Lymph node dietary taboos

Identify the foods you are allergic to, any alcoholic beverages, and foods that have gone bad or are contaminated. As for the uncanny claims on the Internet that "you should not touch beef, mutton, seafood, leeks and other fat-producing foods" and "eggs and milk can also increase swelling", most of them have no clear clinical basis. Whether you should avoid these foods or not depends entirely on your own body reaction.

Last week, I met a 24-year-old girl with acute cervical lymphadenitis. The pain was so painful that she had difficulty swallowing iced milk tea. Her mother heard from neighbors in the community that "hair will make the swelling worse." Her mother wouldn't even let her touch eggs. She cooked white porridge with pickles for her. As a result, the inflammation slowly subsided over the course of a week. She even fainted at the subway station due to hypoglycemia. When she came for a follow-up check-up, her face was as white as paper. I asked her to go back and buy two kilograms of beef tendons and stew them to eat. She could also eat the boiled shrimps as normal, as long as she didn’t add too much chili pepper. When the pain was severe, it would be fine if she put an iced sugar-free yogurt in her mouth. However, within three days she sent a message saying that the swelling was almost gone, and she didn’t have to miss work.

What many people are most confused about is whether or not "Fa Wu" can be eaten. Here is an objective view from different fields: Traditional Chinese medicine system does believe that acute swelling and pain of lymph nodes are mostly "heat syndrome". Hot fruits such as lychees and longans, as well as freshly baked barbecue, heavy oil and spicy fried foods, are inherently hot. Some people with a hot constitution will indeed aggravate local swelling and pain after eating them. This is supported by a large number of individual practical cases. It cannot be said to be completely useless.； The logic of modern medicine is more direct: lymph node abnormalities are mostly related to immune stress. As long as you eat a certain food without allergic reaction, worsening sore throat, or more obvious swelling, the protein and vitamins in it can "charge" the immunity and help the body recover faster. There is no need to deliberately avoid food. To put it bluntly, this thing is like whether your clothes fit you or not. What others say doesn’t count. Your own feelings are the standard.

Of course, it does not mean that there are no taboos except for the three categories mentioned above. In some special cases, you still need to be more controlled, just to avoid suffering: for example, if you have acute lymphadenitis, tonsil suppuration, and oral ulcers all over your mouth, you have to eat spicy Chongqing hot pot and freshly fried crispy bone skewers. It does not mean that it will worsen the inflammation. It is just that irritating food will aggravate the congestion and edema of the local mucous membrane. The pain can be cured in three days and a week, but it is simply not a mistake. If you have lymph node tuberculosis, the anti-tuberculosis drugs you take will put a certain burden on your liver. Also, you have to drink a lot of alcohol, eat fat and oily pork elbows, and braised offal. Not only will the liver be unable to handle it, but it may also affect the efficacy of the drug. You must try to be as light as possible. If a lymphoma patient who is undergoing chemotherapy has a fragile gastrointestinal mucosa and eats raw pickled, cold beer, or unwashed strawberries, if diarrhea occurs and an infection occurs, the treatment will be delayed. At this time, it is a very practical suggestion to temporarily avoid raw and cold stimulation.

I have met hundreds of patients with lymph node-related diseases in the past few years. The condition was actually worsened by eating certain "taboo foods". Nine out of ten of them were either allergic to that food or they ate too much at one time. The remaining one was purely psychological. I saw a video saying that eating it would worsen the disease, so I touched my neck and felt the swelling was getting worse. In fact, I was scared. There was an old man in his 70s who took medication for lymph node tuberculosis for half a year. His family wouldn't even let him touch eggs, saying they were "fat". The result was that his albumin was extremely low during a re-examination, and he had to be hospitalized for nutritional supplements. He spent thousands of unjust money and suffered for several days.

It’s actually simple to say. Don’t believe the neat list of “12 foods that lymph nodes should not eat” on the Internet. Everyone’s body constitution and condition are different. How can there be any universal taboo? If you feel comfortable eating whatever you eat, without aggravating swelling or pain, or having any uncomfortable reactions, then eat with confidence. Eat more high-quality protein that is easy to digest, such as eggs, milk, and lean meat. As your immunity improves, lymph node problems will heal faster. If you are really not sure whether something can be eaten, take a bite and try it. If you feel no discomfort, continue eating. If it does hurt more after eating it, just avoid it next time. What a big deal.