Diarrhea within half an hour every time I eat.

Posted , 4 users are following.

A little over a week ago I had some pasta that had clams in it at a restaurant (in Korea if that's of any relevance). Within 10 minutes of leaving I had horrible stomach pains, the kind where you sweat and feel like you could pass out. I of course had major diarrhea, and then 2 more times that night.

Ever since then I've been getting stomach aches and diarrhea every single time I eat. I've been drinking lots of water and not eating anything spicy or greasy. I ate a small bun and within 5 minutes I had to run to the bathroom. I'm wondering if it is food poisoning, but it seems like it's going on too long.

If anyone has any ideas it would be very helpful. I'm not sure if there's something I can take for it. It's very frustrating since I'm currently in another country on vacation and I can't go anywhere to eat. Thank you!

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • Posted

    HI lasterr

    The only obvious answer is to go a hospital if you have travel and medical insurance. Failing that a pharmacy.

    You have obviously contracted a bug..perhaps from the clams not cooked enough.

    Best wishes...

     

  • Posted

    Hi, it probably is food poisoning, maybe campylorbacter or salmonella. Both can take awhile to completely be out of your system. It would be best to go to an emergency doctor and ask for relevant tests or to a hospital and tell them what you said here. Anti biotics can be prescribed but it depends where you are if you can buy over the counter. If you can go to a pharmacy they might be able to help too. Otherwise, be careful what you eat, no greasy food, just bland stuff like rice and chicken or fish. (Not fried, just poached)! Hope this helps, best wishes. rolleyes

  • Posted

    You know there are two very different types of food/water poisoning and first of all: food poisoning can last weeks or months.

    The one is, when you pick up an active 'bug' (mostly due to undercooked food or contaminated water), some bacteria or virus or parasite, that is pathogenic for you and lives in you, plays havoc, multiplies, leaves toxins....until tackled by immune system or medication.

    The other one is, when you eat a chemical, a passive (non multiplying, not living) toxin, that was either made by a bacteria (and bacteria even killed through cooking - e.g. cereus bacillus form toxin at room temperature-stored rice, staphylococcus toxin when people with pus infection handle food) or decaying fish/scromboid or

    actually a natural toxin eaten by otherwise wonderfully fresh seafood poisons you (Ciguatera toxin, dinoflagellate product eaten by fish and shellfish mainly in warm water oceans. or venerupin-very bad one, you are not fitting in with symptoms, relief. and many other dinoflagellate products that act as mostly short term food poisoning in seafood) - etc. Rarely food poisoning is man made: pesticides

    The list of possibilities is awfully long, very different in its nature and actions and fills books!

    You should have had some  soju with your food. ;-)

    No, seriously:

    Now  your onset was very instant -10min?-, if the clams in pasta were the reason (who knows, maybe you picked somthing up 12 hours, days beforehand and broke out just 10 min after eating this pasta by coincidence...??).

    Any bacterial, viral infection would not be that instant.

    A campylobacter needs 2-5 days to give you symptoms (awful symptoms btw)

    Even listeria, e.coli, salmonella, norovirus need many hours, if not a day at least to develop symptoms since they need to multiply and settle in your guts.

    Either it was not the clams and active bug infection or it was a passive toxin with instant reaction.

    The reasons are so many, it is impossible to tell.

    Unless your stool or blood is tested. And then again, some are overlooked or not tested for like cryptosporidium, unless specifically asked for. (crypto takes btw 2 weeks to heal)

    What you need to do is to keep yourself very well hydrated -which you are doing- with not contaminated water, get also so electrolytes into you (but don't overdose!)

    An otherwise healthy adult has great compensation mechanisms in place and can cope with diarrhea very well, even for weeks, but you need to supply your body with that what it looses on a greater scale.

    Do stay away from fish and shellfish currently please.

    Eat anything well cooked and freshly cooked, still of course if you can't cook for yourself, it's always a trust thingy since you don't want to put another infection on top of it or boost it.

    If you have a travel insurance and feel getting worse and weaker, you need to seek medical advice and tests. 

    If you feel you can handle it by compensation conservatively (hydration/easy digest safe food), then you can wait a little, but be prepared, food poisoning can last long depending what you got into your body.

    Food poisoning is not over always in just a day or two, can be, but...it depends what the cause is out of 1000 possibilities for one word: food poisoning.

    Best of luck and that you feel better with each day!

     

     

    • Posted

      Ps:

      having diarrhea so quickly after eating is a very normal reaction when you have food poisoning or gastrointestinal infection.

      As soon as the stomach streches with food, that 'gastrocolic' reflex sets in, always does. So your bowel starts to be more mobile even that eaten food is not there yet.

      Since your guts are try everything to keep you healthy and expell the harmful substance faster than before, its reaction is a bowel movement quite quickely after eating with flushing liquid, to get the culprit out.

      It's normal, physiological and actually trying to heal you, when being sick with a quick reaction.

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