Last weekend I went out of town to the mountains. My lyme was doing so much better. The one remaining symptom is stomach which was 85% resolved.
On Saturday I become kind of sick, passing a little mucus (sorry to be graphic). Then it escalates. Monday I'm having frequent bowel movements with mucus.
Yesterday, I start having explosive diarreha. Pretty sure I got some sort of food poisioning.
I've been doing tons of acidophilus, s boulardi, and charcoal tablets. Can anyone recommend anything else that might get this out of my system quickly?
Posted by Nutmeg (Member # 7250) on :
Hi tickalert,
I've never tried this myself (never had food poisoning that I know of), but I recently heard about eating canned pears in heavy sugar syrup for food poisoning.
Two friends both had it and tried this remedy (which they were skeptical about) and said it worked. Not sure why--something about the combination of pears and sugar syrup.
Not the best thing for people on an anti-candida or whole foods diet, but it's worth a try. If it works, it won't set you back too much on the diet.
The only other thing I could think of to try is liquid bentonite clay. In general, it's not good to slow down diarrhea because you want to get that stuff out of there, but the bentonite has detoxing properties because it absorbs and binds toxins in the digestive tract.
Good luck. Hope you feel better fast! Nutmeg
Posted by tickalert (Member # 7033) on :
I did go to the doc the other day. She did blood work and we are waiting for results from the stool samples. My white blood cell count is elevated which is looking like some sort of infection.
Posted by tickalert (Member # 7033) on :
Up anyone else?
Posted by herbalfrog (Member # 12711) on :
Take a scoop of Citrucel twice a day; try a gluten free diet and see a gastroenterologist. You may have a malabsorption problem and will see clouds of mucous and fats, possibly diarrheal or fatty looking stools while constipated.
Posted by dontlikeliver (Member # 4749) on :
Might be Salmonella. I just had it. Sounds similar. See doc. You might need abx.
Posted by Geneal (Member # 10375) on :
I had food poisoning twice.
Both times there was little time between ingestion and illness.
I put my head into a bucket and my rear end....well in the commode.
I didn't have two or three days between symptoms.
Phenergin (sp?) was the only relief I got.
Took about 5 days total to clear my system and left me weak as a kitten.
Once it was a porkchop from a restaurant. Once eggs I ordered when having breakfast out.
I hope you get to feeling better soon.
I don't order pork anymore or eggs of any kind.
Just meats that can be well cooked.
I don't ever want that again.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posted by MusicMan (Member # 11966) on :
Hi there
I had food poisoning twice too!
What I can remember is it did not last long maybe a day tops two days so if you have it after that amount of time it may be some kind of bug or even a Flu type virus, see your Doc.
Steve
Posted by tickalert (Member # 7033) on :
I saw my doc, they ordered blood work and stool samples. My blood work came back as my white blood cell count is high. She called, said I likely have an infection of some sort.
We're waiting for the results of the stool samples to come back. She also ran a C Diff test just in case.
Posted by Marnie (Member # 773) on :
"Compound *Cilantro* found in salsa kills harmful Salmonella bacteria"
I wish I had known that several years ago! (Son)
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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I saved this recent set of articles. I hope you can find the treatment you need. It may require strong measures. I would not try to treat this yourself unless you have research that what you do is the right dose and strong enough - and long enough - for the offending microbe.
Additional kidney and liver protection may be required.
Food poisoning's effects - and damage - can linger for years, if not properly treated. More detail in the articles below:
* Over the past decade, as medical experts have sought out the source of certain chronic illnesses, they have increasingly found links to episodes of food poisoning, sometimes many years beforehand, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
* "What the classical medical literature says and what we've seen is not the same," said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, or STOP, a nonprofit that represents people who have suffered serious food-borne illness.
* There may be a way to prevent the worst HUS cases and their consequences. Doctors in Washington state have found that it is important to hydrate a patient if they even suspect an E. coli infection. Doing so helps reduce the extent of injury to the kidneys.
- Full article:
LONG-TERM ILLS TIED TO BAD FOOD - Symptoms May Arise Years After Poisoning
- By Annys Shin_Washington Post Staff Writer_Tuesday, September 2, 2008; HE01
Over the past five years, Sarah Pierce has suffered repeated kidney failure, spent three years on dialysis, had the plasma in her blood replaced twice, and lost a fiance, friends and a job -- all because of something she ate.
Pierce, now 30, was infected with a toxic strain of bacteria, E. coli O157:H7, that can be spread through undercooked meat or raw produce.
Today, she has a healthy kidney donated by her brother, a full-time job and a husband. But the medicines she takes to keep her body from rejecting her replacement kidney carry a high risk of causing birth defects, so she has ruled out pregnancy.
"I would have liked to have had children," she said.
Pierce belongs to a small subset of people who develop long-term health problems from food poisoning.
Their ranks are growing.
Over the past decade, as medical experts have sought out the source of certain chronic illnesses, they have increasingly found links to episodes of food poisoning, sometimes many years beforehand, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Campylobacter, a bacterium associated with raw chicken, is now recognized as a leading cause of the sudden acute paralysis known as Guillain-Barr� syndrome.
Certain strains of salmonella, the bacterium involved in the recent outbreak in Mexican raw jalape�o and serrano peppers, can cause arthritis.
And E. coli O157:H7, a strain of an otherwise harmless bacterium that lives in animal intestines, can release toxins that cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a kidney disorder that in 25 to 50 percent of cases leads to kidney failure, high blood pressure and other problems as much as 10 years later.
This list is just the beginning of the many health problems some people are now attributing to food-borne infections.
