 |
|
|
Home |
Contact
| Subscribe | Events | Jobs | EZinfo | Classifieds | |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Top 5
Emailed Articles
|
April 2008 A “granola,” I am not. However, I do have a great appreciation for fresh organic produce, being higher in nutrients and lower in toxins. I eat a lot of organic fruits and drink fresh squeezed vegetable juice daily. What I don’t grow, I buy, and always wash!
Raining or not, Sunday morning at Maku`u Farmers’ Market is fun. Hawaiian music fills the air. Amid the rainbow of vendors are colorful pareos (sarongs), handmade jewelry, buckets of fresh cut tropical flowers, and leis. Aromas of tasty ethnic foods—Samoan, Thai, French, Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese—waft all around. If you are one who prefers to cook fresh, a variety of extraordinary fruits and vegetables are available. This is a fresh food haven. Who would guess a morning spent squeezing vine ripened tomatoes, drooling over ruffled heads of lettuce, and counting golden sweet smelling papayas could lead to serious illness? Certainly, it never occurred to me…until it did!
One day, I bought such a head of organic lettuce at the farmer’s market; the kind that would fan out so as to create a circle and still have fold upon fold. The key word here is: Organic. Preparing to make a salad, it was no surprise to find a little slug on one leaf. I had guests, a woman and her teenaged daughter. Forever playful, I picked off the slug and chased the girl around the kitchen a bit…a memorable experience. I did wash the lettuce, but with those deep convolutions, I unwittingly missed some slime. About 10 days later, the symptoms began. My skin felt sunburned, yet looked normal. At first, it was only on one side, so I thought I was getting shingles. I made an appointment with the doctor. By the time I saw her, the sensation had traveled to the other side of my body, ruling out shingles. The doctor ordered blood tests. A week later, the results reported normal, except for a raised eosinophil count. This did not raise a flag with my physician, but it should have, as a specific marker for my illness. As it was, I could not stand to be touched and could not sleep, resorting to a mat on the floor. However I lay, the pain, all over my body, was excruciating. My clothes hurt my skin; even the gently blowing wind! I kept thinking, “This can’t get worse.” But it did. The day after my doctor’s appointment, a migraine headache set in. My neck swelled. I could not turn my head. I was scared to death. The doctor prescribed anti-inflammatory and pain medications. These helped take the edge off, but still, I could not sleep. Four weeks passed and I coughed white sputum. Thinking I was getting bronchitis, I called the doctor. She didn’t know what to tell me. Meanwhile, a young man from a nearby organic farm community came over to visit. My husband told him about my illness. The man said, “That’s Rat Lung Worm. I’ve had it, and wouldn’t wish it on a dog. Google it.” What we found on Medline astounded us. Eosinophillic meningitis, angiostrongylus cantonensis, or its common, more repugnant name—Rat Lung Worm—is important for the organic-minded to be aware of. Rat Lung Worm is actually a parasite worm that grows in the lungs of rats. The larvae are excreted in rat feces. Snails or slugs eat the feces, or crawl over it, and become either infected themselves, or their slime becomes infested. The snail or slug continues its journey, crawling onto vegetables, and leaving a trail of infested slime. Then, an unsuspecting human, like myself, comes along, thinking they’re doing the healthy thing by eating organic. Next thing you know, they think they are going to die. In fact, and 2 to 3% do! In advanced cases, such as my own, the larvae make it into the lungs. Luckily, the larvae cannot survive to maturity in a human host and start to die. Then, the body has to deal with the dead larvae. That’s where all the pain comes in. Meningitis is caused from thousands of larvae dying in the brain stem. While my doctor had no idea what she was treating, she serendipitously gave me the recommended treatment. Anti-parasitic drugs are not prescribed, because if you kill the larvae off all at once, the body cannot handle their removal, toxicity occurs, and can result in death. We called the doctor. She had never heard of it. She said, “Your symptoms could be anything.” “Those exact symptoms?” “Yes.” “In that exact order?” “Yes.” “In that exact time frame?” “Yes.” “After pulling a slug off my salad?” “Yes.” “Considering I live in the Pacific Rim basin, where it is common?” “Yes.” She went on vacation and I vowed to get a new doctor. My symptoms lasted eight long weeks. I thought I was going to die, and I wanted to! I developed a great empathy for people with chronic pain. One year later, a nearby entire family contracted this. Would you believe? The same organic farmer diagnosed it! They ended up in the hospital and came to the attention of the county health department, who finally started investigating. The health official got my name from the farmer, called for an interview, and told me there weren’t many cases. I disagreed, because 1) Doctors were uneducated about it and therefore, 2) It was not being diagnosed. 3) The public was uneducated, and 4) Most people, like myself, didn’t think to report to the health department. I suggested they bring in educational programs for professionals and get the media involved to educate the public to wash organic produce especially well. Three great newspaper articles resulted (imagine a picture of a slug covering half the front page!) and experts came to educate the local doctors. In spite of this experience, I still enjoy a good organic salad. Today, however, I have rules:
I don’t know if that helps, but it sure makes me feel better!
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
