Evolutionary Diarrhea

Three or more loose or watery expulsions from your bowels in a day and most docs would declare you a sufferer of diarrhea. But today's question is not whether or not you have it but whether or not you should try to stop the rush of fluids from your GI tract. “Diarrhea is a natural cleansing and should not be stopped,” say a growing number of people. That might be true--more importantly, it might not. Some diarrheal illnesses may be simply though uncomfortably removing bad things from your body, and some may be a symptom of serious sickness, perhaps even a threat to your longevity. And sadly, out there in the wild places, we don't know for sure which is which. Therefore we take steps based on what we do know--and that means we do not treat all cases of diarrhea. We know that if the patient is threatened with dehydration from prolonged diarrhea, we need to try to stop the diarrhea. And we know if travel is necessary but hindered by diarrhea, we need to try to stop the diarrhea. Otherwise it's a matter of inconvenience, and let the natural cleansing continue. The whole idea, by the way, that many of our responses to health challenges are the result of evolutionary adaptations is a very interesting one. For more ideas such as diarrhea-as-cleanser can be found by typing "evolutionary medicine" into your search engine.

New Treatment for Rabies?

The 15 year old female in Wisconsin who recovered after being diagnosed in an advanced stage of rabies after a bat bite marked a milestone in medicine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this has never happened before. A few people have recovered after showing the early signs of rabies and after being given the rabies vaccine--but no recoveries from advanced rabies have ever been reported. Doctors induced a coma and administered a mixture of antiviral medications, the names of which I do not know. Could this be a new treatment worth using on the next patient with rabies? Who knows? Certainly the treatment will be tried again, and, if it works, the medical world will be closer to learning the answer.

With warming temps and larger numbers of bite-able humans going to the wild places, a few reminders about rabies, it seems to me, are in order:

- Regard all animal bites as a potential rabies exposure.
- Clean the wound thoroughly with soap and disinfected water.
- Evacuate all animal bites immediately for the initiation of the rabies vaccine.
- Avoid close contact with animals, especially if they demonstrate erratic or unusual behavior.
- A prophylactic rabies vaccine is available for people who work or travel in high risk areas.