How to Beat Winter Stomach Flu

We all know the first symptoms. Headache, nausea, chills, and then the low grade fever. Then the fun stuff begins, vomiting and diarrhea...sometimes a combo, sometimes not!!

Apparently, this is not technically a flu - although everyone has always thought so. It is a stomach virus that finds it beginning in a sort of food borne illness and is now able to be passed from person to person. That's why winter is the time to suffer and groan and take to your bed. Don't go to work with it, you will do no favors to your co-workers. Take it from me; they will hate you for it.

However, here are a variety of home remedies that have been passed down through generations. They work so well, that even our white-coated friendly, GP's recommend some of them.

Of course, staying in bed, drinking liquids and downing aspirin or Tylenol is the old tried and true - but if you want comfort like grandma used to bestow on you - let's look at the following:

Ginger ale, Crackers, and Chicken Noodle Soup - Why break up a great band? Lots of people use one of the three - but it has been my experience that combining the three and using them until all the symptoms are gone can really work wonders.

Peppermints - My pal, Anita, from high school told me about her use of the little candy. Some people use Tums to settle the stomach - but peppermint is cheaper - and if it is close to Christmas, a candy cane can't have a better use!

BRAT- Most young mothers learn this little anagram by heart after the first few times their little Joey or Janey have a case of diarrhea. Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. My understanding is that these foods help bulk up the intestines and cause a little constipation effect- halting diarrhea.

BRATTY - another cute little anagram- Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, tea, and yogurt. The same effect for the first four. Never use tea with caffeine. Green tea is great and soothes the tummy. Yogurt helps to halt the flow, if you get my drift.

Those are the well-known and well-established remedies - here are a few more that I have found along the way. I have not tried them all - and do not intend to. But, they have worked for others. Who knows, they might work for you!

Pickles and pickle juice - I had a friend years ago who swore by this - and I remembered being a young and wild person, who would frequently wake up with a hangover. And for some odd reason pickles did help.

Pepsi or Coke mixed like this - Put into a baby bottle with a nipple - Shake, shake, and shake. Take your finger off the hole in the nipple and let the bubbles release- until flat. Drink it slowly and do it a few times in the next hour or so. This could be similar to the old cola syrup remedy that some doctors used to recommend for nausea. Cola syrup can be found in most drugstores.

Angostura bitters and club soda - the combination is actually 4 ounces of club soda with a couple of squirts of the bitters over ice. It looks like a nice pink drink. Angostura bitters are a highly concentrated food and beverage flavoring -blended natural herbs and spices that can be used for a variety of foods and drinks. My own mother uses this remedy!

There you have a list of some old home remedies that can save you a trip to the doc. When you become victim to the "flu", it really can't hurt to try them. You might be able to move through the dastardly foe comfortably and maybe just a little faster.