Who’s going to come running when there’s a massive fire? Doctors? Teachers? Personally, I’d rather have a trained firefighter putting out my blaze …
Prior to March 2010, I couldn’t be stopped. Over the years, I’ve played competitive soccer and tennis in junior, semi-pro and adult leagues. If I had a choice between sitting inside or enjoying the great outdoors, I would always pick a sweaty afternoon out in the fresh air! For as long as I can remember my friends and, then later, my wife would often say, “Slow down, Lorens, I can’t keep up with you”. We encouraged our kids to lead active lives as well, enthusiastically taking every opportunity to coach and support them in that way. Not only was I teaching my kids how to have a productive healthy life, but also it provided a wonderful way to give back to my local community.
As I turned in for the night on March 30th, 2010, there was no way I could know that the very next day I was about to experience a severe foodborne illness that would alter my life forever.
The day had been busy, and I skipped lunch to get a project done at work, so when three friends and I sat down at a favorite restaurant in Mississauga for dinner, I was famished. One of our group ordered some antipasto that immediately tasted spoiled – and he sent it right back to the kitchen. I’d ordered the Madeira chicken and was really looking forward to its creamy, melty, cheesy goodness. I remember having a little moment of doubt thinking maybe something wasn’t right, but I’d never had any issue with this well-known restaurant chain before, and I was a robust 43-year-old who was really hungry, so I put it out of my head and finished my meal.
Within thirty minutes I had violent intestinal pain and relentless stomach cramping along with diarrhea. Somehow I got myself home, but not long after that I was being admitted to the ER, placed on IV and given antibiotics. I kept asking about food poisoning and was shocked to see the disregard given to my questions. No specific tests for food poisoning were ever administered. Within days of the incident, having weakness and tingling in my body, I appeared to have contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome which, I was told, is often the result of a Campylobacter infection. (NOW they want to consider food poisoning!!?) Most Campylobacter infections, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are probably acquired by eating raw or undercooked poultry or eating something that touched it.
Repeat visits over the next two weeks were constant and frightening near-death situations. It felt as though I was fighting for my life! Following the initial two-week period, I started experiencing neuropathy of my limbs which gradually became worse. It started with muscle weakness and developed into pins & needles in my feet. Having seen numerous specialists, who performed Electromyography (EMG), it was confirmed that I had damage to my peripheral nervous system. Significant reduction was noticed in nerve activity and signal strength along the peripheral nerves. According to these specialists, signals were not travelling along the nerves properly. Believing I had developed an autoimmune disease, the specialist gave me a diagnosis of Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Poly Peripheral Neuropathy (CIDP), a debilitating illness that affects entire limbs, the ability to walk, and overall health and well-being.
I fell into a deep depression and grappled with so many aspects of my life that I had previously never given much thought to. In May 2014, I took a much-needed leave of absence from work and would not return again until a full two years later. Days of pain rolled into weeks of frustration which were enveloped in months of depression and years of serious struggle. →
I started consulting with many different professionals … Some 20 different specialists were visited with the goal of learning what was happening to me, but no one seemed to know. Trying desperately to find solutions to resolve my afflictions, I became obsessed with searching out and visiting doctors. “The next one will have a key for me,” I kept thinking. Friends and family could see that I was not the same person they’d known and enjoyed, that I was so consumed by my illnesses that I didn’t laugh or talk anymore. In fact, my mobility was so poor that I could barely walk around the block of my home, which was a mere couple of hundred meters (about 1/8 of a mile).
Although I was in my home physically during most of this time, I was clearly absent mentally and emotionally from my young family. When my illness started my daughter, Natalia, was 12 and my son, Ivan, was 8 years old. My mood swings affected my wife and kids deeply. Even though my kids were young, they could see that Dad was miserably sad. It was written all over my face, they could hear it in my voice, and even feel it in my energy level. I was neglecting my fatherly duties to fuel my obsession for improving my health. These were crucial years for my young family, and I should have spent those years compassionately engaged and involved in their lives celebrating every aspect of their youthfulness with enthusiasm and love. Instead, I was losing weight and looking increasingly weak and pale.
In March 2019, my neurologist placed me on Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) to try and address some of my symptoms. Each IVIG transfusion, which was blood from thousands of donors, was administered intravenously every two weeks over a 6-hour session. The IVIG blood transfusions ended January 2020 after 9 months. Although the IVIG treatments helped to ease some of my symptoms they have not, to this day, resolved my neurologic symptoms completely. I still suffer, and I remain a high-risk patient due to ongoing physical and mental health complications – all of which stem from the initial food poisoning incident.
