This article was originally published by Sara Tipton at Tess Pennington’s ReadyNutrition.com
Tess is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint: How To Survive ANY Disaster
It always seems like this time of year brings the stomach flu along with all of the other viruses floating around in public. But there are simple things you can do to prevent yourself from getting sick, and there are natural and healthy ways to ensure you feel better faster if you do come down with this nasty bug.
What is the stomach flu?
The stomach flu, also known as gastroenteritis, is an infection of the intestines. The viruses responsible for this illness are often the norovirus and the rotavirus. The symptoms of the stomach flu include nausea, vomiting, watery diarrhea, a low-grade fever, and abdominal pain. Usually, these symptoms subside in less than two days or even 24 hours in some cases. The Mayo Clinic suggests contacting a doctor if vomiting has persisted for more than two days, there’s bloody diarrhea, you have vomited blood, or have a fever about 104. All of these can be signs of a more severe infection, one not caused by the norovirus or rotavirus.
Noroviruses: Both children and adults are affected by noroviruses, the most common cause of foodborne illness worldwide. Norovirus infection can sweep through families and communities. It’s especially likely to spread among people in confined spaces. In most cases, you pick up the virus from contaminated food or water, although person-to-person transmission also is possible.
Rotavirus: Worldwide, this is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in children, who are usually infected when they put their fingers or other objects contaminated with the virus into their mouths. The infection is most severe in infants and young children. Adults infected with rotavirus may not have symptoms, but can still spread the illness — of particular concern in institutional settings because infected adults unknowingly can pass the virus to others.
Stomach flu spreads easily!
You can be infected by either the norovirus or the rotavirus by sharing utensils with an infected person, drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food. You could also become infected if you use the towel of a sick person.
What to do if you become sick?
If you are an adult, you’ll want to avoid infecting others and take care to not get anyone else sick. If someone in your home has viral gastroenteritis, disinfect hard surfaces, such as counters, faucets, and doorknobs, with a mixture of 2 cups (0.47 liters) of bleach to 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water. Wash their bedsheets with bleach if possible. Many websites and medical professionals suggest isolating a sick family member. Recently, my son got the stomach flu, and because he’s a little boy, we did not isolate him in his room. We let him sleep on the couch and watch movies all day. Sometimes, depending on which family member is sick, isolation is not possible or conducive to household morale. We gave him a large bowl in case he needed to vomit and after it was rinsed out, we made sure to thoroughly wash our hands and we kept all other kids away from him. Once he healed up, a quick disinfectant spray on the couch did the trick and no one else got sick. Encourage plenty of rest if you or your little one get sick!
Make sure that you try to stay hydrated. Often, water won’t even stay down during the stomach flu, but try munching on ice chips to get some hydration. Avoid diuretics such as coffee, black (caffeinated) tea, and alcohol.
Make a ginger peppermint tea. Both ginger and peppermint are known to calm stomach inflammation and promote digestion by relieving nausea and vomiting. To make mint tea, simply take a few fresh mint leaves and boil them in some water and strain the infusion. For an extra boost, grate some fresh ginger root (about 1/2 teaspoon as it’s a strong flavor) and stir it into your boiled mint mixture. The tea is a natural way to soothe an upset stomach and hopefully put a little water back into the body.
Prevention
Although there is a vaccine for the rotavirus, there is not one for the norovirus (It is still undergoing tests). But simple hygiene can help prevent both of these viruses. Wash your hands before you eat. If washing is not available, use hand sanitizer liquid or sanitizing wipes and make sure your children do too. Teach good handwashing habits after using the bathroom, especially in public places. It’s best to use warm water and soap and to rub hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds, remembering to wash around cuticles, beneath fingernails and in the creases of the hands. Then rinse thoroughly. You should also:
Hopefully, just minor and simple changes will have you and your family staying healthy all winter long. And if you do get sick, remember, the stomach flu is short lived and you should be back at it in no time! If you are ill for longer than two days, seek medical attention.
