Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To have never had sickness or a stomach bug?

48 replies

Gottagetthroughthis17 · 09/12/2017 17:07

I have never in my life had a stomach bug of any kind. I didn't even have morning sickness with either of my two pregnancies. My children have never had a stomach bug so far either (4 and 2).

Aibu to think this is unusual? My OH seems to have an upset stomach every other week.

OP posts:

RavingRoo · 09/12/2017 18:47

My blood group is B and I get as sick as a dog when I do get it. So I very much doubt that theory is correct.

It’s probably because you are used to the germs caused by noro while your DH may not be. Unpasteurized milk is full of bacteria (it often kills babies and kids hence advice in developing countries to bf until 2) and so you probably developed an immunity there.

RavingRoo · 09/12/2017 18:48

If you went to rural India and drank their unpasteurized milk and still weren’t sick, I’d believe there was some truth to ‘genetic immunity’.

ASqueakingInTheShrubbery · 09/12/2017 19:00

I'm O- and very rarely sick. The last time I had a sickness bug was 8 years ago and I was weaker than usual after a bereavement and losing lots of weight through stress. Before that was 1997 when I threw up in response to bad news.

DD is 4 and is sick a couple of times a year on average so far. Her best friend was off nursery with D&V yesterday so I'm apprehensive but she has been fine all day. I'm hoping she dodges it but it's going round like wildfire.

RockNRollNerd · 09/12/2017 19:07

Raving I'm absolutely sure I'd get sick drinking unpasteurised milk in rural India, the same way I've had horrendous food poisoning twice in my life but I almost certainly wouldn't get most strains of Norovirus as my genes mean there's nothing for it to attach to in my gut.

For me it's simply resistance to Norovirus - I don't get that, I did however get horrendous morning sickness when pregnant to the extent I ended up on a drip in the maternity unit on Boxing Day I'm not resistant to being sick just to the virus that causes one of the most common vomiting bugs.

Original poster

Gottagetthroughthis17 · 09/12/2017 19:11

I can't remember my blood type but will check my records.. would be interesting if it was linked to that.

I've never had the shits either lol. Sorry tmi. I do think I have a ridiculously strong stomach. I also never touch my mouth or face without washing hands and always wash hands as soon as I walk in the door if I've been outside.

I'm not a clean freak at all though and I grew up in a non clean house with plenty of animals and dirt around (farm environment).

Hmm I do count myself lucky and did think it's quite unusual.

I'm quite healthy in my diet but eat pretty much same as OH, although he would have pepperoni pizza, KFC etc, whereas I love meat but only tend to have it in home cooked meals.

Thanks for the replies, nice to hear others are as lucky

OP posts:

Iruka · 09/12/2017 19:16

I have had on sickness bug in my adult life and don't remember getting sick much as a child either. Blood type O-, don't use much in the way of bleach and pay no attention to best before dates.
I do catch every single cold or flu bug that comes in range though

BarrowInFurnessBusDepot · 09/12/2017 19:17

I’m O type blood and I’ve never had a stomach bug. I’ve had food poisoning a couple of times, but not norovirus type things.

RockNRollNerd · 09/12/2017 19:20

Genetic resistance isn't linked directly to your blood group in a 'type A+ and B+ are resistant, O+ aren't' way. All blood groups have people who are 'non-secretors' and therefore don't have the secretions in their gut that have to be present for Norovirus to affect you.

The confusion arises because one of the genes (FUT) that define your blood group also defines if you are a gut/mouth secretor or not. FUT1 modifies your red blood cells and so plays a part in determining if you are A, B, O etc blood type, FUT2 modifies mucosal cells (eg your gut). In those with genetic resistance to Noro the FUT2 gene is 'broken' and so nothing happens to the mucosal cells.

That means that in those with a broken FUT2 gene, there isn't anything in the gut that Noro can attach to and so you don't suffer from it.

