Tweet from Omar El Akkad stating:
This is a reply to a video from Muhammad Smiry depicting Gaza in rubble dated October 25, 2023.
As someone who’s had to eat at least partially low fodmap for years and now may also have to limit my diet even further to be anti-inflammatory/low histamine, I think this is all so stupid actually. I mean yeah it’s totally logical for people to avoid foods that their body reacts badly to. But it’s annoying that we haven’t gotten farther with addressing the root of the issue.
Like we know what the problem is when someone can’t digest fodmaps. We know what the problem is when someone has histamine intolerance. We know the mechanisms happening there. So why aren’t digestive enzymes more standard for treatment of ibs-like symptoms. Why haven’t we investigated and found a way to tailor the specific digestive enzymes an individual might need. And also have those enzymes covered by insurance. Why isn’t that a standard practice. Why aren’t we farther along in studying H3 and H4 involvement in histamine intolerance. Why don’t we have any differentiation in these low histamine diet lists about exactly how much histamine a certain food contains, whether they actually contain histamine at all or just a substance that can trigger histamine release.
An example: Citrus is often listed as a no-go for the low histamine diet because citrus fruits contain putrescine, which can trigger histamine release. But what none of these sources usually bother to tell you is that putrescine levels are highly variable. First, they’re highest when the fruit is at peak ripeness, and lower when the fruit is unripe or overripe. There’s also the fact that lemons are actually the citrus fruit with the lowest putrescine levels. And there’s almost never references to the fact that storing citrus at a cold temperature, ie in the fridge or in industrial cold storage, will make putrescine levels much higher than if they were stored at room temperature.
Someone with histamine intolerance who loves citrus may be able to perfectly tolerate a lemon wedge from an unripe lemon they bought at the farmers market (was never in cold storage) and kept on their counter. Like if changes to how we handle and acquire food can be made that don’t require us to cut things out of our diets entirely, why haven’t we studied that further?? Why isn’t that information more widely available??
Why does restriction have to be the end all be all??? Why is the expectation always for patients to make these big dramatic changes to their lives and then perfectly adhere to that forever?? That’s not how medicine is supposed to work. Lifestyle modification is normal, yeah, and to be expected. But for all the pressure to be on the patient to change their habits and be perfectly strict about it for the rest of their life?? Where’s the serious effort to lighten that burden. Where is it. Where the fuck is it
Happy to be included
A small comic about Palestine I created to appeal to more passive family and friends
Anyways if you have the money I urge you to donate to Ibraheem Hadi, a Palestinian who contacted me and whom I promised to highlight in relation to this comic:
Otherwise there is always a need for eSims to keep Gazans connected
