 80% are related to respiratory system diseases, such as chronic bronchiectasis, metastatic tumors in the lung, lung abscess, pulmonary cystic fibrosis, diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis pneumoconiosis, pulmonary arteriovenous malformation, and open tuberculosis.

Another 10% to 15% may be cardiovascular disease. If pestle and mortar finger is present in young children aged 2-3 years, it is more likely to be congenital heart disease; in middle-aged and young adults, it is more likely to be subacute infective endocarditis; and in the elderly, it is more likely to be considered chronic pulmonary heart disease.

Another 5% to 10% are associated with digestive system diseases, such as chronic inflammatory bowel disease, cirrhosis, Crohn's disease, and intestinal tuberculosis.

In addition, syphilis, chronic renal meningo-nephritis, and hyperthyroidism may also be associated with pestle finger.

In fact, it's very easy to identify pestle finger, so come on, everybody hold out your hand with me.

First, let's look at the angle of the base of our thumb: in normal people, the angle of the base of the thumb is less than 180°, whereas in pestle fingers, the angle of the base of the thumb is usually equal to or greater than 180°, and you can see significant deformation.

Second, you can also touch the end of the finger and press the nail lightly. If the tissue at the base of the proximal nail feels as if the nail is resting on a sponge pad and is easily pressed down, you may have a pestle finger.

Once you notice that you have pestle fingers, it is recommended that you go to the hospital as soon as possible to have the cause clarified. Screening tests are usually: routine biochemistry, chest x-ray, CT, ECG, arterial blood gas analysis, etc.

If other etiologies are ruled out after examination and it is just a familial pestle finger that was born, no special treatment is usually needed. If it affects the appearance, soft tissue excision at the end of the finger can be considered to correct the deformed part.

If other indications are found, symptomatic treatment is required, especially in middle-aged and elderly patients who have been smoking for a long time and are highly alert when pestle fingers are found, even if respiratory symptoms are not obvious.

Pestle finger is not yet preventable, but is mostly associated with heart and lung disease. Therefore, taking care of your heart and lungs on a daily basis can reduce the chances of pestle finger.

Tobacco has many carcinogens and harmful substances when burned, which can cause direct damage to the lungs and even induce cancer when inhaled by humans.

A 550,000-person cohort study in the JAMA subjournal showed that the risk of all-cause mortality increased by 180% in persistent smokers, and that the earlier you quit, the less the increased risk, and that quitting by age 35 offset a substantial risk of death!

At the same time, quitting smoking improves lung ventilation, increases the amount of oxygen to the heart muscle cells, and reduces the chance of heart disease.

So, smokers should quit as early as possible, and non-smokers should avoid second- and third-hand smoke as well as kitchen fumes and air pollution.

Aerobic exercise can enhance lung capacity and myocardial ejection, thus improving cardiorespiratory function. We can choose some suitable aerobic exercises for ourselves, such as jogging, skipping rope, swimming, etc. according to our conditions.

Nourishing the lungs and protecting the heart can be done in combination with diet. Silver fungus, lily of the valley, lotus seeds and snow pear are good dietary treatments to nourish the lungs and clear heat. The company's main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.

Staying up late and sleeping irregularly can lower your immune system and make your lungs less resistant to external bacteria and viruses, which can easily develop into pneumonia if your body has respiratory inflammation. If you are a smoker, smoking at night has an even greater impact on your lungs.

In Chinese medicine, going to bed early and waking up early is consistent with the harmonization of yin and yang, which allows the lungs to be better stretched, and the best time of day to nurture the lungs is between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. Aerobic exercise is also possible at this time.

In addition, a study published in the European Heart Journal-Digital Health, part of the European Society of Cardiology, by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter in the UK, showed that going to bed between 10pm and 11pm was associated with a lower incidence of heart disease, with those who went to bed at midnight or later being at the highest risk, so Early to bed and early to rise is important for heart and lung health.