Forums > Living in Kunming > Diarrhea issues Topics like this on a website like this usually don’t make much sense and so does this one.
The problem is that people try to spread a message that is based on their own personal experiences and often don’t have any relevance for others and a lot of their conclusions and recommendations are misconceptions.
The OP apparently has some problems with diarrhea and then he gives a lengthy explanation on what to do to overcome it.
However diarrhoea can be caused by more than one trigger:
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Medications such as laxatives, antibiotics
• Food allergy
• Food poisoning
• Bad water
• Bad hygiene
Therefor how to treat diarrhoea is as well not a simple thing. The good thing is that diarrhoea in most cases will disappear once the trigger is taken away and the better news is that “that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
The OP starts with declaring tap water as the enemy, and goes at extreme length to eliminate it from his life. I totally disagree with that. Yes tap water can contain pathogens that can cause diarrhea but in near all cases you will get resistant to them. I don’t drink the local tap water in Kunming and surely not outside Kunming but I brush my teeth with it make tea and coffee with it (Boiled tab water) and cook my food with it. This low level exposure will keep up my resistance against water born diseases that cause diarrhrea. Avoiding tab water as the OP advises will on the long run have a negative effect on my immune system.
One of the things not mentioned in the OP article is what the problem with the local tap water actually is. There is a wide range of water born diseases (that cause diarrhea) but they vary very much in character and how they will affect your life. Virus and bacteria related diarrhea is something the body gets used to and one simply has to adapt to the local ones in the tap water and most of them fall in the category “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Most of these will give you lifelong immunity or on reinfection cause only mild symptoms.
Amoeba related diarrhea, like Giardia, takes harder to get used to. The amoeba simply encapsulates itself when the going get though for it and returns to active duty when you are weak. Weak might be stress, anxiety, alcohol/drunkenness, drug use, having your period, fatigue, or any other co-infection. None the less if these stress factors don’t occur you will most likely be free of it in a couple of month. Because of this encapsulation a Giardia infection can have effect on your health even when you are no longer in contact with the source and over a long period. Blaming the local Kunming tap water for it most likely is wrong. You might have gotten the infection half a year ago in Xishuangbanna when you had that nice coconut jus that was watered down with dirty local water.
Failing to pinpoint what his real problem/cause of water related diarrhea is makes the whole story of the OP completely useless. If you have repeated and continuous water related diarrhea issues then do get a lab test to see what the problem really is so you know how to properly address it.
What his real problem might be, judging on the rest of his story, are probably three other causes causing diarrhea as listed above namely: stress, anxiety and food allergy.
The OP goes at lengths to describe all these three causes so I don’t have to repeat them. A problem of course is that stress and anxiety might be caused by having diarrhea so one ends up in a vicious circle.
And that brings me to the conclusion of this reaction: break the circle, get used to the local bugs and start living. Get out of this self-erected prison you created.
Yes food allergy exists but for most people spices simply take a bit of getting used to. Yes water born diarrhea exists but most people will get used to the local bugs. Yes food and general hygiene might not be up to a standard that you are used to but billions of people live happily in hygiene conditions that are way below what we have here.
PS:
It is a complete misconception that American fast food chains are better in food hygiene.
PS:
In recent years the tap water quality in Kunming improved enormously. This because raw tap water now is pumped from the Jingsha River (Meld water from Tibet thus nicely cold which stops pathogens from multiplying) and no longer comes from dubious local water reservoirs that were mainly filled by surface runoff.
PS: In reaction to “duke is me:
Immodium is not an anti-diarrheal medication in that that it does not address the infection as such. The working principle of Immodium is to stop the peristaltic movements of your guts so there is no excretion any longer. This should not be confused with having no longer a diarrheal infection. It is only treating the result of the infection that is the excretion. Immodium should be used with care. Anyway never in children and never as a prophylactic as some people do. In some forms of diarrheal diseases, like Cholera, it is even extremely dangerous.
Yunnan coffee producer found in violation of Nestlé trademark
发布者Yes, Spam is even Covid proof.
Still amasing that Spam reacts to a more than 10 year old article ;-)
New strict dog regulations in 36 Kunming areas
发布者@WayoftheSun
I largely agree with you that it is not the dog but the owner that is the problem. But you have to realize that there is a correlation between them, like people that buy a Lamborghini are more likely to be involved in a high speed accident than people who buy a QQ.
The problem is that people that, let say, buy a pit bull terrier, usually are not doing so to prove that these are nice family dogs but do so for the reasons why these dogs are forbidden now.
An other point is that certain breeds which where OK before, like for example the various shepherd breeds, for whom I have as well have good experiences, I was allowed to walk a friend's shepherd when only 4 years old, have changed.
Many of these dogs are not any longer what they used to be. This because of unscrupulous breeding for commercial reasons. The nice and friendly shepherd I walked as a 4 year old is not the same as the shepherd my neighbor bought as a status symbol to go with his Cayenne.
For this reason I support banning breeds. Not because of the dogs but because of the owners.
New strict dog regulations in 36 Kunming areas
发布者Dognappig
Kidnapping of a dog in our compound occurred yesterday. The dog was lured outside with a ham sausage and then taken off the compound. Security camera's showed all the action even of the kidnapping lady buying the ham sausage in the convenience store next to the compound.
The dog involved was an Akita, which is one of the forbidden dog breeds in Kunming. Apparently there still is a market for these dogs.
Yunnan census results released
发布者When I read the header I thought that is fast because last night the just visited me. Turned out the article is about the previous census ;-)
Mountain collapse kills two, destroys vineyards
发布者The picture looks like Yiliang the duck place with these high rises and motorway.