Anyone tried drinking grape juice to escape a stomach bug?

Hi everyone. I am the author of the website Stop the Stomach Flu which I hear scares most of you half to death. I'm sorry about that. I'm emetophobic too. I'll try to go back through and edit out some of the doom and gloom. Anyway, I really need some personal stories for my page about grape juice. The old wives tale is that drinking 3 cups of 100% juice purple grape juice each day will prevent you from coming down with the stomach flu if you are exposed to it. Has anyone tried this? If you would be willing to share your stories, I would appreciate it. You can post your stories here or e-mail them to me. phd.annie at gmail.com. Thank you!

Annie, I call fake on you. If you were really emetophobic, you would not say the stomach flu "I hear scares most of you half to death." You would say "I know scares most of us half to death." I have never heard of anyone using grape juice to ward off stomach flu.

Doug

I've seen Dr. Annie's website, and grape juice has been discussed here as a possible post exposure treatment. The problem is that we never will know for sure if it helps or not because it's anecdotal. A lot of people here were pretty upset with the suggestion because grape juice contains high amounts of sugar, and there isn't any PROOF that it works. I suggested it might be worth a try if you got exposed but I wouldn't bet on it doing anything and I sure wouldn't suggest drinking it all the time if you were worried about sugar and carbs. I think Dr. Annie means well and maybe she's even right, but to prove it we'd need to expose a group of 60 people to noro, control and exposure, treat them all with the same amount of grape juice or sugar water respectively. It would need to be repeatable. I sure wouldn't participate. It might be effective and if you've been exposed, as far as I can see there's nothing to lose, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

i've also read several articles about the grape juice theory.....seems to be alot of people who swear by it.....i haven't had a reason to try it (thank god)......but i say anything to avoid the flu is worth a shot....

no need to be so rude to people gumdropper......i've seen you do this a few times......i suggest if you don't know anything about what the person is writing ie. the grape juice remedy.....then google it instead of basically telling the person to f off.....

I apologize for using the bad words. I haven't been on this website much and I didn't realize. Gumdropper1, do you really think I'd spend countless hours researching the sf, if I wasn't terrified? I think there are varying degrees of emetophobia and my case is more mild. All the of research that I have done has helped me have a more realistic attitude about it. For example, I am not afraid of the WORDS. I'm just afraid of the germs and the action of v. JK181 and Olschesky, thank you for your nice comments. I posted my grape juice question here just in case I could get some more personal stories of people who have tried it. Yes, it would be very difficult to prove that it worked. However, it is NOT that difficult to "suggest" that it "doesn't" work. If I get enough stories from people who tired drinking 3 cups a day when the sickness went through their house and they still got sick, that would indicate that it doesn't work. That would save other emetophobic people from drinking 3 cups a day for their entire life and getting an ulcer. Of course, I hope the grape juice works. I hope I get stories where people tried drinking it when a bug went through their house and they did not get sick but other people in the house (who were not drinking the juice) did get sick. I would post any stories I get on my website. Then people would have more information so they could decide if they want to try using grape juice themselves.

I've heard of the grape juice thing too - I don't know if it works or not but I'd think that drinking 3 glasses of grapejuice EVERY DAY would probably upset my stomach more than help it, not to mention what it would do to my teeth (stain, decay). I personally stick to a tablespoon of pure unpasteurized apple cider vinegar a day which works to ward off both the stomach flu and food poisoning and helps with IBS symptoms and all other digestive issues including acid reflux... and that small amount is much easier to take than all that juice. But that's just me.

Just got a PM that this person is pretending to be me. Which I don't see here. Anyway, not me! lol

Annie, thanks for doing research that contributes to our understanding of vomiting.

But please don't hold yourself up next to us as an emetophobe. On your web site you write, "Before I had children ... I didn't like to throw up but I never worried about it ... Although, I don't like to vomit, what I am really afraid of is being too sick to take care of my children." Emets are not people who "don't like to vomit." We worry about it constantly. We worry about it when we're nauseated and when we're not nauseated and when we haven't been nauseated in 20 years. We're terrified of it. We refuse to do it. Some of us claim we'd rather die than vomit.

