Don't have the buffet!

LOL, great write up. sorry for your bad luck. that happened to me in vegas many years ago, i don't think it was the food tho. glad you're feeling better!

 

Activated charcoal is your friend. I travel with a few capsules of it just in case, and it has saved the day every time I've used it. My wife didn't "use that stuff" at first, but we ate a suspicious meal and I took some charcoal. I was fine, and she was sick for several days. We've both used it several more times, and I have a convert...

Big advantage of activated charcoal is that it works mechanically. The only caution is that charcoal absorbs medicines as well as the angry buggers in spoiled food. If you need medications, beware that charcoal is going to reduce the dosage actually delivered to your system.

Human grade activated charcoal costs about $10 at health food stores. Don't even consider the stuff you burn in a charcoal grill...

 

Food poisoning is getting scary in the USA.
Youre probably safer getting it in China.
The recent Foster Farms salmonella required hospitalization and antibiotic treatment.
Whats scary is that this Foster Farms salmonella is antibiotic resistant.
Whats also is scary is how many people were infected.
If kids ate it they would probably be done for.

 

My experience with taking a capsule of the stuff is that one was all I needed. It's going to absorb stuff in your GI tract - it's not going to follow into your bloodstream. The question of how much is kind of like "how much water does it take to put out a fire?" . The answer is enough. Anything more than enough is just wasted, but it's not going to do anything bad.

I first learned about charcoal at a lecture by an MD who went on about it for over an hour. She was a pathologist at a small hospital that catered to a number of religious people who really didn't approve of modern medicine. Charcoal was something they accepted, and it got used for just about anything involving toxins. Upset stomach? Take charcoal. Spider bite? Make a poultice of wet charcoal and apply it to the bite area. I think she was from North Carolina or somewhere near, and they have spiders that destroy muscle down to the bone. Charcoal absorbs the toxin and stops the destruction. Amazing stuff.

If you can get capsules, they are worth the 100 times increase in the price over the powder. The powder can make a horrible mess if it gets loose. But if all you can get is powder, mix a teaspoon into water and drink it. Then spend the next hour cleaning up. You can also gross out others by showing them your black coated tongue. And what goes in black in the mouth eventually comes out the other end equally black. No worries - it does return to normal after a few days.

 

I once got sick in Colorado and spend a day with the runs etc. I now always take emodium and pepto pills on every trip.

 

Eek sorry to hear about the OP's bout.

Chinese Street Vendors Use Gutter Oil - Business Insider was starting to make the rounds recently.

in About has links few more rather disconcerting videos about food safety in China.

 

Having been there a half dozen times, I must replay "Not a chance".

 

Sorry to hear about your illness. I hope you get all better quickly.

My mother was one of the first Westerners to visit China after they decided to open up for tourism. She was invited as a guest of the government since she was well known in leftist circles for her progressive activism for racial justice at a time when advocating equal rights would get you blacklisted. She loved China and she loved the food, all except for the fermented duck eggs, which she found disgusting.

I once got food poisoning in Europe after eating a sandwich at a deli where everything was pre-made and pre-packaged and probably not rotated.

In 4 1/2 years living in Mexico, frequently eating at street vendors and tiny restaurants (but never at chain restaurants) I got sick twice: Once after eating popcorn in a movie theater. I suspect they used bad oil. And once after eating a very large quantity of chocolate. There was nothing wrong with the chocolate. I just ate far too much of it. ("If your stomach doesn't hurt, you didn't eat enough candy.")

Please note that RobH has never met an "alternative remedy" he didn't like. We've argued at great length over his belief that evidence-based medicine is a grand conspiracy to keep us all sick, while "alternative remedies" are all safe, natural, miracle cures.

Rob subscribes to the curious notion that if all the doctors but one say a treatment is useless, then the one who advocates that treatment must be the one who's right. Activated charcoal is an effective filter to remove certain chemicals from water that is passed through it. It's the basis of the popular Brita filter that effectively removes the chlorine taste from tap water. I love my Brita pitcher filter and run all my drinking water through it. But taking charcoal internally is not going to prevent food poisoning. I don't know what its ph is. Maybe it's an antacid???

 

Dosing with charcoal or carbon is actually SOP in cases of ingested poisons for the same reason it is used to filter water. It absorbs organic molecules, including toxins. As to these capsules working, it will depend on a couple of factors. First is on the dose amount. My guess is that it is less than what the ER would pump into you, but perhaps it is enough for the amount of toxin ingested at the time. Of course, a small dosing of toxin might not have made a person sick to begin with.

The big variable is on what the type of food poisoning. Some of the food pathogens cause sickness by a toxin they produce and release into the environment, the food. Botulism is caused by one such toxin. Carbon could prevent some food poisoning with enough to absorb all the toxin. If the toxin producing bug manages to reproduce in the gut, it will take continual carbon dosing to work.

Other bacteria are themselves the toxin. Carbon isn't going help with these guys. Same with viruses, which is the major cause of food poisoning. Ditto for unicellular parasites. The carbon could help if the the poison is from a chemical contamination though. Depends on the chemical.

Having had aquarium for decades, I'll say you will want an activated carbon if you pursue this preventive technique. It is a stronger filter per amount than charcoal.

 

I just found a website that describes the charcoal therapy that I heard about over 20 years ago. The lady that I heard was Dr. Agatha Thrash, and she's still at it. The full webpage is at Drs. Thrash, MD, share experiences with medicinal charcoal . A quote on treating traveler's diarrhea from that page:

The full website covers many other medical uses of charcoal, as well as a store where charcoal products may be purchased. Anybody for charcoal toothpaste?

 

Glad to hear you're feeling better!