Intro from newbie and flare up after Chinese meal

[Scottiedottie]

Hi. Have a long and complicated medical history. Have inflammatory arthritis diagnosed 6 months ago after showing symptoms for years....GP not proactive.  Big flare in august last year and fingers very swollen since. Also pains in feet and knees . Hard to know which pain is caused by OA or the inflammatory arthritis.  Last week had a chinese meal and the next day had a massive flare. Have also felt very thirsty, hot afer Chinese beforebut have never had pain with it. Does anyone experience this?  Great to EB part of this group. 

[popsmith1874]

Hello there I've got RA and oa and it can be hard t tell the difference I'm still not stablised yet and I've had this diseases since 2014 , so I just treat them as the same , I know 1 wear and tear and 1 immune related but I just treat them the same as both can do a lot off damage , everybody has their own way of dealing with things because everybody's different but we all have one thing in common if you know what I mean, but we all come together on this site as we all understand what's going on within our bodies xxx

[flow4]

I haven't had a Chinese meal in aaaaaages, but I would be wary. I wouldn't eat a budget buffet meal again, because in the past they have provoked very unpleasant reactions, including IBS-type symptoms and swollen lips! I'd also be concerned about the amount of sugar in some Chinese meals, because I'm now aware that anything with more than a very small amount of processed sugar gives me a nasty inflammatory reaction.

[helixhelix]

Although I cook a lot of Chinese/Thai /Vietnamese food at home with no problems whatsoever, I know that if I eat in a restaurant I'll have trouble.  I put it down to the mono sodium glutamate that is used a lot in Chinese restaurants.  It makes my knees swell! 

[nomoreheels]

Hiya Scottiedottie & welcome. I find I can get away with a Chinese takeaway on occasion, like twice maybe three times a year, but I always have a great thirst afterwards which lasts until at least the next morning. I put that down to MSG which I otherwise avoid as we rarely buy or fall back on processed foods nowadays. The reason being I noticed the odd ones which were reasonably healthy which we used to buy on occasion if we just needed to have a quick meal now have added MSG & higher sugar content (my h is diabetic). My h now bulk cooks, portions up & freezes our normal meals & whack one in the microwave if we're needing something quickly. The other thing I find is even though I've enjoyed a Chinese meal I'm hungry again a few hours later.

There's also the possibility you ate something you generally don't, green peppers don't agree with me so I avoid them but maybe there was an ingredient that caused an inflammatory reaction? It can be trial & error finding what you're best avoiding.

[dtech]

I'm with Helix on the amount of MSG cheap Chinese eating places put in the meals. Horrible 😁. And that has affected me, not the RA though, just gives me massive headache. But I go to places I know that serve Chinese as its sposed to be cooked. Best ones I ever had was in Shanghai and Hong Kong. But that's a bit far to go for a take away 😂