A little more info on the gut topic. Giardia
 

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:D.


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.

I Giardia tested back in 2013 it was negative, reason chronic ibs.
giardia usually cause really bas gastrointestinal symptoms to warrant a test.

Metronidazole and its cousin Tindamax, are well known causers of nerve damage.

A whole family with chronic diarrhea? Could be other causes there. But it does warrant medical evaluation.

Closely look at your foods. The gums added to most processed foods, including dairy and ice creams (carob bean gum aka locust bean gum), can cause issues for people with a gut biome that ferments this complex carb. Before embarking on the giardia research remove the "gums" from your food intake and see if there is an improvement.

Metronidazole can cause nerve damage, but in this case they clearly killed the infection and resolved the nerve damage. What's interesting though is that they're so aware of this potential problem that they defensively note that it didn't do so in this case, etc. That they use such meds when they know they can cause such lifelong and at times debilitating conditions, say like PN, is beyond me!

This is also worth reading, especially if you're interested in what it can do long term: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3870550/

And there's this: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056...99307153290318.