Ibs Vs Gastroenteritis : Causes Complications And Treatment
Irritable bowel syndrome and gastroenteritis both affect the gastrointestinal system, but while the former is a chronic condition, the latter is acute.
IBS is a functional disorder, which means, it is not a disease per se, so the symptoms dont have an identifiable cause. IBS patients show no clinical signs of a disease and often have normal test results. IBS is often referred to as spastic colitis or mucous colitis, but thats an erroneous nomenclature, as itis signifies inflammation, and IBS does not cause inflammation.
Gastroenteritis is an inflammatory condition, which also affects gastrointestinal tract.
In their early stages, gastroenteritis and IBS may present similar symptoms, but it is their unique differences which help narrow down on a proper diagnosis. Also, the two conditions are addressed with very different treatment methods. One requires lifelong lifestyle changes, while the other must simply run its course.
The Food Poisoningibs Connection
Food poisoning is obviously no fun. At first you feel like youre going to die, says a friend of mine about the gastrointestinal fallout of food poisoning. As the symptoms rage on, you worry that you never will.
In most cases, the acute symptoms of food poisoning pass within 24 hours and people can return to their regular lives . But for roughly one in four food-poisoning sufferers, symptoms can linger and linger and linger.
A lot of people have food poisoning and theyre fine, says Portland, Ore.based naturopath Crane Holmes, ND, who specializes in treating complicated functional gastrointestinal disorders. But about 25 percent of people who have food poisoning will develop IBS.
A meta-analysis conducted by the Mayo Clinic found that food poisoning increases a persons risk of developing IBS by four times.
Medical schools used to teach about IBS as a disease of nervous and anxious women, and some medical professionals still practice as if this is true, says Holmes. Its frustrating, as we have proven over the past 15 to 20 years that this claim is completely false.
Now that IBS is established as a disease with organic physical origins, people with gastrointestinal pain are both more likely to be believed and more likely to get effective treatment for their symptoms.
Heres how food poisoning can trigger IBS and what steps you can take if you suffered a bout of food poisoning and havent felt the same since.
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Gastroenteritis Versus Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition that causes symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain, bloating, and gas. It affects 10 to 15 percent of adults.
IBS is different from gastroenteritis in that its a chronic condition that often persists throughout someones life. On the other hand, gastroenteritis usually goes away after you recover from the viral or bacterial infection that caused your symptoms.
You Might Notice Changes In Your Bowel Movements
Another distinct feature of IBS is the tendency of your bowel movement types and frequency to change. If your symptoms flare up at irregular times, or if you notice that you go through stages of spending a lot of time in the restroom versus hardly going at all, IBS might be the underlying issue. For some individuals with IBS, symptoms can go away entirely for a while before returning later.
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How Do I Avoid Food Poisoning
First, take all the normal precautions you should already be doing daily. Wash your hands before eating, and after using the restroom. If you dont have access to a hand washing facility for whatever reason use wet wipes and/or hand sanitizer.
Second, its a good idea to be more vigilant about what you eat. Before I discovered that food poisoning caused my SIBO, I was somewhat lax about eating things that had been hanging out in the fridge past their expiration date. I try to avoid doing this now even though I end up wasting more leftovers.
For some items, I will still eat it past the expiration date if it looks good, smells good, and is preserved well . For cooked foods such as leftovers, I dont take chances on iffy or week-old leftovers anymore. It simply isnt worth the risk to my health.
Obviously, you should also avoid any food that has been sitting outside for too long, or where you suspect it hasnt been handled or cooked safely. Buffets, for example, are probably a bad idea.
What Is The Difference Between How Long The Stomach Flu Vs Food Poisoning Recovery
- The duration of the stomach flu can vary. The symptoms may get better after a few days, but in some cases, a person may be sick with the infection can last for several days, up to 10.
- Food poisoning symptoms usually last anywhere from several hours, a day or two, or up to a several days. The duration of this type of poisoning typically is shorter than the stomach flu.
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How Common Is Pi
Between 617% of individuals with IBS who had a previously normal bowel habit believe their illness began suddenly in association with an infectious illness. Although estimates vary, studies suggest that around 10% of people who suffer bacterial gastroenteritis develop IBS.
Most cases reported are of the diarrhea predominant or mixed subtype of IBS. Fewer cases are reported in the constipation predominant subtype of IBS.
Preventing The Stomach Bug
Even though the stomach bug is sometimes called the stomach flu, your annual flu vaccine will not prevent it. Different types of viruses cause the stomach bug. Antibiotics will not help treat the stomach bug because antibiotics work to treat bacterial infections, not viruses.
