why does a stomach flu cause muscles to ache all over your body? What mechanism is causing it?

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why does a stomach flu cause muscles to ache all over your body? What mechanism is causing it?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s not the flu that’s causing the pain. It is your immune system.

Think of it like a newer model vehicle. When the computer in new cars determine that something potentially catastrophic is wrong, they will switch the car into limp mode. Typically reducing max speed, turning off climate control, and sometimes shutting off the infotainment controls.

Your immune system is like the cars computer but for your body, it’s trying to keep you safe…sure it might be annoying, but it’s doing the right thing.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I read the aches and pains is caused by inflammation in your muscles and joints. Inflammation is one of your bodys’ immune responses to the flu.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There needs to be a little history here to explain things.

We call any generic illness involving nausea or GI symptoms a “stomach flu” because we *used* to call those same illnesses “cholera” (which is a word which means “bilious illness” – an illness involving vomiting or GI issues). Then the disease now known as cholera, caused by the bacteria *Vibrio cholera*, took over that word. And we shifted all the others to the label ‘stomach flu’. It’s not that “the stomach flu doesn’t exist”, it’s that it’s a generic, non-specific, colloquial name for a host of non-specific illnesses.

Now, no illness stays in your stomach. Everything always affects everything else. When you are infected with a virus, your immune system activates. This is bad for your body, and causes damage, but is necessary to fight the infection. That damage causes pain and discomfort. This discomfort is what you are describing as muscle pain.