Sick Food

[Liam Dougherty Springer]

Okay I am just getting over perhaps the most horrendous short Bug I have ever had...

I was honestly scared it came on so fast I thought I had been poisoned the symptoms were basic and not worth going into detail on Violent vomiting, SEVERE G.I. cramping and gas followed by over 24 hrs. of diarrhea.

The reason I am posting is to share the experience I had and ask for some comments and suggestions so I may have some other ideas as to how to deal with this in the future.

At first obviously nothing was going in other than water and that wasn't actually staying down.... Eventually I had a hard craving for the occasional slice of cold fruit so more for psychological comfort than any thing I would eat a piece of a refrigerated apple or pear. about 24 hrs in once I was holding down water I tried some ginger tea and chicken stock I held that down and I was really sore every where not the least of which due to the intense workout I had performed on the day before getting sick. So I really wanted a little protein (well my muscles did) if I could stomach it and an hour or so later tried some chicken stock with two eggs stirred in (Egg Drop Soup) and I had a horrible G.I. reaction which left me sick as a dog again...


Here is where I just gave up my mom called me from the grocery store and said she had a lot more experience with this and as smart as I am with food she knows what is best and I said fine. I was so depleted I needed something more than water and she brought over real fruit popsicles and pedialite and over the course of the night I had 1 1/2 popsicles and 1 2/3 litters of pedialite. Then that night I gave into my craving to chew and had a half a pear... that was a mistake and the abdominal issues came back. I get through another rough night and this morning I feel much better and I finish the pedialite and have a little coconut milk ice cream (mom approved) and now god forbid have been sipping on a small Gatorade for the past while.

My mom is bringing me some brown rice to make a hot cereal with coconut milk and cinnamon and is making some fresh broth with a duck carcass and veggies as I type for me to have I think tonight, I am not sure if there will be any actual meat in it.

In my situation I realized the saying "mom knows best" applied and I would love some input and info for any situations like this I encounter in the future... hopefully a long time from now.

I mean pedialite and fruit pops are at the bottom of my list of healthy foods... Obviously I haven't been overdosing on sugar as my total caloric intake in the last 24hrs. has been about 500 kcal. and the 24 hrs before that maybe 50 kcal. But still the great majority of that has been sugar and it seems will continue to be carbohydrates until tomorrow. Mom says it is because my system need something easily digestible... which kind of makes since... funny thing is that is exactly why I typically don't consume this stuff.

Any way any comments, bashes, jabs, or links are appreciated.... Dr. G?

[Garrett Smith]

Sorry you had to go through all that. Especially drinking that awful Pedialyte...

If it ever happens again, some things you might try:

Probiotics, in whatever form you can stomach them (kefir, yogurt, kombucha, powder, pill, whatever), in significant doses
BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, feel free to omit the non-Paleo grains if you want)
Electrolytes--I have people mix a little bit of juice with a lot of water plus a pinch of sea salt and some Emergen-C (vitamin C powder with B vits and electrolytes), I think that Pedialyte stuff is "less than optimal", shall we say.
Definitely do the broth.

In a situation like that, don't worry about the protein or fat, just keep yourself hydrated/"electrolyted" and help your gut with the probiotics.

When I start to feel sick, I reduce my solid foods in particular to very little.

You might want to do some probiotics at this point to help resolve the issue faster and help it to not happen again.

Also, get your vitamin D levels checked or start on at least a maintenance dose, if not the loading dose recommended by the www.VitaminDCouncil.org .

[Liam Dougherty Springer]

Alright well next time I will deffinately do the emergen-C concoction rather than the pediatlite....

I have apple sauce and I whished I had thought of it but the popcicles were basicaly fruit pure with a little water and guar gum. Mom was all over the toast but I just couldnt get over eating bread so I heald out for the rice it is cooking now. The interesting thing is that it seems to be the case that in a situation like this what we deal with the best is essentially baby food.

I have yet to eat anything truely solid but the rice cereal with a little coconut oil was going to be first does that sound good?

And tonight I think my mom was going to put a little meat from a turkey leg and neck in the soup with some cellery root and a little kale If I handle the rice you think the meat/veggies are okay? I mean I really want some meat:(

Oh yeah and I take a probiotic daily and mom made sure I took it yesterday and I took it today... I also took a tablespoon vitamin D enhanced CLO (also has less vit A than usual) and although I haven't taken my Vit D pill since I got sick. I normaly take a 2000 IU pill every day on top of another 1000+ from a combo of CLO and a real foods multi V.

Should I Double up on the probiotic pill for a couple days or just eat Goats milk Kefir and no added sugar grass fed yogurt for a while?

