Wednesday, April 2, 2014

I just posted comments from anonymous as to how he/she is treating Blastocystis.  It brought me back to my blog inspiring me to write this post.


I have had the following revelations that I wanted to share:  Originally CDC explained to me that Blastocystis was an algae.  We keep water out for our cats in a plastic container that used to hold luncheon meat.  When it is rainy, the plastic container grows green algae.  On a few occasions, I have emptied the water from the container and have experimented with putting vinegar in it and letting it sit in the sun in the window over our kitchen sink.  After a while the algae disappears.  There's three conditions that are met in this at home, elementary experiment:


1.  The water is removed.  Water can be removed from your digestive tract by taking psyllium seed.  My daughter takes Metamucil.  Not the flavored variety, but just plain psyllium seed.


2.  Vinegar needs to make contact with the lining of the plastic container (in this case, your digestive tract).  This can be achieved by taking apple cidar  vinegar, many Italian dressings contain a lot of vinegar, possible balsamic vinegar, etc.  Maybe on an empty stomach, like when you wake up in the morning?  Not sure.  I'm not a scientist or doctor, just a mom trying to figure this all out.


3.  Sunlight?  Think about it.  It provides Vitamin D.  My daughter is always low in Vitamin D.  Low Vitamin D is related to inflammation.  Inflammed colons have rougher surfaces, like the way sanding wood before painting allows the paint to stick easier.


It seems harmless enough to absorb water from your colon using psyllium, take a spoonful of vinegar every so often, and soak in some rays.  Again, I'm not a doctor.  It's up to everyone that reads this to consult with their medical care provider, whether it be a physician, chiropractor, acupuncturist, naturopath, etc. as to their own treatment.  I'm just sharing a lay person's observations as to living with Blastocystis.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ban Chloramine (Chlorine + Ammonia) From Our Drinking Water

Please read below regarding chloramine being introduced as a disinfectant in our drinking water. 
 
Here's what happened:
 
1. EPA required drinking water suppliers to reduce the byproducts of chlorine by 2012.

2. To comply with the EPA requirements, many drinking water suppliers switched to chloramine as a disinfectant.

3. Existing infrastructure, such as lead and copper pipes, and lead solder is leaching heavy metals into our drinking water supply.

4. Washington DC, for example, saw an increase in lead poisoning after the introduction of chloramine in their drinking water.

5. Besides heavy metals leaching into our drinking water, chloramine is not as good of a disinfectant.

6. Chloramines produce byproducts referred to as HANs.

7. "The Science Behind the Symptoms" from Denise Johnson-Kula discusses health effects.  Denise can’t breathe after taking showers.  She’s focusing on the vapors which she says changes the species of chloramine to trichloramine.  She founded Concerned Citizens About Chloramine after San Francisco introduced Chloramine into her water in 2004.

8. Chloramine may damage red blood cells.

9. A study was done entitled Monochloramine-induced Oxidative Stress in Rat Colon Crypts.

10.  Here’s a study about chloramine enemas in rats and the inflammation caused in their colons as a result

11. Ammonia from chloramine converted to nitrite when the pH was too low in Ann Arbor, MI, during the summers.

12. Here's a Master's Thesis published this year. Please read starting on page 31 the Full-scale Study of Nitrification Factors.

13. Water treated with Chloramine as a disinfectant needs to be treated before it can be used in aquariums or by kidney dialysis patients.

14.  An Investigation of Nitrication Predictors and Factors in Two Full-Scale Drinking Water
Distribution Systems
 http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/6450/1/Scott_Daniel.pdf

15. In reference to fish, "High levels of nitrite can convert hemoglobin to methemoglobin, a form of hemoglobin in red blood cells that doesn't bind to oxygen like oxygen-seeking hemoglobin. Red blood cells that cannot take in oxygen put your fish at high risk of tissue hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) and therefore threatens the aquatic life in your pond. Because of these risks, it is important for pond keepers to establish the nitrogen cycle quickly and with as little stress to the fish and aquatic life in their pond as possible."

