How often do doctors fail to correctly diagnose the disease in patients with symptoms such as fever, periodic fever, fatigue and skin rash. Often they are caused by infection of the body with lamblia. What this is, what danger they represent, how to get rid of them, and why the diet for giardiasis is so important - this article will tell.
Meet lamblia
The simplest microorganisms appeared on the planet long before humans and survived under any conditions and natural disasters. But there are those among them for whom the human body has become a “haven" and a place of food. People first learned about giardia in 1859, when Dr. Lambl D.F. made the discovery that they were the causative agents of several serious diseases. Their habitat is the small intestine, but the liver and spleen can also be affected.
Why are creatures so dangerous that they cannot even be seen without a microscope? The fact is that Lamblia intestinalis (simple flagella) exist in two forms:
- Cysts are oval in shape, in which 2 or 4 nuclei are placed, and the flagellum is folded.
- The trophozoid is pear-shaped, very active, consists of two nuclei and four pairs of flagella.
These intestinal protozoa are attached to the walls of the organ with the help of a suction disk located on their “abdomen”. Giardia multiplies by pairwise division, and the process itself takes no more than 20 minutes. In human or animal feces, their amount can reach 23 million per 1 gram, and at the same time they will all be viable.
It is this rate of reproduction and spread in the intestine that makes them dangerous, but not only that.
Danger of intoxication
Not only do lamblia destroy the mucous membrane of the organ in which they live, they cause intoxication, because 1 cm 2 contains more than a million lamblia, which absorb nutrients entering the small intestine for further processing. This causes metabolic disorders, but also causes the release of their metabolic products into the blood, which, accumulating in the body, cause intoxication.
Therefore, it is considered important for infection not only to carry out drug treatment with anthelminthic drugs, but also to comply with the diet for giardiasis. If you deprive these simple microorganisms of their usual nutrition, then their death will accelerate. But first, you should diagnose their presence in the body. What symptoms appear in a person infected with giardia?
Symptoms of the disease in adults
If you believe the medical statistics, then from 80% to 90% of the world's population are infected with giardiasis. In some, it manifests itself in an active form, while in others it may not wake up throughout life. Why is this happening, how are lamblia fed into the body and how to identify “uninvited guests”?
So, infection can occur as follows:
- Through water, for example, tap water, if you drink it, or in the natural environment swim in an open reservoir.
- At the household level, infection occurs through clothing, handrails in public transport, the use of someone else's dishes, a kiss, in children - through toys or breastfeeding in the presence of lamblia in the mother.
- Foodborne contamination through products happens when they are not sufficiently cooked or they are simply poorly washed. This happens, for example, when people try strawberries or other berries in the market.
How to find out that an infection has occurred, and what does the diet have to do with the treatment of giardiasis? It turns out that what a person eats and in what state his immunity directly affects giardia. Symptoms of the disease can be divided into categories:
- General intoxication manifests itself in the form of fatigue, drowsiness after eating, loss of appetite.
- Damage to the digestive tract is "reported" in heartburn, nausea, and diarrhea.
- Allergic manifestations are skin rashes and itching, sometimes there may only be redness, but localized throughout the body.
- The pain syndrome is initially expressed by the severity in the hypochondrium on the right, which over time flows into a pulling pain throughout the peritoneum.
If you ignore such obvious symptoms, do not diagnose and do not start treatment, which must necessarily be accompanied by a special diet for giardiasis, then further complications of health await the infected person. This is especially true of the digestive tract, liver and spleen.
Giardia in children: what to do?
Unfortunately, the same statistics note that children are more likely to become infected with giardiasis than adults, and the course of the disease is much more difficult. More than 30% of babies are infected while still in preschool age. Diagnosing the presence of giardia in them is complicated by the fact that many of the symptoms that manifest themselves are similar to other types of childhood diseases.
Doctors found that diagnoses such as allergies, bronchial asthma, dermatitis (atopic form) and frequent colds, accompanied by dry cough, which put children, in fact - the presence of giardia in the body. And since they suppress immunity in babies, the latter receive a whole "bouquet" of diseases that can be removed by conducting a course of drug therapy in compliance with the correct diet for giardiasis.
