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5K views 24 replies 19 participants last post by  TMcArthur 
#1 ·
There was a thread posted a couple of days ago about eating rotten food and the immunity that it could help develop if you ever HAD to eat rotten food.

This got me to thinking about drinking bad water. Would the same methodology work here? If I randomly drink water from streams, lakes, puddles, etc., would this help me in the future if SHTF or other survival scenarios?

I remember during a Dual Survival episode Dave had mentioned that whenever he traveled somewhere he always drank a little bit of water directly from somewhere to try and build up some immunity if he ever had to drink the water in a real survival scenario.

I'm not talking of running out and drinking all the most rancid waters I possibly can, obviously you still have to be somewhat smart about it. I am just wondering if it is something others have considered as a viable solution (short or long term)
 
#2 ·
It would make sense. My friend traveled to morroco for a while and got sick from the water. He eventually got used to it. Happens to people to move to mexico as well.
I think the best option would be to buy a property with a stream on it. Get all of your drinking water straight from the stream. A lot of wilderness guides are cool with drinking from fresh streams, but tell their clients to drink from the same thing and they get sick. Chemical run-off is a completely different thing though. Don't mess with that.
Just realize that you can possibly be hospitalized for drinking unpurified water. So be prepared to get really screwed up.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the info. Mexico is actually what got me initially thinking of this. I spent some time there, got sick from the water and drank nothing but bottled the rest of my time there. Then I came to realize there are people who do drink that water every day, and I doubt they get sick every day.
 
#6 ·
Personally I don't think it makes much sense at all. The statistics I've heard have been that one out of 10 people can carry Giardia and not ever realize they are carrying it. This however is far less likely with Crypto. It is true that after an initial infection, that you will develop a more robust resistance to it, meaning it will take more to get it again, but fact remains, you drink enough parasites and viruses, you are going to get sick by that parasite or virus. Problem is giving it to yourself the first time could kill you depending on the situation.

The problem with drinking water in other countries, states of the US, or cities with in one state of the US for that matter is not that the water is unclean, it's in the additional minerals and substances that the water can contain. This happens to people who move from say Central Texas to West Texas where the minerals in the water are different.

Fact is, if you don't have time to boil your water, you've got other problems. Filtering takes even less time. My filter will do a liter of water in 1 minute. Consider set up time and take down time for the filter and worst case I have a liter of water in 3-5 minutes. If I don't have 5 minutes to spare, I'd say I've got much bigger problems.

My guess is most of the folks that don't get sick from drinking this water, just get lucky.
 
#8 ·
you are asking for a case of Giardia.

If you are getting sick for tap water is other parts of the US that can be helped by always carrying charcoal tablets when you travel.

Montezuma's revenge is caused by common non dangerous bacteria found in water.
If your body is not use to these they overload your gut causing diarrhea.

This is the same thing as happens to people that use oral high power antibiotics that kill off the normal gut flora.

Preventive treatment for Montezuma's revenge is taking charcoal tablets one every couple hours at first when you are drinking non botteled water(tap water) or eating local food.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveler's_diarrhea

I had this problem back when i was in the Navy traveling around the world (1972-74). (San Miguel beer revenge)
A very good chief navy corpman told me of the trick and it has always worked for me.

If you have active Montezuma's revenge add active culture yogurt to recolonise you gut. or acidophillus pills are even better.
Also have Imodium(loperamide) handy for real bad cases.
http://www.travelyucatan.com/montezumas_revenge.php

In am emergency when hiking you can use charcoal from a campfire.
 
#9 · (Edited)
There was a thread posted a couple of days ago about eating rotten food and the immunity that it could help develop if you ever HAD to eat rotten food...
Yes, you may gain a better resistance to the pathogens in the water source, but there is a chance you may also become more sensitive to it also. Other things like pesticides or fertilizer run off for example.

But it can work. Take a look at the Ganges river in India. It is a holy river that is feces infested and raw sewage runs in it... but the locals bath, wash, eat and even drink from it. They do not get sick as much because they grew up with this water. I am sure that sometime in their life they did get sick from the water in order to build up the constitution. Also, their diet counteracts some of the pathogens also. Curries and spices that organisms do not find conducive to living and breeding. BUT people (especially young and elderly) still do get sick and die from these conditions.

Ohh man, I think I was watching a discovery channel show on parasites and this one indian guy was sipping the water just fine right out the water. Said he did it every day. The host of the show just got some water on his lips and caught giardia immediately.

