Food poisoning & your gut
Did you know there's such thing as post-infectious IBS. This is a type of IBS that develops…ready for…post infection.
This includes water-borne or food-born illness, getting sick from bacteria (e. coli, salmonella) , parasite (such as giardia), or viral infections. The technical term is actually “acute enteritis”, but we're just going to call it food poisoning (even though you can get infected by water and other contaminated sources).
If you get food poisoning (acute enteritis) you have an 11 percent chance of developing post-infectious IBS. This risk is even higher for women.
But here's a kicker…it can take 2-3 years for IBS to develop, so you may not connect the onset of your symptoms to getting food poisoning.
I've seen PI-IBS onset in a few different ways:
One of my clients went on vacation to the Bahamas and got Norovirus → had immediate onset of typical food poisoning symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain) → those acute symptoms decreased, but her gut was NEVER the same again. Pain, urgent diarrhea, cramping, reflux became her norm
Another one of my clients lived abroad for a few months and got food poisoning → after acute symptoms her gut went back to normal → but over the next couple years she slowly got more bloated and constipated
For one person, it's very obvious what triggered the change, but for my other client we had to dig into her history and timeline (peel back the layers of the onion as Shrek would say)
And a very important reason to identify PI-IBS is that it's treated slightly differently than normal IBS
Post-infectious IBS can damage the Migrating Motor complex (MMC), which essentially sweeps things through the gut so bacteria, stool, undigested food aren't hanging around where they can contribute to SIBO or dysbiosis. That means PI-IBS may require more aggressive or long-term support of your MMC (aka motility support).
Without proper motility/MMC support you may end up bloated and back at square one a few months or years down the road.
Pay special attention to this if…
Your symptoms onset or worsened after food poisoning incidence
You have reoccurring SIBO infections or have gone through protocols but only get a short-term benefit
Stool testing is also helpful for identifying gut imbalances. Food poisoning as a bit of a tornado for the gut, which can cause low levels of GOOD bacteria and/or high levels of BAD bacteria (usually the bacteria, itself, that initially caused the infection passes, but leaves a mess behind)
Luckily, this is something we can fix with the right tools and support!
Here's what Dione said after working together for 4 months after getting Norovirus on vacation:
