China woman develops 8cm oesophageal ulcer after eating hotpot too fast

A 42-year-old woman in China developed an oesophageal ulcer after eating hotpot too quickly, reported local media.

Wang, who hails from Changsha city in Hunan province in central China, was diagnosed with the condition after swallowing the piping hot food too fast, according to an article by South China Morning Post on Thursday (May 21).

She was quoted by regional news site Xiaoxiang Morning Herald in an article on May 13 as saying that she was "hungry and carried away" while having hotpot with her friends back in March.

Wang said that she had not waited for the food to cool down, and swallowed it straight away. 

She added that she felt some tightness in her chest during the meal but drank iced water to comfort it. She felt better and did not take the situation too seriously.

Nonetheless, she started to experience severe pain even when swallowing water the next day.

She went to the Changsha Eighth Hospital, where doctors found an oesophageal ulcer measuring 8cm, or roughly a third of her oesophagus.

Her doctor, Wu Xiaoqing, was quoted in local media reports as saying that people often incorrectly assume the oesophagus is able to tolerate high temperatures, when it can only tolerate up to about 50 deg C.

In contrast, food served in hotpot may be as hot as 80 or 90 deg C.

Local media noted that China reportedly accounts for 40 per cent of the world's oesophageal cancer cases, and that exposure of the oesophagus to high temperatures has been shown to increase the risk of esophageal cancer.

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daoen.wong@asiaone.com