 
#10 ·
No sense at all. Those areas like Mexico have much higher rates of polio, e-coli, hepatitis A, plesiomonas, norovirus, rotovirus, cholera, typhoid fever, giardia, cryptosporidium, amoebic dysentery and other food and water born pathogens. Some things you can get immunity thru exposure but there are also things that can kill you, make you desperately ill or leave you severely debilitated in the process. The locals do not drink the water without consequences. They roll the dice.
 
#11 ·
I'm actually pretty ignorant on this issue, which is why I always boil my water in the back country. CAN you build up an immunity to crypto and giarrdia? Is that possible? And...is it worth it? How sick do you get while you build up your immunity? I always figured it wasn't possible because they aren't bacterial or viral, they are parasites. Does the immune system work on parasites like it does on bacteria a viruses?
 
#12 ·
... Does the immune system work on parasites like it does on bacteria a viruses?
Not "immunity" but resistance and only to a certain degree. Large dose will still probably get someone sick. Whether it is worth it though is dependent on a lot of other factors such as your age, constitution, how old you were when introduced and how often etc etc.

It wouldn't be the immune system initially it would be the digestive system. Now that can affect immunity, but it would be the digestive acids, enzyme, and tracts that would handle the organisms first. After that the immune system can kick in to fight a parasitic infection.

These water-born diseases can and does kill. But in certain areas, it is shown that local populations can handle certain water organisms better than others.
 
#13 ·
you may build up a resistance to some bacteria and even some virus but you can also get very sick from a variety of contaminants. Best just get a good filter or purifier and be safer.

I've gotten dysentery too many times in various countries. There is always something out there you may have not been exposed to yet.

Good question.
 
#14 ·
to properly phrase the question in line with eating rotten food you would have to say 'eating rotten food with parasites in it'......the bit about rotten food was foreign bacteria nd some nasty chemicals produced from rotting. unclean water could have foreign bacterias that give you th runs but also parasites and pollution.

the main reason people get the runs in foreign lands is because the bacteria makeup in their gut is different than the local makeup (in the population). eventually you would acclimate...you could speed it up by getting a 'poop transplant' in which they actually put someone's poop in your intestine.

you cant get immunity from parasites or pollution.......
 
#16 ·
i was looking online for a cheap method to treat water and i know that chlorine is in our drinking water so i fund a calculator that tells you how much ouse hold bleach to add per gollon or liter
it said for clear water add 3 drops of bleach and 5 drops to realy murky water per liter
and a 20 oz bottle of bleach can treat alot of water
 
#19 ·
Yea bleach is good and cheap. Just rotate it every 3 months or so. It will loose potency and eventually turn useless.

due to some unsanitary immigrant who dug a chicken out of a dumpster and put it warm (not boiling.) water and served it to me and others as chicken soup cause me and 3 others (not the immigrants them selves.) to get dysentery. seriously i would not want to expose my self to that intentionally.
But the immigrants were fine though because they were used to it. Personally, I think we are getting to "sanitized" as a nation. Not letting the body do it's natural job that it was intended to do.

re: the host getting water on his lips and getting giardia immediately. It doesn't happen that way. This is from Pub med health: "The time between being infected and developing symptoms is 7 - 14 days. The acute phase lasts 2 - 4 weeks"
Good point, I guess 2 weeks just seems "Immediate" in TV time on a 45 minute show. :D:
 
#17 ·
due to some unsanitary immigrant who dug a chicken out of a dumpster and put it warm (not boiling.) water and served it to me and others as chicken soup cause me and 3 others (not the immigrants them selves.) to get dysentery. seriously i would not want to expose my self to that intentionally.
 
#22 ·
This is a bad idea, in a word: parasites.

OP, you ever watch that show that goes over the cases of people that have ingested some nasty parasite and all the things they had to do to get rid of them? Faaaar worse things can happen besides you sitting on a toilet for a week. And you are never going to gain any immunity to them.
 
#23 ·
I do it all the time. My family and I don't carry water bottles, filters or any treatment at all when we go hunting because we simply drink out of the streams directly. As in sticking out faces right in the water. We've been doing it for years. We try to find the source of a spring if we can, but as long as it is near the mountain top and no man made elements have had a chance to get in, its good to go.

