Right before Thanksgiving, the gentleman with the egg allergy (see 2/26/09 post) contacted me again. His chief complaint this time was abdominal pain. It waxed and waned and was not severe, but was accompanied by diarrhea sometimes, more often headaches, and constant fatigue. It came on slowly over the course of the fall and seemed to be getting worse.
We did lab work including a complete blood count, complete metabolic panel, TSH and amylase. Abnormals in the results included elevated eosinophils, the white blood cell active in allergies and parasite infections. He also showed signs of iron deficiency anemia. We started him on a probioitic, an iron with B vitamins supplement, some soothing demulcent herbs such as marshmallow root tea, and digestive bitters before meals. He agreed to eliminate sugar and alcohol from his diet for now and took home a 3-sample comprehensive stool test kit. The goal of this test was to rule out parasites, a GI bleed, dysbiosis and malabsorption.
The results came back positive for Entaomeba histolytica. This is an intestinal parasite known to cause severe health issues in humans. We were surprised that this bug showed up, as parasites are quite rare in the US. His wife was also tested. Her results were negative for Entaomeba, thankfully. He ate some sushi at a restaurant the week before his symptoms began. That was the only possible exposure we could come up with.
Next week I will share the treatment plan we chose to eradicate the parasite and rebuild his energy and immunity. I will also share the follow up plan and how we found the underlying cause of his susceptibility to this parasite.
Margaret Philhower, ND
www.drmargaret.org
