Drinking water precautions?

[seeker242]

Can you point me to any references disproving the hypothesis that "Locals are just better at avoiding bad food"? Don't feel obligated to limit the scope to the travel medicine literature.

That isn't how proof works. The burden of proof lies with the one making the claims. Not the one questioning it, to disprove it.

 

[mcohen1021]

97 replies...just brush with bottle water and then use Tequila for everything else. I guarantee your health

Why can't you brush with tequila?

 

[ggunn]

I haven’t read the whole thread but here’s what I do: Bottled water for everything, no water in the mouth during showering. That’s pretty much it. I have gotten sick a couple of times in 30 years of coming here but mostly it was minor and short-lived and I never knew what to attribute it to.

My wife once got sick here due to what we think was a raw egg in a Caeser salad. She had severe gastric symptoms and hallucinations for about 12 hours and then it went away. That was later the same year that the Mexican confetti eggs were banned from import due to a virus. Anyway, the writer brought two coddled eggs to the table but dropped one and replaced it with a raw one.

Remember how your mom always told you not to bite your fingernails or pick your nose? I think that’s good advice here.

 

[ggunn]

In over 20 years of visiting Q. Roo I have been really sick twice. Both times for 1 day. I am sure both were from food. On the other hand we eat anyplace the food looks good including some street vendors and never worry about the ice. We do not drink any water that did not come from a bottle.

I got very sick here once; here’s the story: We were setting out on an around the island excursion and need to ice the beer. The hotel had an Ice machine, but it was broken. It had several bags almost empty of ice floating around in scummy green water, though, so we scavenged what we could from it. We went around the island drinking beer and tossing the empties back in the cooler.

When we got back to the hotel, my sister went to the cooler and got a round of beers, which she opened for us. Being hot and thirsty, I tossed back a huge slug from the bottle, only to realize too late that it had been one of the empties that was full of the melt from the broken ice machine.

I was sick as a dog for four days.

 

[mstevens]

That isn't how proof works. The burden of proof lies with the one making the claims. Not the one questioning it, to disprove it.

The way proof works in healthcare (you said "Medical doctors") and in biomedical research (you said "studying travel medicine") is that one cites references for ones claims, whether one is the person making a claim or disagreeing with it (which is, in itself, a type of claim).

You made the claim that "Medical doctors who study travel medicine disagree" in response to the statement that "Locals are just better at avoiding bad food," which was provide as anecdotal and not backed up by any provided research citations. That original statement didn't claim to be backed up by anything at all. I'm the one who provided anecdotal evidence in support of that claim, but that was after you indicated you were aware of evidence to refute it

I agree with your assertion that the burden of proof lies with the one making claims. Please provide proof for your claim that "doctors studying travel medicine disagree" that local residents know more about how to avoid foodborne illness than visitors. You could've simply said you didn't believe it and asked the poster if they could cite evidence, but you didn't - you alluded to evidence to the contrary.

If this is just two personal opinions that disagree and neither has any research evidence to back it up, I'm going to go with my own experience at a US medical school on a resort island for 14 years (admittedly studying and teaching something other than travel medicine), 23 years practicing in a tourist destination in New England, and a dozen years as an interested observer and more recently a part-time resident in Cozumel that leads me to accept the original claim (that "Locals are just better at avoiding bad food") as correct.

If somebody has studied this claim and found evidence to disprove it, they've published that finding. Surely you should be basing what you say on being familiar with that published finding (or a presentation at a poster session or something, in which case there'll still be a citation). Otherwise, you're just making stuff up.

 

[uncfnp]

The way proof works in healthcare (you said "Medical doctors") and in biomedical research (you said "studying travel medicine") is that one cites references for ones claims, whether one is the person making a claim or disagreeing with it (which is, in itself, a type of claim).

Actually there is no such thing as proof in medicine. The best we can do is say the study suggests and then practice evidence based medicine. And even that comes in cautional degrees of confidence.

 

[uncfnp]

So curious. Does anyone else drink from the community cooler on their dive boat or hotel/resort (such as found at Casa Mexicana)?

We do.

 

[mstevens]

Actually there is no such thing as proof in medicine. The best we can do is say the study suggests and then practice evidence based medicine. And even that comes in cautional degrees of confidence.

Agreed. I misspoke by echoing a statement to which I was responding.

 

[gopbroek]

So curious. Does anyone else drink from the community cooler on their dive boat or hotel/resort (such as found at Casa Mexicana)?

We do.

I do also. I know the water in the coolers on the 3P boats is from bottled water jugs, I have hauled plenty of them down to the Marina for them from the shop. I can't imagine any boat not doing the same, I have never seen anyone who works out of the Marina drink tap water or fill a drinking water container from a hose.

 

[seeker242]

The way proof works in healthcare (you said "Medical doctors") and in biomedical research (you said "studying travel medicine") is that one cites references for ones claims, whether one is the person making a claim or disagreeing with it (which is, in itself, a type of claim).

You made the claim that "Medical doctors who study travel medicine disagree" in response to the statement that "Locals are just better at avoiding bad food," which was provide as anecdotal and not backed up by any provided research citations. That original statement didn't claim to be backed up by anything at all. I'm the one who provided anecdotal evidence in support of that claim, but that was after you indicated you were aware of evidence to refute it

I agree with your assertion that the burden of proof lies with the one making claims. Please provide proof for your claim that "doctors studying travel medicine disagree" that local residents know more about how to avoid foodborne illness than visitors. You could've simply said you didn't believe it and asked the poster if they could cite evidence, but you didn't - you alluded to evidence to the contrary.

If this is just two personal opinions that disagree and neither has any research evidence to back it up, I'm going to go with my own experience at a US medical school on a resort island for 14 years (admittedly studying and teaching something other than travel medicine), 23 years practicing in a tourist destination in New England, and a dozen years as an interested observer and more recently a part-time resident in Cozumel that leads me to accept the original claim (that "Locals are just better at avoiding bad food") as correct.

If somebody has studied this claim and found evidence to disprove it, they've published that finding. Surely you should be basing what you say on being familiar with that published finding (or a presentation at a poster session or something, in which case there'll still be a citation). Otherwise, you're just making stuff up.

The citations that provides evidence that it's NOT just "locals knowing what food to avoid" have already been posted. But apparently you missed that part...Or maybe you are just intentionally ignoring that.....

Drinking water precautions?

The idea that it's just "locals knowing what food to avoid" and only that, is what is called "just making stuff up". Unless, of course you have some proof that is the case, which you don't.