Vomiting & Diarrhea

Moses Nutrition © Nov 2024

Sections of this article:

Food Poisoning and Stomach Flu

While a stomach flu is viral, food poisoning can be either viral or bacterial or parasitic. Most stomach flus have symptoms that come on gradually 12 to 48 hours after exposure.  Most types of food poisoning have symptoms that come on hard and fast, and take at least 6 hours for symptoms to appear, although there is one type of bacterium that can produce symptoms in as little as an hour. So if symptoms occur within a couple of hours of eating, it is less likely to be food poisoning and may just be a Healing Reaction or indigestion (see Upset Stomach After A Large or Unusual Meal below); this is especially true if symptoms are mild.

Most people don’t know if they have a stomach flu or food poisoning, and that’s okay; for stomach flus and most types of food poisoning where stomach upset, vomiting and/or diarrhea are present, we have found the following helpful.

Quick Remedy List:

Probiotics – dosed high (at least 65 billion organisms) added to water and sipped regularly
Silver 24 – straight shot 1 Tbsp. right away
Salt – pinches in mouth with small sips of water as needed for nausea and vomiting
Charcoal – up to 4 at a time up to 3 times per day for diarrhea

Detailed Instructions:

At the first sign of food poisoning or stomach flu (vomiting, stomach distress, nausea, diarrhea):

Probiotics can kill or inhibit pathogens in the intestines through various complex mechanisms so are extremely helpful with cases of food poisoning. Take 65 billion organisms or more of probiotics and mix into 8 ounces of water and start sipping on it. It doesn’t matter what kind of probiotic you have, just start getting it down. If you are throwing it up, that is okay; continue to drink down what you can. For this first dose of probiotics, you can take this entire dose within a few hours. The following day, repeat this dose, but now spread it out over the whole day, sipping on it regularly, and then repeat this dose every day until all symptoms are gone.

Colloidal Silver is a first-aid item all households should have in the cupboard. We recommend the brand Silver 24, which we carry here and can ship to you so that you have it on-hand for any future emergencies. It is the best and most affordable colloidal silver product we have found. In health food stores, you can usually find Sovereign brand silver which is acceptable, though not preferred. Chances are you are reading this because you have been food poisoned and need immediate help. In this case, get any brand of silver you can immediately access and use that. But we do suggest you order some Silver 24 to have on-hand for any potential future episodes of infection, including colds, flu, wounds, etc. When dealing with intestinal infections, silver should be taken straight (undiluted). At first signs of food poisoning, drink down 1 Tbs. of silver. It is okay to have silver and probiotics in your system at the same time. So take down the silver and start sipping on your probiotics. Take 3 Tbs. of silver per day until all symptoms are gone. You would spread this out over 3 doses of 1 Tbs. each, and it is best to take it on an empty stomach (20 minutes before eating or 2 hours after eating). So a simple way to do this is 1 Tbs. first thing in the morning, one mid-day and one before bed.

Salt can help stop vomiting and can be used along with the silver and probiotics or all by itself if salt is all you have to hand. (Salt does not help diarrhea, nor does it worsen it.) Take a small pinch of salt and put it on your tongue and sip down with a small amount of water. Repeat every few minutes as needed. Salt can ease nausea and is a natural antacid. It may also have other benefits to the digestive tract in relation to the food poisoning pathogens, and it can help prevent dehydration. Sea salt is best, but any salt will do.

Charcoal (sometimes called Activated Charcoal) will usually stop diarrhea. If you are vomiting, wait until you have stopped vomiting to take the charcoal. You would normally take up to 4 charcoal capsules at one time for an adult (less for children) up to 3 times per day for a total of up to 12 charcoal capsules per day. These usually will stop the diarrhea within 24 hours, if not sooner. WARNING: Charcoal will turn your feces black, so do not be concerned if this occurs. Charcoal can also be constipating if you use too much. Also, continue the silver and probiotics until diarrhea has stopped. Ideally, take these separately from charcoal by at least 20 minutes, since charcoal is absorptive and may “suck up” the silver and/or probiotics. For children who can’t swallow pills, charcoal capsules may be opened and mixed into water. If you do not have charcoal and do have a bentonite clay product, you may use that instead to stop the diarrhea. But charcoal is preferred, because bentonite clay contains aluminum and sometimes other toxins. Charcoal is another first-aid item we recommend people stock at home. We do carry this here, and it is also available at health food stores.

Rubbing a person’s feet is always advisable during food poisoning or other bowel disturbances. Rub the whole foot and the toes, and look for sore points to spend extra time on. This can help ease the symptoms and provide relief to the various organs involved such as the liver, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. It can also distract a person from their nausea, which all by itself can be helpful.

Persistent Symptoms

If food poisoning symptoms are persisting in any severe fashion for more than 1 day, you must contact us and/or a doctor. Diarrhea can be dangerous if it persists, as you lose water and vital electrolytes. If you are uncontrollably vomiting for more than a few hours, please see a doctor.

