Giardia is an intestinal infection that causes a giardia parasite to make one sick. There are many symptoms to look out for when giardia is present in the body. Some people don’t even have symptoms, but it doesn’t mean it’s not in their bodies.
The giardia parasite can still be passed to another person through their stool or feces. When symptoms do become apparent, it is between one to three weeks after contracting giardia. To be sure giardia is what someone has, it is important to know the symptoms. The symptoms may mimic something else, but actually be giardia.
On average, the symptoms of giardia lasts two to six weeks. If someone is unsure if they have giardia, contact a medical professional who can conduct some lab tests and give the person some antibiotics or suggest a more natural treatment. Some of the symptoms of giardia include diarrhea, weight loss, and abdominal cramps.
1. Diarrhea
is one of the symptoms associated with giardia. When diarrhea is present in the body, the smell is foul and watery and may be followed by greasy stools. Diarrhea normally happens once or twice a year and lasts a few days.
If diarrhea doesn’t go away on its own, a person may have giardia. It will become humiliating going out in public because since a person is having diarrhea, he or she will need to use the restroom often and can become a nuisance at work. A lot of the times diarrhea occurs because contaminated food or water was ingested.
With giardia, drinking contaminated water is one of the main reasons why a person would get the disease. Taking over-the-counter medication may alleviate some of the symptoms associated with diarrhea and may make it go away, but if a person doesn’t take steps to keep giardia from coming back, the over-the-counter medication is no good.