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GIARDIA LAMBLIA

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
I'll expand the post later, but I want to share this with you and ask yiu for your thoughs. I never have much clue about what could have triggered my ME/CFS, which I adquired at the age of 13 in the year 2000. Today, I was looking for some papers at my mother's house and I found the results of a series of tests they did on me in 2000 when I just had started to experience symptoms, at the end of the sheet it said: fecal matter analisys, GIARDIA LAMBLIA cists. I have read many time that giardia lblia has been implicates in cases if cfs and even an outbreak in 2004 in Norway or something like that. What do you think? How far fetched is to think that that infection was what started my disease back then? Would it be worth to check if that parasite is still there, 20 years later? Also, I love in Argentina, this isn't technocally a developed country, but the living standard for most people, including me and my family, is no different to that of a middle class family on, say, the usa. We do not have any public services or food safety regulation problems, our water and food are, to my knowledge, top quality. The question them is, how common is to get a giardia lamblia infection? Thanks for your time reading this!
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Hard to say whether Giardia lamblia might have been a factor. Normally if you get ME/CFS from Giardia lamblia, it appears at the time of the initial infection.

I've included some info about Giardia lamblia in my roadmap (just search for the word "Giardia").
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
Hard to say whether Giardia lamblia might have been a factor. Normally if you get ME/CFS from Giardia lamblia, it appears at the time of the initial infection.

I've included some info about Giardia lamblia in my roadmap (just search for the word "Giardia").
Thank you for your reply! The thing is, the test where giardia showed up, was asked by a doctor in order to find out what was causing my fatigue and generalized pain, the test was made perhaps only a few months after the onset of the symptoms, I think there's no way to tell when did the parasite stablished itself in my gut. I really wonder why did he asked such test, it wass the year 2000, I'm certain that doctor didn't know anything about me/cfs, and that giardiasis outbreak would happen 4 years later. I was just reading a paper called "Extra-intestinal and long term consequences of Giardia duodenalis infections", it's here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3870550/#!po=24.3119
Acording to that paper, the extra-intestinal symptoms of guardiasis, including "fatigue" could be attributed to disruption of the gut microbiome. That maked me wonder what happen to the "microbiome discovery project " by Ian Lipking and Mady Hornig... I guess that ended prematurely by those harassment acusations... Does anybody know anything about it?
 

ljimbo423

Senior Member
Messages
4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
Acording to that paper, the extra-intestinal symptoms of guardiasis, including "fatigue" could be attributed to disruption of the gut microbiome. That maked me wonder what happen to the "microbiome discovery project " by Ian Lipking and Mady Hornig... I guess that ended prematurely by those harassment acusations... Does anybody know anything about it?

I think you are on to something with this line of thinking. Nothing has and is helping me more than treating dysbiosis.

Here is a video of Mady Hornig talking about the "brain-immune-gut-dialogue". This video was posted on YouTube in July of 2019-

 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
Thanks! I'll watch it later.I actually have permament abdomunal bloating and gut pain of yet unknown origin... I'll consult with a gastroenterologist as soon as I can
By the way, how did you diagnose your disbiosys and how are you treating it?
I think you are on to something with this line of thinking. Nothing has and is helping me more than treating dysbiosis.

Here is a video of Mady Hornig talking about the "brain-immune-gut-dialogue". This video was posted on YouTube in July of 2019-

 
Last edited:

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Thank you for your reply! The thing is, the test where giardia showed up, was asked by a doctor in order to find out what was causing my fatigue and generalized pain, the test was made perhaps only a few months after the onset of the symptoms,

So you had fatigue and pain, and the doctor ordered a Giardia lamblia test, and you were positive.

Did you ever take any antimicrobials for the Giardia at the time?
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
So you had fatigue and pain, and the doctor ordered a Giardia lamblia test, and you were positive.