Final question for anyone out there How should I get back into training just buisness as usual or is there something that may help combat any negative consiquences of the under nutrition? I have just gained a bunch of strength and while I am sure this couple of days isn't the end of the world I really want to preserve my hard work as much as possible.

[Mike ODonnell]

Apple Cider Vinegar + warm (boiled) water + cayanne pepper....my recipe for nuking any bug/virus. Works for me......well that and plenty of water, rest and staying warm. If your body is in clearance sale mode then it's best to not get in the way....just get some stuff in there to help kill off the invaders and then flush them out. May be the worst 24 hours you go through....but it's better than dragging it out for weeks like most people walking around.

[Garrett Smith]

Liam,
Your current plan sounds fine. A probiotic pill plus the kefir and yogurt is plenty.

Don't feel the need to go easy on the D. The Vitamin D Council's early-stage influenza Rx is 1000-2000iu per KG of BW x 3 days (up to 160,000iu for an 80kg guy like me!). A patient of mine went to the local courthouse yesterday, where a bunch of people were obviously sick, and later that day came in to my office with the beginnings of a sore throat and general early "sick" feeling. I had her take 1 50,000iu tab last night (got her the 3 day prescription), sore throat is gone as of today and she now feels fine. This Vit. D thing is serious business, much more serious than I was led to believe, even in naturopathic school!

Don't worry about strength loss--you will most likely be back to where you were before this in 1-2 weeks, if even that long. Endurance fades quickly without training, but strength takes 2 weeks of detraining to really start to decline. That being said, strength-endurance will likely decrease a bit (as it is a combination), so you may want to go back into your workouts at your normal intensity once you feel "normal" but cut back on the volume for a short while.

[Steven Low]

Sounds exactly what I had on Weds.

Fortunately, I'm pretty much better except some residual tiredness but my appetite hasn't come back yet.

[Liam Dougherty Springer]

Sounds exactly what I had on Weds.

Fortunately, I'm pretty much better except some residual tiredness but my appetite hasn't come back yet.

Sucked hard huh Steve.....

Thanx Mike that will be a sure thing next go round I Had all the ingredients availiable and I seem to remember you posting that once before...

Dr. G.- Thanx for the advice and wow on the mega doses of D I am gonna take a 2000 I.U. pill right now to toast the post. I am figureing the reason to mega dose would be preventative when fighting of early stages However I will start on my normal supplamentation now, Don't know why but I never want to take vitamins and supplaments in pill form when I am sick but the cod liver oil is liquid so it feels okay cus its in a spoon, I am weird... Still 50,000 I.U. of D3? at what dosage is there danger of reaching toxic levels?

Man I am feeling better tonight begining to crave food a little but takes hardly anything for me to become full then a little nausiouse... still overall I feel like a million bucks compared to the last two days especially wednsday. The rice with a bit of sea salt cinnamon and coconut milk was pretty damn good kinda like a tapioca puuddingish treat now I am haveing a little more coconut milk ice cream (couldn't help it) waiting for this incredible soup to finish up the stock looks like the necture of olympus... MMmmmm:D

Thanx again to everyone who responded.

[Garrett Smith]

You probably don't need to concern yourself with the D at this point.

It would be a good idea (like I'd say for anyone) to get tested though.

Here's hoping you are back to working out soon!

[Liam Dougherty Springer]

Feeling much better although my digestive system is really haveing a hard time getting used to anything like food the soup did not go so well. Any how I think I will just continue easing into it (kefir and apple sauce) and once the food seems to be digesting I will start with some low to moderate intensity lifting and stabilization form work. see how that goes for a couple days and by the time I can eat like a horse again (though I actually eat more like a primate crossed with a big cat) I will throw my self back in the game.

Next time, though I wont be hopeing for it any time soon, I will be better prepared for the fiasco.... honestly just haveing an idea of some things to try like the ACV/caeyan and the Emergen-c/sea salt stuff makes me feel more mentally and emotionally secure than anything.... being that sick is just scary.

[Frank Needham]

There's another round of salmonella going round right now. Sounds to me like you may have had a touch of it. I had a bout of intestinal problems, started on Thursday and it was pretty much over by Saturday. I know it wasn't salmonella though since it was accompanied by vomiting. When this type of thing happens to me I go for bananas (pectin has been shown to combat intestinal problems) and some Imodium.

[Allen Yeh]

I've heard this stomach bug thing has been pretty vicious this winter. I know this past weekend when I was at drill, the company XO fell victim to it in the middle of the night. He wasn't a happy camper. Another person that fell victim to it was my wife' friends husband, he was so bad off he ended up going to the hospital for dehydration because he couldn't keep anything down. The nurse at the hospital said that she had seen 30 cases already these last few months.