16.  Organisms, such as Blastocystis have an ability to form nitrites from ammonia.

17.  This study supports "the concept that ammonia-monochloramine system plays an important role in H. pylori-associated gastric mucosal injury".

18.  Blue Green Aglae creates toxins per the link below “chlorine was effective in destroying toxins” but “Chloramination had little effect on toxins”.

Here’s The California Department of Public Health Drinking Water map and contacts for the district offices:

As a life-long resident of Santa Clara County, I am familiar with this area and the children growing up here. I am convinced that chloramine constantly fed through our water pipes, being ingested and inhaled 24/7 at home, work, and at school, cannot be good for us.

I had the privilege of accompanying my daughter's sixth grade class on their science trip in fall. Seven of the twelve 11 and 12 year olds were on medications, either inhalers because they couldn't breathe or lactase, Miralax, etc. because they had issues with their digestive tracks. Two of the twelve, had already had colonoscopies. I am finding similar health issues amongst children in every school where I substitute.  Chloramine is being implicated in corroding copper and lead pipes and solder. If it can do that to heavy metals, you can imagine what's it's doing to the mucous membranes lining our nose, throat, lungs, digestive track, etc.

Samantha and I have seen many physicians.  Not one of them ever mentioned chloramine to us.  Chloramine is not even listed in the 18th edition of the Merck Manual of which medical practioners reference.

If you find out that you are being serviced by water disinfected with chloramine and are experiencing any of the chronic health issues that are being reported, please take action by clicking the link below to sign a petition addressed to Lisa Jackson of the US EPA.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-use-of-chloramine-in-drinking-water/

You might also want to visit www.chloramine.org where there are links to who to write regarding this issue.

I hope this information is helpful.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.






Monday, March 28, 2011

The Perfect Storm: Internal Environments Hospitable to Blastocystis

Last week, I received a call from a mother in California who had recently learned that her 19-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with Blastocystis. This mother's call renewed my interest in uncovering the prevalence in California of affliction by these potentially pathogenic protozoa. I am once again determined to document what my daughter has experienced in hopes that sharing our story will resonate with others, who in turn, are compelled to share a story of their own.

Initially, when my daughter was first diagnosed, I was obsessed with eradicating the Blastocystis from within her. She took a variety of medications, including Septra and then Alinia which made her hemorrhage and resulted in her first hospital stay in November of 2007. She was discharged with a prescription of Flagyl which was renewed, only for her symptoms to return.

A year later, she was treated for MAP with a combination of Rifampin and Clarithromyc. Everything worked for a while. We haven't found Blastocystis in her stools since November 2007, but then again, it is difficult to find, and quite frankly we haven't checked lately. Ignorance has been bliss.

We have also tried building up her system with probiotics, N - Acetyl Cysteine, and Glutathione. She avoided casein found in dairy products. This also worked for a while. We took her to a homeopathic doctor who used to be an ENT. He confirmed that she had rhinitis and a high IgG to Aspergillus Fumigatus. Homeopaths fight like with like. He had her take mold under her tongue and histamine (not antihistamine), along with vitamin K to clot the blood, vitamin D since she was low, and liposomal glutathione. This also worked, until we received test results showing Proteus Mirabilis in her stools and treated her with Cipro for a possible UTI.

Over the weekend, I began reading a book entitled Death and Dentistry by Martin H. Fischer. I'm only a fourth of the way through it. What I've learned thus far is worth sharing. Basically, the book says that "the conditions surrounding the life of a parasite-trivial matters like air and water or type of food substance available-had everything to do with what might happen to the parasitized host". The book explains how William B. Wherry, "by reduction of oxygen tension to proper level . . .made two specimens of Leptothix grow that had never before been cultivated, and an assorted lot of animal parasites".

Think about it. Laboratories have different preparation, fixative agents, and storage procedures for each laboratory sample depending on what they are trying to grow. Patients are instructed to fast or not to fast, proving even the food in your stomach makes a difference. The qualities of a host's environment may explain why some people with Blastocystis have symptoms and others do not.

