The Curious Case of Ecuador

               Ever since I was a little girl I had dreams of going to the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands.  My father was a science teacher, so I learned about Darwin and his voyage to the Galapagos at a very young age.  In May of 2009 I got my chance to make both of these dreams come to fruition.  The college I was attending was offering a two-week trip to the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands.  I made sure I was one of the first in putting down a deposit to secure my seat on the trip and started the ball rolling on getting my passport and required immunizations.


               Due to my Crohn's disease, there were a couple of shots that I could not get because they were live virus vaccines.  If I were to get these shots I would ultimately develop the affliction that the shots were meant to inhibit.  However, I was able to work with my doctor and the travel company to make sure I had the shots I could get and the proper paperwork, in both English and Spanish, to make sure that I did not end up in quarantine.  Even though I was being extremely proactive and making sure every possible precaution was taken, there were still people around me saying that it wasn't a good idea and I shouldn't do it because I might get sick down there.  They thought my Crohn's would hold me back to checking off two giant items on the bucket list.  Not gonna happen.

               The trip was filled with more amazing moments than I have space on this blog.  It was filled with incredible feelings and overwhelming experiences such as swimming in the ocean for the first time, snorkeling with a penguin, and eating lemon ants.  One thing that I didn't realize while I was down there, but have come to see more and more as I look back, is that I had no Crohn's symptoms during the entire trip.  Nothing.  I've wracked my brain to try and come up with a logical and legitimate reason for this.  What I deduced was that it was because of the food.  Nothing down there has preservatives and they do not use hormones in their livestock.  Most everything is grass fed.  I was even able to enjoy a medium rare steak when I was down there!  Everything was fresh and organic, not processed and packaged.  They also rarely use corn syrup, but instead use natural cane sugar as a sweetener.  It seems that a radically different diet gave me a radically different gut.

               I've read many studies talking about how Crohn's disease is virtually non-existent in third world countries.  Why is this?  Is it the food or something more.  One popular opinion is that these countries don't sterilize and clean things as much as we do.  This over-sterilization cause natural bacteria to be destroyed before it can serve its purpose.  They also do not eat the same kinds of food that we do.  Nothing is processed, pasteurized,  or injected with hormones.  Of course there is no definitive answer on what causes Crohn's and why it is only prevalent in certain types of societies, but my experience in Ecuador has left me puzzled and wanting to know more.  Hopefully more research along these lines will be done and the answer can be found.  Until then, I am going to save for a return trip to South America.

Here is some more info on Crohn's and third world countries and also on parasite treatments for Crohn's:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10973934
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5660901_crohn_s-disease-parasite-treatment.html