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Mexican Parasite, cause of Chron's???

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 11/9/2009 3:44 PM (GMT 0)
While I don't believe that my Crohn's was caused by anything in Mexico, I do believe that I contracted some kind of a bug/parasite while in Mazatlan in 2003 which triggered the disease to come to life. I started having symptoms 2 weeks after returning home to Canada and have never been the same since then.
Posted 11/9/2009 3:48 PM (GMT 0)
yeah - probably a trigger.
i developed crohns after having salmonella
this is a link to a short article talking about bacteria as triggers

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/703876
Posted 11/9/2009 5:05 PM (GMT 0)
I have had this dd for over 34 years, before I was diagnosed I had never been to Mexico.  Since diagnosis I have been to Mexico many, many times.  I think this is most definetly not a trigger for Crohns.  JMHO
Posted 11/9/2009 6:58 PM (GMT 0)
I think they mean an initial trigger, not a flare trigger.
Posted 11/9/2009 9:05 PM (GMT 0)
Thats exactly what I meant aoccc. I think its actually just grabbing at straws to find that going to Mexico causes someone to get Crohns. JMHO
Posted 11/9/2009 10:07 PM (GMT 0)
Could be, but it is a complex new world out there. Different pollutions and other ecosystem changes are doing things to people's bodies in places such as China and Mexico that we are still trying to figure out.
Posted 11/10/2009 12:01 AM (GMT 0)
I agree with the trigger thought. I think we can be predisposed to getting things, and it takes certain triggers for us to come down with a disease. That doesn't mean that trigger will be the same for everyone, and may be completely harmless to others.
Posted 11/10/2009 12:04 AM (GMT 0)
I don't see how the "parasite as trigger" theory is ludicrous. When I had my first CD sx, the only recent change in my life had been my trip to Mexico. Don't they always warn us not to drink the water down there ? I would assume that is because there is bacteria in the local water that we Canadians and Americans can't process. How do we really know what it is doing to our bodies.

In spite of all this, I still love Mexico and would go back anytime.

Posted 11/10/2009 12:05 AM (GMT 0)
I've never been to Mexico. Considering that Crohn's is the most common in northern countries, I find this impossible to believe.
Posted 11/10/2009 1:28 AM (GMT 0)
What?!

I'm from England.  I've never been to Mexico, no family members have ever been to Mexico, no friends have ever been to Mexico - I don't even speak Spanish!!

The closest I've ever been to Mexico geographically is Florida! I think the doctor is either crazy or a charlatan!

I don't know what the statistics are on the distribution of Crohn's disease throughout the world, but I'd bet they're higher in modern, industrialised Western Countries than elsewhere.  I think if they ever discover what the cause of Crohn's disease is - it'll be an array of different environmental factors.  It'll be something in what we eat, the additives and pollution we ingest, or even the illnesses we have (or don't have anymore), that'll point to why our bodies decide to play fast and loose (literally) with our digestive tract.

Posted 11/10/2009 2:23 AM (GMT 0)
Well Crohn's is an auto-immune disease in which the immune system cells attack it's own perfectly normal tissue cells as if it were an invader. Rheumatoid arthritis is another example of an auto-immune disease. I don't think that a parasite could have the potential to trigger all of this, or a virus. It's gotta be a congential thing (i believe), and i would be curious as to the ethnical stats of those it affects. For example, native-americans get the brunt of RA.
Posted 11/10/2009 3:18 AM (GMT 0)
So because I am bored..In the last 50-100 years, why is it all the sudden multiplying at these rates? 50 years ago, I bet you weren't getting Watermelons from Mexico(grown with who knows what water) and bananas (sprayed with who knows what) from Guatemala. I am just wondering how the transportation revolution has affected us if at all.

If you say you have never been to Mexico and you live in North America, things like prepackaged salads and other items with multiple fruits or veggies have gave you a taste of Mexico and other unregulated countries.
Posted 11/10/2009 5:41 AM (GMT 0)
I have never been to Mexico, but now that I think of it , I do run through the house on the way to the bath room yelling,,,,"Andale Andale, Arriba ,,,Yii Hah !!!!!!!! " .
Posted 11/10/2009 11:47 AM (GMT 0)
IMHO I can't see going to Mexico being the cause of crohn's.. but I can see it being an initial trigger. Even though they don't say it is, I'm pretty sure my initial crohn's trigger was the MMR shot I got in the hospital right after I had my second child. Yeah, I was more than likely predisposed to have CD anyways, it was just the MMR shot that... activated it? At least that's my guess lol.
Posted 1/20/2013 3:49 PM (GMT 0)
When she was younger my cousin got very sick after swimming in a lake in Mexico, was in and out of the hospital for months, they didn't know if she would survive. After about six months they discovered she had a parasite, once they had eradicated it from her system, she recovered, but was left with Crohn's. She has had a very serious case of the disease ever since, and never had any signs, symptoms or GI problems whatsoever before she had the parasite.

No one in our family has any IBD's but some of us are wheat intolerant.

hope that helps!
Posted 1/20/2013 3:59 PM (GMT 0)
Interestingly, Mexicans who travel in our country tend to get gastroenteritis, just as we do when we travel there. Even in the large cities where water is treated, not all microorganisms can be removed. We develop gastroenteritis in foreign countries because we haven't developed a resistance to the flora there as we have at home.

This phenomenon affects everyone, not just those with IBD.
Posted 1/20/2013 4:14 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting. I'm in Australia. I've never left the country. Never eaten anything made in Mexico. I only buy fruit and veges grown here (not that I eat many). And I don't drink milk as I hate the stuff, always have. So I think they are all conspiracy theories along the lines of immunisation causing Autism.
Posted 1/20/2013 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
I had never heard of Crohn's being triggered (keyword triggered, not caused) by a parasite in Mexico, other than in my own family. Didn't even know it was a conspiracy theory or that it had happened to anyone else, stumbled across this forum while researching the disease for a scientific essay.

That's just exactly what happened to my cousin :)
Posted 1/20/2013 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
Hi its not true, You can't Crohn's going to Mexico.
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