*This article is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness. If you have questions or concerns you should speak to a medical or healthcare professional.
Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.
Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals.Â
Visit her website at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.
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Keiffer, keiffer, keiffer!!! I drank a ton of the stuff after food poisoning and it worked wonders!! (Only thing that DID work!!)
I’m 54 years old and never used a dishwasher. I wouldn’t know how to turn one on. I still do things like we did when I was very young and I don’t get sick much. The last time I had the flu, I was 34. 20 years ago. We cook a lot of our meals in cast iron. Every fall I drink a mixture of hot water, vinegar(with mother), ginger and honey. I do this till the middle of January. People really oughta take better care of themselves. Being overweight causes a host of unnecessary health problems and I think there are more overweight fatasses than ever. It’s rediculous.
https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/ss/slideshow-public-germs
You can keep your Ebola… Number one place you will contract Ebola (just like the stomach flu)….. The airline., especially international flights.
The red flag symptom is vomiting AND diarrhea. If not bloody, then it’s most likely the dreaded Norovirus.
The word flu is a misnomer as it can be caused by various virus or bacteria. Note if blood is detected as that can help the physician determine if it’s bacterial (Shigella or Salmonella). In immunocompromised patients or a patient who recently took antibiotics, C. dificile may be the cause.
The culprit in bacterial gasteroenteritis is often someone had nicked an intestine during butchering but failed to notice. It takes lots of Salmonella count to cause an infection but just a few Shigella. Lots of people get it eating improperly cleaned poultry or improper thawing or poor cooking of short-dated meat (which should always be cooked “well done” as the bacteria count is VERY HIGH by that time).
Often someone trying to pinch pennies bought short-dated hamburger but cooked the burgers “medium”. Then folks got sick.
Gasteroenteritis is a scourge that will rapidly spread through an entire household and often caused by improper cleanup following someone puking or worse.
If serious, it can lead to dehydration. You can make your own Oral Rehydrating Solution with sugar and salt. A patient who is older and takes heart medication who simultaneously is dehydrated can be life threatening.
When you have this condition, you do NOT want to use gut motility medicines like Imodium (loperamide) as your body is to expel the virus or bacteria. That drug reduces smooth muscle contraction.
In wintertime, people can easily be snowbound and or be too sick to drive so it’s best to know what to do and have supplies on hand.
When we buy meat, we get the packages with an exp date as far out as we can. Then we take it home, vacuum seal and freeze. We don’t eat out much either. I don’t trust people very much nowadays so handling my food isn’t an option. We buy most of our meats at Costco, you buy in bulk and freeze saves lots of money in the long run. And we find Costco products to be better quality. I think eating meals cooked at home, as close from scratch as possible, moderate exercise and good solid sleep will keep a soul happy and healthy. And don’t spend more than you make
If you have a large freezer, you might want to buy bulk meat through some butchers who specialize in that. It probably would be cheaper with no loss in quality.
Funny you say that, we just bought a very large freezer last Saturday
Mega doses of vitamin C, up to 1000 mg. per hour if you can tolerate it, will conquer the virus if you know you have been exposed and before it gets a grip. I have personally done this in a group setting where 11 other people went down. Every one in the group except the one other person who joined me in the C. Hardly scientific but what would you have to lose? No pun intended…
HAPPY NEW YEARS ALL!
OK put down yer paint thinner… it’s still the 31st lol 😛
Genuis,in Europe at the moment,time difference!
What? Europe? Ok then, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO!
Talk about drinking paint thinner!I would be as likely to go to Europe considering the invasion happening there as I would be to,well,vote for lizzy warren!That said,made ya’s take a step back!
Anyhow,as every one knows tis not New Year till it happens in the US!
I will have you know there is not one speck of paint in my stomach. And ya, the US is the new years capitol of the world! Hmmmm 2019= 2+1+9=12=3 an occult number. 333×2=666 the number of carbon. 1267+3=1270, 572+3=575, 3-3=0, as 0+3=3. The numbers have spoken WATCH OUT!
