More Travel Health - "Travel Gut" Got You?

Let's set the stage...We are on a great life-time dream, 2 week long trip to Thailand with our best friends. The first week in Bangkok is tremendous; staying in a 4 star hotel, seeing the Emerald Buddah, and shopping on Pat Pong Street for fine silks. But the itch begins to have some warm sand between our toes, so we get the bus to the beach town of Pattaya, on the Gulf of Siam. Arriving there, we are famished and just have to eat at a cute little corner restaurant down the street from our hotel. We sample the Noodle Soup, Laap Salad and other local delicacies! Then we walk down to the beach. Suddenly one of us starts feeling the immediate need of a bathroom and we begin what can be days of being immobilized by diarrhea attacks. What do you do?

The answer is first to have some Lomotil with you or get some at the local drugstore. Barring that, we need to understand that our sudden attack is not necessarily caused by bad food or drink. It is most probably due to our gastro-intestinal system trying to accommodate different microbes than we are used to in our hometown. The bacterial in Thailand are being rejected by our body.

Here is the quick fix prescribed by doctors with International experience, and by people who have lived in various regions of the world - nearly every region has it's own cultural food which will sooth the stomach, naturally and quickly! In South East Asia it is RICE, in the Middle East it is YOGURT ...! These dishes are available everywhere, and are made from local water, milk and other natural ingredients. They create a soft, easily digestible food which carries high nutrition along with a good dose of soothing local bacteria. Eat a bowl of the rice or yogurt with plenty of water every hour for three hours, or until the diarrhea attacks subside.
Soon you will be feeling yourself again, plus you will be filled with "good" bacteria which will make you comfortable with the local foods!