Our daughter still has lots of gas and bouts of constipation. She has not gained weight. She gets nauseated and has headaches. All of which, I believe are a result of a leaky gut. She bleeds rectally. What started out as blood in her stools, graduated to rectal bleeding over the course of her treatments.

For the past six months, we have been trying a different approach. Rather than eradicating Blastocystis, we've been trying to create an internal environment within my daughter's gut that makes it difficult for Blastocystis to survive and multiply. We are trying to keep her system alkaline by following Sherry Brescia's Great Taste No Pain food combining plan.

She eats anti-inflammatory foods. She drinks green ice tea. She takes a tablespoon of Aloe Vera juice with meals. She eats a lot of peanut butter and whole wheat. Our daughter eats organic, hormone-free, antibiotic-free poultry but no red meats (they produce an acidic environment and her urine was acidic 5.0 PH when she first got sick). She eats organic, pesticide free vegetables and fruits. (If the produce is peeled or cooked, I don't always buy organic due to the cost and lack of availability.) Fruit seems to make her symptoms worse (If this is a yeast, sugars feed it, colitis sufferers often are found to be frutose intolerance.). Bananas don't seem to be a problem. She eats very little dairy, just hard cheeses and an occasional mint-chocolate-chip cup of ice-cream from Baskin Robbins. I think the ice-cream actually helps her go the bathroom. She eats a lot of parmasan cheese. She used to have low zinc levels.

Last June, our daughter had a stool test done by Doctor's Data. This test revealed she had no growth of Bacteroidis fragilis and no growth of Bifidobacterium spp. I believe this may be a result of all the medications she had taken to eradicate the Blastocystis. Our approach currently includes trying to boost the beneficial bacteria in our daughter's gut flora. She takes SuperShield Probiotics. Because SuperShield is so strong and our daughter is ten and weighs only 70 lbs, she only takes one pill every few days.

Our daughter is very physically active. We think this may increase her oxygen level which Blastocystis may not appreciate. We find when she sits around, her symptoms get worse.

Our daughter has low Ferritin levels, possibly due to all of the bleeding. Iron feeds all organisms. I believe the low levels are beneficial, since they starve the Blastocystis or any other underlying infectious microorganism of iron. Please do your research and talk with your doctor before supplementing with iron!

In addition to altering her internal environment, I believe she may have a strep or staph infection, such as was discovered in her first urine sample, only to be dismissed as too little of a colonization to be of clinical significance. Our daughter's school has had several reportable incidences of strep. Her school, along with her brothers' high school, also reported incidences of MRSA in the fall of 2007 when she fell ill.

The author of Death and Dentistry contends that a person's mouth is a point of entry for infectious disease. It discusses EC Rosenow's observation that the "relation between infected tonsils or gums and gastric ulcer may be due, not to the swallowing of bacteria but to the entrance into the blood steam of streptococci of the proper kind to produce a local infection in the wall of the stomach." An infection that travels through the blood can relocate anywhere in the body. It can produce toxins or other byproducts that the body struggles to eliminate, compromising the health of the host, or just creating a better habitat in which Blastocystis can survive.

Thus, I believe, the perfect storm in which Blastocystis thrive consists of the chemical qualities within the targeted host (my daughter's urine was 5.0 PH), the presence of bacterium or their byproducts in the blood stream that compromises a host (no one has yet to culture my daughter's blood), allowing Blastocystis the opportunity to burrow into intestinal linings and cause disease. I believe that toxins in our modern, "developed" country, such as polluted air and water and genetically modified foods also aid in modifying our chemical make-up, compromising a host's ability to put up a good fight.

To summarize: My thoughts now are the effectiveness of Blastocystis to wreak havoc on a person's system is reliant on that person's internal environment. The perfect storm comes in when there's another pathogen, such as strep, staph, or an environmental toxin, including polluted water, polluted air, etc. that weakens and/or penetrates a body's protective linings, allowing parasites to burrow past our natural barriers and stake claim.

Please reply to this post or call me at 408-386-5761 if you have any questions, wish to discuss personally, or would like to contribute further to the information shared here.

