Help with Raw Foodists in Mexico experiencing crazy illnesses

Hey this is Jes and I am visiting another 30badder in Mexico we are hanging out in a pretty cool house and have been eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies. Since arriving in Mexico I have had alot of crazy illness type stuff going on which at first I thought was detox but now it's been going on for approx 2wks and has not gotten significantly better only good days/times and bad. I have been very tired sleeping constantly (I come from a background of CFS- but cured through 811 no significant health probs such as these since), since being here not only have I been sleeping constantly but also have fatigue, very foggy, lost cognitive function at points, blacked out repeatedly upon standing, dizzy spells, joint aches, bloated body, unexplainable rash on inside of elbow, rashes on face, uncharacteristically oily on face, swollen eyes/puffy face nonstop, itchy rash around eyes, on scalp, poor digestion, no energy. During this time I mono'd juice with no real result eyes still very puffy, mono-ing mangos have switched where I sleep and we are now keeping all windows/doors open and fans on to circulate air incase it's environmental- but problems are ongoing still.

My friend had already been living at the house in MX for a little over a month. While I've been sick she's been experiencing being(within the last few days) more tired, pretty spacey, been blacking out while standing, dizzy spells, bloated, poor digestion, migraines, nauseas spells, she has come back from the bathroom and had blood in her stool and also something very strange that she showed me it was almost looked like a vein or something maybe a few cm's long and bloody-not good. Her nausea has increased so much so that she's in the bathroom again throwing up.

I would really like some help on the matter. We have been using clean water, she is almost ocd about soaking any greens etc

Some of our symptoms seem to be related others not so much. If you have any insight into it I would appreciate it :)

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Permalink Reply by B on August 20, 2010 at 1:44pm

yikes not fun. sounds like montezuma's revenge to me. I haven't been to mexico since lfrv and wasn't eating raw produce so can only speculate.. could be contaminated produce, it may be that the hygiene standards are higher for exported produce. also it could be that the water isn't as clean as you're used to, your host may have adapted to the little critters in it. maybe try just drinking boiled water for a few days.

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Permalink Reply by Jes on August 20, 2010 at 1:51pm

thanks for the good advice about boiling water, and the produce too. We were thinking of not eating anything that couldn't be peeled ie. celery, spinach, tomato etc but then our body craves it so idk...?

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Permalink Reply by pradtf on August 20, 2010 at 5:20pm

jes,

i wish we could talk under circumstances more favorable to you.

since you are healthy lfrv and are experiencing issues, it stands to reason that there is something in the environment that is the culprit. physical illness is often an indication of not that there is something necessarily wrong with you, but that there is something wrong. therefore, my guess is that it isn't detox at all, but retox (your body is being 'toxicated' from the outside by something and sending you a clear message it doesn't like it).

mexico has some bad pollution problems - eg in mexico city you can actually pay to go into a booth to breathe fresh air (or so i've heard). don't know where you are located though.

i agree with B and ednshell's analysis is pretty strong (pesticides and pollution go hand in hand too), also as terrarism says, you may be eating fresh, but you may not be eating organic. the water is of course a serious issue. you can still eat some of the things that can't be peeled, by eating more on the inside - in other words, peel it anyway and discard upto a centimeter of the outer layer (of course this won't work for spinach).

also, when you wash the stuff, try to do so in the water you have distilled.

sangeeta (she's on 30bad) went to india a few months ago and had to be very careful because her system wasn't used to certain greebies in the food and water. she did pretty well (stayed mostly on cooked food though when eating out), but was still sick a bit. she also couldn't handle a particular fruit (can't recall what it was, but i think she may have posted about it), so if you are eating anything unusual you may try avoiding it.

anyway, try to have fun and hope to see you back in great shape soon!

in friendship,
prad

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Permalink Reply by Jes on August 20, 2010 at 1:47pm

@ terra'ism We have been raw for a while, my friend has been for years. We have been mono-ing mangos, or juice and drinking plenty of water. Greens when we feel the urge(not often), and then simple meals. At this point we both are aware what foods work for us and what don't. This is why we are so perplexed by what is going on and turning to 30bad because we are doing in a nutshell everything correctly
-I feel like I mentioned mono-ing meals, drinking water etc? My apologies if it wasn't included,
cheers,
jes
PS- we are investigating the possibility that we contracted dengue fever from mosquitoes as our combined symptoms match those we've found, idk one thought we had -others would be much appreciated,

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Permalink Reply by solarliving on August 20, 2010 at 3:59pm

Sorry to hear. Was your friend sick prior to you coming down there? I'm wondering if it has something to do with your environment. Some sort of toxin like mold or something else.

