[cmamad id=”4585″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop” stg=””]

Stomach flu is one of those weird things that just comes on suddenly.

Often, the flu will only last for a day or two — we go from feeling great to feeling horrible to feeling great again.

The stomach flu can come with nausea and maybe vomiting.

But most often, it brings diarrhea, and a horrible feeling of malaise and body aches.

We’ve all been there, we all know how it hits and runs.

But have you wondered where the stomach flu comes from?

That’s what I’m going to discuss in today’s newsletter.

We’ll get to the bottom of where we get the stomach flu.

I want to tell you how to avoid stomach flu this season.

I’ll tell you what I found out about what the doctors call foodborne or waterborne gastrointestinal illness of an acute nature.

To get this information, I found this study that was done in Canada.

The researchers found out that roughly one in 10 Canadians have reported stomach flu over the past month.

And most people experience it between one to three times per year.

They also said that the numbers and experiences of these Canadians applies to almost all other Western countries — including the United States.

And I think that it is true.

[cmamad id=”4586″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop” stg=””]

So now let’s talk about where the flu can come from.

It can come from either food or water.

So this study focuses on how we get the “stomach bug” from water.

The researchers took four groups of people from the same area.

They had each group of people and had them drink water only from specific sources, so they could compare the results:

(1) tap water;
(2) tap water from a continuously purged tap;
(3) bottled plant water;
(4) purified bottled water (tap water treated by reverse osmosis or spring water).

Most people would expect this water to be the most likely way to catch waterborne flu — but they’d be wrong.

The group that drank the plant water did not get a gastrointestinal illness.

And what they mean by plant water is that it was untreated water that was contaminated with plants and algae.

You might find water like this by drinking from a freshwater creek or stream.

It seems that 14% of the gastrointestinal illness came from normal tapwater. 

The data collected suggest that 14-40% of the gastrointestinal illnesses are attributable to tap water meeting current standards.

Fortunately, most of these stomach flu from water were pretty minor.

But this still only accounts for some of the stomach flu in the study.

So if it is 14 to 40% from water, that leaves foodborne illness as responsible for anywhere from 60 to 86% of stomach flu.

Let’s turn look at food as the source of stomach flu:

There were a handful of bacteria that caused people to be VERY sick — sick enough to go to the hospital.

These were Campylobacter spp., Cryptosporidium spp., C. cayetanensis, L. monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., STEC, Vibrio spp., and Y. enterocolitica.

You probably won’t have heard about most of these — if any.

But these made most people get sick for one or two days, and then it passed.

So what makes most people sick?

The class known as noroviruses caused the most illnesses by far.

The Centers for Disease Control says you get noroviruses by:

• eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus,
• touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus then putting your fingers in your mouth, or
• having contact with someone who is infected with norovirus (for example, caring for or sharing food or eating utensils with someone with norovirus illness).
• Norovirus can spread quickly in closed places like daycare centers, nursing homes, schools, and cruise ships.
• Most norovirus outbreaks happen from November to April in the United States.

There is no real treatment either, except to remain hydrated and rest until it goes away.

You’re really at the mercy of the virus until it runs its course.

I think that aspirin can be very helpful here if you could tolerate it.

Aspirin helps reduce inflammation in the gut, so it makes sense that it may help, but I I don’t have any proof of that — yet.

But if nothing helps, the only thing to do is find out where you catch it and avoid it.

So what is one of the most common foods that causes us to get sick?

The most common sources of foodborne illness are chicken — without a doubt.

At much lower levels beef and pork can also spread foodborne illness.

The bacteria and viruses just sit on the food unless we cook it properly before eating it.

But there are other ways to spread foodborne bacteria besides just eating undercooked meats.

Have you thought about the lowly kitchen dishtowel?

We touch them after everything we do in the kitchen, and they’re hotbeds for contaminants.

This is been studied extensively.

And it is true that all dishtowels and sponges, whether wet or dry, are teeming with bacteria in the kitchen.

Cleaning them by boiling them helps a lot.

But the fact is that the dishtowels and sponges nearly always contain the most dangerous bacteria.

The most dangerous, Staphylococcus aureus, was not found in this study, so that’s a relief.

But the rest were found abundantly in the study — which looked at over 100 used kitchen dishcloths. LOL.

What a job, right?

Rinsing both types of dishcloth reduced the number of bacteria transferred considerably.

The study found there to be no significant difference for wet versus dry, those in-use for extended periods of time, and dishcloths used for differing activities.

These results demonstrate that the kitchen dishcloth may be contaminated with high levels of bacteria and are able to transfer these organisms onto food preparation surfaces.

I am very careful not to get juice from a raw chicken or raw beef on my dishtowels.

I think that’s common sense.

Regardless, I have noticed that I tend to get sick more often after I have prepared chicken or raw beef in the kitchen.

It doesn’t happen most of the time, but it does happen some of the time.

And it seems that most of those times that I’ve gotten sick I can recall making chicken in the past day or two.

So I guess I’m not doing this all that well and should be more careful.

You should be careful, too if you want to prevent the stomach flu.

To avoid the waterborne bugs, you want to make sure you’re using a good water filter.

10% to 20% of these illnesses are going to come to you through the water, and a good filter will solve that.

A good water filter filters even viruses.

To avoid the rest of the viruses and bacteria, be super careful about what you’re doing in the kitchen.

It’s important to be especially vigilant when you’re preparing raw chicken or raw meat.

It’s kind of obvious.

But it also definitely helps to boil or clean your dishtowels frequently.

×

Loading…

Men: Get Booster Bites -- Free Today

Pop a Booster Bite in your mouth -- and you’re UP for anything.

Booster Bites can get your testosterone higher in seconds...

Perfect for men who want great erections and super high sexual confidence.

Give me your best email and I’ll send you my Booster Bites FREE today.

I will also send you test results of common male supplements that will shock you to the core — you will want to avoid these supplements!

Matt Cook is editor-in-chief of Daily Medical Discoveries. Matt has been a full time health researcher for 26 years. ABC News interviewed Matt on sexual health issues not long ago. Matt is widely quoted on over 1,000,000 websites. He has over 300,000 daily newsletter readers. Daily Medical Discoveries finds hidden, buried or ignored medical studies through the lens of 100 years of proven science. Matt heads up the editorial team of scientists and health researchers. Each discovery is based upon primary studies from peer reviewed science sources following the Daily Medical Discoveries 7 Step Process to ensure accuracy.