Monday, March 8, 2010

The Future of Food

Ever since my daughter ingested Blastocystis, I've been trying to understand how this could have happened here in Silicon Valley. While researching issues of contaminated food and water, my sister introduced me to this documentary regarding genetically modified seeds.

Companies have been mutating seeds to be resistant to pesticides without disclosing this fact to consumers who have not been given the opportunity to distinguish these genetically modified seeds from natural seeds. Imagine unsuspecting consumers involuntarily taking part in a nationwide experiment using human beings as guina pigs.

Science fiction? NOT! This is what's been happening here in the United States despite other countries expressing concerns and objecting to GMO consumption. The Future of Food will change the way you think of what you are putting in your mouth. It will spur questions as to the impact of genetically modified food on your health.

Once you watch this video, please research this phenomenum on your own. When you come out of your state of shock, start taking action. Groups like Consumer Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, offers comprehensive information as to the situation. The True Food Network allows consumers to sign up for automated emails with petitions urging politicians to stop the madness.

Please visit The Future of Food website. There you will find a tab entitled GET INVOLVED with links to various organizations working towards food safety. After all, we are what we eat, so wouldn't it make sense to know what exactly it is that we are eating?

Friday, February 26, 2010

Dairy Farmers of America Unite!

Here's an email I wrote to the Dairy Farmers of America. I hope you'll be as amused as I was while writing it. Sometimes laughter is the best medicine.

It's the end of the world as we know it . . . .
Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet . . . I was born and raised in America. My husband and I both grew up in Santa Clara County, California, a few miles south of San Francisco. We have been married almost two decades. We are college-educated, working, middle-class citizens with three children that have an annoying habit of eating every day. We, all five of us, were your 100% satisfied, lifelong consumers, merrily eating and drinking what you all produce.

On September 11, 2007, my 7 year-old-daughter, our youngest child, started bleeding rectally all of a sudden. After various tests, we learned she had contracted Blastocystis Hominis from contaminated food or water living here in Campbell, California. We never traveled out of the state.

My daughter, Samantha, like many others with IBS, IBD, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohns Disease, H pylori, Blastocystis Hominis, and those with food allergies, just to name a few, has been forced to go dairy free. Oh the humanity . . . . Sammy's only nine and she's off of ice cream, cheese, milk, sour cream. To support her in her new diet, my two college sons, my husband, and I have no longer "Got Milk".

I'm not just crying over spilt milk!
Unfortunately, it's only just the beginning, with my daughter's parasitic disease and the dairy-free diet that goes along with it, the milk industry is taking a hit. America doesn't recognize or treat Blastocystis. Like H Pylori, Blastocystis mutates and upsets the flora in your digestive tract. H Pylori interferes with a body's ability to effectively break up lactose. Blastocystis burrows itself into the mucus lining in your colon, thriving off any part of the dairy that doesn't get digested. Both these diseases are aggravated by consuming milk and/or milk products. Since 20% of Californian's now harbor Blastocystis in their digestive track, this is sure to be as big a problem for Dairy Farmers of America as it has been for me.

Who Moved My Cheese!!!
My prediction, and you can search the Internet to support this theory, more and more Americans will be forced to give up dairy to ease symptoms of parasitic infections, allergies, etc. that damage human hosts' digestive enzymes.

Diets around the world lack dairy. I have always believed that it was because of economics, but truth be told, I now believe many populations have excluded dairy due to a lack of tolerance of dairy products caused by damage from parasitic infections.

Veterans, Peace Corp volunteers, realty-show contestants, immigrants, travelers, and those relocating for corporations have brought these little buggers into our system. The United States hasn't kept pace with scientific research and treatment aimed at eradicating these parasites and protecting our digestive tract.

Making it the perfect storm for parasites to take over America, genetically modified seeds have entered our food supply compromising our DNA makeup. We might as well have put out the red carpet and welcomed these parasites with open arms. We are now the perfect hosts. The end result: we can't digest ice-cream! Big profits but at what price?

