Tag Archive for: food poisoning

Why You Need Taurine

/in /by

Two years ago, I wrote about an episode of food poisoning that Paula and I both had. It was gut wrenching, literally, but it may have been a good thing. How is that possible? Believe it or not, it might have been a training session for our microbiomes.

Scientists have been examining ways to reduce our dependence on antibiotics, and that includes studying the way the microbiome responds to bacterial infections. They have exposed rodents to specific bacterial pathogens and then studied how the animal’s gut responds. When they later expose the animals to the same or similar pathogenic bacteria, the response is significantly reduced. How?

The second exposure caused an increase in the probiotics that release hydrogen sulfide; this chemical interferes with the pathogenic bacteria’s ability to produce energy, thus reducing the negative effects of the invader. The microbiome “remembered” the invader and responded with the correct defense. They further explored how taurine supplementation would impact the response; because taurine contains a sulfonyl group, it supports the production of hydrogen sulfide. They found taurine was effective to increase production and reduce the impact of the pathogens.

Taurine is found only in animal sources; seafood leads the list. However, the body can make taurine from cysteine; that may help as long as a person, carnivore or vegan, gets all the amino acids. Taurine is also found in energy drinks and assorted sports products. We’re not at the point where a specific quantity of taurine can be recommended for suspected food poisoning, but it’s good to know that our microbiome may be trained against some food-poisoning pathogens.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References: Call. 2021. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.12.011

A Case for Fasting

/in /by

During the food poisoning episode last week, I didn’t eat for 30 hours. Of course, I had slept most of that time and eating was the last thing I wanted to do. Even though I could have started eating again, I decided to continue the fast to at least 60 hours. I continued to drink fluids—I’m not going to live without coffee—but no food or drinks with calories.

Why do this? I had just scanned a research paper written by a Japanese research group who had four volunteers fast for that long. They observed interesting changes in metabolism by measuring by-products of metabolism in blood. They took blood samples before the study and then at 10 hours, 34 hours, and 58 hours. In prior research, they had discovered 14 changes in metabolites, but this time there were 30 more changes that occurred during the 58-hour fast.

It’s difficult to establish a time-course of events as they didn’t collect blood every two or four hours, but we can compare baseline numbers with the results of the other times blood was collected and analyzed. Initially the body relies on stored sugar in the form of glycogen, but eventually sugar gets used up and the body has to rely on fat stores. Here’s observation Number One: blood sugar was consistently maintained varying only 10 mg/dl over the observed times. Surprised? I’ll tell you why that happened on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Report Food Poisoning

/in /by

What should you do if you get food poisoning? Report it. The procedure may vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city, but here’s what we did.

The first thing: Paula called the restaurant where we ate and told the manager what happened, what we ate, and when. We can’t be sure their food was the culprit, but that’s the only time Paula and I ate the same things for the prior 24 hours. What we had to eat before then we shared with Riley, and he never had any digestive issues. It doesn’t have to be an accusatory conversation, but they should know—think of all the people that may have eaten at the same place. The manager was grateful for the information and said she’d check their stock of the food we ate.

Then I looked up the procedures for the county. They had an online form to fill out that asked about the symptoms, the timing in relation to meals, and what we’ve eaten over the past 72 hours. I filled it out on Sunday and they called Monday to check on some details. The forms were very detailed, and that’s probably why most food poisoning isn’t reported. By the time we feel better, which is just usually a couple of days, we think it won’t make any difference. But remember that no one can count the incidences if we don’t report it and let the health department do its job. Every time we see on the news that romaine lettuce or whatever has been recalled, that’s all the health departments working together to do their jobs—but they can’t help us if we don’t help them.

Paula and I have recovered from our bout with food poisoning. It was a very unpleasant 48 hours, but we made it; Paula adds that vomiting hard every 60 to 90 minutes is a great core workout. Most cases of food poisoning are not going to be fatal; only 450 deaths were reported per year out of the 1.2 million reported cases of salmonella poisoning. We don’t know how many could have been prevented with better info from the public.

We can never be sure our food supply and our home cooking techniques are perfect, but we can strive to make them better. So if you suspect you’ve gotten food poisoning, tell your doctor, your health department, and the store or restaurant as soon as possible. It’s the right thing to do, and it could save many other people from a miserable day or two. It might even save a life.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

The Most Likely Culprit: Salmonella

/in /by

Food poisoning happens more often than we think it does. Most often, we throw up once or have a single bout of diarrhea with no fever and no fatigue and it’s over. The question is how we know which type of bacteria was at fault. There’s no way to know for certain unless stool samples are tested, and that only happens if the case is severe enough that a person requires hospitalization. While I can’t be certain, my best guess is that Paula and I encountered salmonella, the most common form of food poisoning.

I base that on the length of time from the onset of symptoms and the type of symptoms. Salmonella may or may not cause a fever, but it can cause vomiting and diarrhea. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 1.2 million people get salmonella infections per year but as I suggested, it could be much higher; only 23,000 people per year are hospitalized with food poisoning. Most people get over salmonella within a few days with no lasting effects.

How do you know when to seek medical assistance? When the symptoms are very severe and last longer than is reasonable: 36–48 hours would be my guess. An inability to keep anything down or severe diarrhea can cause dehydration and that’s definitely not good. Children under five and people over 65 are the most at risk for hospitalizations because their immune systems are most likely to be compromised and dehydration is a greater risk.

What should you do if you suspect food poisoning? I’ll let you know on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Is It Food Poisoning?

/in /by

It all began Saturday evening. Paula and I had gone out to dinner to celebrate the 31st anniversary of our first date and were watching a little television. After finishing a show, she said she felt like throwing up. She decided to get ready for bed while I channel flipped for awhile. I found out later she had thrown up almost hourly all night long. It continued all the way through most of the next day. The vomiting skipped me, but I had diarrhea the rest of the night and throughout the next day. Neither of us had a fever, but the symptoms continued. I’ve never slept so much in 24 hours ever.

As I write this, we both feel better. I still feel 10 cents short of a dollar, but that raises a more important set of questions. What is the most likely culprit? What should you do if you get these symptoms? More important, what should we do to let others know? I didn’t choose this topic—it chose me—but that’s going to be the focus of this week’s Memos.

Tomorrow night is the Insiders Conference Call. The primary topic is probiotics and then I’ll answer your questions. You can still participate by becoming an Insider today.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet