Intestinal Flu

The Intestinal Flu can cause an upset stomach, which is one of the most bothersome conditions a person can experience. The thing with an upset stomach is that because it affects even our activities of daily living, we sometimes skip work, cannot focus on our tasks, we may feel irritable and prickly, and many other allied discomforts. However, we have to put in mind that an upset stomach is not a disease itself, it may indicate an underlying condition... and one of the most frequent causes of an upset stomach is viral gastroenteritis.

What Causes Intestinal Flu?

Viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu, intestinal flu- whatever we may call it, it all points to one and the same circumstance. As its technical term suggests, intestinal flu is most commonly caused by viruses that march into our gastrointestinal tract, more specifically our intestines. These viruses disrupt the normal functions of our intestine to such a point that we experience nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, as well as general body weakness and sickness.

How To Remedy?

Since this is a viral condition, antibiotics will be of no use. Like the common cough and colds, intestinal flu is also self-limiting, which means it will resolve itself naturally.

Give your intestines some rest! The last thing that your stomach would want to do during an intestinal flu attack is to work and digest food. If you feel nauseated, do not take in fluids or eat anything for about two hours. In case you are vomiting, do the same thing, but this time for four hours. Once the discomfort starts to alleviate, you may try to take sips of water or Gatorade (to provide your body some electrolytes).

After 24 hours, you may start to shift your liquid diet to bland foods like banana, rice, apple and toast (or what we usually call the BRAT diet). These foods will not provoke your gastrointestinal system to work heavily as these are light foods. Once able to endure these types of food, you can progressively shift to any diet that you can tolerate.

If in any case that your diarrhea or vomiting is not resolved in a day or two, you may need to contact your health care provider, especially if you notice blood in your stool, as this may indicate a more serious health threat more then just an Intestinal Flu. It is usually expected to resolve itself in three to five days. If after that time frame you are still experiencing harsh symptoms, hospitalization and further medical attention may be required.

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