This is very interesting.
I wonder if we should all be having stool testing.

These 2 case studies sound familiar to quite a few of us. It links guardia to pn.
I'm going to ask for this gross poop test.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1605742/

Thanks for this. I'm not in the least surprised. I'm willing to bet all sorts of infections via the gut, often via or in conjunction with gut dysbiosis, cause nerve damage and a host of other problems. We know so very little about all this, and we're just starting to learn. The traditional stool tests are not the best/most precise, but they can be useful in the case of a handful of known infections. I believe there are thorough stool analyses at labs that will even note bacterial and yeast makeup, but they are usually not covered from what I've heard and cost several hundred dollars. I think naturopaths and alternative physicians perform them.

Edit: Just to be clear, they do check for the particular infection you mention, but it often takes several samples, if done properly/thoroughly.

My problem is the gut symptoms improved but the neuropathy never did.

Giardia cycles in the GI tract. It lives in the lining for a few days, then comes out to reproduce, causing symptoms, then goes dormant again. The stool tests have to be timed when the organism is actively in the bowel. It does not typically show up when in the dormant stage.

I have had Giardia infections a couple of times through drinking stream water when I was walking in the bush - they were not fun.

Lesson learned - now I carry drinking water and make sure that stream water is boiled before I drink it.

As much as I hate antibiotics, I wonder if it would be worth it to try the one for this. It would be interesting since my kids and I never have normal stool. TMI sorry, but always yellow and diarrhea off and on during the week. Wonder if it could be a parasite.

Also interesting that they live in the duodenum and that is where copper is absorbed and we are all low or deficient. I can't imagine why strong healthy people couldn't kick giardia though, and that it would lead to the neuromuscular rash we get and neuropathic symptoms. Makes me think its something more sinister.
I don't know... just rambling as I think about what is going on here.

I just had a chance to read the case reports and comments, all very brief, but very interesting. Antibiotics, Metronidazole, resolved both cases of neuropathy. Short and low dose courses in both cases, but never a single course. Interesting. This is what I plan to do in a sense, but more complex, involved and also using far better antibiotics, a complex and diverse array of natural ones. Every study shows they are as or more effective than pharmaceutical ones.

Interesting! I had Giardia as a kid, it was absolutely terrible. I wonder if it's true that it can remain dormant in your system for a long time.