What to Eat While Recovering

It can take a while for your digestive tract to fully settle down after food poisoning. Once vomiting has stopped, eat lightly of bland foods and easy-to-digest foods such as yogurt, rice, soft vegetables, and soups until your digestion has returned to normal. (Rice — either white or brown — can be very helpful in stopping diarrhea.) Do not eat any sugar or fruit, because sugar feeds infection and can worsen food poisoning symptoms. Extra digestive aids may be helpful during this time, but GB-3 can worsen diarrhea, so may have to be avoided until the diarrhea stops. There is another product we carry here called Digestive Enzymes Ultra that may be a better alternative for digestive support while experiencing food poisoning symptoms.

It is very important while experiencing food poisoning symptoms that you stay very well hydrated. Even if you are throwing up some of what you drink, it is important to try to sip on water continuously.

Supplements

Do not try to take supplements other than the above while you are vomiting. If you feel up to it, you may take small doses of your regular program supplements once vomiting has stopped. As your symptoms go away, you may increase your supplement doses, but it may take you a few days or more to get back to full doses.

Coffee Enemas

A coffee enema is not a good idea while vomiting, but once vomiting has stopped, coffee enemas can be very helpful. They can be done even if you are experiencing diarrhea due to food poisoning. The bile that dumps from the liver during the enema can help to clear the food poisoning from the small intestine, and the coffee solution in the bowel can help to clean out the bowel.

Upset Stomach After A Large or Unusual Meal

There are times when nausea or stomach upset can occur a couple hours after eating, where the meal was either too large or for some reason is not digesting well. This is different than food poisoning. (Most types of food poisoning take at least 6 hours for symptoms to appear, although there is one type of bacterium that can produce symptoms in as little as an hour. So if symptoms occur within a couple of hours, it is less likely to be food poisoning and may just be indigestion.) We have found it can be very helpful to take digestive enzymes when you notice symptoms after a hard-to-digest meal, even if it has been a couple of hours or more since you ate. GB-3 may assist here, but we have had good success using a product called Digestive Enzymes Ultra. It is a high-strength, broad-spectrum vegetarian enzyme blend. It does not contain HCl, Pepsin or Ox Bile. Taking 2 to 4 of these during episodes of obvious failure to digest a meal can work wonders.

For example: if you go out to dinner and eat a large prime rib meal, which is not something you normally eat, and a couple of hours later you don’t feel well and can tell you aren’t digesting it well, you can try taking some more GB-3, and/or you may use the Digestive Enzymes Ultra. If you have a history of such episodes, it may be worth stocking this product for future use. We do carry it here and can ship it to you so that you have it on-hand for any future episodes. We do not recommend using Digestive Enzymes Ultra at every meal, because GB-3 or Enzaid generally work better for that purpose.

Another use for Digestive Enzymes Ultra is to help after one has consumed something he or she doesn’t tolerate well or is sensitive or mildly allergic to, such as grains or dairy. The enzymes can help to break down these foods to allow the body to more easily flush them out. These enzymes can be taken on an empty stomach hours and even days after consuming the offending food to help clear residues of the food out of the system.

This enzyme can also be helpful to use with meals consumed after food poisoning, since it will not cause diarrhea (like GB-3 can) and is very gentle on the digestive tract.

Healing Reactions as a Cause of Nausea, Vomiting, or Diarrhea

Some healing reactions can cause these symptoms for various reasons. The liver dumps a large part of its toxins into the small intestine, which is right below the stomach. This can cause nausea, and if the toxins are very strong or dumped in large quantity, can even cause vomiting. As the toxins work their way down the small intestine, they can sometimes irritate the digestive tract and occasionally cause diarrhea. (Toxins moving through the digestive tract often cause bloating and cramping, which is a very common healing reaction.)

Another cause for diarrhea is the liver dumping antibiotic residues into the small intestine.

Another healing reaction that can cause these symptoms in some cases is the body killing off some old infection in the digestive tract, such as candida, parasites, bacteria, etc. but this is more rare as a cause for diarrhea and vomiting.

Liver stress can cause nausea. This nausea can come and go or be fairly persistent for a few days or even longer. The liver can be stressed due to detox or due to tissue repair going on inside the liver. Sometimes hormonal changes affect the liver, as well. In these situations, vomiting is rare but can occasionally occur. One must eat lightly of easy-to-digest foods. Meat will sometimes make the nausea worse, so eat lightly of meat, and often avoiding red meat at these times is best. In some cases, cooked vegetables will make the person nauseous due to providing nutrients that increase the detox. Doing more coffee enemas during this time often helps.

Sometimes it is hard to know if you do indeed have food poisoning or if it is a healing reaction. The recommendations for food poisoning can safely be followed regardless of the cause of the symptoms, and in some healing reactions, can be very helpful. (For example, when dumping old antibiotics, taking probiotics can help maintain balance in the digestive tract.) So if you aren’t sure and suspect food poisoning, go ahead and follow the instructions above for food poisoning.

