Silly name, amazing results! (Dioralyte Sachets)

Member Name: matt79uk

Product:	Dioralyte Sachets
Date:	15/01/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Life saving. Inexpensive. Lightweight. Choice of (horrible) flavours...

Disadvantages: None. (Except the taste, which you will actually welcome if you really, really need to drink this!)

Let me begin my review by telling you right away, in no uncertain terms, this stuff tasts grim.

Once upon a time I decided to sample (in my mouth) a small amount of cocunut body butter just to see if tasted as nice as it smelt. It didn't, and this so called Blackcurrant flavour doesn't even have the luxury of smelling like you would want to consume it.

But then, enjoyment is not really what Dioralyte is about. Unless of course you consider, 'being able to enjoy the rest of your life due to not beind deceased', as a suitable measure of this products satisfaction potential.

Allow me to digress...

Back in the year 1998, when I was an energetic, bright eyed, bushy tailed 18 year old, I decided to take a year out before starting University. I would spend a few months working and saving so that I could go travelling with several of my closest friends.

The destination would be Asia. Starting in India we would work our way down, round, then back up again to cross the border into Nepal. A quick Himalayan trek here and there, before nipping back into India to catch a flight on to Thailand where islands and full moon parties awaited us.

This was to be once in a lifetime trip. A chance to see places previously only dreamt about, or else seen on the TV. An opportunity to experience cultures radically different to our own and to do so first hand with just ourselves, (and a copy of Lonely Planet), as our guides.

Imagine my surprise that even now, 10 years later, my single over-riding memory of all of our wonderous adventures and travels is focused upon one element of it.

The shocking state of our bowels.



Within a week of arriving in India, a close friend of mine started to exhibit some unusual behaviour whilst we were sitting in a chai-hut drinking tea overlooking a fantastic beach in Karnataka.

First off my friend just started talking strangely. Strange in the sense that it was gibberish and aimed at no one in particular. He was also starting to sweat a fair bit.

Thinking it might just be the local incense (ahem) affecting him we left him to it for a few minutes.

Then, without warning he keeled over and starting crying.
Due to his gibberish it was difficult to comprehend why he might be crying but believe me when I say it was quite a scary thing for him to do.

He was hot, sweaty and had started writhing around on the floor a little bit. Generally speaking, he looked very unwell. He couldn't hear us when we spoke to him or at least didn't respond using any words I've heard used before.

Malaria!! Was our first and most obvious assumption, quickly followed by another assumption of, 'Oh Sh**, we're miles from anywhere with a decent hospital!!'

After a panicked meeting with the pressing agenda of, 'Wtf are we going to do?!', someone suggested we should at least look in our 'Emergency Medical Kits' to see if one of us had anything that might help.

Casting aside the swabs, bandages, syringes, blood transfusion kits and everything else that our parents had insisted was a necessary component of an Emergency Medical Kit, we were left with a packet of dioralyte.

It took two us to carry him to our beach hut as he was by now, (as far as we could tell), drifting in and out of consciousness. 30 seconds later we had a dioralyte solution mixed up with some bottled water and were trying to our hardest not to drown him with it.

I can't say that I actually know what 'oral electrolyte powder' consists of. Apparently it's salts, minerals, that kind of thing. I prefer to think of it as magic pixie dust.

15 minutes later, my friend was sitting up, drinking a cup of chai and happily telling us how he been suffering from the squits all day but hadn't thought to mention it before.

So it turned out, (in our expert medical opinion), that he was severely dehydrated and hadn't recognised the warning signs. Everything else that had followed was his body's desperate way of saying, 'I need help!', while his brain wasn't listening.

Regardless of what exactly it was that he suffered from that day, so rapid was its effects on him that for a few minutes at least we all thought we might be going home early, and under the most tragic of circumstances.

Dioralyte saved him that day and by the end of the holiday had probably helped each and every one of us at various points. By then you could conisder us forewarned and forearmed so the circumstances surrounding it's use as a treatment were thankfully, far less severe.


So...

Whatever it might taste like, its remarkable effectiveness at treating all manner of ailments when travelling in hot countriues is not to be underestimated.

As far as I'm concerned it saved my mates life at least once so I cannot even begin to praise it highly enough.

A backpacking essential.

Summary: First hand experience (on several occasions) means I'll never travel without it.