Help! I Have Traveler’s Diarrhea!

June 29, 2009 | By OFA In Abdomen and Stomach, Sickness and Illness | Comments(7)
I live in Southern California, and when we were kids, we would travel across the border to Mexico to go shopping and partying. We would warn the newbies about not drinking the water, but inevitably, someone would forget about it and have some ice water at a restaurant, or drink a margarita with tainted ice cubes. A couple hours later, their stomach would start to grumble, and a few days of crampy diarrhea would ensue. We used call it Montezuma’s Revenge!
You don’t have to be traveling in Mexico to get traveler’s diarrhea. In fact there are many many cases in the United States every year, some deadly, some not. It’s caused by dangerous bacteria, most commonly E. coli. Remember, E. coli naturally lives in our guts, but some of the different strains are more of a problem if your not used to them. Avoid getting sick with these simple tips for:
  1. Do not drink tap water, use ice, and do not use it to brush your teeth. The more upscale restaurants and resorts will have purified water . . . . but not coming out of the sink!
  2. Do not drink bottled water if the seal on the bottle has been broken.
  3. Do not drink milk or eat dairy products that have not been pasteurized (heated to a temperature that kills all germs).
  4. Do not eat raw fruits or vegetables unless they can be peeled and you are the one who peels them.
  5. Do not eat cut-up fruit salad or leafy raw vegetables (such as spinach).
  6. Do not eat raw or rare meat or fish.
  7. Be careful about eating food from people who sell it on the street. I watch them cook it!
  8. Boiling water will kill the germs that cause diarrhea, making the water safe to drink. Boil water vigorously for 1 minute and allow it to cool to room temperature (do not add ice). When traveling in high altitudes (6,562 feet or higher), boil water for 3 minutes.
  9. You can buy water safety tablets pretty inexpensively for hiking and camping. Better yet, get a water filtration device.
  10. You can buy Immodium to control diarrhea. It typically works as good as any prescription medicine.
  11. Go to the doctor if you get “bloody or rice water” diarrhea.
  12. Go to the doctor if the diarrhea isn’t any better after 2-3 days.
  13. Go to the doctor if your also vomiting.
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Filed under: Abdomen and Stomach, Sickness and Illness

Next Page »