[at-l] Medical risks of wilderness hiking

[thornel at attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)]

I've been referred your article's abstract after interest expressed among 
an e-list of AT hikers (AT-L). Frankly, I'm critical of the study design as 
I understand it from the abstract, interpreting it more as a retrospective 
self report of self selected hikers. I am impressed if this involved hikers 
with at least 80 days in the woods or along the trail (it is fairly 
suburban in places).

I am very keen to know of any overlap in the fastidious few with good 
toilet hygiene and those with slack water gathering practices. I'm also 
keen to know the definitions of diarrhea among this group. Episodic loose 
stools associated with binge eating on town stops or over exertion 
shouldn't be counted.

My expectation is that fecal oral contamination of food and hands is the 
strongest risk factor among long distance hikers. I'd love to see a study 
that sent blinded groups with alcohol gel versus lanolin lotion to be used 
on a twice daily basis. I don't expect there is any money in such a truly 
difficult prospective study.

Would you be able to email me a copy of your article? Congratulations on 
grabbing the attention of Yahoo and many hikers.

Bill Thorneloe, MD
Smyrna, GA