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Poll: Based on your own past experience with giardia, do you see a link between the existen

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  1. #21
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    How's wormwood tea for treating giardia?

    Just wonderin'.

  2. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by weary View Post
    Put me down as uncertain. How do you know you had Giardiasis? (the disease. giardia is the paraside that causes the disease.)

    It typically takes a week or more before symptoms of Giardiasis to show up after ingesting the parasite. Symptoms after two days of drinking suspect water -- as I understand it -- are unlikely.

    More important: many ordinary stomach upsets mimic the symptoms of Giardiasis. These symptoms typically disappear in three days or less, whether one eats garlic or not.

    Finally, unless you had your stool examined under a microscope and it showed the bugs, there is no way to distinguist Giardiasis from more routine stomach problems.

    Weary
    I had similar symptoms once, except that I also experienced projectile reactions from both ends. This was about a week after a trip to the overused Pemigewasset Wilderness Area in the WMNF back in the early 1980's. Never diagnosed either, just assumed.
    Bought a First Need water filter, used it religiously (except when boiling water to cook food), and never had a problem again.

    Put me down as uncertain as to the "cure". It seemed to work for you, but you might have had another "bug".
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Smile View Post
    I have some Oaxacan friends from Mexico, who swear that eating avacados raw, will kill most if not all parasites in the gut, and that they've been using them for years for this.

    I hope to never have the need to try out this treatment to see if they are right
    Avocados, jalapenos, goat cheese ... apparently if you eat the food, you can drink the water.

  4. #24
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    one thing i find is that i eat really healthy when huking. so i find when i go home and eat normal sugary fatty foods it will most definalty give me stomach problams.

  5. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by Smile View Post
    I have some Oaxacan friends from Mexico, who swear that eating avacados raw, will kill most if not all parasites in the gut, and that they've been using them for years for this.

    I hope to never have the need to try out this treatment to see if they are right
    It's even more delicious sliced with some favorite cheese on wheat thins!!

  6. #26
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    Default eewwwww

    Quote Originally Posted by Tinker View Post
    I agree with the above also. I got the exact symptoms after hiking the Bonds in New Hampshire (and camping at Camp 16, which is heavily used, and drinking untreated water),
    but since I never saw a doctor about it, and hence never had a positive test, I can't honestly say I had it for sure (though I believe with all my heart I did).

    Bloating, belching, projectile vomit and runs, fever, extreme fatigue....

    YUCK!
    Gee, sounds just like the 10 days we spent in Guatemala.......and it kept coming back for two weeks afterwards. No we didn't drink the water but when you shower some gets in your mouth no matter how hard you try to keep it out.......and we ate some fresh salsa (uncooked veggies). Ahhh, the memories. Good times, good times..........
    "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

  7. #27
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    Default hhmmm

    You didn't have giardia. You ate something or perhaps had dirty hands when you ate something that gave you a really bad upset stomach. Giardia involves not only a severe upset stomach, but throwing up and the meanest case of the poo's that you have ever witnessed. Oh and making it go away in 12 hours isn't possible.
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  8. #28

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    Iit is pretty obvious from the description that it wasn't giardia.

  9. #29

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    Kind of an awkward first post, but I figured I'd chime in since this thread was helpful to me. I'm fairly certain I picked up Giardia from some spring water in the Adirondacks about 5 weeks ago. I didn't go to the doctor as I'd blown my medical allowance on a bout with tonsillitis a couple of months earlier(I'm self employed and uninsured), and it wasn't bothering me too majorly so I didn't pay it much attention(though the thought of Giardia was in my subconcious).

    The symptoms set in about 2 weeks ago, a slight stomach cramp here and there and more gas than usual, along with some mild runs. Midweek last week I realized that I was pretty dehydrated after drinking a liter of water and not having to pee immediately afterwards, so I got on the net and started researching Giardia. The Wikipedia article described word-for-word what I was experiencing... constant gas, sulfuric belching, greasy floating stool, dehydration, slight malnutrition (despite my fairly healthy diet).. further research cemented my diagnosis, particularly what I read about sweets feeding the parasite -- at the onset of my symptoms I'd purchased a fresh baked starbucks cookie and was unable to finish it due to an odd heartburn-like sensation in my intestine.