"What the classical medical literature says and what we've seen is not the same," said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, or STOP, a nonprofit that represents people who have suffered serious food-borne illness.
The CDC estimates there are 76 million cases of food-borne disease in the United States annually.
The vast majority of people experience it only as an unpleasant bout of diarrhea or abdominal pain, though an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 Americans die each year from food poisoning.
A handful of pathogens are responsible for more than 90 percent of those fatalities: salmonella, listeria, toxoplasma, noroviruses, campylobacter and E. coli.
Those most susceptible to infection are small children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
Until recently, doctors were focused on the acute phase of food-borne infections, but since the 1990s, there has been "a more gradual recognition that some of the pathogens do have long-term [effects]," said Marguerite Neill, an infectious-disease specialist who teaches at Brown University.
"We're already on the right track in terms of [saying] food-borne illness is more than diarrhea and may end up with long-term [illnesses]." Some doctors are now wondering, for example, whether food-borne infections trigger irritable bowel syndrome and colitis, said Andrew Pavia, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Utah.
However, long-term health effects of food-borne infections are hard to study, for a variety of reasons. First, it is tough to prove a link between some of these illnesses and later chronic conditions such as arthritis.
Second, despite annual outbreaks across the nation, the subject hasn't attracted much public attention or funding, Neill said. Also, federal health-care privacy laws make it difficult for researchers to approach anyone who is not in their direct care.
To get around the last of these problems, STOP is setting up a national registry of victims of food-borne disease who would be willing to participate in longitudinal studies.
The registry could help researchers determine, for instance, how frequently food-borne infection leads to chronic health problems and what role factors such as genetics play in who develops them.
A Case Study
Researchers and clinicians face unique challenges when studying the long-term effects of HUS. The first outbreak associated with E. coli in the United States was in the 1980s.
Many of the earliest victims are only now entering their childbearing years.
Also, the number of HUS cases is small. Only about 5 to 10 percent of the 73,000 people each year who get sick from E. coli develop HUS.
The impact of HUS, however, is great. In the acute phase, microscopic blood clots may form in the kidney, leading to kidney failure, Neill said.
Sometimes the kidney can be rescued with temporary dialysis. Less commonly, these blood clots form in organs such as the brain and cause stroke or seizure. There may be permanent damage to the kidney.
According to a long-term study of 157 HUS victims co-written by Pavia in 1994, more than half developed kidney problems seven or more years after the initial illness.
These people face a lifetime of medical treatment. "Anyone with HUS will be monitored for the rest of their lives. If the acute course was severe enough, the risk of long-term kidney complications, including end-stage renal disease and kidney transplant, is quite high.
The future medical cost alone can then be in the millions," said William Marler, a Seattle lawyer who sues retailers and food companies on behalf of food poisoning victims.
That is the scenario Elizabeth Armstrong faces. Her two daughters got sick after eating bagged baby spinach in 2006. Her older daughter, Isabella, who was 4 at the time, survived with no apparent health problems.
But her younger daughter, Ashley, who was 2 at the time, developed HUS. She has only 10 percent kidney function and will likely need more than one kidney transplant in her lifetime, including one before she is an adult.
Also, when she becomes an adult, Ashley may face the same dilemma that Sarah Pierce did: deciding whether bearing a child is worth the risk.
There may be a way to prevent the worst HUS cases and their consequences.
Doctors in Washington state have found that it is important to hydrate a patient if they even suspect an E. coli infection. Doing so helps reduce the extent of injury to the kidneys.
More research needs to be done to identify other effective interventions, said Phillip Tarr, an HUS expert at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Of the estimated 76 million cases of food-borne disease the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates occur each year in the United States, the majority cause symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting for just a day or two.
The CDC recommends consulting your doctor if diarrhea is accompanied by:
� high fever (temperature over 101.5);
� blood in the stools;
� prolonged vomiting that prevents keeping liquids down; or
� signs of dehydration, including a decrease in urination, a dry mouth and throat, and dizziness when standing up.
A doctor should also be called if the diarrheal illness lasts more than three days.
Food poisoning cannot always be avoided. Tainted food does not always smell or taste bad. However, the CDC lists a few precautions people can take to reduce the risk:
Cook: Meat and eggs need to be cooked thoroughly. Ground beef should reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Eggs should be cooked until the yolk is firm.
Separate: Avoid cross-contamination by washing hands, utensils and cutting boards after they have been in contact with raw meat or poultry and before they touch another food. Chill: Refrigerate leftovers promptly.
Clean: Wash your hands before preparing food. Rinse fresh fruit and vegetables in running tap water to remove dirt. Discard the outer leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage. Avoid leaving cut produce at room temperature for many hours.
Report: Notify your local health department about suspected cases of food-borne illness. Scientists use this information to control the spread of illness and learn how to prevent outbreaks in the future.
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[ 03. October 2008, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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This would be more for kidney protection information rather than an anti-infective support:
berberine - 1873 abstracts (Berberine is contained in many herbs such as coptis and goldenseal)
None cross references with food poisoning, however. A more thorough search might find supportive measures for this situation - or a top naturopathic doctor may know.
As with lyme, food poisoning now appears to be much more complex than previously thought. Prompt and aggressive treatment seems best.
Good luck.
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Just one result from a google search: "Food poisoning" Andrographis -
Scientists have found that andrographis is able to fight infectious bugs such as salmonella, which can cause food poisoning. This is thought to be due to ...
- Ooops. That link does not connect. With some searching, it may still be found but I'm too tired to continue. I'll come back later - but I'll leave it here for now as it may still be a lead.
I would hope your regular doctor can give you all you need for this but if you need more, this may be helpful.
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