Health Woes of Egyptians

A friend at work today came into our office and commented "My colon is very tired." This, apparently, is a common Egyptian "ailment", as a surprising number of people have commented on the state of their colon. As an American, and that too a daughter of doctors, I'm barely aware of my colon's placement, much less its activity or energy level.

The way people here talk and think about health is ... well, frankly, strange. For instance, our relatively new, relatively nice office building has no heat. Though Cairo is not as cold as many, many other places, it does get into the 40's during the winter months. This meant we would often come to work with sweaters and coats and double layers of socks in order to keep relatively warm. The reasoning behind all of this? According to our colleagues, one is much more likely to get sick coming in from the cold to a warm place. This change of temperature causes all sorts of maladies; the solution, of course, is to keep the temperature inside the building as close as possible to the outside temperature.

Egyptians also seem to blame allergies for a number of their health woes. Every time either Nate or I have been sick, some Egyptian friend, sighing and slowly shaking his head, has said, "It must be allergies." Coughing, headaches, body aches, sore throats, stuffy noses, fevers, stomach aches, chest pains ... all of these things can easily be attributed to, you guessed it, allergies. Mind you, the last time I got sick I actually went to a doctor, and it turned out to be bronchitis. My friends insisted that bronchitis must be a kind of allergy.