Sorry - this is probably a really bad explanation. There's a few articles online about this and I linked the best one I could find which has quite a good diagram as well.

LoniceraJaponica · 09/12/2017 19:23

I wish I was as lucky as you. Sadly, a nasty bout of salmonella 23 years ago has destroyed my cast iron stomach and kick started my IBS.

I was brought up in a house that was none too clean (and neither were the kitchen or my mum's hygiene habits), so I did have a strong stomach until the salmonella poisoning.

I have also contracted norovirus (after a stay in hospital where it was going round), campylobacter, and bacillus cereus (after eating rice that had been hanging around too long at a Chinese buffet)

Wormysquirmy · 09/12/2017 19:26

I have had one tummy bug so far and I'm 42.

Kids occasionally get them and I gave been really lucky as I don't pick them up. I'm O blood group.

I might repost again tomorrow as youngest DC has her first ever stomach bug and it's covered me. Think I must succumb this time

Blackteadrinker77 · 09/12/2017 19:29

Aged 40 and I was sick one day on holiday a year ago. Never been sick before that unless it was alcohol induced.

lljkk · 09/12/2017 19:30

Thing is, although I had bad pregnancy nausea (including plenty of puking), & plenty of tummy bugs that rest of the family shared. I'm almost impervious to food-borne bugs. I routinely have food that other people consider off and I'm fine. I guess I can get diarrhea. but that's a minor almost unnoticeable ailment. I consider myself to have stomach of steel with regard to slightly bad food.

Maybe it's viruses I'm vulnerable to, not bacteria.

Allthewaves · 09/12/2017 19:30

Neither did I until my kids went to school

rachelracket · 09/12/2017 19:33

i never have either. i went on holiday and my traveling companion and others got e.coli. i was fine. i've got an absolute iron stomach. no morning sickness either. i do get seasick though and alcohol makes me vom!

LoniceraJaponica · 09/12/2017 19:53

In spite of the food poisoning, I didn't have morning sickness and am a good sailor.

Anatidae · 09/12/2017 19:59

I’m a geneticist and rockamdrollnerd explains it well :)

It’s not your blood group per se it’s linked to the genes which put those antigens on the cells.

I very rarely get stomach bugs. I’ve had precisely one in my adult life. I did have HORRENDOUS sickness in pregnancy (up to 20x a day for nine months...)

Genetics is fascinating - our immune systems are mind bogglingly complex and we still do t totally understand how they work. It does seem that we are often resistant/vulnerable to different things

khajiit13 · 09/12/2017 20:45

I never have either OP. Lost count of how often I've have tonsillitis though! But I've only ever been sick from to much alcohol

ProudAS · 09/12/2017 21:47

DM and I are both blood group O and seem to have immunity to sick bugs. I think it's genetic.

Grimbles · 09/12/2017 22:01

I had no morning sickness and most of my puking is alcohol related. I can't say I've never had a tummy bug related vomiting, but any I can remember

namechangedcantthinkofnewone · 09/12/2017 22:03

I'm the exact same, I always joke with dh that I have a stomach of steel. Nothing will upset it!

PrincessoftheSea · 09/12/2017 22:05

I am reading this in bed with a stomach bug not envy

RockNRollNerd · 10/12/2017 13:40

ProudAS resistance to most strains of noro can be genetic, but it's not your blood type that determines it.

Anatidae - thank you! I suspect you'd have made a better job of it than me. Sympathies over the morning sickness, mine was horrendous too. I think I caught up on a lifetime of noro-dodging over 8 months when I was pregnant.

MaidOfStars · 10/12/2017 13:58

I’m 40 and, in my adult life, have had two instances of feeling increasingly nauseous during the day then vomiting whatever was causing it. I don't know if they were bugs or not - certainly didn’t last long. As an adult, I’ve never had D&V, and I’ve never had food poisoning in my whole life.

My husband is a bit prone to sickness bugs and food poisoning.

Flip

1 2