Ack! I'm going to Ecuador in 5 days. I still haven't packed. But I've been making preparations on preventing myself from getting malaria. I don't know what it does to you, but I think it's bad. One sec. let me look. Oh snap, these symptoms make it seem like it's just a flu:
- Fever
- Chills
- Headache
- Flu-Like Symptoms
- Muscle Aches
- Fatigue
- Low Blood Cell Counts (Anemia)
- Yellowing of the Skin and Whites of the Eyes (Jaundice)
(source: CDC)
What can I do to prevent it? Don't get bit by mosquitoes. I heard that if I eat certain foods, like the local foods, I won't smell tasty to the mosquitos. So I tried to not eat any American food. But I don't have a kitchen, so that failed.
I did however find that taking 500mg of vitamin B-1 will make you smell bad to insects. Then I found another page that said B-6 is the one you should take. I have B-complex, but 1 tablet only has 5mg of B-6 and no B-1, so I'd have to take 100 of them. But just one of them makes me smell different to me. Is there any real evidence that taking vitamins will help against mosquitoes?
There is no scientific evidence that eating garlic, vitamins, onions, or any other food will make a person repellent to mosquitoes. The attractant level of each individual to biting arthropods is based on a complex interaction of many chemical and visual signals. Certain foods in certain individuals may effect their individual attractiveness to biting arthropods, for better or for worse.
- C. Roxanne Rutledge and Jonathan F. Day - University of Florida
I read that as saying, it could help, but it's on an individual biochemical basis, you'll just have to see what works for you.
The CDC also mentions oil of lemon eucalyptus. And my landlady says that she used lemon grass bracelets. One on her arm and one on her leg. She lent the one on her leg to someone else and got bites all over her legs. And the hotel she stayed at in the Dominican Republic had lemon grass soap.
So, I need some B, eucalyptus oil, lemon grass bracelets, and garlic. Then, when I get back from Ecuador, I should research what foods keep girls away, and make an effort to not eat those. I have a feeling that chocolate shampoo would be a good attractant.
Original source: http://smilingrob.wordpress.com/?p=54
