Food poisoning
Perhaps I should have known better than to eat at IHOP, a place I hadn’t visited in years.
I ordered an omelet with cheese and spinach. Sounds healthful enough. And it was rather tasty, too. Came with mediocre hash browns of which I only ate the brown crusty part, and a couple of pancakes on which I poured some (fake) maple syrup and ate maybe two/thirds of a single one.
In addition, I had a bite of sausage link. Didn’t much like it, and didn’t have any more. And that was it.
A fairly modest dinner. But a couple of hours later…well, I’ll be merciful and spare you the details, except to say this is my third day of tremors in the GI force field, along with more-than-usual tiredness.
The good news is that I might lose a pound or two. The bad news is that I will most likely gain it right back. In the meantime, my energy level is lower than usual, and talk of food in general doesn’t evoke the same enthusiasm in me that it usually does. It’s pretty much been toast and rice lately.
The body’s normal workings are a wonderful thing that we often take for granted until they go awry. Fortunately, this latest disruption should be very temporary. I’m already feeling a great deal better than I did at first. Any home remedies of yours to share, to hasten along the recovery?
Ginger Ale can settle an upset stomach. Also “G2” (the diluted Gatorade that’s more watery and less sugary) can replenish vitamins/minerals that you’ve lost, and restore some energy without wreaking havoc on your insides the way sugary/acidic drinks will. Okay, those are more “common knowledge” than “home remedies.”
No mousaka. That’s right out.
My entire and complete sympathies. I had food poisoning a while back and was out of commission for three days. Chamomile tea is always good for any tummy trouble!
Probiotics are the only way to hasten recovery after disbacteriosis. I do not know what kinds of probiotics (lactobacilles, streptococcus or bifidobacteria) are sold in USA, but this does not really matters. Normal healthy humans have around 2 kilograms of different bacteria in their organisms, and they all are needed for some metabolic pathway. This is a whole internal ecosystem in symbiotic relationship with human host, and its disrupture causes many different symptoms.
Wishing you a prompt recovery.
Sergey Says: Probiotics are the only way to hasten recovery after disbacteriosis.
Yogurt?
Folk remedies include sour milk (a piece of rye bread is added to whole milk and left in warm place to brew until turn sour), a herring and yogurt.
Tons of mint tea. (this is more for hydration and to make your mouth feel decent than any quasi-scientific reason)
Lemon-Honey Scot’s cure. (Take a mug. Cover the bottom with honey. Give a squirt or two from a RealLemon! container. Add a layer of whiskey or rum. Add hot water to near top.) Tends to stay down, the honey can’t hurt, helps you hydrate and what little alcohols survives the near-boiling water is a mild pain killer.
Honey with tea of any sort can help the energy problem. If you’re having trouble being hydrated, use herbal tea. (“Red” tea works nicely if you don’t like mint; I’d guess Lemon Zinger would be good, too.)
Ramen noodles might help, too. Make with a bit of extra water and crack an egg into it when the noodles are nearly done. Add flaked meat. Add thin-sliced veggies.
Then how about yogurt and sourdough bread? (Caution, Neo: this is pure conjecture.)
it’s terrible to be sick like that. A few years ago I had food poisoning. I wasn’t sure what caused it but I suspected some chicken cold cuts. I was positively miserable- I cd barely move and I kept thinking “how did I used to get out of bed and go to work?” I called my pharmacist and he suggested Gatorade which I said I didn’t have so he said water and a banana so I started eating tiny little bits of banana and sips of water. I started to feel better the next day and I cdn’t stop thinking about how wonderful it was to not feel sick. It really was as if I had a new life. I googled food poisoning and I saw a ton of stories of people feeling as awful as I had- their stories had me laughing – it’s just so miserable. It’s such a mundane illness, but I really did think I might never get out of bed again. Glad you’re feeling better.
#1 Never eat at IHOP again.
My favorite memory of IHOP is of entering a local IHOP many years ago and having to pass by what appeared to be an addict/nut job?–a chubby, ill-kept white woman, aged perhaps 25 or so, with her sweat pants pulled way down low and her huge bare belly hanging out and drooping down–was this supposed to be some sort of sexual attraction? ugh!, who stationed herself on the side of the path people had to use to to get to the door, and who was hitting up those who were entering for money, supposedly so that she could also eat there; quite an advertisement for the joint, which was in an upper middle class neighborhood.
