A doctor who travels through two eras

stomachache?

Lin Sanqi immediately recalled a patriotic film he had watched in school, "Jiao Yulu."

The scene that left the deepest impression was the one in the film where Jiao Yulu ran to the train station.

In the footage, he drags his ailing body, clutching his abdomen, panting as he runs to the train station to catch up with the college student.

This scene is memorable because it's so touching, and the plot has a twist.

Everyone thought that Jiao Yulu went to the train station to try to keep the college student there, but in reality he just wanted to see him off.

As the train slowly pulled away, Jiao Yulu squatted on the ground. The camera then panned to the college students who were supposed to board the train and leave, but they chose to stay.

At this moment, a close-up shot of Jiao Yulu touched countless viewers, including Lin Sanqi, who was also a college student soldier.

Although the film "Jiao Yulu" is a film, it is based on a real person.

In reality, Comrade Jiao Yulu did suffer from severe stomach pain.

To avoid affecting his work, Jiao Yulu always carried baking soda tablets in his pocket, and would put a few in his mouth when he had a stomachache.

When the pain became unbearable, he would use chopsticks to press against his stomach, barely managing to continue working.

Lin Sanqi did the math and realized that Jiao Yulu had passed away in May 1964, less than a year ago. Should he intervene?
It's estimated that the root of the problem is already there, and a complete cure is impossible, but extending this good cadre's lifespan shouldn't be a problem.

"Minister Lin, Minister Lin?"

Dean Zhang noticed that Lin Sanqi was lost in thought and offered a few words of advice:
"Therefore, gastrointestinal drugs are urgently needed by the people, especially for stomach diseases. At present, there are no drugs available in China, and the mainstream treatment for stomach diseases is baking soda."

Baking soda usually refers to sodium bicarbonate tablets, which are an alkaline substance that neutralizes stomach acid.

One is acidic, and the other is alkaline.

If you frequently go hungry, your stomach will only contain stomach acid. Stomach acid can irritate the gastric mucosa, causing damage and leading to stomach problems. Patients may experience discomfort such as acid reflux and stomach pain.

Taking sodium bicarbonate tablets at this time can play an adjunctive therapeutic role and help improve symptoms.

However, baking soda is used to relieve symptoms, not to cure stomach problems.

In traditional Chinese medicine terms, this is treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

Moreover, baking soda has significant side effects. After ingestion, it produces carbon dioxide gas, which can cause symptoms such as bloating and belching. In severe cases, it may worsen stomach ulcers or increase the risk of stomach perforation.

Another issue is that long-term or excessive use can disrupt the body's acid-base balance, leading to metabolic alkalosis.

Because of its significant side effects and the availability of other alternatives, baking soda was phased out decades later and is no longer used as a medicine.

Lin Sanqi immediately thought of a commonly used drug: omeprazole.

Omeprazole, as the earliest invented proton pump inhibitor, is mainly used to treat digestive tract diseases and has a strong effect of inhibiting gastric acid secretion and antibacterial activity.

The key point is that this drug has not yet been invented, and without patent fees, the production cost is very low.

In the National Essential Medicines List, a bottle of 14 tablets of omeprazole costs only 1.5 yuan, and one tablet a day can last for half a month.

In fact, omeprazole combined with antibiotics can completely kill Helicobacter pylori, which is the real cure for stomach pain or stomach ulcers.

So Lin Sanqi made a note of it in his notebook: stomach medicine, omeprazole.

Dean Zhang suddenly remembered something and said with a smile:

"In addition, there is another ailment, which is toothache. Oh dear, toothache is not a disease, but it can be excruciating. Not only can you not eat when it hurts, but it can also give you a headache, making it impossible to work."

Upon hearing this, the people present chuckled.

At this moment, Director Sheng tapped his teeth and said:
"Look, everyone, I've lost a tooth. My family pulled it out with pliers. We can't afford to get a replacement now, we don't even have any gold left in the house."

hahaha~~~
The crowd chuckled again.

Dentists have existed for a long time; for example, many dental clinics were opened in China during the Republic of China period.

The technical titles of relevant medical professionals are mainly divided into two types: "dentist" and "dentist insulator," with the latter having a lower status than the former. There are also itinerant doctors who travel from street to street, carrying boxes of medicine on their shoulders. When they practice medicine, they will walk around calling out: "Dentist, toothache, filling cavities."