In children, the body can be so weakened that doctors at the same time prescribe them, first of all, not antihelminthic drugs, but immunostimulants, and develop an individual menu for each.
The main symptoms of infection in children are:
- Violation of the stool. Diarrhea can be followed by constipation.
- Apathy and fatigue.
- Painful manifestations in the navel and right hypochondrium.
- Teeth grinding in a dream.
- Skin rashes, similar to allergies or rubella.
- Choking cough and intermittent fever.
It is impossible to detect the presence of lamblia only by history, so a number of tests should be taken to make sure that they are the cause of such unpleasant symptoms.
Why diet is required
Unfortunately, giardiasis is a disease that many infected people underestimate and do not consider a threat to life, so they try to limit themselves to taking medications to diagnose it.
In fact, the course includes a specially designed menu. The diet for giardiasis is one of the stages of treatment, and there are only three of them.
- The first two weeks are preparatory. During this stage, the patient takes some kind of sorbent (even the simplest and most affordable one - activated carbon) can be used to cleanse the body of toxins. It is also important to establish the work of intestinal motility and weaken the lamblia, depriving the usual diet. The main diet for giardiasis in adults is porridge boiled in water, vegetable oils and vegetables rich in fiber, for example, beets, asparagus, cauliflower and white cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant and others. Antihistamines and choleretic drugs are taken.
- The second stage lasts three weeks, and during this period it is important that the dying and already killed Giardia are removed from the body. This stage cannot be ignored, since the decomposition of a huge number of dead microorganisms will lead to severe intoxication. To prevent this, enterosorbents and anthelminthics are prescribed, supplemented with special nutrition. Since dead giardia leaves the body with feces, the diet for giardiasis in adults during this period without fail includes foods rich in coarse fiber, and non-starchy vegetables.
- The third stage is recovery. Enterosorbents, plus multivitamin complexes aimed at increasing immunity, are still being taken. The patient's task during this period is to remove all the negative consequences of the effect of lamblia on the body. Therefore, in the diet menu for adults with giardiasis, you can already add low-fat dairy products (contribute to the restoration of the digestive tract) and unsweetened berries and fruits.
The duration of the final stage is also 2-3 weeks. The diet in the treatment of giardiasis in children is not much different from an adult, the only thing you need to exclude foods that can cause allergies.
Why is it so important to eat these foods? The thing is that, depriving the parasites of the nutrients they need, a person weakens their activity and prevents further division.
What do lamblia love
It may seem strange, but lamblia are “gourmets” who like to eat deliciously. What attracts them the most? These are just those products that are prohibited for use with a diet for giardiasis:
- Baking and fresh pastries.
- Marinades, spicy, smoked and fatty foods.
- Any varieties of sausages and pasta, semolina.
- Sweets, cakes and other sweets, like fruits.
- Drinks with gas.
- Spicy vegetables - radish, horseradish, garlic, radish and others.
- Alcohol.
In general, sweets are the best medium for the quick propagation of Giardia. This category includes everything: jam with jams, and ice cream, and chocolate, and sweet fruits, and dried fruits. If you deprive them of this environment, then there will be no conditions for reproduction, their number will decrease, after which you can begin to destroy them. That is why the diet is so important for giardiasis. Recipes should not contain these products, then the whole healing process will pass as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Diet for liver damage
The fact that "uninvited guests" wound up in the body is indicated by the following symptoms:
- A rumbling in the intestines, regardless of whether a person was eating or not.
- The tongue is superimposed.
- Strong liver enlargement.
- The feeling of a full stomach, even with minimal absorption of food.
- Pain in the right hypochondrium and in the navel.
If giardiasis has become chronic, then weight loss, discoloration, hypotrophy and other symptoms are observed. It is possible to remove parasites from the organ by the same means as with the defeat of the small intestine, and according to the same schedule, but the diet in the treatment of giardiasis in adults is more strict.
In addition to the prohibited items listed above, honey, any convenience foods, or products containing starch should be excluded.
