Myotonic dietary taboos

Just avoid foods that will increase your personal inflammation and cause your body to be intolerant. Uniform lists such as "you must avoid seafood, cold and raw foods, and sweets" circulated on the Internet cannot be copied directly.

Why are there so many widespread unified taboos? The essence is that ankylosis is an autoimmune inflammatory disease. Many studies have confirmed that foods such as high sugar, high trans fat, and highly processed meat will most likely increase the level of C-reactive protein in the body and aggravate the systemic inflammatory response. Therefore, it is classified into the category of "recommended to eat less." However, individual differences are really huge. I got together with some patients last week. Zhou, who has been ill for 12 years, ate two cream puffs, and the inflammation index showed no increase at all the next day. The little girl who was just diagnosed half a year ago drank a cup of full-sugar bubble milk tea. Her back was stiff for half a night, and it was difficult to even turn over. Do you think she should give up this sweet treat or not?

There are indeed differences in cognition in different fields. Traditional Chinese medicine usually recommends eating less raw and cold foods, and believes that ankylosis falls into the category of "paralysis". Exogenous cold and dampness and insufficient yang energy are common triggers. Eating too much ice drinks, crabs, and iced watermelon can easily aggravate the cold and dampness in the body and induce joint stiffness and pain. But this statement is not applicable to everyone. I know a patient in the Northeast who ate frozen pears outdoors in the winter without any problems. Instead, he drank a warm Chinese medicine decoction and felt upset in his stomach and suffered back pain for three days. Most Western medicine doctors do not have absolute dietary restrictions, unless you have food allergies, irritable bowel syndrome or gout - after all, the probability of ankylosing patients having gout is 2-3 times higher than that of ordinary people. In this case, you have to follow the dietary requirements of gout and avoid high-purine foods.

The issue that is most easily overlooked is food intolerance. Studies have shown that nearly 60% of patients with ankylosing syndrome have varying degrees of intestinal mucosal damage, which is often referred to as "leaky gut." Some ordinary people eat perfectly fine foods, such as milk, eggs, wheat, and nuts, but in your case, it may trigger an immune response and aggravate joint inflammation. I have sorted out feedback from patients before. Some people get diarrhea and back pain after drinking pure milk, some people get worse morning stiffness after eating pasta, and some people get iritis after touching mangoes. In this case, there is really no need to go through trial and error. Spending hundreds of dollars to do a 14-item or 90-item food intolerance test is much more reliable than blindly following the list of food taboos on the Internet.

It has been 8 years since I was diagnosed. At first, I believed the advice on the Internet about what to avoid. I stopped eating seafood, cold and cold foods, and sweets. I lost ten pounds in three months, and the inflammation index did not drop during a follow-up check. Later, I got greedy and secretly ate crayfish. No reaction occurred, so I slowly let go. Now, except for not eating pickled processed meats or drinking instant milk tea with non-dairy creamer, I eat everything else, and my inflammation indicators have remained very stable. On the contrary, the patient who had strict dietary restrictions with me before did not dare to eat this or touch that. In the end, he became anemic due to calcium deficiency, his immunity could not keep up, and his condition relapsed several times.

To be honest, having ankylosis is already limiting enough, so there is no need to put too many shackles on yourself when it comes to eating. After eating something one day, you will obviously feel that morning stiffness has worsened and your joints are sore. Next time, try walking around. If nothing happens after you eat something, you should eat and drink as you should. After all, a good mood can do more good for your condition than blind eating.