However, dentists are mainly concentrated in big cities and are very rare in small cities, especially in the Northwest region.

Almost all dentists practicing in China are doctors who studied abroad. These people, well, after the founding of the People's Republic of China...

Therefore, the development of dentistry, or oral health, in China is extremely limited. Apart from a small number of dentists in large hospitals in major cities, there are none in rural areas.

When a patient has a toothache, they have no choice but to find a way to extract the tooth themselves, and even Director Sheng is no exception.

Lin Sanqi clicked his tongue, looking somewhat embarrassed:
“Painkillers are simple. As you just said, aspirin can not only reduce fever but also relieve pain. However, if the underlying cause of the toothache is not treated, the pain relief effect is only temporary.”

There's also dentures, which also require special materials, at least precious metals like gold and silver, which were unavailable in the 1960s, or only a very few people could afford them.

Lin Sanqi dared not agree and crossed it out on the notebook.

Dentistry is an independent medical field, and its development is far beyond what a clinician like Lin Sanqi can handle, so it has to be postponed.

After chatting for a while, Lin Sanqi felt that one type of medicine was missing.

"Old Zhang, something's not right. You've been talking about this for so long, but why haven't you mentioned the medications for the four highs: high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high uric acid?"

In 2016, the main patients treated by grassroots hospitals in China, besides those with headaches and diarrhea, were mostly those with chronic diseases.

To give an example, the prevalence of hypertension among adults in China is 27.9%, meaning that approximately one in three adults suffers from hypertension.

The prevalence of diabetes in the general population is 12.4%.

截至2016年，国内慢性病患病率已达35%-45%，管理人群规模约5-6亿。

Among them, the prevalence rate among the elderly population (over 60 years old) exceeds 50%, with approximately 1.3 million patients.

The direct consequence is that deaths caused by chronic diseases account for 88.5% of all deaths, a truly alarming and stark figure.

So if you go to a local hospital, you'll find that most of the patients are elderly people who are either dizzy or have some other discomfort. When they are examined, they all have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar.

Lin Sanqi found it strange that Director Zhang, the director of a grassroots hospital, hadn't brought up the most important disease.

To everyone's surprise, Dean Zhang and several other health system officials burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Dean Zhang assumed Lin Sanqi was a high-ranking figure who was unfamiliar with the situation at the grassroots level, so he explained:

"Minister Lin, the hypertension and diabetes you mentioned do exist, but their incidence rate among ordinary people is not very high, and there are currently no particularly good treatment options."

For example, insulin injections needed by diabetic patients cannot be produced domestically at present, so they have to be imported from the United States or the United Kingdom.

The key is that insulin transportation requires a low-temperature environment, which makes smuggling difficult.

In addition, I heard that there is now an oral hypoglycemic drug called sulfonylurea abroad.

It sounds similar to ammonium sulfonate, but unfortunately there's no chance of it being imported into China. I've never seen it in Northwest China.

Therefore, Minister Lin, our grassroots hospitals almost never conduct blood pressure and blood sugar tests. Fortunately, the baseline levels are not high, and these are not diseases or medications that we urgently need to address.

Lin Sanqi had studied medicine, so he naturally knew about insulin, a miracle drug for lowering blood sugar.

At the same time, he sighed heavily in his heart. There was no medicine available, and it needed to be imported. It was too difficult.

But then he became somewhat less doubtful:
"That's not right. The incidence of hypertension and diabetes is very high in the United States, so why do you say there are almost no such patients in our country? This can't be due to racial differences."

Lin Sanqi has witnessed how many people of Asian descent have "four highs" (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, and high cholesterol), and that the number is definitely no less than that of white Americans.

Director Sheng, who also had a medical background, chuckled after hearing this:
"The reason is actually quite simple: it's because people in our country have to take on a lot of work, whether they are workers or farmers. The intensity of labor is high, the energy expenditure is high, but they don't get enough food and sugar to replenish it."

The reason why Lao Zhang just said that the rate of stomach problems in my country is so high is because people are not getting enough to eat. Look at the current diet; it's almost entirely composed of low-quality carbohydrates, mixed with a lot of wild vegetables.

Such a diet lacks fat and protein intake, and sugar is rarely consumed throughout the year. Another important factor is the high price of salt; people are reluctant to use salt, and a low-salt, low-sodium diet is also beneficial for blood pressure. (End of Chapter)