My fiance, Alex, caught a cold a few days ago (her immune system seems pretty weak right now) and it seemed to go down into her chest causing a bad cough. This used to happen sometimes even before she had Celiac disease since she also has asthma.

Anyway, since her cough was keeping her from getting any sleep she took some Robitussin, which is on the gluten free drugs list. But shortly after she took it she began vomiting and then had much worse diarrhea than usual during the night and into the next day. One thing that looked suspect in the ingredients was Sorbitol. Has this made anyone else sick? It doesn't have anything to do with gluten does it?

She's having a pretty rough time. It seems like she was just starting to make some headway with recovery and now this. She's exhausted from not being able to sleep and having a severe GI reaction was the last thing she needed.
We're afraid to try anything else for her cough/congestion because we don't know what made her sick. Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

Ryan

Sorbitol comes from corn, but it does have a laxative effect if you ingest enough of it. It is called a sugar alcohol, they're notorious for giving people the runs (or horrible gas) that eat a lot of "sugar free" foods. Celiacs, especially newly diagnosed, have very techy intestines a lot of times and just looking at them sideways is enough to set them off.

The best things I know of for colds and flu symptoms are garlic and onion. I generally include these in my regular diet, but whenever there's a bug going around I will make sure to get extra amounts - of the garlic especially. The more raw you can tolerate them, the better they work. But like the saying goes; "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". I find it's far better to not allow the bug to invade than to wait until it gets my system down.

Some time ago I saw a report on cold remedies, and the bottom line was that none of them do anything to aid in recovering. Some are only effective at masking a bit of the symptoms, which might be ok if it helps you sleep. Chicken soup on the other hand has been shown to help, though the medical profession remains clueless as to why.

This is why when we're sick I make homemade chicken soup loaded with garlic and onions!

Maybe an herbal remedy would help with the symptoms yet not bother her tummy as badly.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.f...cken.soup.reut/

Because food - just like chemicals created in labs- has an effect, good or bad, on the body. Cold medicines are a scam. Warm steam from a shower, a massage, sleep, and real food will help a person more than the Robetussin for the common, everyday cold. Now, if your sickness gets exotic (perhaps due to a poor immune system) then you may have to seek pharmaceuticals like antibiotics.