There's a parasitic outbreak spreading across the country right now and I want to talk about it. Not to scare you, but because I think you should know, and because this particular topic sits at the intersection of basically every part of my life.
It's called cyclosporiasis, caused by a microscopic parasite called Cyclospora cayetanensis. It spreads through contaminated food or water, most commonly fresh produce like raspberries, basil, cilantro, spinach, leafy greens, snow peas. Michigan has become the epicenter with nearly 700 confirmed cases as of last week, roughly 13 times higher than the state's typical annual total. Cases have been confirmed across 18 states, at least 20 people have been hospitalized. No deaths reported, and it doesn't spread person to person.
The symptoms are rough: persistent watery diarrhea that can last weeks, sometimes disappear and come back. Here's the part worth knowing: standard stool tests won't catch it. If you or someone you know has unexplained diarrhea that won't resolve, you have to specifically ask your doctor to test for Cyclospora by name. Most won't order the right test unless you ask for it.
Wash your produce. Scrub firm items with a brush. Refrigerate anything pre-cut promptly. And if you get sick in a way that isn't resolving, ask for the right test.
Now here's where it gets personal for me.
I have cEDS and MCAS, along with a handful of other symptoms that are still being sorted out and named. Managing all of that means I cannot afford to be casual about what goes into or onto my body. My immune system and connective tissue are already working overtime. A contaminated handful of cilantro isn't just an inconvenience, it can set off a cascade that takes weeks to recover from. So I live in a state of informed attention that most people don't have to think about.
That attention started before the diagnoses though. I've been a hairstylist for years, working with chemicals that the industry has historically been pretty relaxed about labeling honestly. I became an ingredient snob early out of necessity. When you spend hours every week with your hands in color and your lungs in a room full of fumes, you start paying attention to what's actually in the products you're using. Some of what I found was not reassuring. That early education never really switched off.
Then I trained as a nutrition coach, and that added another layer. Reading a label is a skill, and most people were never taught it. Understanding what ingredients actually do in the body, what fillers are commonly used and why, what terms are legally meaningless on packaging; that training changed how I shop, how I feed my family, and how I talk to clients about food.
And underneath all of it is the part that probably surprises people the least given everything else I've shared: as a witch who genuinely loves this earth and tries to move through it with some degree of care, there's a values layer here too. What's in the packaging, where it came from, what it cost the planet to produce…these aren't separate from my practice. They're part of it. The meditation traditions I've studied say the same thing in different language. What we consume becomes us. What we put back into the world matters.
All of which brings me back to the broader point, because this outbreak is just the headline version of something that is happening constantly.
The CDC coordinates between 17 and 36 multistate foodborne illness investigations every single week. Every week. Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella. And it's not just food; cosmetics with undisclosed ingredients, sunscreens with benzene contamination, supplements with unlisted fillers. The regulatory infrastructure meant to catch these things before they reach us has been significantly weakened. Fewer inspectors, longer gaps between facility checks, agencies that are understaffed and under-resourced at exactly the moment we need them most.
Knowing what's been recalled is a world I choose to live in. For myself, for my family, for my pets. Not from a place of fear, but because informed decisions are still decisions, and I'd rather make them with accurate information than without.
The FDA recall database is public and regularly updated. It takes about five minutes to check. I'd rather spend those five minutes than not.
Wash the produce. Read the labels. Check the recalls. Take care of the body you're living in, it's the only one you've got.
With love,
Cerissa