If you’re escaping winter and jetting off to the tropics, you’re probably banking on spending as much time as possible in the warm, fresh air. But if you’re among the unlucky vacationers who catch a case of traveler’s diarrhea (TD), which hits an estimated 20 to 50% of international travelers, you could be, well, saddled to the toilet instead.
As its name suggests, this gastrointestinal infection typically causes plenty of diarrhea and loose stools, alongside abdominal cramps and flu-like symptoms such as fever and malaise. You get TD by ingesting some sort of pathogen (a bug like norovirus, bacteria such as E. coli, or even parasites like Giardia), typically via contaminated food or water. This tends to happen during travel to developing countries with a reduced level of public sanitation in comparison to the US, Sandhya Shukla, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist with Atlantic Coast Gastroenterology Associates, in New Jersey, tells SELF.
While abroad, you may also be exposed to germs that aren’t common in the US, Theresa Fiorito, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and director of the family travel medicine center at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island, tells SELF. Because your body rarely (if ever) encounters these bugs, it may have little ability to defend against them. Hence the infection and array of miserable symptoms that can ensue once they arrive in your gut.
Most cases of TD are mild and resolve naturally within a few days, but some can get quite serious and prevent you from going about your daily life. In any case, it’s best to check in with a primary care provider or an urgent-care physician, if possible, to get advice tailored to your situation. But in the meantime, read on for three expert tips that you can put in practice ASAP the next time you’re sidelined by the runs on vacation.
1. Think twice about taking OTC diarrhea meds.
You may have treated past bouts of diarrhea with Imodium (loperamide)—an over-the-counter antidiarrheal pill that can slow down an overactive gut—but it’s not always recommended for traveler’s diarrhea. Why? In certain cases, you actually want your body to expel the germs by pooping them out. And the fact that Imodium can decelerate the runs means it may also keep harmful organisms in your body for longer.
The decision depends on how intense your TD is and what’s causing it. If it’s mild, meaning it doesn’t majorly interrupt your daily activities, there’s a good chance you’ve been infected with a virus, like one that causes food poisoning, Dr. Fiorito says. And with these cases, OTC antidiarrheals like Imodium and Pepto-Bismol can indeed be helpful for alleviating symptoms while your body fights off the infection, Dr. Shukla says.