WTF is with the #’s?!
Hey,you mentioned using the baeo’s for fire comm,what tis their range and are you using ham frequencies?Stock antennas/what tis topography there in your region(without naming said region!).I have a friend with a few extras who will give em to me but not sure worth it.
On UHF frequency with stock antenna it is about 12-15 miles. With a yagi 7 element antenna it is about 30 miles. Are you saying free radios aren’t worth it? Would you like a yard gnome for free lol?
Oh and use business frequencies that are not being used.
Genius, Happy New Year to you and Warchild both. As I type these words I’m listening to the hoodrats firing guns up into the air just like the dickheads they are. They don’t stop to think that whatever goes up Has to come back down and they don’t even care. It’s like this where I live every New Year’s Eve and Fourth Of July. And the next morning I’ll go out and find all manner of spent cartridges on the ground everywhere. It never fails. People like that don’t even have any business touching guns. It sounds like Syria in my area right now. Par for the course for the ‘minorities’.
Dats Racis’ 🙂
It will have to be a SUPER hot day at the North Pole before I take a vaccine for this virus or any other.
My trust in (hijacked) vaccines is as non-existent as my trust in a touch screen 3,000 people a day have touched!
But my thanks to Sara for a fine article, and I’m glad your son is now healthy!
You can avoid most any viruses or germs and diseases by vacuum packing yourself too!
I do not want to take something would not use radio wise,hence why I research a bit,me adobe is full of stuff that needs work/needs to get their legs stretched ect.That and want to do another 4×4 build,hence,want to know what i take in worth it,again,your topography/flat/hill/wooded/field ect.
Mountain valley but talk to people that are behind smaller hills not line of site. Open line of site is about 15-17 miles.
Wooded, with cows, horses, birds, deer, elk, mountain lions, turkeys.
FFS, people are nasty critters, many too selfish or stupid to stay the fuck home when sick so they go out and spread their ailments like oleo on toast and give a fuck when they do it. Number one way to avoid getting it. Wash your dirty nasty hands. The first and second most contaminated disease ridden surfaces are smart phones and then restaurant menus then ketchup bottles. Being a near virtual hermit that cooks at home is the healtiest choice.
Well you know that restaurant employees are encouraged to wipe off their hands after using the restrooms.
…. And people ALWAYS do what they are supposed too and what they are told too… Right. Small comfort to the people eating the food when the nasty bastards wipe their ass and ignore the health and sanitation rules that management doesnt enforce….. Yummy,, give me seconds on the hot brown with the special employee shit sauce on it….. No thanks.
Thanks,am working on me tech/general license and will then get a more robust rig but will grab these freebies.I also have cows/horses/goats ect. in me region along with moose/deer/a few lions/bobbies/coy wolves/turkey/fox ect.Me favorite is the fisher cat,a cool/no nonsense little critter!
I just looked that up. Damn man a lean mean killin machine! They eat porcupines? Got some mean ol teeth too. Something you wouldn’t want to get in a tangle with for sure.
Proceed at your own risk —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrubium_vulgare
Fresh leaves are bitter, when chewed. Take with sips of water, which will also taste bitter.
As well as annoying parasites, stimulates the billiary tree. Take with caution, if you are prone to drops in blood sugar.
Dogs charge through stickery seeds, so get covered in them. A naturalized weed, locally, but I prefer not to eradicate it, because I find it very effective.
Wormwood and quinine are also helpful but somewhat potentiate eachother with a relaxant effect, imo.
“Bitters” and bitter herbs are traditionally taken for stomach complaints.
Somewhat humorously, I think, these old booze flavorings can help with these aftereffects of booze. Sushi condiments were used against food poisoning, and the old Mexican seasons might help you digest what they have steeped in lard. Many kitchen seasonings can be used to help digestion.
