Living off grid. Bloating

Posted by lighthouse33 @lighthouse33, Feb 10, 2018

My partner and I have been living off the grid for about a year. A few weeks ago we both started having bloating issues. I started first. We are both small build so its pretty obvious. We eat healthy, exercise very regularly, drink water no soda no alcohol. We do live in a less than perfect world when it comes to sanitation. We do not live in filth but we mostly spend all our time outside and dont wash hands as much as we should. We collect rainwater for all our water uses. We filter it through a berkey filter for drinking and cooking but wash dishes in un filtered rain water. We have dogs and cats. I dont eat a whole lot but it seems the bloating is worse in the night time after dinner. Lately i have been consitpated but i am usually regular. I see all the regular problems associated with bloating but was wondering if there is something that because of our lifestlye that we may have that is more uncommon. Since we are both having the same problem i am lead to believe is has to do with environmental issues.

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Justin McClanahan, Moderator | @JustinMcClanahan | Feb 11, 2018

Hello @lighthouse33,

You pose an interesting question to the group. I am not a medical professional and since Mayo Clinic Connect is a group of members sharing their own experiences, I did a little bit of research on my own. I think you may find the following article from the CDC worth your time exploring, https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/rainwater-collection.html.

In my non-medical professional opinion, I would tend to agree with your feelings that it is tied to your environmental issues, but the best advice I could give would be to monitor your symptoms and seek the help of a medical professional if necessary. @lighthouse33, if you don't mind me asking, are you living in a particular part of the world that is known to have certain bacteria in the wild? What I mean is, have you researched the area you are living and the complications that could arise from drinking, ingesting, or coming in to contact with unfiltered water?