Oral rehydration salt [rice based]

Oral rehydration salt [rice based] contains essential electrolytes and carbohydrate (in the form of processed rice), which a dehydrating patient needs in conditions such as cholera, acute diarrhoea, vomiting and excessive sweating. In a normal healthy intestine, water keeps moving across the intestinal wall. Up to 20 litres of water is secreted and very nearly as much is reabsorbed every 24 hours, and this exchange lets soluble metabolites from digested food pass into the bloodstream. In diarrhoeal disease the balance is upset. Much more water is secreted than is reabsorbed, so the body has a net loss that can be as high as several litres a day. Along with the water, chloride ion (Cl-), extracellular sodium ion (Na+) and intracellular potassium ion (K+) are also lost. This saline replaces those lost electrolytes effectively. The pharmacokinetics and therapeutic values of its components are as follows. Glucose (which comes from rice) helps the absorption of sodium (and so water) on a 1:1 molar basis in the small intestine. Sodium and potassium replace the body's losses of these essential ions during diarrhoea and vomiting. Citrate corrects the acidosis that occurs as a result of diarrhoea and dehydration. Rice, a carbohydrate, is converted to glucose through digestion, and the glucose is then absorbed through the intestinal wall together with salt. Using rice instead of pure glucose in this formula lowers the osmolarity of the solution, so it prevents additional loss of fluid through stools.