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Padium
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16 Mar 2009, 10:21 am

I don't know where else I would post this, so... Anyways... I made the mistake of drinking lemon lime water that I had made 2-3 weeks earlier, the lemons and limes were kinda old at the time... And I now have really bad diarrhea that I believe is from that. Any medical buffs know how long this illness will take to go away, or what I can do to treat it? Right now I just got some immodium to try and allow me to hold it in long enough to get some nutrients out of what I drink, and some gatorade mix so that when I drink, I am getting more than just water. I can eat food, but I cannot hold it in long enough to get anything out of it.



isnessofwhatis
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16 Mar 2009, 10:30 am

It could be that, or it could be something else. If it is food poisoning it may take just a few hours to a day or so to get out of your system. it all depends on the type of bacteria.



ephemerella
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16 Mar 2009, 11:04 am

The biggest danger from diarrhea is becoming dangerously dehydrated and losing mineral salts, causing your electrolyte levels to fall dangerously. It sounds like you're doing the right things by getting gatorade. The electrolytes you don't want to get too low in are sodium, potassium, chloride, etc. Also, you want real dietary fiber, because the fiber will enter the intestines and will help stabilize the contents.

So given the above, water, electrolytes and dietary fiber are natural treatments for diarrhea.

To restore your electrolyte balance when you have diarrhea you are doing the right thing with gatorade. Foods like potatoes and bananas contain potassium. When you cook a potato, its dietary fiber breaks down, so bananas are a better choice, because they have both potassium and about 3 grams of dietary fiber each.

Apples are a great diarrhea food because they have a dietary fiber in it, pectin, that helps the intestines work properly (if you are constipated, pectin helps your bowels move and if you have diarrhea it helps stabilize the contents.) "Kaopectate" is a product you can buy at the drugstore that uses pectin, but it's more expensive than apples and you get actual nutrition from apples. By eating foods with soluble fiber in the, you get nutrients as well as a diarrhea aid. If you try to eat crackers and other grains, try to get higher-fiber whole grain versions. Psyllium husks is another drugstore remedy that works for both diarrhea and constipation, because it contains a lot of fiber.

Foods that have tannin in them help reduce intestinal inflammation and slow intestinal wall cell secretions (that cause excess water in the intestines). Regular black tea and berries like blackberries, blueberries and raspberries contain tannin.

Food poisoning is a type of poisoning, and that means that there are toxins present that can damage tissue. Using activated charcoal according to directions for safe first aid poisoning doses might be overkill but might be helpful.

Finally, you can take probiotics, like Acidophilus, which are friendly bacteria we are supposed to have in our intestines. You can usually buy these in a drugstore, too. The beneficial bacteria that helps us digest food can repopulate your gut with friendly bacteria and compete with the toxic bacteria from the spoiled food, helping to speed their passing.

I'm not a doctor, and nothing I say should be taken as advice not to see a doctor for this. It's important to remember that the diarrhea can be a serious condition. You should get medical attention if it has gone on for a while and you are feeling increasingly worse, or aren't getting better, or don't feel that the toxic materials in the spoiled food are being cleared out of your system.



Nephesh
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16 Mar 2009, 11:52 am

In theory the citric acid from the lemons and limes should have helped kill off any spoilage to some extent. But it will depend on how you made the drink, whether you added sugar or not, etc.

That being said, if you feel like it came from your lemon-lime drink, then your body and your instinct about this probably knows best. Throw it out and wash out the container. Moderate food-poisoning generally only lasts 24 hours or so. Once your body has purged your entire digestive track, you should be good to go again.

Avoid anything sugary during this time as many food born pathogens thrive on sugars. Try to eat some green leafy vegetables as chloraphyll helps calm the stomach. Don't eat too much at once, a few small salads space a few hours apart perhaps. And, as stated above, drink plenty of pure water to keep you hydrated.