Winter is a beautiful season. It’s that time of the year when all of the trees are dusted with snow, cars have a frosted glaze, and icicles glisten in the sunlight. It’s that time of year when you build snowmen and go sledding down hills with your friends and family. Winter’s all fun and games until the infamous flu shows up to crash the party.
Who likes waking up to a migraine and an aching tummy? Not, me. But unfortunately that’s how my morning started today. Dozens of kids and teachers from my school have been absent in the past few weeks all due to the stomach flu. About 3 million people come down with the stomach flu every year. It’s always good to learn about the illness you have or the illness that you want to prevent. So, what is the stomach flu?
What is the Stomach Flu?
Every disease has a common and scientific name. The stomach flu’s scientific name is gastroenteritis. This name actually matches this disease perfectly. The word gastro has a greek origin and it means, having to do with the stomach. The second part of this name is enteritis. That means “inflammation of the intestine, especially the small intestine, usually accompanied by diarrhea.”
Although gastroenteritis is called the “stomach flu”, don’t confuse it with the influenza. The influenza (a.k.a. the common flu) attacks the lungs, nose, and throat whereas the stomach flu attacks the small intestine and the stomach, hence the name. It’s only called the stomach “flu” because some of the symptoms are pretty similar.
People can get the stomach flu if as few as 10 virus cells are in your body. These cells then latch onto your cell walls and break through them. They then duplicate and that’s how the virus spreads all over your body. These virus cells can spread very quickly between people so it’s very important to have good hygiene.
Symptoms of the Stomach Flu
Some common symptoms of this illness are diarrhea, cramps in their abdomen, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and low-grade fever. They’re not too serious but this is how you can diagnose yourself with the stomach flu. But this is only the beginning, people also experience many more unpleasant symptoms.
You might also experience chills, dehydration, fever, lethargy, lightheadedness, loss of appetite, and/or weakness. Due to the dehydration and loss of appetite, many people also end up losing weight. This is not a good thing, because you’re not only losing weight, but you’re losing electrolytes that you need.
How you can get the Stomach Flu
The stomach flu spreads very easily. It usually spreads through contaminated food and water. So make sure you don’t share you cup or plate with someone, regardless of wether that person has the stomach flu or not. By sharing a water glass with someone else, you could get a number of other viruses as well as the stomach flu. For all you know they might have been in contact with someone who was sick.
It’s also spread through contaminated surfaces. This doesn’t mean that if they touched a wall and you touch the same wall you will definitely get the stomach flu. It doesn’t spread by touch, but if you bite your fingers, put your fingers in your mouth, pick your nose, or do anything else along those lines before washing your hands thoroughly, you are putting yourself at risk of getting the stomach flu.
How to Prevent yourself from Getting the Stomach Flu
Especially in flu season, or winter, you have to take some of these precautions. You have to make you wash your hands thoroughly after you’ve gone to the bathroom, before and after you’ve eaten, and whenever you’ve gone out and gotten your hands dirty.
Keeping your hands away from your face and avoiding contaminated food and water lowers your chances of getting infected by a lot. Remember to stay a safe distance away from someone who you know is infected or someone who was infected very recently.
This might be the flu season but it’s also that time of year when you become slightly more immune to an illness you came down with. Even though it might feel like forever every sickness in only temporary. No matter what, always remember to stay positive, worst case scenario it will blow over in a week.