The local IHOP is a real UN–I doubt there is a WASP in the whole place–and the local wits waiting to be seated have taken to putting there names on the list as things like Elvis Presley, Bill Gates, Frank Sinatra, etc. and the apparently clueless Hispanic staff just calls out (and mangles) the names, one by one.
# 2 From my experience–thankfully only a couple of times–it seems like when the food at a low rent restaurant tastes especially, unexpectedly good is the time when you should be most suspicious of it.
# 3 Electrolyte replacement and yogurt to replenish gut bacteria both sound like good ideas.
The best defense is a good offense. Per Sergey, keep our bacterial friends happy. Make it part of your daily routine. You take care of them; they take care of you.
I rarely have food troubles, even when travelling abroad. I take a modest (~1/3 cup) daily ration of good quality, local brand yogurt. I personally can take on the whole milk variety, but low fat is what most people are used to.
Rotate in the Activia brand every couple of weeks. Real Greek yogurt (from Greece) gets the robust EU native microbes in the fight. Put a dash of honey on it, just as they do in Greece — Greek honey if you have it.
For probiotics anyway, diversity is good.
Hope you feel better.
Pediatricians recommend the BRAT diet:
Bananas, rice, apples, toast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAT_diet
They also recommend Gatorade to keep the electrolytes up and dehydration at bay.
I speak from painful experience. Not that’s I’ve been to IHOP lately.
The only time I ever got food poisoning was when I was in the Army stationed in Germany (1984-87). The battalion commander had ordered one spring weekend be devoted to outdoor cleanup/maintenance. At the end of the day, the wives of the men in the company I was assigned to had prepared to reward us with a feast of hamburgers, hot dogs, beef and chicken tacos, potato salad, and other picnicky type foods.
I wasn’t married at the time, so I lived in the barracks. In the middle of the night, there was a steady stream of folks who suddenly had to give praise to the porcelain gods. The following morning when I reported for sick call, the medics told me there had been a record number of people report from my company. The people waiting to be treated looked like the most pathetic, sickly, motley crew imaginable.
Just be thankful the Russians didn’t come through the Fulda Pass that week.
No home remedies. It’s pretty much the same simple knowledge we’ve had for years: consume clear liquids and plenty of them (so you don’t get dehydrated), add new foods in very very slowly (listen to your body as it will tell you when it’s ready), and rest. So sorry you got food poisoning, but thankful it was not a variety that landed you in an emergency room. Take good care.
Alcohol and eggs ARE NOT recomended in case of disbacteriosis. Bananas are not recomended too. Grated apples are much preferable. Plenty of water (tea, lemonad, apple juice) is absolutely must. French cheese (bri, Rockfort, Dor Blue) or fetaki is good. In general, Mediterranean diet (except pizza) is good. If diarrhea persists, the best remedy is decoction from pomegranate peel. My favorite food in such cases is forshmiak from chopped herring and grated apples.
Adding to Wolla Dalbo’s suggestions . . .
#4 For digestive calm now and in the foreseeable future, take care to not read the Noo Yawk Times.
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neo, Imodium, stat.
On a trip to Egypt (land of diarrhea of Pharaohic proportions) it saved my life. As prescribed by the US Army.)
Also lots of water not to dehydrate.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor do I play doctor.
Go back and eat at ihop two more times this week. Obviously you’ve neglected giving your immune system the proper workout so you never get food poisoning in the first place. I can’t recall ever having it in 51 years.
Feel better soon. Although one is usually advised to avoid all dairy products after a tummy bug or food poisoning, I agree with others about yogurt. But be careful not to eat the cruddy over sweetened rubbish or kind with chemicals. The best kind (for helping the gut) IMHO is that CHOBANI Greek non fat kind, even with flavor, as they use very little sugar (enough to make it tasty). 140 calories a serving with 14 grams protein (not a typo). It works as well as any medicine at settling down an overactive digestion. 1 or 2 a day should help.
