What dietary taboos should be noted for tuberculosis?

One type of food can aggravate respiratory tract irritation, induce coughing or even hemoptysis. The other type is food that interacts with the anti-tuberculosis drugs you are taking, easily reducing the efficacy or aggravating side effects. The rest can be eaten normally as long as you are not uncomfortable eating them, and there is no need to set limits for yourself.

I met a 21-year-old junior patient during a follow-up for chronic diseases in the community. He was ordered by his family elders to give up all "foods" as soon as he was diagnosed. He didn't even dare to touch eggs, milk, fish, shrimp, and chicken. He drank porridge with some pickles every day. He lost 12 pounds in less than a month. During the follow-up examination, the albumin was so low that the doctor panicked. He said that if he continued to do this, he would not be able to supplement nutrition, and the repair speed of the lesions would be half as fast. He might have to inject additional albumin, which would be a waste of money. When it comes to food, there is actually a lot of clinical controversy. Many people think that eating fish and shrimp will aggravate the condition. But in fact, as long as you are not allergic to these ingredients, they are the best sources of high-quality protein, which is much more useful than drinking plain porridge and eating pickles all the time. After all, tuberculosis is a wasting disease, and the body can only fight the tuberculosis bacteria if it has enough nutrients.

Of course, you can’t just eat everything. Last week, there was a young man who had almost recovered. He was so greedy that he went to eat spicy butter hotpot with his friends. He even ate two pieces of boiled tripe with cold beer. That night, he couldn’t stop coughing and coughed up two mouthfuls of bloody phlegm. He was about to stop taking the medicine, so he ran back to the hospital for a CT scan to check whether the lesions were ruptured. It took several days. You should avoid eating spicy, salty, and hot foods like this. The airways of tuberculosis patients are more sensitive than ordinary people. When these things irritate the throat and airways, severe coughing can easily involve lesions that have not yet grown on the lungs. In severe cases, it can really induce bleeding, and the gain is not worth the candle.

There is another type of taboo that depends on your medication. All patients taking anti-tuberculosis drugs must abstain from alcohol at all, whether it is liquor, beer or fruit wine. The first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs themselves have a certain risk of liver damage. Alcohol adds a heavy burden to the liver, and it is easy to cause drug-induced liver damage. At that time, the tuberculosis drugs must be stopped first to protect the liver, which in turn delays the progress of the entire treatment. If you are taking pyrazinamide, avoid eating high-purine foods such as seafood, thick broth, and animal offal. The drug itself will increase uric acid. Eating these can easily induce gout, and many people are so painful that they can't walk. In addition, when taking medicine, drink it with warm water instead of tea or strong coffee. The tannic acid and caffeine in it will affect the absorption of the medicine. It is not too late to drink these two or three hours after taking the medicine.

Some people may ask, is it true that people on the Internet cannot eat eggplant or spinach? This actually depends on the person. Only a very small number of people with allergies will interact with anti-tuberculosis drugs after eating eggplant, causing blushing and itchy skin. If you have never felt uncomfortable eating eggplant before and there is nothing abnormal after eating it, you can eat it normally. ； Spinach is high in oxalic acid. If you have low blood calcium or have kidney stones, you can just blanch it in water in advance to filter out most of the oxalic acid before eating it. There is no need to put it on the blacklist directly.

I have followed up so many patients who have recovered well, and most of them have no dietary restrictions. They ensure one egg and one glass of milk every day, and eat some lean fish and shrimp every three to five. As long as you don’t touch anything too exciting, don’t drink alcohol and eat randomly to affect the efficacy of the medicine, eat happily and nutritiously, the lesions will heal faster than anything else. Treating the disease is hard enough, so there is no need to embarrass yourself too much about eating, right?