We’ve all been there at some point. You wake up and feel off. A few hours later, you can’t stop throwing up into a basket while you’re stuck on the toilet. Whether you have a stomach virus or are experiencing food poisoning, it’s never a fun situation. You need to take care of yourself to avoid complications that could put you in the hospital.
Common Stomach Viruses and Prevention Tips
The four most common stomach viruses are:
- Astrovirus: A stomach virus that’s most common in toddlers and infants, but it has been known to spread around elder care communities, too.
- Enteric adenovirus: Adenoviruses are linked to respiratory infections, but if the virus is swallowed and ends up in the intestinal tract, it can cause stomach flu.
- Norovirus: One of the most popular stomach viruses with more than 680 million cases each year. Vomiting is a key symptom.
- Rotavirus: A virus that’s more likely to affect babies and younger children or elderly people living in group environments. There is a vaccine available to help lower the risk.
Symptoms of any gastrointestinal infection depend on the severity and type of virus. The most common symptoms include:
- Abdominal cramps
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Vomiting
Typically, a stomach virus lasts a few days, though it can take a couple of weeks if the virus is severe. Once you feel better, you can still infect others. It takes time for your body to fully shed the virus.
Make sure you drink enough water. Ginger tea or ginger ale helps soothe nausea. Snack on saltines.
The best way to prevent catching or spreading these stomach viruses is by washing your hands often. Wash for a full 20 seconds and use soap. If there’s no sink available, use a liberal amount of alcohol-based hand sanitizer until you can wash your hands. Make sure others in your family also maintain proper handwashing etiquette.
If you or your child is sick, stay home. Protect others by keeping the virus isolated until you’re feeling better.
Understanding and Preventing Food Poisoning
Food poisoning is another cause of gastrointestinal illness. In this case, bacteria in a food or beverage impact your stomach and intestines. The most common types of bacterial gastroenteritis are:
- Campylobacter: Bacteria introduced through contaminated food or water, especially through unpasteurized raw milk and undercooked poultry.
- Clostridioides difficile: Less common and often linked to eating canned or jarred foods that were not canned properly.
- E. coli: Incredibly common and linked to undercooked meats and raw vegetables that were exposed to animal or human feces.
- Listeria: A bacterium that causes severe illness in older adults, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems. It’s often tied to unpasteurized milk products and improperly processed meats.
- Salmonella: Another common food-borne illness often linked to eating undercooked eggs, poultry, beef, or pork.
- Shigella: A bacterium that spreads through contact with human feces. It can be from contaminated foods or something like changing a diaper and forgetting to wash your hands afterward.
- Staphylococci: Most people know of staph infections as being in the skin. It can also enter your body through contaminated foods.
After buying fruits and vegetables, make sure you wash them before eating. Soaking vegetables in a mix of distilled vinegar and water (3:1 ratio) for two minutes does kill a high majority of bacteria.
Cook meats and seafood to temperatures that kill the bacteria. That’s generally 165ºF for poultry and cooked ham, and 145ºF for seafood, beef, bison, goat, lamb, or veal chops, roasts, or steaks. Cook those ground meats to 160ºF. Also, cook eggs to 160ºF.
Set news alerts on FDA.gov for product recalls or increased risks of food poisoning. These happen regularly. So far, there have been several already since October 2024.
- Chicken Caesar salad bowl – Listeria
- Deli meat – Listeria
- Enoki mushrooms – Listeria
- Frozen cheeseburgers – Listeria
- Frozen waffles – Listeria
- Green onions – Salmonella
- Smoked salmon – Listeria
- Soft ripened cheeses – Listeria
Make sure you’re storing foods properly. Track the use-by or freeze-by dates on meat items and heed those dates. If it’s still sitting in the fridge a week after the freeze-by date, dispose of it.
Do not thaw meat on a counter. Thaw them in the refrigerator. Put cooked foods into the refrigerator as soon as possible as the longer it sits out, the higher the risk of bacterial contamination. If you forget to put a quiche in the fridge after dinner, toss it out the next morning. Don’t hope for the best.
Is It Time to Seek Urgent Care?
While some people handle the symptoms of the stomach flu or food poisoning at home, others should see a doctor. With the ease of telehealth visits, you can see a doctor without having to leave your home.
If you have severe symptoms, such as blood in your stool, persistent diarrhea or vomiting that prevents you from keeping any food or liquids down, or a high fever, see a doctor. Dehydration is a major risk. Look for symptoms like dizziness, dry mouth, or not needing to urinate. If you’re dehydrated, you need to see a doctor.
Go to urgent care if you are pregnant or have a chronic health condition like diabetes or heart disease. You should also see a doctor if you have a weakened immune system. Finally, the elderly and young children should be seen to ensure they aren’t dehydrated.
How Will Doctors Help?
When you see a doctor at urgent care, an IV of fluids can help ensure you are hydrated properly. If you’re still throwing up, medications can ease the nausea and diarrhea.
You’ll also get tips on what to eat until your stomach is ready to gradually return to the foods you love. Bland foods like white rice, cooked pumpkin, and broth are a good start for staying hydrated, ensuring you’re getting the right nutrients, and maintaining healthy levels of sodium, potassium, and other essential vitamins and minerals.
It’s also important to have a doctor diagnose you. If it’s suspected that you have food poisoning, you might not be the only person. Having an official diagnosis allows the CDC and FDA to track foodborne illnesses and issue recalls or alerts.
Our best advice is to take steps to prevent food poisoning and stomach viruses as much as you can. Ultimately, everyone ends up sick at some point, often due to food contamination or viruses that spread easily. If you are sick, stay hydrated. If that’s a struggle, head to Premium Urgent Care to see a doctor and ensure you’re on the road to recovery.