    Fast forward to 2 nights ago, I found myself on WhiteBlaze reading all I could about peoples' experiences with Giardia.. reading of peppers and the like making my intestine inhospitable to the parasite, I adjusted my diet yesterday accordingly: lunch was a spicy greek quesadilla chock full of peppers, onions, and goat cheese, along with a side of home-made salsa to dip it in. I'd had constant increasingly sulfuric burps for the previous 48 hours or so, approaching "gag-me" stength right before that lunch, but halfway through that meal the sulfuric content was already on a noticeable decline. I chugged water the rest of the day, and before bed last night choked down a half clove of garlic(tougher than i'd have thought!) along with my remaining slice of quesadilla. Now it may be too early to pronounce myself "cured", but I woke up this morning feeling great, and all day have produced but a single belch, with no noticeable sulfuric content.

    So like I said.. a bit of an awkward first post, and maybe a bit "TMI" for an introduction, but I just wanted to thank you folks for sharing the information that I feel rescued me from quite an unpleasant state! I also wanted to share a word for those who are weary of "folk remedies": just as everything that ails us comes from nature, the remedies for our ailments can be found there. "Modern medicine" is really just the product of the last 100 years or so of trial and error and blind experimentation, and in it's infancy when you compare it to the last 1,000/10,000/100,000 years of human experience. I shudder to think of what chemical regimen the doctor would have prescribed to treat the same ailment that I was (presumably--and I admit it's a presumption) able to get rid of with little more than a half clove of garlic. Peace to you all, and thanks again for the help

    Anthony

  10. #30

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    I like the garlic idea. (i used to be a garlic farmer and grew a lot of it trying to get people to see it's many qualities)

    I will give you a little of my experience with giardia.
    It was in Nepal in 1990, I got it and my farts and burps smelled like sulfur. (big time)
    It lasted pretty much the rest of the 30 day trek once i got it until i got back to Kathmandu and went to a Canadian doctor there. (Nepal is full of giradia) He gave me a choice of medicine and i remember i took the one called Tin-a-Ba and he said i could take one pill a day for 10 days, or 2 pills a day for 5 days or 5 pills a day for 2 days. Up to me.

    SO, i took the 5 pills a day for 2 days and it made me sick (i was just learning to control all the ****s but it made me sick again) But after 3 or 4 days, i was fine.

    I have been back to Nepal 6 or 7 times since then and the last time (after drinking the water on all my thru's) I drank the water in Nepal and didn't get sick!
    This leads me to believe that once you get giardia, your body learns how to handle it and you don't get it again. (why else can all those millions of Nepal people drink the water and not get sick?) (Granted they have a high mortality rate when very young but i think that's cause they are perhaps weak and can't fight off the first case)

    Anyway, I know some experienced hikers agree with me and once you have it, you are ok with it. But i still like the garlic idea. Hope it catches on.

    It did suck when i had it (giradia) but looking back, it enabled me to do a lot of hiking without carrying that extra weight and spending all that time pumping water. (i'd probably use chlorine anyway, much easier and lighter)

  11. #31
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    :banana Life Saver!

    Quote Originally Posted by makemerry View Post
    "Actually, the fact that you have never had stomach pains for any reason is a bit of a red flag."

    I'm not categorically saying I've never had a stomach pain. I'm saying stomach pains are rare, and insignificant when they do happen. What would that be a red flag for?

    "Also, there is no reason to believe that garlic would be some kind of silver bullet that only worked on giardia. I'd expect it would have some sort of effect on all sorts of things."

    I'm not suggesting that it's a silver bullet. I would think, like you say, that it's probably helpful for a lot of things.

    Just to restate what I'm looking for:
    1) I'm interested in the experience of other people who have used garlic or other alternatives to flagyl to treat giardia.
    2) I'm interested in the experience of people who don't treat their water and don't get giardia. (I have found several such posts on this website.) Specifically I'm wondering if a healthy digestive tract is the reason these people don't get symptoms of giardia.
    3) I'm curious to know anyone can corroborate the opinion of the doctor who said that severity of giardia symptoms is often related to consumption of sugar (which is also related to the general health of the digestive tract.)
    4) This is not an attempt to prove anything. I'm tossing out an idea and I'd like to hear people's actual experience that might either corroborate the idea or not.
    I followed your advise and it seems to be working. I Did not have any tests done for giardia but the symptoms were spot on from what I researched on the web. After suffering from what I thought was a stomach flu for almost two weeks, I realized it had to be something else. That is when I found your post. I have also found information on people using garlic to control parasites forever and that gairdia does feed on sugars. After all of my research, I would also agree that a healthy immune system can also control the infection to a certain level and the most effective way of boosting your immune system is removing refined sugars from our diet.

