OK, this one seems pretty obvious. Avoid Food Poisoning. Definitely should be high on the list of things to avoid on any vacation including your exotic vacation to the Dominican Republic. But… the question “How to Avoid Food Poisoning?” can be a little harder. This is something even the most experienced traveler can fall victim to at times as can be seen by my most recent experience.

Food Poisoning at Lifestyles Resort

If you’ve read much of my blog here you have probably heard me mention Lifestyles Resort in Puerto Plata several times. This is kind of a favorite “cheap” vacation for (more…)

New cases of dengue fever have been reported in the small campo town of Fantino de Cotui, Dominican Republic.

Dengue also called “breakbone” or “dandy fever” is a serious disease that causes high fever and intense joint and muscle pain. More serious cases of dengue can also cause bleeding gums, sever pain behind the eyes and red palms and soles.

Dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes (striped Aedes aegypti mosquito) so one of the best ways to prevent contracting this illness is to (more…)

While this isn’t one of the more popular subjects when visiting a vacation based travel website (at least not a subject many people want to read about, unfortunately it is a necessary topic at times. I’ve included many posts on this site about food and water precautions (You can scan through my health section for those tips) but at times no matter how careful you are, you get a parasite or cyst.

Symptoms of Parasites

Symptoms of parasites, amoebas (amebas) and cysts are all pretty similar. Usually diarrhea is the main symptom. This can also include stomach cramps especially right after eating. Heavier parasite problems can also include nausea and vomiting although that seems to more often mean you have amoebas (amebas) which can be pretty serious. If you are throwing up with diarrhea don’t wait, collect samples and go see a Doctor right away, you don’t want to add dehydration and other more serious problems to your discomfort.

If you start to get some of these symptoms (single case of Diarrhea or some nausea) don’t panic. First remember it is likely you’re eating food that is not your normal diet, quite often that means more alcohol, deserts, strange foods and quite often just more food. Any of these can cause temporary stomach problems. However, if they persist it’s (usually more than 1-2 loose bowel movements), it is probably time to go get checked out.

Getting diagnosed really isn’t that bad (well a little gross). First you need a small sample of the offending body excretion be it the diarrhea or vomit (or both). While there are many methods to do this, it is probably easiest to get a few plastic bags from the local colmado (neighborhood store). Open one up and spread it below you as you sit down on the toilet and …. Well, collect your sample. Being that there is usually no was to shut down diarrhea and you only need a small sample, that is what the other bags are for. Turn one inside out, cover your hand and reach in and collect a few table spoons worth of your sample and pull the bag back over your hand trapping the sample inside. Tie a couple knots and stick that into a second bag to ensure there are no leaks.

Good point to remember is that you don’t need the entire job, just a small sample will due. That is a lot easier to carry around, hide, hand to the lab assistant (man what a job that must be) etc.

Finding a Clinic

This part is a lot different than the States. You might have had the travel company try to sell you expensive travel insurance to cover all the possible hospital bills that your normal health insurance doesn’t cover. It is very unlikely (more…)

The public health department of the Dominican Republic has reported more deaths due to dengue over the last few days. While dengue is always a risk due to humid air and frequent rain-showers (leaving pools of tepid water for mosquitoes to breed) , certain times of year seem to produce more reports.

As of today 10/11/12 there have been 10 recent reports of deaths with 3,538 probably cases of this mosquito born disease. Pretty much anywhere is the Dominican Republic is at risk (more…)

A new health craze has hit main stream in the Dominican Republic, Moringa which can be locally grown can now be seen in La Sirena. You can pick up Moringa in a powdered form to be added to health shakes or other health drinks.

There are several other Latin American countries that have been growing and selling this plant as a alternative medicine for several years now including Honduras. Usually it is the leaves that are of interest which are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and Vitamin B as well as protein and calcium. Locally grown Moringa is now being sold in the streets and is becoming pretty common to find here in the Dominican Republic.

Moringa Health Benefits

Moringa leaves are also high in 46 different antioxidants. (more…)

The Dominican Health Ministry has has the Dominican shipping company Casa Chepe SRL recall 14,000 metric tons of sugar that had been inported and distributed in the Dominican Republic since July 2012. The sugar has been found to contain various impurities including sand and cellulos fibers.

The contaminated sugar was imported from Brazil under the brand Canaria and is not considered safe for consumption. (more…)

While it may sound like a broken record recent news about health problems caused by drinking the water in Santiago reinforces the fact that you should not drink the water in the DR.

While at this time they are not able to confirm that the problem is actually cholera Santiago province public health director Ramon Martinez Henriquez put the blame on drinking the from the water supplied to the city residents by the city.

Whether the problem is caused by cholera or not, drinking tap water in the Dominican Republic can kill. (more…)

I’m sure it comes to no surprise to anyone that processed meats like hot dogs, spam, and salami are not exactly what you should be calling health food! Still, most of us would assume (perhaps incorrectly) that certain standards have been met so that the “meat” does reach some sort of a reasonable quality.

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot in the news about the low protein percentage as well as the fecal matter that was found in salami that has been sold in the Dominican Republic. So to address this problem instead of requiring that the meat processors meet the standards the Standards and Quality Systems Agency’s (Digenor) Technical Committee took a more novel approach, officially lower the standards of the salami so that it can now be sold as meeting the official standards.

As reported in Dominican Today, the standards for the required protein content of Dominican Salami have been lowered substantially.

New Dominican Republic Salami Standards

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Seems to be a bad day for the meet industry today. Two ongoing wars seem to be happening. The first is about the prices of chicken in the Dominican Republic and the second is it is rumored that that some of the salami here may be unhealthy (gasp!) (more…)

As I sit in my office this morning mulling over which of my websites I want to work first I am hit with one of the inescapable facts of living in the Dominican Republic. It’s loud here! One of the things that can often be difficult for a foreigner that has either moved to the DR or is taking an extended vacation here is the noise. For some this can even affect their health. While I’m sure that there are some areas this doesn’t apply, outside of the resorts there doesn’t seem to be many. Lets discuss some examples.

The People

I’m going to be speaking in generalities here because not everyone in the DR follows this description, from the noise here it just seems like it! For the most part people don’t like quite here. It’s entertaining to sit on your front porch and watch people walk by. If it is too quite, people in particular men and kids’ will just start yelling as they walk down the street. They just want to be heard. (more…)