Packed commuter trains, crowded office meeting rooms, classrooms full of children with no sense of personal space, all this helps to make upset tummies much more common from September onwards.
Any episode lasting more than 48 hours often necessitates a visit to the doctor, where formal names such as rotavirus, norovirus, food poisoning, gastroenteritis are banded about for one-off complaints; moving on to mentions of stress, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome and gastrointestinal disorder for longer term causes of such bowel misery. But, to you and I, this can be summed up by one simple, yet never-easy-to-spell, word: diarrhoea.
Still, most of us feel uncomfortable about putting ourselves or our children on a course of prescription drugs going by the common assumption that most bowel issues will resolve themselves without medical treatment. And they do. There are, however, drug-free, side-effect-free, alternative treatments that have been found to drastically reduce the symptoms associated with stomach upsets and speed up recovery.
“Dealing with diarrhoea symptoms can be so uncomfortable and unpleasant that you’re tempted to try anything for relief,” says Dr David Williams, a strong believer in medicine being the last resort for common ailments. “The best answer isn’t the quick fix: commonly prescribed antibiotics or drugs that slow the movement of the intestinal tract.”
In fact, one of the effective ways to reduce duration of diarrhoea is through an intestinal adsorbent such as ENTEROSGEL (which you can find in most pharmacies and health stores): an organic mineral remedy that absorbs harmful, toxic substances from the gastrointestinal tract. This drug-free treatment works like a trap for bugs and viruses, targeting not just diarrhoea, but also other gastrointestinal disorders such as nausea, heartburn, bloating and abdominal pain linked to longer-term complaints such as IBS. It helps to treat the causes of diarrhoea safely and efficiently, reducing the amount of sick days taken from work and school.
Of course, there’s a lot of advice you can pass on to your kids (and follow yourself) to help stop the onset of upsets: wash your hands, use clean towels and be careful what you eat are just a few ways to stop spending the first few days back at school or work feeling bugged out.
Nevertheless, at this time of the year, picking up bugs is almost unavoidable – normal day to day interactions means both adults and children can easily catch something. If it doesn’t require medical attention, then the alternative can mean you don’t have to suffer.