If you’re up to yoghurt, then the kind from an Indian or Middle-eastern market – Abali is a very good, Greek-type yoghurt. Otherwise, clear liquids – broth, tea, ginger ale, apple juice, for a couple of days.
Steve, there was a fascinating discussion on just this topic a couple of years ago on (IIRC) NPR – about people’s unfortunate reactions to foods, especially when traveling … it seems that one becomes accustomed to a certain level of bacterial admixture in one’s food, and can safely process pretty much anything at that level without distress … so you may have a point about acclimating to IHOP… but once one has been made horribly sick by a place, or a dish — it’s very hard to go back and risk it again!
I appreciate all suggestions. I do eat that Greek yogurt almost every day, and it certainly didn’t prevent anything. However, I have taken the Gatorade suggestion under advisement. Usually I don’t like flavored drinks, but I’m making an exception in this case.
Sgt. Mom: yes, the thought of going back there fills me with dread.
go to the baby aisle and get some pedialyte (the liquird electrolyte drink– not the fancy pants ones)
then get some gatorage or powerade (i get red)
mix them up and drink as much as you can
this will fix your dehydration; the rest you will have to ride out
The trick is finding what works for your system.
I know a large number of folks who drink beer to recover– effective in less than 24 hours. (Carbonated stuff and milk products come straight up for me, though– the notion of eating a banana while suffering food poisoning is beyond me.)
I’ll have to try the sourdough notion next time– saltines and tea are my mom’s traditional solution.
Unflavored warm but not hot pedialyte might be a very good idea for you, too. (They should have little straws full of the mix if you want to make it half strength.)
I do know the only time I was ever hospitalized was when I listened to the ship’s doctor on what I should do; if your body says DO NOT DO THIS then, for love of Pete, STOP!
Sorry you got the poisoning, Neo. It is awful. I’ve seen it. Like Scott, I have a military story. Undercooked chicken. It was pink at the bone. Shut up and eat it. It was out in the field and better than an MRE. You want to see something funny. A company of men (120) crappin in the night. I didn’t get it.
IHOP. I like IHOP. Dennys. Taco Bell. Carl’s Junior. Sizzler. Love the Sizzler. I eat like a dog or a pig or an animal, whatever. I’ve eaten two day ravioli left in the can and I gobble. I am changing that now.
After years, I experienced digestion problems. My chiropractor said take this: It was Neprinol which is a blend of proteolytic enzymes including, among other things, Serrapeptase, Nattokinase, and Lipase. Supposedly it defends against fibrin. It worked awesomely. Still does. The yogurt didn’t do anything and I even tried Kefir.
See? You should’ve gone to Huddle House.
That’s one reason I don’t like to eat out. Ever since I saw one of those “Gross things that cooks do in the kitchen” shows. Freaks me out. Plus, I like my own cooking better.
I’ve read that over 40% of the cases of the flu Americans get is actually food poisoning. And yes, from eating out.
I only eat chicken at home. And I cook the crap out of it.
I just love folk remedies. So wonderfully and rapidly effective, so natural, organic even. Prescription drugs? Nah, who needs ’em?
Try, in order: drink a cup of mint or chamomile tea & wait 20-30 minutes; drink a cup of kefir & wait 20-30 minutes; slurp up a cup or 2 of rice gruel (cooked until it has no discernible texture) with a little sea salt and honey & wait 20-30 minutes; and next, if you can keep the following down, drink a few ounces of stout. Then, go to bed and sleep 8-10 hours.
the preceding down, not the following….
Sorry to hear you are ill. Hate when any illness happens, but that particular affliction is intensely awful.
Nuttin much to do but take in:
– flat gingerale
– coke syrup
– white rice
– saltines
– dry white toast
– lottsa water
when you feel a bit better, have some of one of those yogurts what’s got those probiotic thingies in them.
Feel better. Skip IHOPs in the future.
Most yogurts don’t have enough live and active cultures to do much good, likewise buttermilk. Dannon makes a good one, called “Activia.” Jarrow sells a combined probiotic called “Jarowdophilus.” It’s terrific. Anyhow, I’m really sorry to hear that you were sick. Do get well.