. . . . And I feel fine.
When given lemons, I make lemonade. I haven't given up hope. My money is on the seed companies that have no problem experimenting with our food supply and rolling the dice on how it interferes with our natural, God-given digestion and absorption process. I also believe a good investment opportunity is in health care, since we are all going to be disease-ridden from our food supply, since our medical doctors treat symptoms rather than underlying "developing country" disease.

Since government agencies and politicians don't seem to care that parasitic infections are interfering with dairy consumption, I wanted to bring my observation to your attention to prevent the inevitable extinction of the dairy farmer.

Please call me if you'd like to discuss the need for American consumers to recognize the existence of these emerging intestinal parasitic infections that prevent us all from enjoying the delicious benefits of dairy. If America would recognize these diseases as prevalent, we could work towards a cure and my daughter Samantha and I could go out for ice-cream, our common guilty pleasure.

Ordering one Caesar salad; Hold the bacteria!

Hello All,

I originally started this blog with the intention to discuss the condition of food safety in our great nation, thus the title of California Food for Thought. Most recently, I've been selfishly distracted on eradicating Blastocystis from my fourth-grade daughter, Samantha's colon. It's been quite an indulgence, every once in a while I have an "Ah Ha" moment inspiring me to share what I've learned.

I've been in communications with people around the globe, such as Jackie Delaney of www.badbugs.org, Paul Johnson of http://blastocystis-relief.com/, Dave Hompes who had Blastocystis along with H. Pylori. His site at http://www.blastocystis-symptoms.com/ allows you to ask any question about Blastocystis and offers a free eBook download for your troubles. There's also, Ken Boorom at www.bhomcenter.org. Ken moved to Oregon where he and two of his children contracted the infection.

I encourage you to research this parasite and the resulting condition of Blastocystosis since the prevalence has grown from 2.6% in 1987 to 23% in 2000 and "In the United States, a higher incidence of Blastocystis infection has been reported in California and West Coast states." Both of these statistics can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastocystosis.

Blastocystis is what drew me to the food issue. I've always suspected a two-pound-bag of lettuce grown in Salinas Valley, California, and sold at our local, major grocery store.

Consumer Union has another petition out addressing this issue. Please check this link out to tell our government how important it is to clean up our food supply:
https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=2231&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=4chha9ao6a.app46a

Please also sign up to receive automated emails for Consumer Union. This will make it easy for you to make your voice heard.

The issue of leafy greens is especially dear to my heart because of my daughter's struggles on a daily basis as a result of eating "healthy". Everyone, including Oprah, is touting the benefits of eating "right". Mom's and dad's are providing lettuce to their children, unaware of the infectious diseases to which they are exposing them. The major brand that produces the lettuce that Samantha ate even has televised commercials and is still prominently displayed on our grocery stores' shelves.

Here's a few more articles about lettuce:
http://www.alternet.org/story/145526/is_there_sh*t_in_your_salad_39%25_of_bagged_salads_have_too_much_fecal_bacteria

Here's an October 2009 entitled, "Leafy Greens, Eggs, & Tuna Top List of Riskiest FDA-Regulated FoodsLeafy Greens, Eggs, & Tuna Top List of Riskiest FDA-Regulated Foods"
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200910061.html

Lettuce is offered at our school cafeterias, on sandwiches at Togo's, Subway, Quiznos, and on the Big Mac. My family's motto now, "HOLD THE LETTUCE!"

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Colon Disease Survey

I've created a survey to determine the prevalence of colon disease and link it to the incidences of Blastocystis found in order to compile data for the Santa Clara County Health Department to initiate an investigation.

If you or your child suffers from colon issues, please take this ten-question survey designed to collect sufficient data, so that Santa Clara County Public Health will devote resources to initiating an investigation.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J6ZKKYD

In order to complete the survey, individuals will need to request copies of their laboratory results from their physicians. As a patient advocate, I suggest everyone do so anyway. It doesn't hurt to have these records available as you go through doctors during diagnosis and treatment of chronic ailments.

If you do not have personal, first-hand experience with colon and/or digestive tract disease, please forward this email to anyone and everyone you know who does.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide.