Activated Charcoal for Traveler’s Bug?
December 19, 2008 by Mrs. Mecomber
Filed under travel
I’d read in a recent news story about activated charcoal helping to cure the stomach bug. A person commented that he never travels without the charcoal tablets, as they act as a remedy for the “traveler’s bug” (also known as “Montezuma’s Revenge” and the “Guat Squats” for people traveling in South and Central America).
Has anyone else heard this? I think it’s amazing! I’ve been doing a little research and found this at About.com:
Definition: The Guat Squats are something you never want to get, but often, they’re inevitable. Guat Squats is a backpacker term for Traveler’s Diarrhea, especially when contracted through the food of a Guatemalan street cart.
Treatments for the Guat Squats include Pepto Bismol for light cases, Imodium and/or activated charcoal for medium cases, and for heavy cases, prescription antibiotics. Drink lots of (bottled) liquids to prevent dehydration.
Also Known As: Traveler’s Diarrhea, Montezuma’s Revenge (in Mexico), “the runs”, an upset stomach
Alternate Spellings: Guate Squats
Examples: Don’t open your mouth while you shower in Antigua, or you might come down with the Guat Squats!
and I found this, too, listed as a remedy for diarrhea:
Take activated charcoal or white clay to absorb toxins in the system. Actually, activated charcoal is a powerful adsorbent, which is a substance that attracts things to its surface, as opposed to absorbing them into itself. Charcoal will stop the diarrhea quickly by adsorbing the toxins that are causing the problem. NB: Activated charcoal is not for everyday use as it adsorbs important vitamins and minerals you need to be healthy. If you can’t find activated charcoal, try burning a piece or two of white toast. Scrape the burned part into a cup of boiling water and drink.
I bought some activated charcoal tablets and intend to test it out. But I’m wondering if any of you have tried this? I’d love to know if it helped cure your traveler’s bug or stomach bug!
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HoundsGood on Sun, 21st Dec 2008 4:13 pm
Charcoal is widely used in hospitals to absorb medications, etc in the stomach when someone may be in the emergency room for being poisoned or overdosing on something. Of course, those cases are not severe enough to require stomach pumping. It is like if a kid ate something that the poision control center recommends not inducing vomitting, etc, but a chance doesn’t want to be taken on them passing it themselves, or if someone OD’s on certain OTC meds or on aspirin.
In otherwords, I can see exactly why people would use it to absorb things like excess liquid that might be in the stomach.
Probably not a good idea on Sun, 21st Dec 2008 11:41 pm
because it will really irritate your stomach more. In Fact you probably would have to worry about “it” coming out the “rear” because “it” will probably be coming out the front.
Poison control do not want people to use charcoal for 2 reasons:
1) It will usually induce vomiting- which isn’t good if you ate something that is acidic- like acid- because you will be destroying your throat.
2) Because you are throwing up the charcoal its not absorbing anything.
O and when you do puke you are only emptying 30% of your stomach (Like I said mainly the Charcoal)- thus you really get no benefit from throwing up. Which is why they don’t even bother to tell you to use ipecac anymore either.