Comments on: Is It Safe To Drink The Water? http://matadornetwork.com/goods/is-it-safe-to-drink-the-water/ travel culture worldwide Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:47:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Micah http://matadornetwork.com/goods/is-it-safe-to-drink-the-water/#comment-64397 Micah Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:00:09 +0000 http://matadorgoods.com/?p=215#comment-64397 Oops, forgot to add that antibiotics don't "cure" anything. Rather, as the name implies, they kill nearly everything. A Z-pack on the road is going to do most people much more harm than good, especially if you're in a place blessed with much bacteria. Avoid them if at all possible and if you must pack a round, be sure to make room for a bottle of probiotics to re-establish your local flora after a sickness. Yogurt is also good for this, although not as helpful as decent probiotics. Oops, forgot to add that antibiotics don’t “cure” anything. Rather, as the name implies, they kill nearly everything. A Z-pack on the road is going to do most people much more harm than good, especially if you’re in a place blessed with much bacteria. Avoid them if at all possible and if you must pack a round, be sure to make room for a bottle of probiotics to re-establish your local flora after a sickness. Yogurt is also good for this, although not as helpful as decent probiotics.

]]> By: Micah http://matadornetwork.com/goods/is-it-safe-to-drink-the-water/#comment-64217 Micah Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:51:11 +0000 http://matadorgoods.com/?p=215#comment-64217 Wow... 5 days of antibiotic resistant love is no good at all... It could be an amoebic infection, which needs to be treated by a doctor, especially if you have a fever too. If you're in a doctor free zone, get yourself some paracetamol for the fever and drink lots and lots of water - preferably with electrolyte packets (or lightly salted, if you can handle it). In any event, you should be tested ASAP for all manner of nastiness, including hepatitis. Good luck... There is always a chance you could get something truly nasty from the tap water method, BUT the chances are good that you won't and the benefits of having that inoculation of local bacterial flora far outweigh the downside, in my opinion. Remember that you can get the infections from just about anything - an unwashed fork or spoon, a bit of raw carrot or an ice cube - the tap water method just gives you a better shot of developing immunities in the comfort of an environment you choose. Infections occur because your body doesn't know how to deal with a particular new bug - better to deal with it in a nice hostel bathroom than behind a bush during a hike up to some remote village in the Himalaya... Wow… 5 days of antibiotic resistant love is no good at all… It could be an amoebic infection, which needs to be treated by a doctor, especially if you have a fever too. If you’re in a doctor free zone, get yourself some paracetamol for the fever and drink lots and lots of water – preferably with electrolyte packets (or lightly salted, if you can handle it). In any event, you should be tested ASAP for all manner of nastiness, including hepatitis. Good luck…

There is always a chance you could get something truly nasty from the tap water method, BUT the chances are good that you won’t and the benefits of having that inoculation of local bacterial flora far outweigh the downside, in my opinion. Remember that you can get the infections from just about anything – an unwashed fork or spoon, a bit of raw carrot or an ice cube – the tap water method just gives you a better shot of developing immunities in the comfort of an environment you choose. Infections occur because your body doesn’t know how to deal with a particular new bug – better to deal with it in a nice hostel bathroom than behind a bush during a hike up to some remote village in the Himalaya…

]]> By: Tim Patterson http://matadornetwork.com/goods/is-it-safe-to-drink-the-water/#comment-64394 Tim Patterson Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:40:49 +0000 http://matadorgoods.com/?p=215#comment-64394 Interesting ideas - I've got Delhi Belly right now and it's already resisted 5 days of antibiotics....maybe I should just start drinking tap water. Interesting ideas – I’ve got Delhi Belly right now and it’s already resisted 5 days of antibiotics….maybe I should just start drinking tap water.

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