Homeopathic Treatment of Traveller's Diarrhoea

Take remedies in 30c or 200c potency 1-2 hourly or as necessary, for 2-3 days. Stop on improvement. The most important aspect of treatment is keeping up an adequate fluid intake to avoid dehydration. Aloe Vera juice rebuilds bowel tissue and may be a helpful preventative measure for digestive problems.

Aloe Socotrina

• Important for diarrhoea and dysentery
• Burning pains in lower abdomen; gurgling and flatulence
• Sense of insecurity in bowels followed by a gushing watery stool
• Uncertain whether stool or flatus will pass

Arsenicum

• Holiday tummy; first remedy for food poisoning, especially from meat
• Exhausted; very weak yet very restless
• Fearful; afraid of being alone; may fear imminent death
• Marked thirst for sips of water, but vomits as soon as it hits the stomach
• Very chilly; burning or cramping sensations in stomach or abdomen; better for warmth
• Worse at night, often after midnight (1am-2am)
• Small offensive dark stools with much prostration

Carbo Veg (vegetable charcoal)

• Diarrhoea caused by bad food or over-indulgence with rich food
• Digestion slow
• Feels cannot take deep breath and feels worse lying down; needs lots of air
• Trapped wind, belching; upper abdomen very distended and bloated; flatulent colic; better for passing wind

Chamomilla

• Diarrhoea after anger or too much coffee
• Watery, green stools like chopped spinach - smells of ammonia or rotten eggs and stings bottom
• Feels cross and irritable and nothing pleases

China (Peruvian bark)

• Giardiasis, dysentery
• Debility and weakness from diarrhoea
• Diarrhoea painless, passing lots of wind and undigested food
• Very good remedy for treating dehydration and loss of fluid
• Bloated tummy, not relieved by burping
• Diarrhoea from bad food, water or fruit; food poisoning

Colocynthis (bitter cucumber)

• Agonizing griping cutting pain in abdomen, coming in waves
• Main indications are that the person feels better for curling up and better for pressure
• Pains often brought on by feeling insulted or angered or indignant
• Bitter taste in mouth
• The smallest amount of food and drink causes jelly-like stools
• Dysentery

Ipecacuanha (ipecac root)

• Amoebic dysentery with griping at navel, tenesmus (straining)
• Stool green like frothy molasses
• Persistent and extreme nausea, with or without vomiting and/or diarrhoea
• Vomiting brings no relief; vomiting with clean tongue
• Nausea worse for sight or smell of food; often after too much fatty food
• Increased salivation

Natrum Sulph

• Main target for this remedy is the liver
• Rumbling and gurgling in bowels; spluttering stools
• Worse for damp weather
• Diarrhoea and irritability soon after rising in morning
• Worse between 4am and 5am

Nux Vomica

• No. 1 remedy for hangovers and over-indulgence
• Diarrhoea after alcohol
• Dysentery better for passing a stool
• Brought on by mental exertion; overeating; coffee; alcohol or other drugs
• Heartburn; nausea; empty retching and sour burps; digestive upsets
• Headaches; drowsiness and dullness
• Irritation; feels irritable and snappy
• Strains to stool or vomit; feels if only they could be sick they'd feel better

Phosphorus

• Fearful, excitable
• Amoebic dysentery with blood
• Weak, empty, "gone" sensation in abdomen
• Excessive thirst for cold liquids, but will vomit as liquid warms in stomach
• Burning pains in stomach
• May be blood in the stool; great weakness after stool

Podophyllum (May apple)

• Profuse diarrhoea: copious, frequent and offensive
• Gastro-intestinal complaints worse during hot weather and worse 4am-5am
• Yellowish or greenish diarrhoea, often completely liquid and gushing
• Often alternating with headache
• Gurgling through bowels, then profuse putrid stools gush out painlessly
• Useful in gastro-enteritis, dysentery, protozoa, giardia, shigelosis

Pulsatilla (Windflower)

• Giardiasis, diarrhoea
• Often from rich fatty or greasy food, or ice-cream
• Food poisoning from fish or rotten meat
• Person feels weepy; moods and stool are changeable
• No thirst
• Feels better for sympathy

Veratrum Album (White Hellebore)

• Diarrhoea with violent vomiting and profuse sweating - cold sweat on forehead
• Very chilly; great weakness, prostration and fainting
• Stools may look like rice-water or watery and green
• Large stool ejected forcefully from body
• Coldness, blueness and weakness
• Vomiting, purging, and cramps in limbs

References:

• Prophylactics in Homeopathy - Dr Y R Agrawal
• The World Traveller's Manual of Homeopathy - Dr C Lessell
• http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentDiseases.aspx#diarrhea