Sergey may be interested to know that my vet recommended probiotics for one of my cats who had recurrent diarrhea and vomiting (food allergies and other possible diagnoses had been ruled out). Kitty felt better within a day and her litter box usage was back to normal within a week. I assume that if probiotics can do that much good for our feline friends, they should be beneficial to humans too.
Hope you’re feeling better, BTW. What I used to do for food poisoning was to drink flat ginger ale alternating with beef or chicken broth (no noodles) made from bouillon cubes. I came down with Norwalk virus (the bug that people get on cruise ships– although I wasn’t on a cruise when I got it) a couple years back and was sick for three full days. I was really glad to have put a supply of ginger ale and bouillon cubes in the pantry.
Peppermint or spearmint tea is also good; that’s what my grandmother used to make when I or my cousins had stomach troubles. There is a chemical in mint leaves that slows down the contractions of the digestive tract, which is why it’s been a folk remedy for nausea and vomiting for centuries.
Hope you are feeling better soon. You have my sympathy, since I have had similar experiences.
And here’s an odd thought that’s consistent with my own experience: Fast food chain restaurants are probably safer than moderate, or higher priced restaurants. (Mostly, I suspect, because they have simple, and very carefully enforced, procedures.)
Oh, and when you are better, I would complain to the IHOP, if you haven’t done so already. Most likely your illness is due to a mistake by one of their people.
This won’t help you now but next time . . . And timing is key here, meaning, the sooner the better.
If you even think you might have eaten something bad, try SOLARAY COOL CAYENNE. The only place I have found it is at The Vitamin Shoppe. You can take the “standard: cayenne but it may be harsher on your stomach. Yes, even with the “Cool Cayenne” you may feel some heat. Even on your tongue. But it works.
I have used it SUCCESSFULLY over ten past 10+ years. I like mussels and raw oysters. If I think I ate a questionable one, I take two and have never had a problem.
Wishing you a speedy (full) recovery.
Tom-
to the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any prescription treatments for “food poisoning.”
There’s medical treatments for the dire side effects of it, but other than that it’s a matter of time.
Sort of like the cold, and for a similar reason– “food poisoning” covers a wide range of causes.
If you end up with some of the more dire ones, there’s formal medical treatment… but not for the generic 24 or 72 hour throne-worshiping sort.
Folk treatments give you something to do until you find one that works, treat the symptoms, and when you’ve found some that help they let you recover more quickly.
Do get well neo – I have no suggestions, but there seems to be plenty of …well… food for thought here.
I’ve had food poisoning twice, once bad, and once mild. The bad time unfortunately happened when I was young (maybe 10 or 11) and, of all things, it was from home-cooked steak. I’ve never been able to eat steak since; indeed, it turned me off forever from anything with even the TEXTURE of steak (any chewy meat like lobster, for instance).
So the remark that one of these experiences makes a serious dent in one’s impressions about certain foods is certainly true in my case.
That is true that “food poisoning” can mean a lot of different things, but all of them lead to disrupture of natural equilibrium of many types of microbes in large intestine. Untill this equilibrium is not restored, symptomes persist. The most annoing complication is fermentation dyspepsia, fueled by sugar, so it is the first thing to avoid. Flour and starch are also should be limited, that is why potato and bananas are exluded. This left easy digested staff like non-sweet apples, crackers, tea and all kinds of fermentated diary products, like cheese, kefir, yougurt, sour milk and so on. Some people object using diary products, but milk fat is the most easy digested of all fats, and for normalisation of internal biochemistry it is indispensable.
Natural probiotics are fermentated diary products. They usually include whole assembley of different types of microbes which are already established some human-friendly stable associations, organised by natural selection, and such associations are the core around which all other microbes are organised, too, to reach a viable ecosystem. The best are home-made, rural kinds of diary products, without conservants or chemical additives.
The worst part about not being stupid in cases like this is that you can’t blame it on Bush.
You must cut down the largest GI distress in the village with….
A Yogurt!?!?