Think about what a filter is made of. Sand, charcoal stuff like that. Whats the ground made of? Basically, the water bubbling up through that mountain soil is being filtered better than and man made filter ever could. What do you think happens in your well at home? As long as it doesn't sit stagnant or have a dead something in it up stream, it should be fine. As I said, we try to go as high on the spring as we can, ideal is to get it right from the source.
However, I wouldnt drink from the Mississippi with out treatment.

As far as giardia, its seriously overrated. Look it up and actually read what it is and what it does, and how prevalent it is. Its everywhere and I guarantee you have been exposed. It is something you get a resistance to, and it is recoverable, so I feel exposing yourself to it under controlled circumstances is a much better idea than waiting until you have no choice. Think about it, would you rather have diarrhea and the accompanying dehydration when you have no where to go and no more clean water? Or would you rather have it at home where you can stay hydrated and you are at no real risk. Getting exposed for your first time while on an extended hiking trip with limited water supplies is downright dangerous, imagine if it was a SHTF scenario? NO medical treatment available then.

Giardia was a big scary thing in Alaska, but I noticed all the natives drank the water just fine. Our species survived somehow before the filter and bleach. How did the pioneers survive heading west? They drank the water, dealt with some cramps and got better.We have it in us, we are just overly sanitizing ourselves and tearing down any resistances we have. It is worse off for you in the long run.

Like someone said up thread, Cody (or was it dave?) makes it a policy to drink a little local water when ever he goes somewhere new. I do the same thing and I think getting sick(as in diarrhea, which I dont really find all that inconvenient if you plan for it) for the first few days is a small price to pay so that I dont have to be paranoid about whether or not my salad was washed in bottled water and making sure there is no ice in my drinks. I have been doing it for years and many countries, many of those third world.

With all this, keep in mind I am not running out to the largest river I can find and gulping it down. There is real risk of man made contaminants and chemicals that you cannot build up a resistance to. Local tap water is a good start, and if the stream is clear and clean and you are near the source, you are likely ok.

Dont just jump in with both feet. Remember, it is about building up a tolerance.

It has served me well.
 
#24 ·
Well from my personal experience with histoplasmosis after drinking clear water from a cave I have to say it worked for me:D:

About 10 yrs ago I went caving (spleunking for those who know) in Lost Creek Cave near Sparta Tn. This cave has a large entrance with a waterfall emptying into it and another at the bottom of the cave. Well after a 3 hr hike to the bottom I thought it would be a great idea:rolleyes: to refill my water bottle with some "filtered" cave water. There are bats in this cave but not too many. Well conditions were right to get infected, the night before I bit my tongue, bat guano and so on. Symptoms came on rather quickly after drinking the tainted water 3-4 hrs and fever set in that night. The next morning my tongue had swelled, high fever 103-105 coughing aching for the next week or so. Went to the dr and they basically were guessing what I had (tuberculosis, herpes:rolleyes:,aids, cancer,etc) from the infection I had in my mouth and throat. They prescibed antibiotics, valtrex :confused: hydrocodone but nothing worked. Couldnt eat anything because of the pain in my mouth let alone swallow.


Then my mom remembered about my caving trip from 2 weeks before and started looking through a John Hopkins:thumb: medical encyclopedia and made the connection with bats and histoplasmosis, essentially a fungus which grows in bat guano. My mom recommended a baking soda mouthrinse which immediately helped with the pain so I went ahead and drank some of it:) I kept this up for the next few days which started to feel better, I didnt take anymore than a couple of the prescibed antibiotics and valtrex.

Went back to the dr and suggested "histoplasmosis" and he nearly passed out because he had been treating me for the wrong thing. Basically no dr bill but he asked how I figured this out and what I was doing for treatment and told him the baking soda rinse. He went on that I should have been put into intensive care if they diagonosed this earlier and told me the chances of getting and surviving it without treatment are slim. But he went on to tell me that my immune system would be able to take on anything after that. I havent been sick in over 12 years, no flu, colds etc.


So I guess its worth the risk:D:
 
#25 ·
It is not possible to build complete immunity to a protozoan parasite. In fact it is possible to continually reinfect oneself. However you can become somewhat more resistant with repeated exposure.

However your body fights both diseases off in a few weeks. The primary mechanism uses is diarrhea which eventually flushes the organism out and white blood cells and antibodies attacking the point of infection. In the mean time hydration is your biggest concern.

It only takes 2-8 cells to produce a full blown crypto infection.
 
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