The Symptoms Of Food Poisoning

By Author: John Abraham
Total Articles: 57
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Food poisoning is one of the major concerned health problem in the world that arises due to eating of food that was contaminated. Food may be contaminated by bacteria, viruses, environmental toxins, or toxins present within the food itself, such as the poisons in some mushrooms or certain seafood. Intake of poisoned food results symptoms of nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

Food poisoning is nothing but contamination of eating food with germs, bacteria or poisoneous toxins. Bacteria are all around us, so mild cases of food poisoning are common. You might be remembering your childhood story that your mom or dad would have told you it was stomach bug or stomach virus when you are suffering stomach ache, but actually it is like food poisoning.

Symptoms

The symptoms of food poisoning range from upset stomach, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps and dehydration, to more severe illness such as paralysis and meningitis. Even after noticing these symptoms, final confirmation is done by testing the stool.

Most food poisoning effects (symptoms) on body clear up in a few days on its own. It should not ...
... be neglected if food poisoning illness is continued for more days and immediately medical attention should be given. The probability of food poison is more for children, elders, pregnant women and persons who use antacids heavily .
Causes

There are various causes for food poisoning to occur, out of which the main gist is contamination of food. These agents can include toxins, bacteria, viruses, or parasites. There are more than 250 known agents that have the ability to cause food poisoning. No doubt the most populated bacteria is the prime agent for food poisoning. The most prevalent types of food-borne bacteria are E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter, and Shigella. Bacterial food poisoning symptoms appear a bit delayed around 12 to 72 hours after consumption of poisonous food as bacteria needs time to multiply.

Food usually becomes contaminated from poor sanitation or preparation. Also there is possibility of contaminating the food by food handlers who suffer with infections or keeping themselves unclean hands. There are two important conditions that promote contamination of food are improper packing of food and storing food at inappropriate temperatures.

Treatment

It is practically proved that without any treatment the symptoms of food poisoning disappear shortly. If symptoms are severe or persist for more than 3-4 days, talk to your doctor. But doctor should be consulted immediately if elderly person or child is affected with food poisoning. Keep a sample of any remaining food as well as a sample of the patient's feces, which can be tested for the presence of infectious microorganisms. If the cause is non-infectious, such as poisonous mushrooms, you may need to be treated urgently to eliminate the poison from your body.

Treatment of food poisoning is usually aimed at preventing dehydration. In severe cases fluids and salts may be administered intravenously in hospital. Appropriate antibiotics are used depends upon the poisonous bacteria present in the food. Patients usually recover quite rapidly from an attack of food poisoning and rarely experience long lasting health consequences. In very rare cases, there is a risk of septicemia if bacteria spread into the blood stream. Both dehydration and septicemia can cause shock - a condition that is sometimes fatal. For more information on food poisoning treatment go to foodpoisoning.com.