Medical Questions » Stomach Questions » Question No. 1278
Question:I' ve been feeling nauseated ever since returning from holiday in India. Any suggestions?
Answer:There' s a resonable chance you' ve picked up a UFO (unidentified faecal organism). Given that there are 20 times more micro-organisms inside each of us than living cells, it isn' t that difficult to pick up a pathogen on holiday in less hygienic parts of the world. Some of these, like Giardia, can make you seriously sick. Others, like Blastocystis hominis, can leave you with mild nausea and tiredness, sometimes worse after eating.

The first step is to get yourself tested. You can either do this by going to your doctor, or by seeing a nutritional therapist who can arrange a stool test. If you do have a UFO, there are natural remedies that can help eliminate them. My favorites are olive leaf extract and grapefruit seed extract. However, some strong bugs need drugs to eliminate them; your doctor will advise. If you end up having to take a course of such drugs, I recommend supplementing both something like olive leaf or grapefruit seed extract for a month, and some probiotics to top up your beneficial gut bacteria. Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum are excellent. These two ' good guys' (think of A for acidophilus and B for bifidum) not only get wiped out by bugs and bug-killing drugs, but are also your first line of defence against getting infected in the first place. Next time you go to India, supplementing pro biotics and taking some grapefruit seed extract every day will act as a preventive against infection, as will only eating peelable fruit, such as mangoes, and cooked vegetables, and drinking bottled water.

       
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