A Parasite Outbreak, a Real Case, and How to Triage Diarrhea
Happy Sunday everyone.
Well I have no segway for this one. So here it goes:
Explosive diarrhea hitting thousands of people in the US since my last email. Cyclospora is the parasite behind cyclosporiasis . It spreads by consuming food or water contaminated with fecal matter and presents with watery diarrhea, nausea , cramping, bloating, gas and fatigue.
One of the coaches in our group mentorship program came to us with a case that made me suspicious that she had contracted the parasite . Her symptoms started about 4 weeks ago, and what she initially thought was hormonal lined up with the start of the spread. Symptoms of Cyclospora usually begin about a week after exposure and can take up to two weeks to appear, which makes the root cause easy to miss.
On that call we walked through initial steps that are key if you ever for whatever reason have to triage severe loose stool which are to:
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Rehydrate
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Get calories back in
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Lower inflammation
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then support the gut in rebuilding resilience so you're less likely to deal with lingering GI issues.
Read more HERE about how to triage and heal from a bad diarrhea bout
The latest update at the time I am writing this is the outbreak is linked to iceberg lettuce sold out of Taco Bell in 5 states I have been asked by some clients how to reduce risks and if you want to be e
xtra cautious during peak cyclospora season, which runs May through August.
A couple of habits help:
