Ella Rhian is lying on an idyllic beach with her boyfriend, smiling at the camera. “She doesn’t know it yet, but on this holiday she’s going to eat street food and get food poisoning, which will trigger an autoimmune disease with no cure, which will make her chronically ill for the rest of her life,” reads the text over her video, which racked up nearly 14 million views on TikTok in just five days.

Viewers were alarmed. “New fear unlocked,” wrote one in the comments. Others had questions. Can you really get a lasting illness from food poisoning? “The strangest bit about it actually was I was the healthiest I’ve ever been,” Rhian tells me over Zoom. The 30-year-old Brit has since been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis — a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) for which there is no cure. She recalls thinking her gut health was in great shape: “I was drinking kefir every day.”

She believes the initial food poisoning was triggered by a Bánh mì sandwich she bought from a street vendor while traveling in Vietnam on a hot and humid day in September 2023. She was there with her boyfriend and extended family for the wedding of her cousin. “Not ideal conditions for bacteria spreading, but weirdly, I didn’t feel ill straight away,” she recalls.

Two days later, she was at the wedding in Da Nang when she fell ill. “I have never felt like that. There was something different about this food poisoning.” She remembers urgently having to run to a restaurant bathroom, fearful she wasn’t going to make it in time.

She recovered enough to continue her trip, flying to Bali, where she fell ill again. “That’s just standard,” she said. “I’ve been to Bali before and got ill.” Eventually, she made her way back home and resumed her daily life as a marketing manager in London. Sure enough, though, another bout of sickness soon hit. “I was up the whole night in agony with my stomach and that’s the point where I was like, that’s kind of odd,” Rhian said.

More symptoms emerged — most alarmingly, blood in her stools — and ignoring them was no longer an option. A series of tests revealed a shocking diagnosis with IBD. The exact cause of the condition remains unknown. Previously, diet and stress were suspected, but now, healthcare professionals know these factors may aggravate the condition but aren’t the cause of it. “They tell you there’s no cause and there’s no way to know what triggered it. But you know your body,” Rhian says. “It was definitely a stroke of bad luck and I had the genetic predisposition for getting it.”

The autoimmune disease occurs when the body mistakenly attacks healthy cells, causing inflammation. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are two of the most common forms of IBD. The disease affects an estimated three million people in the U.S. and half a million people in the U.K. Scientists have found that recurring food poisoning and the resulting inflammation can trigger IBD, supporting Rhian’s belief that her condition began with that fateful Vietnamese sandwich.

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What was particularly surprising to the traveler was the lack of warning signs. “Obviously, everyone says you’ve got genetic makeup that makes it easier for you to get this, but I had no idea. No one in my family has IBD.” Six months of treatment followed, during which time Rhian continued to suffer from stomach issues that kept her up at night and blood in her stools. Luckily, with the right combination of medication and lifestyle changes, Rhian is now in remission, meaning the symptoms are under control. Her new regimen includes more exercise, a nutrient-focused diet that includes kefir and ginger and turmeric shots daily to reduce inflammation, and less alcohol.

Her diagnosis hasn’t stopped her from exploring new destinations — she recently visited Costa Rica in December — but it has meant she has to plan trips more carefully. “It’s mainly the anxiety due to needing to be near a toilet all the time, so international travel is difficult,” she said. Long bus rides and tours are particularly difficult, not to mention the chronic fatigue that has left her “feeling tired all the time.”

Despite her ordeal, Rhian remains an advocate for traveling abroad, and says it’s one of the “most enriching things you can do in your life.” When it comes to street food, though, she encourages people to use their best judgment. “I would say just eat food that’s piping hot, avoid ice and salad when you’re traveling,” she warns. “Definitely don’t be afraid of going traveling.”

Rhian urges those who might be experiencing symptoms of IBD to see a doctor. “If you do have blood when you go to the toilet, please go and get checked.”