What happens in a person’s body when they eat “off” food and it leads to diarrhea?

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Sorry if the question is gross 🙂

This may or may not have just happened to me — how does the body detect the pathogen (or toxin or whatever), and how does it “decide” what to do about it? What signalling systems, etc. are involved? How does it decide when it’s “done”? What’s all that rumbling about?

Thanks for all insights!

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

One of the most common causes for this is infection with E. coli, but can happen with other bacteria. This is because these bacteria have an antigen in their cell wall that is the main compound our body reacts to, as it is a common marker. Peptidoglycan, if I remember correctly.

Cells have receptors and mechanisms to signal for damage, so once this compound is detected, the cell starts a signal that triggers the IG to react by flushing everything out.

That rumbling is your intestine pushing everything out as fast as it can, for as long as the compound is in the body.