In tangible terms, the cost of my illness easily amounts to over a million dollars. For instance, the IVIG treatment performed at McMaster Hospital cost $360,000 alone. I get lost in the numbers when I consider all the trips to medical facilities, treatments, medications, and assistive paraphernalia. Not working a two full years resulted in $280,000 of lost income. ↓
Of course, the biggest costs are the intangible ones – days spent away from my family as well as the emotional repercussions of my being there physically but not being present. There were huge emotional strains on my mother and brother as well, often driving me to doctors’ appointments, and seeing me in a constant state of hurt and pain.
Even though the initial horrific intestinal pain, severe stomach cramping, and diarrhea ended, it did not mean that my health was back to normal. Considering I was at the peak of my health and general well-being, the very opposite was true as this was only the beginning of my journey of illness and health complications. I’d been sick before and had always bounced back, but somehow this was different.
In order to help explain why most people continue to suffer for years after a severe food poisoning incident has occurred, I needed to better understand the human microbiome and the important role it plays in our lives. Every person’s microbiome is like a bustling city on a typical weekday morning (only on a microscopic level). Consisting of not only bacteria, but also viruses, parasites, and fungi, trillions of microorganisms of thousands of different species live there. The largest numbers are found in the small and large intestines but they’re also throughout the body.
Most of these microorganisms are helpful or symbiotic (where both the human body and microbiota benefit) and some, in smaller numbers, that are potentially harmful or pathogenic (promoting disease).
The microbiome helps us digest our food, regulate our immune system, protect against other bacteria that cause disease, and produce vitamins that our body & brain require for healthy function. When a person is healthy, their pathogenic and symbiotic microbiota coexist peacefully, without problems.
Everybody has an entirely unique microbiome that is originally determined by one’s DNA. The microorganisms that an infant possesses depends solely on the species found in the mother. Later, one’s microbiome can change based on environmental exposure and diet. These changes can be beneficial to one’s health or place them at a greater risk for disease.
A disturbance in that balance—brought on by severe food poisoning or other infectious illnesses, the prolonged use of antibiotics or other bacteria-destroying medications, or even certain diets causes dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is another name for a dysfunctional microbiome, which typically means your gastrointestinal system, including your stomach and intestines, has become unbalanced. As a result, the body may become more susceptible to disease.
Imagine what would happen if a person’s food digestion, immune system, and protection against disease suddenly started disintegrating in their body and mind … harmful bacteria would start to flourish and possibly cause all kinds of disease.
As you can imagine, the list of what could result is quite lengthy.
Autoimmune diseases such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, CIDP, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia, are also associated with dysfunction in the microbiome. Whether it’s poor diet, food poisoning (both mild and severe), or changing gene activity and metabolic processes, the results are the same; an abnormal immune response against damaging substances and harmful bacteria present in the body.
Studies have revealed that this imbalance, reduced diversity, and altered microbiome composition will also cause mental diseases such as anxiety and depression. The Gut-Brain Axis is very relevant to psychiatric disorders and behavioral variations in general. Over 80% of our immune systems reside in the lining of our gut putting our microbiome in constant contact with it. Healthy, resilient microbiomes rely on high richness and biodiversity which strengthens and stabilizes immune systems helping them fight off almost anything.
With high richness and diversity, you have a much more capable and resilient community. When you have lots of different types of people in your community such as doctors, teachers, and firefighters with different specialties available to you, you’re able to call on just the right person for just the right job.
But what if your firefighters have been significantly reduced or are missing altogether? Who’s going to come running when there’s a massive fire? Doctors? Teachers? Personally, I’d rather have a trained firefighter putting out my blaze!
Consider the journey that food takes from its source in the field or farm and how it makes its way up the chain through various stages: storage, deep freezers, markets, and finally to local restaurants or our homes. This food (in restaurants, supermarkets, and homes) is only as good as what it was when it began the journey. If it starts out as a substandard product it remains substandard and could very likely affect us all adversely. The food chain does not need to be a hazardous place, as food poisoning is largely preventable. Food, in all its various iterations, is meant to be enjoyed and celebrated with family and friends. For those of us who have experienced a severe foodborne illness, some (if not all) of this is lost. There is nothing more rewarding than preventing for someone else, an incident like the one that we (survivors and victims’ families) experienced in the recent or distant past.
The business philosophy of Kaizen which translates to “change for the better” or “continual improvement” is just that – it focuses on gradual improvements, and it involves all employees at all levels. Focusing on making small and gradual improvements in food safety processes will reduce the risks associated with foodborne illnesses and create a more efficient and sustainable environment in the long run.
If done right, we all stand to live long, active, and healthy lives.
