Don’t use unsterilized tap water to rinse your sinuses. It may carry brain-eating amoebas
Don’t use unsterilized tap water to rinse your sinuses. It may carry brain-eating amoebas
Do what now? I mean, don’t use a dishcloth to wipe your retinas either.
Some people pour water up their nose. I saw someone doing it in the military. Said it felt great. I wasn't convinced.
I am genetically blessed with a chronic form of histamine allergies that keep my sinuses blocked. On bad days, I have to heat water, then let it cool, and then add a specific salt then use a medical pump to pump them all the way through my nostrils until they reach the back of my throat to make sure the canals are open. Doctor's orders and all. I assure you, we are not doing this for fun.
I have been doing it for quite a while now though I filter it via brita. But I imagine if the chlorine in the water is not killing that mf, no brita is gonna stop it either.
That being said, I am not %100 sure about how deeply this is researched though. For instance what is the mechanism by which this fella gets in the brain? Does it need to pass thru the blood brain barrier or is there a shortcut? Does this more commonly occur in people with immunodeficiency problems? The news quotes for instance
"All 10 of the people in the CDC study had one or more conditions that weakened their immune systems, including cancer or HIV/AIDS."
Seems like I may have been snorting brain eating amoebas into my nose wo knowing.
I think Kurzgesagt made a video about how these guys sneak into the brain, they follow the olfactory nerve I believe. They didn't evolve to eat brains, it's just an unhappy coincidence.
I rinse my sinuses with water from my RO system. My well produces barely-drinkable water, so it takes two membrane passes to knock the minerals back. Ain't nothing getting through that, by the time it's in the product tank it's around 5ppm TDS and I have to run it through calcite to add enough solute back to drink it.
If you're really concerned a cheap single pass RO would be more than adequate for town water but make sure you have a carbon prefilter, chlorine eats up the membranes.
well I put two packets of salt in about a glass of water which is about %1.5 salinity level. studies have shown that above this level the mf is basically non viable:
"Salinity exhibited a significant effect on the growth of N. fowleri in both dH2O and environmental water. In general, increasing salinity concentrations decreased growth but significance differences stopped once salinity reached 1.5% NaCl. This likely occurred because growth and replication of N. fowleri were minimal past this salinity level, with the amoeba encysting at salinity concentrations above 1.5% and ultimately losing viability"
between high salinity, chlorine in the water and my super mucus filled nostrils, I hope I am fine.
I don't think the risks are really significant:
Such infections are rare. Acanthamoeba affects only three to 12 people each year in the United States. But about 82 percent of the infections are fatal. About three N. fowleri infections happen in the United States each year (SN: 9/18/20).
Like it's a thing that can happen but... barely worth worrying about.
What hell hole country shit is this? Holy fuck. Is the municipal water really that bad in your part of the world?
"Your part of the world" is most of the world.
In the country I grew up in, drinking directly from the tap is playing russian roulette.
You either filter the water, or boil it first before consuming it.
When I moved to a country in which tap water was drinkable, it blew my mind. Of course, it's totally normal to me nowadays.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essen
So yes... I would bet on it
Why yes, I also have seen that episode of House M.D.
Reading this, I like my odds..lol.
That said, distilled doesn't burn as much.
Oops
ಠ_ಠ
Does this mean tap water in general ?
So now I'm boiling the shit out of all my sinus water
Here's an idea: don't put things up your damn nose. 🤦🏼♂️
You don't have to use a neti pot or anything (and if you did you'd hopefully know to use distilled water), but do you NEVER get water up your nose in the shower? Bath? Do you want brain eating bacteria on your supposedly washed hands? On the counter you just wiped down? Running through your dishwasher? Coming out your hose and your sprinklers? The ice cubes in your fridge? Are you willing to bet your BRAIN on never having an accident? But I'm sure it's all fine, as long as I keep it out of my nose. Wtf is wrong with some people... We just had a pandemic but basic hygiene is replaced with ignorance.
One PPM of chlorine is enough to kill most amoeba in about 10 mins.
If amoeba can survive in tap water where you are at, you probably shouldn't drink the water without filtering and boiling it first anyway.
Also, get some multi-chemical water test strips as well. While those don't tell the full story, they can be useful if deciding to have your water tested at a lab. (Test strips a decent enough at detecting chlorine, some metals, salts, etc. I don't know if they exist, but detection of disolved gasses, like natural gas, would be a huge plus if you live in an area that has a lot of oil drilling.)
Everyone should spend at least a few bucks to know what they will be drinking at home on a regular basis, IMHO.
Lab testing is going to be a waste of money for most people not using well water, unless you have a strong reason to suspect something is up aside from test-strip reaults. Especially seeing as how the water chemistry is going to change at least twice per year when the water provider switches from chlorine to the chloramines and vice-versa. And pretty much all providers will give you a report of exactly what's in the water on a monthly basis if you ask for it.
Lab results would be useful if you're serious about homebrewing beer and don't want to build up the water profile from scratch or really into baking, though. Just don't do it in the early Spring/Fall, because that's when the treatment chemicals switch and the results aren't going to be representative of what the water is really like for that time of the year.
My stomach is super picky and I drink a ton of water. It doesn't take much to mess me up.
Even perfectly clean water will trigger my acid reflux, but that is more of a mechanical issue with my stomach, from what I understand. The bigger moral of the story here is not to be a raging alcoholic for many consecutive years...
I even get monthly water reports automatically due to the number of lawsuits my town has had because of water quality. Needless to say, my trust level is not set at maximum even for third-party reports paid for by the city.
You ain't wrong, but the redundancy makes me feel better.
I've heard, and read, that the test strip approach isn't very accurate.
Hah. I've been swimming in freshwater lakes, rivers, and reservoirs for about 65 years. Ain't nothin' takin' me down.
Also a former water treatment plant operator, so I should probably not be quite so complacent. :)
Some places are worse than others, from what I understand. Also, I haven't had an issue with my brain being eaten after years of swimming in freshwater sources.
The above paper was about a place in Pakistan, so who knows what their water is like..
What's PPM in this context? Like, one drop in a bucket?
"Parts-per-million"
PPM is an American way of saying mg/L because they're all allergic to SI units.