Paleo family with stomach ache

[John Frazer]

So what are your favorites when a family member has a cold, flu, etc.?

Basically I'm looking for very quick, easy, bland stuff. Think, paleo equivalent of saltines, ginger ale and chicken bouillon.

[Chad Cilli]

Bananas. You can make homemade chicken soup, my grandmother used to make it all the time. She'd just throw in some chicken, onions, celery, spinach, and slow cook it. That's just how she made it too, not like she was trying to be paleo friendly or anything. Unfortunately, there's not really a good substitute for ginger ale, but I find sipping peppermint tea usually calms my stomach just as well.

[Garrett Smith]

I generally just eat a lot less.

Nut butters might work.

Ginger tea. I add lemon juice and raw honey to my teas when I have a sore throat.

Chicken soup is definitely easy. Blend it for the little ones.

Some well-cooked gluten-free grains might not be a bad addition for picky kids who want something like that.

Regarding ginger ale, a homemade version can be made with sparkling mineral water and something like this ginger tonic.

[Steven Low]

Cold, flu or other respiratory infections you can basically counter with vitamin D.

Dose 20-30k IU and most of the time flu or colds are gone overnight (at least for me). And yes, flu is gone overnight e.g. 1 day... whereas most people infected by the same one take 7 days. It's pretty amazing

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/1...-at-vitamin-d/

Sleep is the other big one obviously. Sleep a lot, vitamin D. Eat as much as you feel comfortable with.

[Chad Cilli]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Dose 20-30k IU

You can take that much?!

Wouldn't you run into toxicity at that level? Is that all in one dose? How much do you take on a daily basis when you're not sick?

[Garrett Smith]

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsl...une-july.shtml

Plenty of you have e-mailed me that pharmacological doses (high doses) of vitamin D (1,000–2,000 units/kg per day for three days), taken at the first sign of influenza, effectively reduces the severity of symptoms. However, has anyone ever studied giving 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 units a day for several days to see if vitamin D induces antimicrobial peptides to help fight other life-threatening infections? (By the way, doses up to 600,000 units as a single dose are routinely used in Europe as "Stoss" therapy to prevent vitamin D deficiency and have repeatedly been shown to be safe for short-term administration.) No, you say, studies of "Stoss" therapy in serious infections have never been studied or reported in reputable journals. Well, maybe such treatment has been studied—and reported in the best journals—by way of the weirdest medical invention ever patented in the USA.

[Chad Cilli]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsl...une-july.shtml

Holy bananas Batman!!! 300,000 IU of Vitamin D?! Well, I stand corrected and informed. Why the heck are the USDA guidelines so low then? Seems like the information on Vitamin D toxicity is way overblown. I have a book that states anything over 2000IU a day will result in toxicity. They really need to update their info.

[Garrett Smith]

Supposedly toxicity symptoms start around a blood level of 200 (I forget the units right now).

I've seen one patient taking 4000 units a day get her level to 106, she's been the outlier. Most people taking 5k/day get between 50-80 (which is where I want them), some need up to 10k to get there. This is why testing and re-testing is important.

I'm not so sure about people mega-dosing D3 every time they get a cold (flu, yes). With some people who get colds often, massive D3 dosing anytime they feel something could possibly get to toxicity over time. Seen this pattern before.