I called you out because your original post in this thread revealed just by its language that you aren't emet. Exploring your web site only confirmed that further. Not every person who has the slightest fear of vomiting is emet. Being emet is different from merely thinking "I don't wanna throw up" for 10 minutes while you're nauseated. Emetophobia is an excessive and/or irrational fear of vomiting.

I wish you would take that into account in developing your web site.

Doug

P.S. @Olschesky - Don't expect me to be warm and fuzzy 24/7. There is room on this board for more than one communication style.

there are varying degrees of emet......so who's to say who is or isn't an emetophobe? i appreciate anyone who does any kind of research on something that might stop me from v.....whether they are an emet or not........so why not just let her be?

i have no problem using or saying any of the words.....but i'm still an emetophobe....

be nice, be kind, we all need that here.....

Who are you to say what constitutes an emetophobe? If it's affecting this persons life, and they feel like they could be emetophobic, it's not up to you to tell them that they're not.

DrAnnie, I don't buy into drinking or eating things to ward off a stomach virus. I think if you get infected, you're going to get it. I don't believe that probiotics ward it off (though there are other benefits to these) or grape juice, or cranberry juice (I've heard this one for UTIs and viruses) or vinegar or anything. I believe in keeping up hygiene and keeping your hands away from your face.

Unfortunately, not a day has gone by for 7 years when I didn't worry that I or one of my children was going to be sick. I sure wish that wasn't the case. I do feel that I am getting better, though. As my children are growing up and are not so fragile, it is getting easier. I wrote on my website about the stomach bug that went through our house in February 2012 and no one had to go to the hospital. 4 out of 5 of us were sick but no one got so sick that they dehydrated. It helped me to know that all tummy bugs wouldn't be the end of the world. My 1 year old also puts me to the test. Every day when I take him outside, he eats dirt or sand. I can't stop him! Luckily, he hasn't gotten any horrible sicknesses from it. But I had to relax about my plan to never let anything dirty get in his mouth. I know that I am not the same as many of you, though. Please understand that I did not write my website to educate the emetophobic people like you. You all are very careful about intestinal illnesses already! You are not the people that I'm worried about. I am trying to educate the general public-- the parents who send their kids to school or a friends house to play the day after they were sick, the restaurant worker who comes to work to make other people's salad the day after he was sick. They have no idea that they are contagious and/ or don't really care. These are the people who cause these illnesses to spread like wildfire. To write a website for them, I need to appear more normal. I need to use the entire word and not just V* or they won't understand what I'm writing. I don't want to skimp on the scary details because I want these people to take the subject seriously. So, feel free to tell all the true emetophobes NOT to read my website. Post a big warning somewhere. But it is in the emetophobic people's best interest for my website to be there to educate everyone else.

I have tried it & got nauseous drinking the grape juice-- too much sugar / acid? So, it didn't help me because any hint of nausea sends me into "high-anxiety mode"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jennjt

I have tried it & got nauseous drinking the grape juice-- too much sugar / acid? So, it didn't help me because any hint of nausea sends me into "high-anxiety mode"

---

When I drink it, I eat a few crackers or some bread to absorb some of the acid.

I've never drunk it in large quantities, because it is very expensive and very sugary. I do enjoy a glass per day from time to time, though. I think it has some health benefits but I don't think I'd believe in its anti-SV properties without seeing scientific evidence. I do believe there is evidence behind the idea that cranberry juice can help prevent UTIs by stopping bacteria adhering to the bladder wall (not sure which component of the cranberry juice survives all the way to the bladder to do that). I wonder if conjecture has led to people thinking grape juice might prevent viral particles adhering to the intestinal wall in the same way. xxx

That's kind of rude. I'm a legitimate emetophobic, and I can say the words "stomach flu". That doesn't mean I'm any less afraid of throwing up than anyone else.