Feeling sick is never fun, especially if your symptoms are stomach-related. GI problems can be uncomfortable, painful and make you feel miserable. There are many reasons why you could be experiencing these symptoms, and food poisoning is a common reason.

Food poisoning is the general term for an illness you get after consuming contaminated food or water. This type of contamination comes from improper food storage or poor preparation methods.

If you can easily recall what you ate recently that aligned with one of these causes, read on as our AFC Urgent Care Memphis team explains more below.

What Symptoms Does Food Poisoning Cause?

Food poisoning occurs when you ingest a bacteria or virus that is found in the food you ate. Depending on what pathogen it was, you can start to feel ill a day after eating it or even up to a week later or more. This is because the different viruses and bacteria can take a while to move through your system.

Once you do start to feel the effects, they typically appear all together really quickly. You can expect to have stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. You could also start out by spiking a fever as your body recognizes that something isn’t right and so it launches an immune response.

4 Common Food Poisoning Pathogens

• E.coli
• Hepatitis A
• Salmonella
• Listeria

How Do I Recover From Food Poisoning?

Most people recover from food poisoning a few days to a week after the onset of their symptoms. Even though you will probably feel pretty miserable, you most likely will not have to be seen by a medical provider in order to recover. Most food poisoning treatment focuses on symptom management and rest while your body recovers.

In the meantime, focus on supporting your body. Eat bland foods like bananas, rice, applesauce and toast, and get a lot of rest. You should also be continually sipping on water throughout the day. Diarrhea can cause dehydration pretty quickly, so be diligent about your water intake. We hope you feel better soon!

Avoiding Future Food Poisoning Situations

• Wash your hands before preparing food.
• Work on a clean and disinfected surface.
• Store your food properly.
• Cook all meat to its recommended temperature.

Feeling sick? We can help at AFC Urgent Care Memphis.