Acute viral gastroenteritis

This gastroenteritis is highly contagious. If it is around, hand washing before you eat hopefully will reduce your risk. Everything is suspect - the soap, taps and towel - all can carry these tough little viruses.

I would use one paper towel for the tap and one to dry my hands.

Hot water bottles to relieve tummy cramp, are banned in nursing homes and hospitals, because of the risk of burning someone.
They are great for easing the pain, but one has to be very careful, as you need it quite hot.

Rice water reduces the duration of diarrhoea as well as the volume of stools. Studies in Bangladesh found it to be preferable to glucose based fluids.

"Boil a handful of ground rice in a pot of water and add a pinch of salt" is one recipe. My old hospital used to hand out instructions to boil 2 tablespoons of rice for twenty minutes, strain, make up to 2 pints and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Aside from these practicalities, a lot of things are happening on the immunological front, during an attack of gastro-enteritis.

At one stage it was realized that candida was present in increased numbers, and temporarily was thought to be the cause. This was before rotavirus was discovered.

Immunity in RV infection involves both our cellular and humoral (antibody) immune responses. Candida can affect these responses, and contribute to mucosal damage.

Bowel mucosal lining damage in acute gastroenteritis, allows partly digested and undigested food to enter the tissues more readily, and form immune complexes.

These immune complexes (food plus specific antibody joined together,) are seen in increased amounts in the blood now, and may also contribute to bowel wall (mucosal) damage.

Post infectious IBS can follow travellers diarrhoea or ordinary gastroenteritis. This is probably maintained by food intolerance plus leaky gut (mucosal damage from above.)

Stomach flu

more to come

Travellers diarrhea

One of my patients was a teacher on a school trip to China, took Ultra probioplex, and was the only one of the entire party not to succumb.

It's good stuff! (made from bovine colostrum)

In a Swiss study only 2% of the travellers who responded had exactly followed the strict hygiene advice given at the start of the study, even in the first 3 days of their trip!

Easier to be reasonably careful plus take BC.

Also, Dukoral cholera vaccine apparently provides about 50% protection against ETEC travellers' diarrhoea for 3 months. I've no experience of this off label use.

From gastroenteritis page to home page