I got giardia on the PCT

So I found this study on vaginal bacteria being helped by probiotic suppositories. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00248-012-0154-3

I wonder if I can use a suppository instead of poop slurry enemas?

Piper,

Poop slurries or giant dehydrated poop pills are going to have way, way more kinds of critters (parasites and yeasts and bacteria and viruses and phages oh my!) than any commercial probiotic with a handful of “good” bacteria.

And what’s good for your vagina (or any other body part) isn’t the same as what’s good for your gut – lots of microbial diversity within and around each body, too.

If good poop is the only cure for what ails you, there aren’t any shortcuts.

You might want to look into very restrictive diets to relieve some symptoms. I just started a low-FODMAP diet at my doctor’s recommendation, and it’s made a world of difference in my non-Giardia gut troubles. In a month or two I get to selectively add back the foods I dearly miss right now, and see if I can tolerate them. You might need to doctor-shop or nutritionist-shop to find one who will work with you that way.

— Rex

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=1&mtrref=undefined&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=96FA65F505F21BE94B78F40EDB16B569&gwt=pay

That’s five years old but there are a lot of other articles about this

If take the giardia treatment it will greatly alter your gut biome?  Maybe you’re more susceptible to giardia if you don’t have a healthy gut biome?

You can do probiotics.  Yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi are good.  Probiotic pills are unregulated and tend not to have what they say and haven’t been tested for effectiveness.

More effective are prebiotics.  Variety of plant products.  Bananas, oats, and beans support one family of bacteria.  onions, root vegetables, and nuts support another family of bacteria.  whole grains especially bran and avacados support another family of bacteria.  And that’s just a simplification, you need a wide variety.

found this chart today:

Whats with all the angst about poop?  Pooping is important.  If you don’t agree, don’t do it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel.  :)

*I’m a general surgeon.  Poop is my life.

Oh boy, for years giardia was my “frenemy”. It always announced its presence with nipping pains in my cecum! Of course the worst of it was feeling run-down and fatigued.

Flagyl always made my stomach feel like it was made of iron. It and the other pharmaceuticals never eradicated the giardia. It would come back no matter how careful I was.

One of the top diagnistic labs in the U.S.–if only I had discovered it sooner!–had what turned out to be the best advice. It was to avoid pharmaceuticals and take natural anti-parasiticals like oregano oil, grapefruit-seed extract; wormwood and black walnut.extracts. I never found a good source for the latter two but the oregano oil and the grapefruit-seed extract finally got rid of the giardia altogether. BTW its a good idea to combine these preparations with probiotics of some kind.

Glad you finally got rid of it Howard. I bet that was hard to deal with.

I got giardia on the PCT too. Unluckily I’ve gotten it two other times as well. Luckily, treatment has always worked remarkably well for me. Tinidazole has been found to be most effective, at least as a first resort med. Actually, the first and best resort for me is prevention.

I gotta say that the recovery from giardia was long. I think that’s the worst infection of any kind I’ve ever had. Prevention will be worth a LOT more than a pound of cure.