Dietary Options
The presence of giardia in the body, plus the damage that they inflicted on him, does not give a person optimism, and here you also need to limit yourself to your favorite food. As a rule, procedures that are accompanied by a long diet cause depression in people, mood swings, sometimes accompanied by fever, which further aggravates their condition. Therefore, it is important that the recipes include various recipes in the diet menu for giardiasis, taking into account the meager amount of foods that are allowed.
In order for the attack on parasites to be carried out “on all fronts”, the usual diet should be broken up to at least 4 meals:
- Breakfast must consist of porridge cooked on water (buckwheat, rice, corn grits). To improve it a little, you can add a small piece of feta cheese and drink juice with a sour taste.
- Lunch should include a light vegetable soup (you can mashed soup) on low-fat chicken broth. On the second - vegetables, passaged in a small amount of vegetable oil, for dessert - berry jelly without sugar.
- For a snack, baked apples are suitable as a snack, and if sour-milk products are allowed, then a cup of low-fat kefir.
- Dinner may consist of boiled chicken fillet with stewed vegetables and orange juice.
Important: since the diet for giardiasis is quite restrictive, you need to make sure that the patient receives the necessary amount of fat and protein, so the menu should include low-fat varieties of fish and meat, cottage cheese daily.
Home recipes
There is nothing difficult to diversify some dishes from the menu with "delicious". It is especially important to consider this when drawing up a diet menu for giardiasis in children. Here are some of these recipes.
- Homemade lemonade will appeal to both adults and children. Take a bunch of mint, lemon and stevia for 5 liters of water (instead of sugar, to taste), cut everything and pour into boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes, then let cool. Drink chilled to room temperature.
- Berry juice with preserved vitamins. Unsweetened berries need to be slightly mashed with a fork so that they let the juice in, add a little sugar or stevia (honey can be used if there is no allergy). Throw the prepared berries into boiling water, boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Let the fruit drink infuse.
- Fish in a foil with vegetables. On a piece of foil put sliced tomato, on top a portion of low-fat fish, slices of eggplant, carrots, chopped greens and a slice of lemon. Wrap the foil and bake the dish in the oven or on the grill.
- Oven cutlets. Add the stewed onion, a few tablespoons of oatmeal (instead of bread), an egg to the minced meat from lean meat. Lay the baking paper on a baking sheet and lay out the formed patties on it. Bake until cooked. The same recipe can be used for a double boiler.
- Porridge on the water can be varied by adding berries or unsweetened dried fruits.
- Apples baked with low-fat cottage cheese. Remove the core with seeds from the fruits, fill with cottage cheese mixed with stevia and a drop of cinnamon. Bake in the oven.
There are many recipes that can brighten up any strict diet. The main thing is that they include allowed products and ready-made dishes to cheer up.
Nutrition Rules for Giardiasis
The success of the entire “operation” for the elimination of lamblia largely depends on how the dishes are prepared and what additional rules are followed. It is very important to remember:
- Porridge is prepared only on water. It is permissible to cook porridge in milk diluted with water in an amount of 1: 1 after 3-4 weeks of such a strict diet and taking antihelminthic drugs.
Important: legumes are completely prohibited until complete recovery.
- Every day you need to drink up to 2 liters of purified or non-carbonated mineral water. In addition to it, you can supplement the menu with unsweetened fruit drinks, jelly and juices. After 2-3 weeks of the diet, you can add fermented milk products to the diet - low-fat cottage cheese, fermented baked milk and kefir.
- Soups are preferable to cook in vegetable broth. The first one, cooked from lean parts of chicken, is acceptable.
- Low-fat varieties of meat and fish can be cooked, baked or stewed, but the main condition is that they are finely chopped, and even better if you make steam meatballs or meatballs from them.
- Unsweetened berries and fruits are allowed, which can be both fresh and baked.
- Suppose dried bread, savory crackers and cookies.
Observing these rules, you can quickly get rid of giardia and begin to restore health.
The video will help you better know what lamblia is, what are the symptoms of parasites in children, how to get rid of them and what is forbidden to eat.