The Role of Diet in the Treatment of Travelers' Diarrhea: A Pilot Study

A pilot study was performed to compare the effects of a restricted physiologic diet in 48 subjects with those of an unrestricted diet in 57 subjects on the duration and symptoms of acute travelers' diarrhea among US adults being treated with an antimicrobial agent in Mexico. Restricted physiolo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical infectious diseases 2004-08, Vol.39 (4), p.468-471
Main Authors: Huang, David B., Awasthi, Mukta, Le, Binh-Minh, Leve, Meegan E., DuPont, Margaret W., DuPont, Herbert L., Ericsson, Charles D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use
Antibiotics
Antimicrobials
Diarrhea
Diarrhea - diet therapy
Diarrhea - drug therapy
Diet
Diet Therapy - methods
Diseases
Female
Fever
Food
Humans
Infectious diseases
Major Articles
Male
Mexico - epidemiology
Pilot Projects
Symptoms
Travel
Travelers
United States
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Summary:A pilot study was performed to compare the effects of a restricted physiologic diet in 48 subjects with those of an unrestricted diet in 57 subjects on the duration and symptoms of acute travelers' diarrhea among US adults being treated with an antimicrobial agent in Mexico. Restricted physiologic diet was defined as the avoidance of certain foods during diarrheal illness, as specified in limited published literature. The mean duration of diarrhea (37 vs. 33 h) and clinical symptoms were similar between those practicing the restricted diet and those practicing unrestricted diets. These results suggest that restricting diet during treatment of travelers' diarrhea with an antimicrobial agent is not associated with improvement of clinical symptoms or with decreased duration of diarrhea. However, a much higher number of subjects would need to be studied to prove this point statistically.
ISSN:1058-4838
1537-6591
DOI:10.1086/422322