    Thanks for the tip. All these people that doughted you may have suffered just as we did but find it hard to believe there could be such a simple solution.

  12. #32

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    I voted Possible connection being that many parasitic s feed on sugars and or carbohydrates which produce sugars

    Maybe someone has said it.



    Water.




    Filter.

  13. #33
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    "This leads me to believe that once you get giardia, your body learns how to handle it and you don't get it again."
    I absolutely believe that applies to many many things- including poison ivy, from which I suffered terribly, every summer, as a child; now I'll typically get a mild rash over a small area of my body (perhaps a fourth of a forearm or most of an ankle), if I get it at all.

    I don't treat water. I don't avoid sick paople. I don't have a fetish about washing hands or pots or whatever- basic sanitary procedures seem to work fine for me. I live by the idea of keeping my immune system fit by giving it lots of exercise. Hell, if the booze and drugs during my "lost years" didn't kill me.....

    I also cannot see any disadvantage to eating garlic and peppers, and can see many advantages not heretofore mentioned, including forcing vampires and other trail crazies to keep their distance!

  14. #34

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    Never filter. Get sick. Bost your immunity.

  15. #35

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    Bost = Boost

  16. #36
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    I'm with the rest of the doubters on this one ...

    That said, next time you travel take along some generic chewable PeptoBismol tablets and chew a few each day. The bismuth will make your stool black, but just temporarily.

    Best "preventive" method known for "travelers gastroenteritis"

    'Slogger
    The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.

  17. #37

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    Quote Originally Posted by randyg45 View Post
    "This leads me to believe that once you get giardia, your body learns how to handle it and you don't get it again."
    I absolutely believe that applies to many many things- including poison ivy, from which I suffered terribly, every summer, as a child; now I'll typically get a mild rash over a small area of my body (perhaps a fourth of a forearm or most of an ankle), if I get it at all.

    I don't treat water. I don't avoid sick paople. I don't have a fetish about washing hands or pots or whatever- basic sanitary procedures seem to work fine for me. I live by the idea of keeping my immune system fit by giving it lots of exercise. Hell, if the booze and drugs during my "lost years" didn't kill me.....

    I also cannot see any disadvantage to eating garlic and peppers, and can see many advantages not heretofore mentioned, including forcing vampires and other trail crazies to keep their distance!
    I am a firm believer that I am no where near a germaphobe. I do however treat my water while I am back packing. I think the fear comes less from getting sick, I do have a very good immune system, but rather the fear of having to leave the woods early due to not feeling good.

    Sorry, but I don't want to have to cop out of a 3000' climb to a great spot simply because I have explosive "ends".

    Not that you were directly referring to me, it was just an afterthought when I read your post in particular.

  18. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Appalachian Tater View Post
    Iit is pretty obvious from the description that it wasn't giardia.
    I totally agree .When you get your first [and hopefully last ] case of giardiasis there will absolutley no doubt what-so -ever about what just hit you . I mean both ends of your body just explode and you can't stop it .You grab a pillow and move into your your bathroom for a while
    I got it when i was I hiking in Grand Canyon NP about 25 years ago and in the dark I got my water from the clear and cold Hermit Creek. What I didn't know was that there were pit toilets above me. OOPS!!
    One week later everything kind of exploded. I went to the hospital they took a stool sample , asked me if I had had visited a Third World country recently....and then confirmed the diagnosis of giardiasis
    Flagyl does work wonders

  19. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldbear View Post
    Flagyl does work wonders
    ================================

    If you survive to talk about it. That Flagyl is some pretty potent juju. After 2 dosing regimens of Flagyl back in 2001 I was starting to think that the Giardiasis wasn't all that bad.

    But yeah ...it works !!

    'Slogger
    The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.

  20. #40

    Default Possible Connection With Sugars

    I provide in-home health care for the elderly and began caring for an elderly woman three weeks ago who was having digestive problems. Within a week after caring for her I developed uncontrollable diarrhea. It came on suddenly and lasted almost 5 days with accompanying loss of appetite and general malaise. I thought I had a touch of food poisoning but it seemed to go away. Within a week afterward I suffered extreme intestinal cramping after eating ice cream. As others have mentioned, I thought I'd have to go to the emergency room. Two days ago the daughter of the woman I care for told me her elderly mother was being treated for a giardia infection, so it is quite likely I also have contracted giardia, which is contagious. I started a regime of garlic oil, probiotics and Goldenseal yesterday, and so far no more disabling abdominal pain, however soreness lingers.

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