What do you take on holiday in case of the big D?

For travellers diarrhea Imodium isn't what one should take for it regularly, unless on your flight home.
Bring Pepto Bismol for sure and reallllly good probiotics and fibre supplements to be taken regardless before you leave and during and after .

Are you on any meds?

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Hi there, make sure wherever you eat that the place looks super clean...check out the toilets before eating there as that is usually a good benchmark as to what the state of the kitchen looks like.

I once went to a restaurant in India with a couple of friends. As I walked to use the toilet I noticed a large hole in the floor...full of rubbish, paper wrappers, empty cola tins lol!

A couple of thoughts. One is that traveler's diarrhea is usually due to acute infection by food or water borne illness. You don't want to use immodium for that, it could make your infection 10x worse.

The other thing is that taking pepto bismol inhibits stomach acid, which is your first line of protection against full blown illness. Without it, infections are much more likely to reach your bowels and cause chaos.

Since your are immune suppressed, your best option is prevention. You won't be able to tell by looking at a restaurant how hygienic it is. Some restaurants that present well have poor preparation practices, like not enough hand washing. People who cook the food may not wash their hands after using the bathroom, or often enough while cooking dishes. You can minimize this by asking if the servers at the restaurant have Food Safe or some other kind of food prep certification. If you're not in North America, then they can just lie to you, but in North America they have to tell you.

If a restaurant is empty, don't eat there. Their food will have slow turnover and will be sitting around. Busy restaurants have the freshest food. If there's a buffet, check to see if it's refrigerated properly and if the food looks fresh. If there are flies or bugs near the food, don't eat there. If you see rat traps or dirty surfaces, don't eat there. Check out their washroom... if it looks unclean then it means the people preparing food are also using it and you're at higher risk. If there are signs telling staff to wash their hands, your chances are better.

The main thing I take with me travelling is grapefruit seed extract pills. Citricidal from Nutribiotic is the best one. No solvents and they have an FDA approved monograph showing which organisms it works against and in which concentrations. If I get food born illness, I take two tablets four times a day, the maximum dose, and I start downing probiotics like crazy.

You should also bring activated charcoal pills with you. Take them at a separate time from the GSE and your other medications otherwise the charcoal will prevent them from working.

At the first sign of food poisoning or traveller's D, take the charcoal pills and the GSE at separate times.

I have some similar questions as I'm traveling in Feb and am concerned that every time I've traveled to less developed countries (in the last few years) I've gotten traveler's diarrhea. In the past I've taken Cipro and after a few days I'm usually good. Now with UC, I'm concerned about taking antibiotics as well as immodium as others have mentioned.

I'm going to be extra vigilant on where and what I eat, but am normally pretty good about that.

What are your thoughts on antibiotics and UC?

Thanks iPoop. So with a small increased risk of flare maybe I should pack more than maintenance amt of Rowasa?

PhotoGirl said...
In the past I've taken Cipro and after a few days I'm usually good. Now with UC, I'm concerned about taking antibiotics as well as immodium as others have mentioned.

Interesting. Antibiotics can aggravate UC, OTOH many people have said that antibiotics like Cipro and Flagyl have placed them into remission.