Take measures to prevent yourself from transmitting the stomach flu to others. Youre typically the most contagious when youre feeling the worst and a few days afterward. The bug can stay in your stool for up to two weeks .
Wash your hands often and stay home from work or school for at least a few days after you feel better.
You should also consider having your baby get the vaccine against the rotavirus when theyre 2 months old.
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What Is A Gastrointestinal Disease
Gastroenteritis is an unspecific term for various gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases. Its most common symptoms and signs include diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Gastroenteritis is an inflammatory condition that also affects the gastrointestinal tract. Most of us have experienced a stomach virus at some point in life. Nausea, vomiting, loose and increased stools and mild fever are common symptoms of this type of infection, usually due to either viruses or bacteria. Usually, stomach bugs are caused by a bacterial or viral infection.
Stomach bugs can affect people of all ages, but they are especially common in young children. These types of infections can be very uncomfortable, but they usually go away by itself within a week. Often times you can take care of yourself or your child at home until you feel better. Usually, you do not need any treatment, but there are prescription drugs available at the pharmacy that can potentially relieve the pain.
What Are The Symptoms Of Pi
The symptoms of PI-IBS are similar to typical IBS and include:
- Abdominal pain
- Diarrhea and constipation
- Bloating and gas
- Feelings of urgency to go to the toilet
- Feelings of incomplete evacuation
- Mucus in stools
The majority of people with PI-IBS have an increased perception of visceral pain compared to the more ‘standard’ forms of IBS. This may highlight long-term changes in pain processing in people who have PI-IBS. â
Diarrhea or mixed bowel habits are also generally more common than constipation in PI-IBS. These symptoms resemble those seen in a subtype of IBS known as diarrhea-predominant IBS .
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Potential Triggers Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Certain foods or food ingredients such as milk and dairy products, citrus fruits, cabbage, wheat, and carbonated beverages.
- Stress: While not a direct cause of symptoms, research suggests it may aggravate symptoms, causing them to be more severe and frequent.
- Hormones: Taking estrogen therapy before or after menopause increases your risk of IBS.
While it may take some trial and error to figure out whats causing symptoms, your doctor can help you manage them.
Distinguishing Between Irritable Bowel Syndrome Or Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth
When it comes to matters of the gut, it can be tough to pinpoint your symptoms and understand what they might be telling you. Two conditions of the intestines that are similar in nature are Irritable Bowel Syndrome , and Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth . In this post well highlight the differences between them so you can start to determine which one ails you, or, if its actually both.
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Irritable Bowel Syndrome Vs Post
Irritable bowel syndrome is a common digestive disorder that affects 1 in 10 people worldwide. For most people with IBS, the cause is unknown, although factors such as existing psychiatric conditions and previous gastrointestinal infection are thought to play a role. âWhile most people with a stomach or intestinal infection fully recover after the illness, some may experience IBS symptoms on a longer-term basis. If symptoms of IBS begin following a gastrointestinal infection, it is called post-infectious IBS .As we dive into our exploration of PI-IBS, it is worth noting that there is still much science doesn’t understand about PI-IBS. We’ve used the best research available for this article, but more studies are needed to give us a better understanding of this condition and make it possible to create better therapies that treat multiple symptoms of PI-IBS.
Identifying Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth
What if the infection cause is actually in the small intestine? Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth is defined as an accumulation of bacteria in the small intestine. The overgrowth is bacteria that normally live in the gastrointestinal tract but have abnormally overgrown in the small intestine, which cannot function as it should with so many bacteria.
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Food Poisoning Vs Stomach Flu: What’re The Similarities And Differences
Food poisoning and the flu have similar symptoms, which make it challenging to identify the difference between the two. However, they are still different conditions that have many differences.
1. Symptoms
Food Poisoning
The symptoms you get with food poisoning are different, depending on the cause of the contamination. Most common symptoms include the following:
- Watery diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Abdominal cramps
You usually begin to get these symptoms within a few hours of eating food that has become contaminated. Some food poisoning symptoms take longerup to several days or weeks after eating the bad food. The symptoms usually last a few hours but can also last as many as several days.
Stomach Flu
When comparing food poisoning vs flu, you need to know that the two diseases have very similar symptoms. These include having nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. The symptoms usually last about one day and then you begin to feel better. Less than two percent of flu sufferers ever need to be hospitalized in the US, although it can be a major cause of death in people who live within developing countries.
2. Causes
Food Poisoning
The main cause of food poisoning is eating food that is contaminated with bacteria or viruses. The main bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, and Shigella species. Rarely, viruses can contaminate food, but most of the time, it is due to one of the pathogenic bacteria described above.
Stomach Flu
3. Treatment
Ibs Or Stomach Bug: Whats The Difference
The gut is a highly sophisticated organ.
