4 ms·

You have clearly never had Giardia or it seems known anyone who has. I have, and let me say that it gives you a deep and terrifyingly intimate knowledge of your

by kurthr 9y ago

You have clearly never had Giardia or it seems known anyone who has. I have, and let me say that it gives you a deep and terrifyingly intimate knowledge of your bowels, the places available to relieve yourself, and the contents of your excrement. You can spend many hours each day in wonder and awe. Note that although you can live untreated you will become a vector for the disease... it may be that an immune response will allow it to pass in a few days (if you've had it several times before), but you can still pass it on to others. Often symptoms last for several weeks or months unless treated with flagyl (typical treatments last 1-2 weeks). It is quite bad for your liver. Many of the livestock around the world have it (or other parasites). I don't want to be near anyone else who has any of them, and I think immuno-compromised, elderly, children or pregnant women would be rationally quite afraid.

indubitable 9y ago
It's unwise to speculate of things you know nothing of. I've lived for years in areas where incidence rates of giardia push upwards of 30% - alongside numerous other 'sicknesses'. And there are literally enforced no sanitary standards on food establishments. A big part of the reason for my views is because of my own life experience. Have I had giardia? Almost certainly, though I couldn't tell you for certain. When I first started my travels stomach upset was typical though hardly intolerable. But as I adjusted to less than sterile conditions I'm vastly healthier than ever before - far moreso than my time before in the US where a million rules and regulations tryied to protect me from everything, yet inevitably failed. There was an interesting study a few years back [1] that sought to study a connection between dust/bacteria and asthma. The results proved to be completely the opposite of what they went in hypothesizing and perhaps even more remarkable. Want to have kids with healthy immune systems free of respiratory disease? Who doesn't? Then make sure they're exposed to all sorts of dirt, bacteria, dust, and all these sorts of fun things - because exposure there is linked to a substantial decline in the risk of later allergies/asthma/etc. Our immune system is, by far, the most sophisticated tool we have against illness. And priming it is not exactly a new idea - it is the fundamental basis of operation for vaccines. A vaccine is generally just injecting a weakened or otherwise 'handicapped' version of a virus into your body training the immune system to make it more likely to be able to resist the real thing should it encounter it in the world. [1] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keeping-too-clean-a-house-may-raise-kids-risk-asthma-allergies/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keeping-too-clean-a-house-may-r...

by kurthr 9y ago

indubitable 9y ago

It's unwise to speculate of things you know nothing of. I've lived for years in areas where incidence rates of giardia push upwards of 30% - alongside numerous other 'sicknesses'. And there are literally enforced no sanitary standards on food establishments. A big part of the reason for my views is because of my own life experience. Have I had giardia? Almost certainly, though I couldn't tell you for certain. When I first started my travels stomach upset was typical though hardly intolerable. But as I adjusted to less than sterile conditions I'm vastly healthier than ever before - far moreso than my time before in the US where a million rules and regulations tryied to protect me from everything, yet inevitably failed. There was an interesting study a few years back [1] that sought to study a connection between dust/bacteria and asthma. The results proved to be completely the opposite of what they went in hypothesizing and perhaps even more remarkable. Want to have kids with healthy immune systems free of respiratory disease? Who doesn't? Then make sure they're exposed to all sorts of dirt, bacteria, dust, and all these sorts of fun things - because exposure there is linked to a substantial decline in the risk of later allergies/asthma/etc. Our immune system is, by far, the most sophisticated tool we have against illness. And priming it is not exactly a new idea - it is the fundamental basis of operation for vaccines. A vaccine is generally just injecting a weakened or otherwise 'handicapped' version of a virus into your body training the immune system to make it more likely to be able to resist the real thing should it encounter it in the world. [1] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keeping-too-clean-a-house-may-raise-kids-risk-asthma-allergies/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keeping-too-clean-a-house-may-r...