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on August 20, 2010 at 4:37pm

It's got to be pesticide poisoning. Everything you both have sounds like it, the fact that your bodies are reacting slightly different to it too make sense. Do you have any funny taste in your mouth? You may or may not but many people do and it would be a sure sign. If it were me, I would water fast if I could get some distilled water. If you can get some organic produce, do so. Ask people around if they have been using any herbicides, pesticides etc. around where you are, otherwise, it's probably in your food. It's really sad but it's a serious problem everywhere but especially in less regulated countries. Where I live in in the U.S. I regularly see people get poisoned by cides. You all have it very severe though, it's an emergency, take action immediately, fix it or get out of there, that is what I would do.

The only study ever done on pesticide exposure:
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Preschool-Exposed-Mexico-Guillet...

I saw the documentary on it and in the Yaqui Valley, pesticides were used not only on the food but in their homes, it was everywhere. In the higher region, no pesticides were used, scroll down to see the pics the kids drew, very telling.

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Permalink Reply by Stephane on August 20, 2010 at 6:03pm

Sounds pretty much like chemical poisoning.
When we went to Mexico, we generally didn't eat greens almost, because after talking with a few small farmers over there we got a pretty bad picture. They basically don't have much clue about the chemicals they can buy, and over use them since they don't know when to apply them and how much to use, so they just put a bunch and it kills everything, weeds, pests, fungi...
My sister in law lives in Mexico City, and at some point she was eating raw veggies off the food stands in the street, and she got really sick, like no doctors there and in France could figure out what she had. After she stopped eating in the stands, she got better.
I got several friends getting sick in a couple days in Baja just eating raw cabbage in restaurant, could be from the dirty water they use to clean it.
So be careful about what you eat there. Personally, we would eat fruits, mostly that you can peel. For some sensible ones like papayas, try to get moldy ones (most likely they didn't get fungicide). We would eat lots of them without any problems. Also, we bought much more fruits from "lady in the street" in small towns, selling their stuff at a street corner than from stores. And for greens, ask around for organic, there are some. Almost everywhere we went we were able to find either a small organic store or a small organic restaurant where you can ask how to get organic veggies.
Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Corina on August 21, 2010 at 2:12am

Hey there,
I am the friend she is staying with. I have been down here for almost 2 months. We are not living anywhere close to a major city and organic is vertically impossible to find. I spent over a month trying to find a close source. I went to all the towns around me, different offices concerning produce, every shop I could find. I hunted down a couple of different people I know to be farmers. One did organic farming in the states and has been here around this area for over 10 years. He said he had searched high and low for organics, and the closes source was about 4 hours away by car. I do not have a car, I have buses and walking, if I was to take a 5 hour bus ride each way I could manage to bring home enough food for a day. So that is why I say organic is vertically impossible.

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Permalink Reply by DURIANRIDER on August 22, 2010 at 6:51pm

Sounds like your in the hell hole part of mexico. Go move to the regions where they do organic farming. There is massive organic farms in mexico.

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Permalink Reply by Ivan on August 20, 2010 at 7:17pm

Uh not fun not.

Sounds some form of poisoning def. I was thinking at high levels of pesticides straight like EDNSHNELL and ... GMO Foods too!?! Its serious stuff.

A friend of mine had similar symptoms while ago, he went into eating not organic stuff and had very similar things, needed to throw up etc.etc. He eat raw since years and was very surprised by the strong reactions, he mentioned GMO.

I would not touch anything without a peel to start with, and do mono banana, or banana mango smoothies for a few days. Water is not an issue if you have coconut there? Just drink litres of coconut both and forget the water.

When I travel I dont touch greens and vegs if theyr not organic. The stuff they spray is very nasty and not a joke. The only thing I allow myself is fruit with thick peel. Bananas are ok, also watermelon, jack fruit and so on. If you cant find organic try to find local. At least its not irradiated and so. Mhh, you should check out where you can find organic communities in Mexico. I cant believe there is so little there!!

Good recovery!! ANd Let us Know.

ps.
In Mexico you can get BATIDORA, a sort of mixer for cheap.
doing half smoothies and half eating would help with the digestion/assimilation.

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Permalink Reply by eenie meenie on August 20, 2010 at 11:05pm

If there is a Similares clinic in your area, they usually have a doctor there who can check you out and have detailed bloodwork done. They may check for denge, malaria, parasites etc. They have a lot of experience with these illnesses & do a good job for a very low price.

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Permalink Reply by Corina on August 21, 2010 at 2:39am

Hello,
I am the friend living here with Jes. I have not found any information on anything called Similares Clinic. I know there are a couple of doctors in town, but I do not trust them. The wife of the owner of the house I am staying at had a yeast infection and they gave her a couple of different anti-biotics. Which is kind of the opposite of what you want to be doing. So, I am not sure.. we live in a small town not too close to any major cities.