Cures for diarrhea are plenty but looking for some of the best can often be a hassle. Here are some of the most effective remedies for diarrhea that you might want to find out. Most importantly, avoid milk and all other dairy, but yogurt. Yogurt is the only acceptable dairy to have as it has the necessary bacteria that are desirable for repopulating the bowel.
These good bacteria are essential after an episode of diarrhea. Any other dairy outside of yogurt would not help, and could even aggravate diarrhea. Just follow up the attack with yogurt and you will be on your way to get your bowel back right on track.
Cures For Diarrhea
Probiotics
Make sure to find a yogurt that has acidophilus bacteria strain in it. The acidophilus is what your bowel needs to get working correctly again. This can be easily obtained from your local health food store. Probiotic supplements can also be helpful, and you can usually find them from the same store where you get your yogurt products.
Some of the better probiotics are kept aside and they are generally available in the refrigerator section. Ask the store attendant for assistance as well as know what he or she recommends. You can try yogurt with bifidobacterium infantis probiotic as well.
Take Clear Foods
Besides, following clear food diets when the attack is occurring are also great cures for diarrhea. Foods like broth and Jell-o that you can see through are the type of foods that you would want. If you can look “clear” through a food item, this is what you should eat during an episode of diarrhea attack.
You don’t want to force your digestive system with any more than it needs to when you have a bout of diarrhea. Read also about stomach bugs here.
Prevent Dehydration
Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar to 1 quart of water is also essential for re-hydration purposes. You can also squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice into the mixture to taste. As diarrhea can drain a lot of liquids from your body, maintaining proper body hydration is vital during these attacks. This will help replenish your body with glucose and electrolytes. Try to avoid drinking carbonated beverages as they may add more gas and exacerbate your diarrhea condition.
Slowly sipping on malted ginger or trying ginger tea is also effective cures for diarrhea. In addition, drinking carrot juice without added milk has been known to prevent watery stools too!
Bulk Up The Stool
For more remedies that can help cure diarrhea, you can try eating boiled brown rice that are rich in Vitamin B while keeping the water of the boiled rice for subsequent drinking later on. This has been known to effectively bulk up the stool.
More cures for diarrhea include pickle juice. Unreal, but it is said to work for diarrhea. You can drink Jell-o before it sets up by adding only enough cold water to make it cool enough to drink. You can also take two lemons and squeeze out the juice into a glass. Add a half teaspoon of baking powder and drink it straight down as it foams.
Put cornmeal into a skillet and stir it until it is parched, so it looks brown in color. Let it cool and eat 2 tablespoons of this. Drink as little water while you are eating this. It will taste like eating sand, but it does works. Typically your diarrhea will stop in 2 to 3 hours. Also read foods that help digestion and home remedies for gas here.
Loperamide Hydrochloride
However, if you are out travelling or are stuck in an inconvenience situation, then an ingredient known as Loperamide hydrochloride can help. Loperamide hydrochloride or Loperamide HCl is an active ingredient that has the ability to control or stop diarrhea almost instantly. Commonly used as over-the-counter diarrhea medicine, you can find most of them as diarrhea products in your local drug stores.
One of the most widely known products that contain this Loperamide is Imodium although other brand names are also available such as Pepto, Lopex and Fortasec. These products are available in capsules and liquid forms. If you have tried any of these products, Imodium for instance, you will know how effective they work in halting your diarrhea symptoms.
However, if diarrhea continues to occur for the next few days even after taking this medicine, do not hesitate to consult your doctor. You may be having a more severe underlying health problem.
Unlike typical remedies and cures, Loperamide hydrochloride does not treat the root causes of a diarrhea. What it merely does is treat its symptoms. As diarrhea are generally caused by irritation to the lining of the intestines, inflammation of ulcerative colitis, or the faster than normal movements of the bowel resulting in watery stools. Loperamide works by slowing down the activity of the intestines.
As the intestinal activity is slowed down, diarrhea can be prevented. Not only that, loperamide can also change the movements of electolytes and water in the intestine. Although useful, it is not without its side effects.
As diarrhea can cause dehydration, loperamide has also been known to cause mouth dryness. Therefore, it would be wise to drink plenty of water to counter these effects.
Electrolyte drinks containing sodium and potassium salts are also recommended as they can help replenish and restore the body’s water and electrolyte levels after the period of dehydration. You can find more information on loperamide here. Additionally, loperamide hydrochloride is not suitable for infants or children under 2 years old. There have been known cases of death in infants given loperamide hydrochloride as cures for diarrhea. So keep them away from children!
Nonetheless, keep these cures for diarrhea properly as they may come in handy right when you need it.
Also check out these awful stomach virus symptoms too!
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