Responsible for extracting the majority of vitamins and minerals we need from the food we eat, the sheer workload it deals with on a daily basis is considerable and we often wont notice the vital and complex functions which are take place inside it all the time.
Provided everything is functioning normally that is. When the gut encounters problems, its a development well come to know about fairly quickly.
Bowel movements are seldom a subject discussed in casual conversation. So, our points of reference with regard to normality might not always be clear and, naturally, when matters do start to go awry, it can be hard to know what constitutes a minor issue, or a problem warranting expert attention.
The majority of us will have encountered gastric flu at some point in our lifetime. Nausea, vomiting, loose and increased stool frequency and mild fever are common fixtures of this type of infection, which is usually caused by either a virus or bacteria.
Irritable bowel syndrome , as well discuss in this article, is a condition which some might mistake for an acute illness such as this. But not without understandable reason: IBS affects the same part of the body and causes symptoms which arent a million miles away from that of a stomach bug.
The two conditions are however very different.
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Identifying Irritable Bowel Syndrome
IBS is a commonly known syndrome with the following typical symptoms:
- Abdominal bloating
- Abdominal pain
- Diarrhea, constipation, or both
It is often a diagnosis of exclusion when conventional gastro-intestinal testing does not find an underlying cause. IBS can be particularly painful. Gas trapped in the large intestine can create significant bloating and pain. Patients with these symptoms may also suffer with bowel urgency, straining or a sense of incomplete evacuation, and the passage of mucus in stools. Symptoms are often made worse by eating. Some patients also report lethargy, nausea, backache, and bladder symptoms.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome And Food Poisoning
Irritable bowel syndrome is a common condition reported to affect around 10-15% of the population. It is a chronic functional and sometimes debilitating disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that can impact quality of life. IBS is classified into four categories IBS-D , IBS-C , IBS-M , IBS-A .
IBS often has no known cause, however there is an association between the development of IBS symptoms and gastrointestinal inflammation, inflammatory bowel disease, food poisoning, genetic factors, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth . The most common cause of IBS is from food poisoning. Risk factors associated with the development of IBS from food poisoning include the severity of food poisoning, if you are female, was there antibiotics required, were you sick for more than 7 days, and psychological factors such as anxiety. Some people may not recall the food poisoning episode but that does not mean that it did not happen. Often food poisoning is mild and can be confused with the onset of IBS symptoms.
When you are exposed to food poisoning, your body produces antibodies to fight the foodborne illness. These antibodies attack Vinculin which is an important protein for nerves. In turn, the motility in the small intestine is affected and this can lead to the development of SIBO.
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What Is The Difference Between The Causes Of The Stomach Flu Vs Food Poisoning
How do you get the stomach flu?
- Viral gastroenteritis most often is caused by an infection with a virus.
- Rotavirus infection is the leading cause of diarrhea in children worldwide, and it also infects people in nursing homes.
- Another common virus type responsible for stomach flu is the noroviruses. Norovirus outbreaks have been reported in schools and on cruise ships.
- Other causes are adenoviruses and Astrovirus.
How do you get food poisoning?
- There are many different causes of food poisoning .
- Contamination can occur at many stages of food preparation such as harvesting, processing, storing, shipping, cooking, or serving.
- Contamination can occur when food handlers do not properly clean their hands before working with or serving food .
- Often, Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus are the types of bacteria that lead to the contamination of the food. Other bacteria that cause food poisoning are Campylobacter, Vibrio cholerae , Salmonella, Listeria, botulism, and Shigella. Some bacteria also produce toxins in the contaminated foods that cause the disease.
- You can get this disease when you consume undercooked or raw meats, but it also has been reported after eating:
- Raw and undercooked eggs
- Unpasteurized beverages
Drug Treatments For Gastroenteritis
Drugs are available to reduce the main symptoms of gastroenteritis diarrhea and vomiting:
- Antidiarrheal medication such as loperamide and bismuth subsalicylate
- Antiemetic medication such as chlorpromazine and metoclopramide
Antidiarrheals are available OTC, while the antiemetics are available from doctors
Talk to a doctor before taking anti-diarrhea medication as some infections may get worse with anti-diarrhea medicines.
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Complications Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Life with IBS can be complicated and challenging enough on its own. While IBS doesn’t permanently damage the digestive tract, it can take an emotional and psychological toll, especially when it comes to your sex life. Symptoms can strike at any moment, causing you to fear an embarrassing incident and easily killing the mood.
Consider some of these suggestions:
- Talk with your partner about your anxieties.
- Learn stress-management techniques to help you relax.
- Avoid trigger foods on the days when you plan to get intimate.
- Take medications to help relieve pain, gas, and diarrhea so you have one less thing to worry about.