:^D
OK, no remedy there, but hopefully that made you forget the problem for a few seconds. LOL
I got food poisoning many many years ago, took me a good week to get over it. About the only thing they “had” at the time was a “paragoric equivalent” called Parapectolin. Basically, this stuff. I don’t recall it working all that visibly well. I do recall it had this absolutely wonderful banana smell, that utterly, totally, and completely disappeared the precise instant you put it into your mouth, and you suddenly realized you just ate a spoonful of blackboard chalk…
(8-X
I was quite glad i got over that.
Oh, don’t be silly. Bush can be blamed for anything stupid. Just ask my yellow-dog Democrat libtard aunt.
I’ve read that over 40% of the cases of the flu Americans get is actually food poisoning. And yes, from eating out.
“Stomach Flu”, perhaps, yes, I’ve heard similar figures.
Since no one else mentioned it, I’ll point out that there are various “sport waters” — vitamin enhanced waters — that are likely to be of some use here, I would think.
Mind you — As someone else noted, “not a doctor, and I haven’t even been to an HI Express”…
Although some chains may be more prone to it, I don’t think any particular chain can be singled out for awfulness, nor can it be singled out by the class of people that go there. Around here, there was a list of “10 restaurants to be wary of” compiled by the local newspaper, based on number of health-code violations. Several of them were the local Chinese restaurants (not much surprise there, huh?) but one of them was a Panera’s — about as high-end as a fast food place gets.
Mostly it’s the management of the place that you have to be wary of, and a lot of time that’s something your best bet is word of mouth — trust the tales you hear of anyplace local regarding their foods.
Humans really aren’t THAT sensitive to bacteria, or we would have died out long ago, but using sense always helps. For example, unless you KNOW a place makes its chili fresh every day, I’d NEVER trust anyplace to provide good chili, because, though the stuff itself is hostile as hell to bacteria, the practices most places go through (knowing that) are likely to encourage something that DOES survive the chili to exist. Many places, for example, DON’T empty out old chili, and just dump more into the same pot, maybe “flipping it” into a new container. Usually that’s a violation of health codes, but it’s one you virtually never get caught at.
I’d also point out that this sort of thing is a pretty good example of the free market fixing itself — if Neo’s experience with that IHOP is even vaguely common, then word of mouth will get around and that specific IHOP will go out of business before long.
Most places don’t have any kind of real serious health issues for that very reason. Either word gets around or the problem was transient.
Living in Indonesia, which has every intestinal malady known to man, plus a few that haven’t been identified yet, I’ve become something of a connoisseur of stomach distress. It’s always hot and moist around here, so bacteria and parasites thrive all year round.
As for you, Neo, my non-medical but informed (by sad experience) guess would be salmonella, possibly from the spinach (the spinach may not have gotten hot enough for long enough in the omelet to kill the salmonella bacteria). Do NOT take Immodium or other anti-diahrreal if you’re actually sick from what you ate. It’s better if you let everything get cleaned out. And as numerous other people have said, rehydrate. Gatorade or other electrolyte drinks are best, alternated with water. Semoga sembuh.
The last IHOP I went to in the States was quite good. It was in a middle-class neighborhood, and Sunday mornings would the find after-church crowd lined up to the parking lot. The food that I remember was orders of magnitude better than what you describe. As Igor notes, good management is key.
You’ve had a lot of great advice on what to do. My advice is what NOT to do. My brother was a Navy corpsman for 25 years and he always says not to take medication that will stop the vomiting or diarrhea. It’s your body’s way to get rid of the offender, so let it happen.
I hope you’re feeling better soon.
Since politics has been injected in this fascinating review of stomach remedies, I have to say there were more home remedies than I would expect from a presumably conservative crowd. I guess I associated those sorts of things more with Frisco loons. Guess I was wrong.
When I was working on oil rigs in Bolivia, one home remedy for the trots was bentonite clay, which was used by the ton in drilling fluids for the well. All the bentonite did was stop you up temporarily so you wouldn’t have to go every half hour. Hundred pound sacks of bentonite at that time went for about a dollar, which works out to a penny a pound.
I have seen bentonite in natural foods groceries for $8.00 a pound.
From a penny a pound to $8.00 a pound. That is price inflation!
