Kevin B (RPS Coach) Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/arti...ls_6_this_year/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donperry Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Yah, you hear about it out west where most of the lakes and ponds are man-made. Temperatures near the surface can really get up there in August. People I used to sailboard with on the Pueblo Reservoir would talk about it, probably to add a nonexistent element of risk to the cheap thrill. We typically sailed the thunderheads at high speeds and a hard tumble could drive lake water into you. I never heard of anyone actually catching amoeba brain there. However, there was a real risk of ear injury or falling onto prickly pear cactus washed into the reservoir by flash flooding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Allen Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 There are a couple of critters that do this, but not very commonly. I used to work on a different one; Acanthamoeba . It normally lived in soil, but could survive in pond water. People used to catch "ameoba brain (or more commonly called amoebic encephalytis (sp?)) from swimming in cow ponds where the soil and water had been well mixed. Snort some amoeba up your nose and there was a small but real chance it could crawl into your brain (the biologists in the audience know how difficult this might be). Problem was IF it made it in to your brain, little was going to prevent it from growing. Used to be about 1 case every other year. Given how many people are swimming in fresh water, it's not something that's going to keep me up at night. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pintail Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Beckers, This is hardly surprising -- in the tropics, amoebic dysentery is quite common and is potentially very debilitating. Similarly, in that case, the amoeba may burrow through the intestine walls to find a home in the peritoneum, liver, heart, etc...enough said! Tootle-OO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gillian Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Beckers, This is hardly surprising -- in the tropics, amoebic dysentery is quite common and is potentially very debilitating. Similarly, in that case, the amoeba may burrow through the intestine walls to find a home in the peritoneum, liver, heart, etc...enough said! Tootle-OO! oh christopher, i love it when you whisper sweet nothings to me . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin B (RPS Coach) Posted October 1, 2007 Author Share Posted October 1, 2007 There are a couple of critters that do this, but not very commonly. I used to work on a different one; Acanthamoeba . It normally lived in soil, but could survive in pond water. People used to catch "ameoba brain (or more commonly called amoebic encephalytis (sp?)) from swimming in cow ponds where the soil and water had been well mixed. Snort some amoeba up your nose and there was a small but real chance it could crawl into your brain (the biologists in the audience know how difficult this might be). Problem was IF it made it in to your brain, little was going to prevent it from growing. Used to be about 1 case every other year. Given how many people are swimming in fresh water, it's not something that's going to keep me up at night. Phil Naw, won't give me mightmares....just crossed my mind at the time what a great plot that would be for a horror movie...gigantic, brain eating ameoba! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Allen Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 QUOTE(Kevin B @ Oct 1 2007, 01:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Naw, won't give me mightmares....just crossed my mind at the time what a great plot that would be for a horror movie...gigantic, brain eating ameoba! Now if they were gigantic, where's the fear in that ....just run/swim/paddle away. It's the idea that they are always there (cue spooky music) but you cant see them that's scary. Unless they're really big, like that forest size fungus someone discovered a few years ago... Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gcosloy Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 The moral of this story ought to be: When you see a fellow paddler in fresh water attempting to roll without nose plugs-stop him (or her)! Take away their paddle if necessary! "Hey wait a minute Bud, can I see your paddle!" Then refuse to give it back unless they don a pair of nosrtrum clositrom on the spot! See Jason Kates report on how to make your own. Friends don't let friends roll without noseplugs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffcasey Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I ran into this about six or seven years ago... ...I had a spare day driving between Phoenix (family thing) and Palo Alto (work thing), so I arranged with an outfitter to drop me with a boat at the base of hoover dam to paddle down the Black Canyon stretch of Colorado River (easy half day, moving flat water). Great one day frolic, if you are ever in the area with time on your hands... ...Along the way, there are many cool places to pull out and hike...a few slot canyons, some hot springs, etc etc etc. The hot springs all had little warning signs about some amoeba, specifically warning that you should NOT allow contact of the spring water with nasal passages, potentially fatal, etc etc. I asked several biologists (including my wife) about it afterwards, and they all professed ignorance. I guess it was real, though. (Perhaps I can blame my dementia on brain-sucking amoeba?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Allen Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I ran into this about six or seven years ago... ........ (Perhaps I can blame my dementia on brain-sucking amoeba?) Nah- woulda happened in weeks, not years. If you're like me, all signs of dementia are caused by my family Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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