Did you ever take any antimicrobials for the Giardia at the time?
That was a very long te ago, I was jusg a child, but I remeber indeed taking some medication for it for a few days. Nothing happened. The test the doctor ordered was a standard stool tests, he didn't prescribe any antibody test. As I understand it, the person who analyzed the stools, found the giardia cysts under a microscope
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I don't know enough about Giardia lamblia to say whether it is capable of forming a chronic long term infection that would last for decades and could still be in your guts now. But if it were still in your guts, I wonder if some antimicrobials might help?
 

uglevod

Senior Member
Messages
220
I was tested positive for lamblia around 8 years ago - was treated with a standard set of tablets and never bothered to retest. I've also read that lamblia stays for around 2..3 weeks then immune system kicks it off.

Here is one thing

It was proved that coconut oil(antimicrobial) is highly effective against this parasite:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...a_lamblia_in_Experimentally_Infected_Hamsters

... and I still herx a ton out of coconut oil

Maybe you could check how you react to coconut oil and we would compare our results...
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
I was tested positive for lamblia around 8 years ago - was treated with a standard set of tablets and never bothered to retest. I've also read that lamblia stays for around 2..3 weeks then immune system kicks it off.

Here is one thing

It was proved that coconut oil(antimicrobial) is highly effective against this parasite:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...a_lamblia_in_Experimentally_Infected_Hamsters

... and I still herx a ton out of coconut oil

Maybe you could check how you react to coconut oil and we would compare our results...
I'll take the test and check it!
 

ljimbo423

Senior Member
Messages
4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
Thanks! I'll watch it later.I actually have permament abdomunal bloating and gut pain of yet unknown origin... I'll consult with a gastroenterologist as soon as I can
By the way, how did you diagnose your disbiosys and how are you treating it?

I had a Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA) done several years ago. That showed I had severe dysbiosis. I'm treating it with a low carb diet, probiotics, prebiotics and these herbs that are used regularly by functional medicine doctors to treat dysbiosis-

Oil of oregano, Neem, Thyme, Berberine, Olive leaf extract, Ceylon cinnamon, Holy Basil- 400 mg at bedtime (good antibacterial for the gut and great for sleep) and Clove- 450 mg.

Acording to that paper, the extra-intestinal symptoms of guardiasis, including "fatigue" could be attributed to disruption of the gut microbiome.

Something else you might want to consider is that the Giardia infection is gone but it caused significant long lasting dysbiosis. So treating Giardia might not solve the problem. You would need to treat the dysbiosis.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
I had a Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA) done several years ago. That showed I had severe dysbiosis. I'm treating it with a low carb diet, probiotics, prebiotics and these herbs that are used regularly by functional medicine doctors to treat dysbiosis-

Oil of oregano, Neem, Thyme, Berberine, Olive leaf extract, Ceylon cinnamon, Holy Basil- 400 mg at bedtime (good antibacterial for the gut and great for sleep) and Clove- 450 mg.



Something else you might want to consider is that the Giardia infection is gone but it caused significant long lasting dysbiosis. So treating Giardia might not solve the problem. You would need to treat the dysbiosis.
Where did you take the test? I don't think there's such test here in Argentina, but I'll check it out on the web. Maybe the only resources I'll find here are tests for different gut pathogens
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
You can be infected/carry Giardia chronically showing no signs of common symptoms. However for 20 years i am not sure.

Ask your Doctor for a stool Giardia Antigen test
Wouldn't it be great for all of us if I could give clues about the possibility of having a 20 years long chronic Giardia Lamblia infection on people with ME/CFS? I haven't found any reference to that in the literature. I think there are some clues pointing to me having some form of dysbiosis, for example, I remember that 10 years ago, both my brother and me got diarrhea and vomiting at te same time after consuming was I think was spoiled food. The difference between us was, however, that his diarrea lasted for a day while mine lasted for three months, and I've had gut inflammation ever since. I wouldn't find it surprising for a pathogen to have disrupted my gut microbiome making my gut more susceptible to infection