I am with LAG on reading the many posts here, which are truly frightening as to their prideful ignorance. Frisco loonieness, indeed. No one here seems to recognize the difference between an enterotoxin and a pathogenic bacterium. No one seems to know that cholera kills by cleaning folks out faster than they can keep up. No one seems to know how to ask for informed help timely, or even be willing to do that. You’re all going to wait it out while deciding whether to ingest pureed rutabagas instead of liquified turnips.
The folks that have posted, especially those with bizarrely precise intake advice, seem to me dangerously close to the macrobiotic/coffee enema crowd.
Scary.
In fairness I should point out that the ‘Frisco loon’ was not aimed at the fine folks at the Loon Bar and Grill near Frisco, TX.
Still I do wonder why people who swear by herbals, holistic medicines, homeopathy, and etc are the same folks who are often demanding government provided medical care once their symptoms advance to the ‘oh my God, I’m dying’ stage. Don’t the Indians (native and the others) have a shaman-solution for that?
Loon B&G here if you’re wondering.
LAG-
most of the uber-libs I know would be in the emergency room, on an IV drip, probably some pain killers or happy pills, and only then taking prepared herbs in a wide range of traditions.
Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to use home remedies (or things you can do at home– over the counter stuff) for things that don’t require medical help.
As several folks have pointed out: there’s a REASON your body is trying to get rid of the stuff. Let it. This understanding means that we’re not going to suggest over the counter stuff, since that’s largely aimed at, ahem, keeping the stuff in.
*****
On the yogurt thing:
part of the variation in observed effects might be related to that study that recently came out, finding that there are several different “types” of gut-bacteria environments, and what works for one won’t work for others.
Add in folks’ different responses to dairy, and THEN add in that folks hydrate differently on the same fluids, and the influence of what your body is accustomed to and you’ve got a wide range of possibly conflicting folk-aids.
Don’t the Indians (native and the others) have a shaman-solution for that?
In the area I was born in? Yes.
Dig a big pit, put all the old or sick people in the bottom, and if times are good you put a log down so there’s some help to climb out. If they get out, they’re taken care of for the next however long.
IGotBupkis is of the opinion that if a place serves bad food, if a lot of people get sick eating their food then, “word will get around” and, soon, they will be out of business and I agree if, say, there is a big story about this in the local papers or on TV.
But having been, over the years, the recipient of an increasing level of bad, incompetent, and “don’t’ give a shit service” of all sorts here in the Washington, D. C. metro area–and that bad/no service not just confined to restaurants/food quality–I have a different theory.
My theory is that, in the vast majority of cases, given the increasing numbers of totally unprepared and unmotivated, often functionally illiterate and innumerate slackers that our high schools and colleges generally “graduate” these days, who mostly end up in these service jobs (and who have been told/given the impression that they are, in truth, the Elect, and are “entitled,” and deserve better–hence their “attitude”), customer service is–with rare and very noticeable exceptions–dead as a doornail. Moreover, my theory is that increasing numbers of people in the service business now hold the view–especially in our area which, while it has been hit by the current economic mess, has not been hit anywhere near as hard as most of the rest of the country, so that there are still plenty of well-healed people out there spending money–that for every customer who walks out of their door dissatisfied and never comes back a new customer, in fact, an endless stream of new, one-time, uninformed customers, will walk though their doors, and they can live with that.
They apparently do not care at all about “repeat business” and building “customer loyalty” but, rather, count on a constant stream of new customers who patronize them once or twice and are then replaced by another newbie, so that repeat business is not really their objective, and they don’t really care if dissatisfied customers bad mouth them to their friends and acquaintances.
In a small, tight-knit town with perhaps one or two places to eat, a hardware store, a couple of gas stations, a couple of schools, a police station, a grocery store, someplace to buy clothes, a pharmacy, and a lawyer, insurance agent and a doctor or two, where everybody knows everybody else, and reputation is very important, word about bad treatment of customers and inferior products and service gets around real fast, but in this area–with its large, mobile, anonymous and not tightly-connected, high income customer base, and fast pace of living–businesses with this attitude/business model can apparently provide lousy, substandard, even rude service and still survive; they won’t thrive, but they can apparently survive.
Oops–I forgot to add churches and bars to my portrait of small town America above.
