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StrongArgument t1_ixaja1m wrote

Reply to comment by Idobehere in When a person gets stomach flu (viral gastroenteritis) or food poisoning, what exactly is happening in the body that causes stomach cramps? by geekonthemoon

I’ve seen this described as: If the caboose of a train (food in your stomach) has a bomb (spoiled food or toxins from a pathogen), the whole train needs to start moving faster to get the bomb out of town (your body).

Since muscles are what moves that “train,”moving faster can cause cramps, just like quickly overexercising any muscle can.

If you don’t then experience any loose stools or frequent bowel movements, it may be more likely that the pain is directly from the toxins instead of cramping from diarrhea

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Stannic50 t1_ixcgcqm wrote

If the body identifies toxic food while it's in the stomach, the most efficient route out is back out the way it came in, i.e. vomiting. Once it passes into the intestines, though, then you're right that the best way out is forward (quickly).

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Muted_Huckleberry486 t1_ixcq4hw wrote

Right, and the body will empty the GI tract to deprive the toxin of additional nutrients while the immune system mounts a defense. The belly pain might also be from the lymph nodes that act as the body's sewer system, purging unwanted toxins out.

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DRD_85 t1_ixeqf4i wrote

The human body cannot identify toxins i.e. the human body cannot think. The human body can only react to exogenous stimulus. It's such a common misconception that our bodies can actively find and know noxious stimuli. It's likely because growing up, we likely all had parents who told us vomiting or diarrhea was our body's way of getting rid of the bad stuff. However, that is just not the case...it's comforting to hear that as a child, but it's actually quite the opposite in reality. Reality is that bacteria and viruses have evolved proteins that bind to and activate certain receptors in our gastrointestinal tract and cause a multitude of different effects. For instance, in the majority of food poisoning cases, the toxin is likely an emetic toxin that literally binds to and activates the 5HT-3 receptor in the small intestine. This is a serotonin receptor that directly activates the vomiting center in the brain, so when you consume a food that has been improperly stored/contaminated by a bacterium that produces an emetic toxin, that toxin directly activates your vomiting center. These toxins and the genes that encode them have been highly conserved over time as they allow the bacteria that make them to spread rapidly through the environment. That's really all a bacteria or virus wants to do....multiply and spread...but please don't take that as me saying that bacteria and viruses are thinking. They are not...haha.

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[deleted] t1_ixalddi wrote

[removed]

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