Is drinking salt water to induce vomiting safe?
A couple of years ago I was on an expedition in Honduras, and was one of many in our team who succumbed to an unknown water borne infection that caused repetitive vomiting and other unpleasant symptoms. The effects began to manifest themselves at around 11pm at night. I was the second of 14 total sufferers to notice that I was feeling nauseous, and after seeing the first person vomiting I knew I would inevitably follow in their footsteps at some point in the night.
While putting on my head-torch and helping the first victim with (sterilised) water and physical support I began to join the dots between what I was seeing and the numerous people in the group who had retired to their tents early that night - I realised then that things were likely only just getting started.
Within the hour another 2 people succumbed to the same symptoms, myself and another team member assisted where we could and I continued to feel worse by the minute. After seeing the states my colleagues were in I decided to do something to try to help myself before I became the next person. I filled my canteen with clean water and proceeded to empty a full bag of salted peanuts into it to create the most concentrated salt water I could in the circumstances, found a secluded spot and drank the lot. My body's reaction was rather rapid and unpleasant, but as intended it had cleared by system of everything I had consumed that day.
As a result, although I still felt rough I was much better able to help those whose infection had had a greater time period to take hold and produce more extreme symptoms. I didn't sleep until about 4am.
Ever since this experience I have vowed that next time I experience considerable nausea I would induce vomiting to clear my digestive system of whatever is causing the nausea before the (assuming pathogenic) cause has time to multiply further - thus reducing the duration of suffering.
My question is, given that I hear of few people ever doing this, is it a good idea?
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