Diarrhea was, apparently, a common cause of death about 100 years ago or so. How? I ate some bad food, and my poop stopped being solid, and now *I’m going to die?!?*
I ate some really, really delicious General Tso’s Chicken yesterday from a local restaurant. Hours later, well, I think you can do the math. The after-effects are still hitting me today. Annoying, sure, but if this were 100 years ago, apparently my current state means I need to whip out my fountain pen and start writing letters to my beloveds, telling them to please take care of my poor cow Bessie, such a good little lady over all these years, please give her the love she deserves as I slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God. Either that, or, I could just drink a bit of water and eat some incredibly inoffensive food like bread (wasn’t everyone basically eating bread and little else back then anyway) and regain my health?
Can someone explain?
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You’ve got mild food poisoning with a diarrhea for half a day.
If you’ve got, say, cholera you’ll be in the same state for a week and then you may die.
You cannot loose too much water in a day no matter how severe your illness is; but you may in a week.
The problem is that even if you have access to water your organism does not get enough liquid from your guts – it goes right through you.
Only in the middle of 20th century doctors found right cocktail of water, salts and sugar (rehydration solution, google it) that works effectively and supplies enough water to keep patient safe.
TL;DR: the problem was in long-term diarrhea caused by various diseases. Nobody knew how to satisfy thirst of the patient effectively.
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