If you have Giardia, or think you have it, these facts may change your thinking on what to do and why.

Just so you know, I’m not a doctor. Just a woman who carried Giardia for God knows how long before I found out how to beat it and the misery it causes.

It was ruining my life so I took action. And now I want to share with you what I did. So here’s what you need to know:

Giardia is common. In fact, here’s what the Emedicine has to say about it:

“Giardia is most commonly identified intestinal parasite in the United States and the most common protozoal intestinal parasite isolated worldwide.”

It can be really contagious. So you can get it from kissing and sharing eating utensils as well as from eating contaminated food and drinking bad water.

Pets like cats and dogs also carry Giardia, and it is thought us humans can acquire it from them, too.

So why start with these facts? Easy. The chances are if you have Giardia, your partner or family may well have it too.

This means if you get rid of your Giardia, it’s easy to catch it back – which is one reason why some people “just can’t get rid of it”.

You can also pick it up by eating infected food (my battle with Giardia started when I ate something infected on a trip abroad).

How does having Giardia make you feel?

When I had it, I felt tired, depressed, I lost my zest for life and had all manner of digestive problems, most notably constipation.

The usual way to detect Giardia is by a stool test, where you poop in a box, take a sample and put it in a test tube, then send it to a lab.

I had to have more than one Giardia stool test – the first 2 tests didn’t find anything. I read this was due to Giardia bugs not coming out in every bowel movement, so sometimes tests are negative even when Giardia is there.

It’s all done by post so there really is nothing to be embarrassed about.

(If you’re squeamish about taking a poo in to a tupperware pot, you’re not that serious about getting rid of Giardia. Go read another blog).

But here’s the biggie. Once you know you have Giardia, how do you treat it?

Doctors treat Giardia with antibiotics. But Giardia can be resistant to these antibiotics.

1 in 4 or 5 people may not eradicate Giardia using the standard treatment, according to the medical sites.

And of course, there are always unwelcome side effects to most medications.

Avoiding some foods – and eating others – usually helps. These may give you some relief:

…while avoiding these may really help:

They may well help with Giardia – but they likely won’t get rid of it all together. But there are other natural products that will (they certainly did in my case).

And I’ll leave you with a reminder that Giardia is the most common intestinal parasite. So don’t think you’re on your own.

Join my mailing list and you’ll get a load of links on the best stool test kits available (what ever country you’re in).

Once you know what you have (because the chances are if you have Giardia, you’ll also have something else), you can then get the right treatment from your doctor.