Cercocarpus grows in the mountains, locally, but I have not tried it, medicinally, yet.
He’s vulgar, I do not agree with his religious views, per se, but he’s made good points, before, about how the govt schools do not prepare you to produce food, water, energy or dispose of bodily waste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E_cHdQhkNg&pbjreload=10
In the olden schoolhouses, I saw where they had pressed leaves, and were making an effort to identify what is just outside the door.
You are ignoring useful things, which are all around you, free of cost, and underfoot — things which would make your use of the gorcery store and pharmacy, completely voluntary.
Wow Mac your censors totally wiped out my posts… Thats telling. Not like i outright posted anything that was inciting or racial or terroristic. Unvarnished truth about humans and your censors flat deleted me after being in moderation for over a day.
Wow Mac, your sensors outrightly deleted my posts after leaving them in moderation for over 24 hours from an IP address that I regularly use. I didn’t post anything that was inciteful I didn’t post anything that was racist and i didn’t impose anything that was terroristic threatening and still you’re worthless Disqus moderation continues to freaking block me out. Everything that I posted was provable observations of factual human nature. Disqus has been shadow banning me for quite a while elsewhere too.
Transmission of Ebola is the same as flu viruses rotaviruses and noroviruses, contact through the liquids and mucus membranes that are to protect the body. Direct contact, not airborne, so the surfaces that likely hold and make contact possible are the same as any other virus, same initial symptoms, until the hemmoraging begins of course… Oh wait. EBOLA 2.0 PATIENT BEING IMPORTED INTO THE USA, WHAT EXQUISITE TIMING.. SURELY ITS ALL COINCIDENTAL, RIGHT.
Time date stamp original post jan 02 2019, 3.14pm.. Will keep playing this stupid game that im forced to play. SJW at Disqus in command….what “freedom” of speech do you have when SJWs are calling the shots? You dont have any as long as they can censor you at will…..
Actually there was transmission of Ebola through fomites because relatives were going into the homes of patients and deceased patients rather than the authorities (such as they are) securing the site.
Otherwise relatives were preparing the dead and even clinging to the dead (it’s a cultural practice). Then when the stigma increased as acquiring Ebola is considered a supoernatural “curse”, then the bodies were abandoned which createda nightmarish clean up operation.
We also have transmission to heathcare providers who were fully gowned up and wearing personal protective gear. In 2014, it appeared there was some airborne contagion as some monkeys in a lab setting acquired it although they had no physical contact and not close enough for aerosalized droplets either.
These concerns are why healthcare workers warned airlines as people were fleeing from infected zones to five different countries. And then we had transmission to those countries.
If that were the case, Why is there no mention of fomite transmission in ANY of the hot zone reports of the spreading pandemic? Oh, because they have not actually taken actual AIR samples to see if they exist, but you are can PROVE that the virus is present on SURFACES due to body fluids being on them and then casually transferred to other contact surfaces where they find a way by CONTACT to the mucus membrane entrances of the victims bodies. If Ebola WERE actually airborne…the pandemic would be insanely OUT of control for all NON protected people in the hot zone, which NOT seen. Aerosolized projected fluids is not the same things as virus being free floating and mobile without fluid transmission.
Sure, lets ignore incidental casual contact between protective clthing and contaminated surfaces with follw on tertiary exposures by contact with the monkees. It doesnt take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the transmission mode as the infection mode is ALWAYS THROUGH MUCUS MEMBRANE SURFACES. the virus is not like a mold spore, dormant and independently mobile without a transmission medium to carry it, meaning the virus doesnt up and grow wings for an infection spree.
This article is of very little value. There is a sure-fire way to prevent all stomach viruses – drink Kefir regularly. Even if you don’t drink Kefir and you get sick, drinking kefir as often as your stomach rumbles can often quell the illness. I have 9 children. When we started drinking Kefir, the stomach viruses stopped. It works like nothing else can.