Talk:Oral rehydration therapy

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 Information from Oral rehydration therapy appeared on Portal:Medicine in the Did you know section on June 16, 2006.
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[edit] Merge

(Merge done. Article still needs work. --Singkong2005 01:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC))

I think both oral rehydration therapy and oral rehydration salt articles are in poor condition (for the "drug of the century"), and should be merged and expanded! --Steven Fruitsmaak 13:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Strong support for merge (and agree on need for lots of work). I agree that "oral rehydration therapy" is the better title, as it seems like a broader term than "Oral rehydration salts". --Singkong2005 15:12, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Developed where?

The treatment using various salts have been developed in the late sixties -early 1970s. I'm surprised to hear about the "claim" of the salt being developed in mid 1980s. To the best of my knowledge, the Oral rehydration salt/saline was in market even in the 1970s. Claims like this need to be verified. Thanks --Ragib 06:01, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I've removed this paragraph:
It has also been claimed that the ORS solution was invented in Finland during the mid 1980's by a pediatric medical research team working at the University of Tampere Hospital and Medical Center (TAYS).[citation needed] This team is also currently at work on Celiac Disease reaearch.
It seems like there is work done on oral rehydration therapy at the University of Tampere (I googled "Oral rehydration" Tampere), but the claim of invention seems dubious. --Singkong2005 06:49, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major work needed

As stated by Steven Fruitsmaak, above, the article is in poor condition. I've done some editing, and here are some more ideas:

  • Create a Mechanism section. Mention osmosis. If drink is too concentrated, it will help to draw moisture into intestine (dehydrating). This seems to suggest that hypotonic mixtures are ideal, as suggested by the Fluids and Hydration in Sport page.
  • There are warnings on packets and on this website that the solution must be made accurately. However, note that recommended concentrations have varied over time, with different concentrations being considered effective. E.g. New formulation of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) with reduced osmolarity describes the change to a weaker solution, to reduce stool output while being just as effective at rehydrating; (the formula described appears much weaker than the webmd.com formula). However, too weak and it will be similar to water (going straight through the body); too strong and it won't rehydrate effectively.
  • Some formulas describe the use of anhydrous glucose - i.e. with no water of crystalization. I'm not sure how much this affects the measurement - I didn't think ordinary sugar had a significant amount of water in it, so I would guess that it shouldn't make a difference, and the glucose could be replaced by the same amount of ordinary sugar, if making it at home.

Cheers --Singkong2005 06:40, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I tried making a quarter-size version of your "low-cost home recipe", curious about what it would taste like. (Disclaimer: the sugar I used was Sugar in the Raw turbinado sugar rather than pure white sugar, and it proved tough to measure out exactly a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Also, the water I used was bottled Dasani, which has a little bit of magnesium sulfate touch of potassium and a very, very small pinch of sodium chloride in it ("for a clean taste").) The taste was decent, even without adding bananas or orange juice. — Rickyrab | Talk 02:32, 17 June 2006 (UTC)


The low cost recipe described in Bangladesh by public health officials (as suggested by ICDDRB) is:
  • Tin anguler prothom bhajer ek chimti lobon (a pinch of table salt, as much as fits up to the first knuckle when using 3 fingers)
  • ek muth gur (1 fist ful of Jaggery)
  • adhaser pani (about 400 ml of water, equal to 1/2 ser (.4 kg in weight, local weight unit)
Apparently, the recipe is very simple and works fine. You don't need a precise quarter-teaspoon, just your fingure to measure the salt and your fist to measure the Jaggery. --Ragib 02:39, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Receipe

In the receipe section ORS content is mentioned in mmol/l, i think the constituent should be mentioned in grams/litre, as mentioned in UNICEF , i think i need to learn how to make tables on wikipedia, some assistance will be helpful on doing this. -- Rohit Singh 04:15, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some of the history has been removed - some may be relevant

I notice that this section has been removed from the text. Some of it may be relevant, though, particularly if someone can give sources, so I'm noting it here:

ORT was developed in the late 1960s by researchers in India and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), for the treatment of cholera.

--Singkong2005 talk 01:09, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Seemed to be ok, I readded it again.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:38, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
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