…and “don’t’ give a shit service” of all sorts here in the Washington, D. C. metro area…
I don’t make it out to D.C. that much, but the best service I’ve had there tends to be in the various Hooters restaurants in the area. Yes, it’s young, attractive women in skimpy outfits trying to pleasantly cajole old codgers like me into paying good tips, but you know what? I’d rather pay them for serving their so-so food with a smile than get the stinkeye from some snotty young dude who’s pissed off that I only left him 20% of the bill instead of the 25% that he thinks he’s entitled to. Next time I get the ‘tude, I’ll leave a penny. Just to show that I didn’t forget.
Not only there are many types of intestine bacteria flora, but actually every single human is unique in this respect. But this does not exlude good common practice. Bacteria that produce toxines are the most dangerous kind, and many strains of Salmonella do this. They actually need to be get rid as fast as possible, so drugs that simply stop diahrrea can lead to lethal poisoning. And some clays, like bentonite or smectite type, are very good absorbers of toxines. In Russia these clays are sold in drug stores and are included in pharmacopoea, as well as many herbal medicines. For example, cinquefoil (bloodroot) is one of the best to treat food poisoning.
1. Get better soon, Neo.
2. Take some time to write a letter stating your experience and its results to IHOP headquarters. And tell many others about your bad experience, just as you are doing right here. Don’t forget to name exactly the franchise restaurant where it occurred.
I learned years ago from a Customer Service expert that a good experience at any business is usually told by the recipient to just a few people, but a bad experience is told to four times the number of people.
There is nothing like bad publicity and national embarrassment to make them correct their mistakes.
3. Not every incident with the runs and stomach trouble can be called “food poisoning.”
Last December I had a horrible night with those symptoms, and the next day I was at the ER re-hydrating and getting an IV to stop the nausea. It turned out that I was their fourth patient that morning – and that included the ER nurse, who was going in and out of the bathroom.
It was no “food poisoning”, the ER doctor and nurses said to me, but a rampant stomach virus. Go figure.
Sergey –
I wish I had more data, but it was on the radio news and I was driving.
Basically, they’ve been able to classify those folks they’ve studied into broad groups that are helped by specific good practices, and things that work on this class won’t work on another.
Sort of like how every forest is different, but you can classify them as tropic rain forest, temperate rain forest, highlands desert forest, etc.
Foxfier, it runs deeper than that. Just yesterday I attended a public lecture by head of laboratory from St.Peterburg’s Institute of Experimental Medicine, the leading Russian institution on medical bacteriology, exactly on this topic. He cited the most recent outstanding publications on gut symbiotic bacteria, where dozen of healthy Dutch men were tested on their intestinal microbiota spectra. In 20 cases only 10% of strains were common for all of them, and 90% unique (around 100 types of microbes were identified for each individual). His recomendation was to analyse each case of disease for microbiota spectrum to identify the strain which causes disease, and only after that prescribe antibiotic that can suppress it. But this can be costly and time consuming, so alternative strategy is to use universal anti-toxin therapy (like enteroabsorbers, like clays or activated charcoal) and follow up with probiotics. In his laboratory one of such preparation was developed, a strain of Streptococcus fecalis. I tested it on myself for colitis a month ago and it was very helpful.
Last decade there is an epidemic (actually, pandemic) of stomach viruses. They actually are the same viruses that cause flu, but they change their virulence pattern and now target intestines. Almost half of the cases of diarrhea now are caused not by bacterial pathogens, but by these viruses. Nevertheless, they are airborn, but can be caught up from foods (especially not cooked ones, like salads or sushi), so technically it still “food poisoning”.
It must be the IHOP, so just tell them about it and they’ll fix it NOT. The rush to judgement without knowledge here, on this topic, is discouragingly enlightening.
Why is IHOP responsible? Why, becuz Neo hardly ever eats there, spinach, etc., etc. It’s just not a chic place, so it is suspect. But the entire food prep op is regularly inspected by local gov’t; ya think they missed something that management will pick up on becuz Neo complains she thinks she got FP there? A case of one? Perhaps she caught a so-called stomach virus the day before from a close friend who failed to wash her hands.
