Takeout, delivery or “wai mai”; no matter what it’s called, ever since the market for meals delivered to our doors exploded, there have been concerns over the long-term health effects. Now, a Nanjing girl has discovered just what they could be; Crohn’s disease.
26-year-old Miss Wu never thought that a common diarrhoea was in fact a disease with no-known cure that she had never heard of.
Accompanied by her mother, the white-collar worker recently went to the Digestive Department of Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. There she spoke with Dr. Xu Luzhou, Director of the Outpatient Clinic, reports Nanjing Daily.
“2 weeks ago, my stomach suddenly felt a little uncomfortable, and I began to have diarrhoea”, Wu said. “Then I took some stomach medicine and thought it would be fine later, but it didn’t get better after 2 days.”
But before Wu could finish her request for a gastroscopy, her mother interrupted and began to talk anxiously to the Director, “She seldom cooks herself and eats takeout almost every day. This has been going on for almost 3 years”, said the mother.
Wu had both a gastroscopy and colonoscopy on the advice of her doctor. With many years of clinical experience, Dr. Xu’s initial suspicion turned out to be correct; Crohn’s disease.
At present, Wu has been admitted to the Hosptal’s Department of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It causes inflammation of your digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition. … Crohn’s disease can be both painful and debilitating, and sometimes may lead to life-threatening complications”.
Director Xu went on to say that, while the exact cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown, and factors such as heredity may play a role, it is thought to be closely related to diet and lifestyle.
Sufferers often have the characteristics of “pursuing taste”. They usually like to eat fresh, spicy and heavy-tasting food. All true in Wu’s case.
Although Crohn’s disease is a rare condition, its incidence has been on the up in recent years. So much so that in China now, the disease has been placed on a list of major, challenging diseases.
And it looks as if “wai mai”, or takeout, may well be the culprit. An increase in such dietary health issues is perhaps the inevitable price we will pay for all that convenience.
