Stomach bug? Don't just blame the last thing you ate

It happens like a bolt out of the blue. One minute you’re fine, and the next you begin to sweat as crippling cramps move wavelike through your belly. You vomit or have diarrhea, or both, fearing you won’t live to see another day.
 

And then it goes away. You’re back to your old self, maybe after a day or two of binge-watching Netflix and chasing dry crackers with ginger ale.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates this scenario, known as an “acute gastrointestinal event,” happens to all of us at least once a year. The bouts, while extremely unpleasant, usually don’t occasion a trip to the doctor or require any medication.

But such events tend to make us spin our gears trying to pinpoint what made us so miserably sick. While it’s hard to know for sure, there are clues that might help you determine the source and reduce your risk in the future.

“People tend to blame the last thing they ate, but it’s probably the thing before the last thing they ate,” said Dr. Deborah Fisher, a gastroenterologist and associate professor at Duke University School of Medicine. It takes the stomach around four to six hours to empty a full meal, and then the small intestine takes about six to eight hours to squeeze out all the nutrients and empty into the colon. The remains linger there for another one to three days, fermenting and being formed into what ultimately is flushed down the toilet. So-called bowel transit time varies significantly from person to person, but gastroenterologists said you can easily find out what’s normal for you by eating corn and watching for when the indigestible kernels appear in your stool.

Gross, perhaps, but with that baseline, the next time you get sick, you’ll be better able to estimate when you might have eaten the offending meal. For example, if you throw up something and don’t have diarrhea or roiling further down, it could be that what made you ill was something you ate within the last four to six hours. If you wake up in the middle of the night with cramps and diarrhea, it’s more likely something you consumed a good 18 to 48 hours earlier, depending on the results of your corn test.

Most food-borne illnesses are caused by viruses or bacteria, such as norovirus, Staphylococcus aureus, campylobacter, salmonella, E. coli and Bacillus cereus.

So in addition to figuring out the correct time frame of consumption, also consider what foods are more likely to be contaminated. Items cited by the C.D.C. and frequently on the Food and Drug Administration’s food recall list include leafy greens, culinary herbs, melons with textured surfaces like cantaloupe and fresh tomatoes.

Finally, what goes on your mind has an enormous impact on your gut and vice versa. 

© 2017 The New York Times News Service