could your european vacay be the cause of stubborn gut symptoms?

With most of us enjoying extensive travels abroad & a vast majority of my patients presenting with persistent gut symptoms, lets have a quick look at how travel may be the cause & some immediate things you can do to help.

In clinic & via telehealth, I see many clients, Australia wide, with lingering bloating, food intolerances and variable bowels, either after returning home from some much needed rest & relaxation abroad, or symptoms may resurface some time after initial illness has passed.

When it comes to gut parasites, it is common to immediately think of travels to India, Bali, wider South East Asia, Africa & South America; some initial symptoms along with a ‘never been well since’ scenario, it’s easy to put location & persistent gut issues together.

However, there has been a rise in outbreaks of common parasites including Giardia & Blastocystis in countries that previously enjoyed relatively little risk, including Italy & France. Could your lingering gut issues be from those beautiful small goods in Positano or the myriad of divine cheese plates in Paris?

With changes to the global food system, the ease of imported food, along with gaps in surveillance & control, issues with food contamination are on the rise throughout the globe. Preservation techniques such as salting, smoking & curing are not effective for killing all parasites present in raw foods, as such, increased global importation of foods combined with smaller ‘cottage’ food producers and gaps in food tracing / safety standards can lead to some not-so-welcome gut inhabitants.

Signs & symptoms you may have picked up a parasite:

• Abdominal &/or stomach pain, tenderness

• Diarrhoea, foul stools, soft & fatty stools

• Constipation

• Persistent gas & bloating

• Nausea (& vomiting)

• Rash or itching around rectum & vulva, also other areas of skin

• Fatigue

• Weight loss

• Blood or mucus in stool

• Mood & mental health changes (80+% of serotonin & GABA are made & stored in the gut by beneficial microbes)

After an initial bout of food poisoning or gastroenteritis, you may feel like you have recovered, and some people do make a full recovery. For others, lingering gut symptoms may persist, or may resurface after some time has passed, this can make it difficult for you to connect the dots. So why the variation in outcomes?

Overall gut health relies on broad ranging & healthy diversity of species. your gut is home to an extraordinary 2kg of microbes ! Quite often, (potentially) pathogenic species such as blastocystis can be found in healthy populations, yet it causes no symptoms. Why?  When overall numbers of ‘beneficial’ bacteria are high, potential pathogens are more likely to be kept under control & may even have some beneficial interactions with other microbes. It is when beneficial bacteria are low & ‘potential pathogens’ have space to thrive is when they are likely to turn problematic; opportunities such as an acute gastro ‘clean out’ or antibiotic use can cause a more immediate change, whereas a common presentation like long term stress &/or poor diet, both of which deplete beneficial bacteria, can provide longer term opportunities for parasites to thrive.

What next?

As tempting as it is to just head to your local pharmacy, health food store or grab something online to just get some relief ASAP,  testing is paramount for tackling gut issues as there are a great number of non-parasite causes which can produce the some or all of the same symptoms such as:

• SIBO / SIFO: small intestinal bacterial/fungal overgrowths

• Candida

• Liver detoxification issues

• Leaky gut

• Celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity

• IBD (Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis)

Testing options include:

• PCR stool test from your GP to identify parasites

• Complete Microbiome Mapping (functional Naturopath stool test): which explores your entire microbiome & the function of your digestive system so nothing is missed

What can you do right now?

Looking forward to some well deserved vacay time? Here are the top tips to help you avoid travel sickness:

• Pack some Travelan, a colostrum based formulation to provide gut antibodies against common food borne pathogens

• Pack some Saccharomyces Boulardii, this beneficial yeast is effective support against travellers diarrhoea & helps maintain a healthy microbiome and digestive tract

• Look to see if the establishment you wish to go to is on Trip Advisor, many food establishments rely on for business survival; any illness outbreaks are likely to be reported in the reviews here, ie. high numbers of glowing & recent reviews is a good sign

• Limit raw foods (such as carpaccio, tartare, sushi / sashimi, raw seafood), unpasteurised dairy

Already been away & have some of the above symptoms:

• Have some testing done !

• Include as many tolerated fibre rich & fermented foods in the diet as possible (boosting the beneficial microbiome can be helpful)

• A broad spectrum probiotic can be helpful; however in the case of a condition like SIBO, a probiotic (and lots of fibre / fermented foods in the diet) can make the condition worse, this can act as a tell-tale sign. Saccharomyces boulardii is better tolerated for conditions such as SIBO & can be very helpful for cases of Candida

• A binder can be helpful for ensuring removal of bacterial toxins via the stool; activated charcoal is a great option, just be sure to take at least 2 hours from any supplements or medications & don’t take for longer than 2-3 weeks without seeking further advice from your healthcare professional. A capsule version is less messy & easier to take than a loose powder.

• Keep up the fluids & consider some electrolytes, especially when long term diarrhoea &/or vomiting are present. SODII is a great option, the pineapple flavour is a personal favourite.