OK, before this devolves into a water war, I'll put in my two cents
worth. I have a theory about GI problems during travel and it is
two-fold. Clearly there are countries whose water supply contains
bacteria that are pathogenic to just about anyone who drinks them.
These are enterotoxigenic organisms that can make you very ill for a
protracted period of time. Travelers are particularly susceptable but
even locals can get sick despite a lifetime of exposure. These are
typically associated with developing countries. I have traveled twice
to South/Central America. In my first trip to Paraguay I was a fanatic
about avoiding the local tap water. I brushed my teeth and washed my
face with bottled water and only ate cooked foods, nothing fresh.
Didn't help: I got sick as a dog for 36 hours; GI at both ends. Years
later when I traveled to Guatemala I threw caution to the wind. I
didn't drink the water but I did brush my teeth and bathe with it. I
ate only cooked food and drank only bottled water, wine, beer and
coffee (and boy was that coffee good). I was fine, not a moment of GI
discomfort.
Another time I spent a month working in Germany (Western at the
time). I didn't give it a thought about food or drink, ate and drank
it all. After the first week I was sick as a dog for 36 hours. Hmmm,
what gives here?
My theory is this: we all have a huge quantity of bacterial
intestinal flora. We acquire then the first year of life and they are
essential for good health. All potable water contains bacteria that
non-pathogenic but we haven't made our peace with them like we have
with the one that live in our gut. My theory is that when we are
exposed to them their is a battle of sorts for supremacy in our gut. I
think our native flora usually prevail as we return to our home but
the interim can be miserable.
Charlie
On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 2:46 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I beg your pardon? Water warnings in the 70s? I guess someone forgot to tell
> us Europeans that our water was not safe, because most of the continent was
> happily drinking tap water already when I was a child in the 1960s--and in
> backwards, Communist Poland to boot.
>
> I can assure you 100% that if anyone in France warned you against drinking
> tap water in 1980s, their only motive would have been to get a naive American
> to support Perrier etc. by wasting money on bottled water.
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan (I generally prefer Belgian beer to just about any other liquid, but
> that's another story)
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://www.greatpix.eu
> http://www.nathanfoto.com
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
>
>
> YNWA
>
>
>
> On Sep 13, 2012, at 6:43 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
>
>>> Even if wine is part of the healthy meditarenean diet, water is
>>> completely safe, at least in Rome.
>>
>> The first time I went to Europe, right before 1980, the water warnings
>> (especially in France) were widespread. In the '90s when I was over in
>> Europe several times a year, the warnings were no more, but some
>> places I went you just knew not to try your luck. Rome was still one
>> of those places. Somewhere along the way, European countries were no
>> longer third-world countries when it came to water quality. Not sure
>> when that happened, but I'm sure it was a whole lot sooner than we
>> prideful Americans thought.
>>
>> Canadian water? Not nearly as bad as their beer. ;)
>>
>> I got an interesting education one day, when observing a
>> road-construction project in Italy. In the town I was staying, outside
>> of Rome, the city had a rough look to it. Actually, it reminded me a
>> lot of a spaghetti western. I half-expected to hear the flute and the
>> rattle-snake shaker sound and seeing a tumbleweed blowing past.
>> (actually, a tumbleweed did blow past). Above ground it was rough, old
>> and most things dated back earlier than the American Revolution. There
>> was a big hole in the ground at an intersection in the road. It was
>> simply incredible the number of pipes, conduits, power runs and other
>> things under there. There were dozens of fiber-optic ducts running
>> every which way. It's weird, but I became much less critical of what I
>> could see above ground. For the past dozen years, I've worked in the
>> telecom industry and I have even more of an appreciation for what's
>> under our feet. Even in rural Iowa, where the media likes to pretend
>> that everybody is a hayseed hick (Iowa State University graduate) and
>> just cling to our guns and religion, we have an incredible amount of
>> technology and advancement (University of Iowa). Just like that
>> tumbleweed town in Italy, which I had misjudged, in Iowa we actually
>> are as well, if not better, connected than most any location in the
>> big modern cities. The only real difference is the length of the
>> cables, not the size of the cables.
>>
>> AG
>>
>> --
>> Ken Norton
>> ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
>> http://www.zone-10.com
>> --
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