I tried without success to identify enterotoxin vs. infection as an issue earlier. Infections have an incubation period, but you all knew that, right?
Sheesh.
“Infections have an incubation period”
Not intestinal ones, or, more precisly, it is so short that it is hard to detect. Doubling time for streptococus is several minutes, so go figure. The same for Salmonella species. The only infection/poison for which this is a distinction with some difference is botulism, but it does not cause diarrhea.
Sheesh.
This naive faith that government inspection can shield us from food poisoning is laughable. Good reputation of a place and serious attitude to keep it so is the only guarantee. That is why places without reputation to care about are always dangerous.
Sergey, The description of the lecture you attended made me very glad that I chose a career as a systems analyst. 🙂
Sergey, stick to what you know and do; you do not know medicine nearly well enough.
The incubation period of norovirus is 1-2 days; for pathogenic E. coli it is 1 to 10 days, and so on. Look it up next time, and can the BS.
You report they dispense bentonite in Russian pharmacies today; today? Good luck, gospodin.
Tom: I felt fine when I ate there, got quite sick a couple of hours later, as did my dining companion, who also had eggs and we shared some of the dinner. Ergo, food poisoning.
Ya know, it is getting so you can’t tell what kind of food or service you are going to get just by the appearance or location of the place providing it. I have had awful, virtually inedible food at very expensive restaurants–a memorable and horrible, very expensive brunch at the Ritz Carleton in downtown Atlanta comes to mind, where they were unable to produce decent, hot, scrambled eggs and home fries after a couple of tries–and, from what I saw, they didn’t really care, either, vs. a local, hole in the wall gas station, that my wife assures me produces extraordinarily good coffee. Go figure.
I guess that the main thrust of my complaint is that people have not been taught, and no longer really care, and certainly no longer have the ideal in mind that–whatever they do, whatever the job they might find themselves in–they should try to do a good job, the best job that they can possibly do–such an attitude is, from the evidence, just a laughable, naé¯ve, and alien concept in today’s society. The idea that a “menial” job such as preparing food or working in a service industry should be done as best the person doing it can do is, apparently, as dead as the Dodo.
Neo: probably staph enterotoxin, then.
But many do not distinguish between a toxin and an infection when calling it food poisoning.
So sorry you had such a miserable experience, neo. I’ve had food poisoning several times so I feel for you.
Rest up and take the priobiotics and I hope you feel completely recovered soon
Incubation period for salmonella is 1-4 hours, and the more you eat of the food that contains it, the faster it hits. I’ve had it, I can vouch for this, and my sister, who’s a vastly experienced ER nurse (30+ years), verifies it.
Food poisoning caused by exotoxins typically give symptomes around 24 hours after digestion. This includes Staphylococcus aurelius, botulin toxin and other, much more rare kinds.
Salmonella is the most frequent pathogen in food poisoning, especially often associated with salads and eggs.
Any home remedies of yours to share, to hasten along the recovery?
Gallons of water each day. One of the cheaper and efficient ways of purging the body of poisons.
I would recommend deep breathing as well in order to expand the lungs, diaphragm, and guts. Helps digestion and the flow of blood (or Chi as Asians call it). The Chinese would call breathing methods “qiqong”.
You might also be able to moderate the acid/base balance of your stomach to ease the discomfort, but I have no idea what happens to the Ph of stomach acid that is diluted with food bacteria.
The Japanese, strangely, still believe that women should acquire the feminine art of cooking in order to increase their Appeal (an English word adopted by the Japanese, meaning more than what we take it to mean).
The reason why humans are okay with bacteria is only because we killed all the harmful ones when we discovered fire and started cooking our food.
Just an FYI from an old restaurant hand (worked in many varieties of restaurants in college): Never leave a penny for bad service. Always leave two, as in ‘giving the server my two cents’ worth’. Servers understand what two pennies mean, and those two pennies do have a meaning to any server beyond the customer being a cheapskate.
My two cents’ worth.
Thanks, RickZ. I’ll remember that, especially if I don’t plan on visiting that particular restaurant again. I’ve heard that the server’s bodily fluids somehow end up the food of customers who complain, and that’s not a scenario I contemplate with any enjoyment.
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