[pct-l] digestive upsets

[David Hough reading PCT-L]

Jeff wrote:

> Perhaps the funniest experience was both of us getting explosive 
> diarrhea for an evening.   Talk about another level of intimacy.

A couple of years ago I wrote about my own digestive upsets.    They always
started on the third day of a trip and ended within a few hours after getting
back to the car.    I had all kinds of hypotheses.   Obviously it was
something specifically to do with backpacking, and something specific to me -
other people eating the same food, drinking the same treated water, getting
the same exercise - never had any symptoms.    Imodium seemed to have no
effect until the trip was done, when I didn't need it any more; then too
much effect.

This year I thought I'd figured it out - I'd been using Polarpure elemental
iodine solution since 2001 as an aftertreatment after pumping through an
MSR filter.   It had the advantage of cleaning up everything along the
way from the bottle I pumped into the bottle I drank out of into the cooking
pot and into my eating cup.    And beyond that - but I grew to like the
sharp taste, at least when the water was cold.
 
Of course there had been several long trips over the years when
I did use the iodine and had no symptoms, but they commonly did arise on
the third day, starting around 2008.   
But not on the third day of car camping/day hiking, when
I did not need a water treatment.     Finally this year I remembered a chemist
hiker who had warned me to always follow the iodine treatment after half
an hour with half a vitamin C tablet to bind and neutralize the iodine.
And this year I met a hiker in the Russian wilderness who had used Polarpure
religiously for years and now had thyroid problems.

I got a new water treatment and had several symptom-free trips:    
a Steri-pen with a prefilter.   All looked good, including a
five day trip, but then over a Labor Day trip I had symptoms again - this
time on the fourth day.    But this time Imodium worked in about 24 hours -
this was the first time I had stopped the action while I was still hiking.

My conclusion is that my bowel is sensitive to various kinds of chemical
and physical disruption, and I'm just as well done with the iodine.   But I
still need to carry plenty of extra TP and witch hazel wipes and Imodium
just in case.    I've tried adding metamucil and adding probiotics, and
cutting out Vitamin I, but none of these were consistently effective.

But my years of dreaming about a through hike have been over for some time,
so that's not a problem I have to solve.

http://pcnst.oakapple.net/bits/resources.html