Supplements as a Cause of Diarrhea

GB-3

GB-3 contains ox bile which can act as a natural laxative. The body’s own bile has laxative effects and is part of the body’s ability to move the bowels. The liver and gallbladder dump bile into the small intestine during digestion to break down fats. This bile works its way down towards the large intestine and is almost entirely re-absorbed right before it enters the large intestine. This re-absorbed bile then circulates through the blood and is grabbed back up by the liver to be used again. If a person takes more bile than can be re-absorbed, diarrhea can occur. This is why we work people up slowly on GB-3 to see what their tolerable dose it.

There are times when the body goes through a change where more bile is being released from the liver and/or less bile is being re-absorbed from the small intestine, and one’s regular GB-3 dose suddenly causes diarrhea. The solution is simply to reduce the amount of GB-3 to stop the diarrhea. If GB-3 is the cause of the diarrhea, cutting out GB-3 will usually stop the diarrhea within 24 hours. After a few days, one can try slowly increasing GB-3 to see what amount is tolerable. Sometimes it can take a few weeks or more to be able to go up to the prior dose. Occasionally, one has to reduce GB-3 for a longer period of time. If you find you have to be off of GB-3 for any length of time or if you find you only tolerate up to 2 total GB-3 per day and therefore can’t take it with every meal, please contact us so we can get you on a different digestive aid that won’t cause diarrhea.

During bouts of diarrhea due to other problems such as food poisoning or certain types of detoxification, the GB-3 may worsen the diarrhea, at which times it is also advisable to reduce or stop GB-3 until the diarrhea passes.

Paramin and Magnesium

Paramin contains calcium and magnesium. Magnesium can cause diarrhea. When a person takes more magnesium than his or her intestines can absorb, the magnesium draws water to it in the intestines, and this can cause diarrhea. Knowing this, people sometimes intentionally use larger doses of magnesium to ease constipation and soften their stool, which is fine to do if GB-3 isn’t handling the constipation. Just be sure to use only enough magnesium to cause a bowel movement, and not so much as to cause diarrhea.

Most people today have weak and damaged digestive tracts. This sometimes reduces the amount of magnesium the person can absorb. In these cases, Paramin may cause diarrhea due to its magnesium content, especially if large amounts of Paramin are being used such as on a Four Lows protocol. Cutting down on the Paramin to a dose that does not cause diarrhea is the solution, and then you simply get Endo-Met’s plain Calcium Lactate to replace whatever dose of Paramin you can’t take.

There is a slight complication here in that Paramin contains 250 mg. of calcium, while Endo-met Calcium Lactate contains only 115 mg. of calcium. When replacing Paramin, you will have to use twice as many Calcium Lactate capsules. For example: if you are on 3 Paramin per day and get diarrhea, stop the Paramin, and wait until the diarrhea is gone. Once the diarrhea is gone, then take 1 Paramin total for one day to see if that is okay. Let’s say one Paramin is fine, but on the following day, you try to add in a second Paramin and get diarrhea. In this case, go back down to one Paramin per day, and add in 4 Calcium Lactate to replace the 2 Paramin you can’t take. So now you will be on 1 Paramin and 4 Calcium Lactate per day.

So if you get diarrhea while on the program that lasts more than half a day, you can try discontinuing Paramin for one day to see if the diarrhea resolves, and if so, replace with Calcium Lactate as needed. Over time, a person’s digestive tract will usually heal enough on the program that more magnesium is absorbed and more Paramin can be tolerated, so it is a good idea to periodically test to see if you can take more Paramin.

If you are on both Paramin (or Magnesium) and GB-3

If you are on both Paramin (or some other form of magnesium) and GB-3 and get diarrhea, it could be one or the other or both causing the diarrhea. If you recently added in only one of these products but have been on the other for a while, then that new one you just added is likely the culprit, so try stopping that one first.

If both GB-3 and Paramin are new to you, then you will have to see if it is GB-3, the Paramin or both of them causing the diarrhea. So stop both the GB-3 and the Paramin. The diarrhea should stop within 24 hours (if not, then something else is causing your diarrhea). Once the diarrhea is gone, start back on just one Paramin per day. If that causes diarrhea, stop the Paramin, wait until the diarrhea is gone and try one GB-3. If you can take one of either or both of these successfully, try working up to 2 and then 3 and so on up to your regular or recommended dose. Go back to a lower dose if diarrhea occurs. You may find you are able to take both GB-3 and Paramin but at lower doses. For any product where you can’t take full dose, handle per the above instructions for that product.

Vitamin C

Similar to magnesium, taking too much vitamin C in too short a period can also cause diarrhea.  While we generally don’t recommend more than 500mg of Vitamin C once or twice a day, even these modest doses can cause diarrhea in a very small number of people.  Generally, doses larger than 1000mg at a time are required to cause loose stool.  In either case, if you are taking any vitamin C and experience diarrhea, this is another supplement you should stop to rule it out.  Then, once the diarrhea has stopped, you can add a little Vitamin C back in and slowly increase to see if your diarrhea starts again.