Home Health Food Poisoning- Symptoms and Treatments
The term Food poisoning is also referred as food borne sickness. This sickness is mainly due to the consumption of food which is spoilt or which is going to be contaminated. There are various reasons and organisms responsible for food poisoning. They are namely viruses, parasites or due to any bacterial organism. These dangerous organisms can contaminate or spoil food at any point. This could be starting from processing, production or any time later. Food items particularly processed ones kept one are vulnerable to be attacked by bacteria, viral elements, and parasites.
The symptoms of food poisoning can start any time after having this contaminated food. The symptoms are often characterized by vomiting or diarrhea. It can also lead to a nauseatic sensation. Many times the diseases can be resolved by taking the person affected to the hospital. However, it would prove to be lethal if left unattended.
It is not necessary that food poisoning should affect only one person. It can affect a group of people who had the same kind of food. Generally, the trend of food poisoning is observed in a group only when people have food in a party or in a get-together. It is a common scene in many Wes Asian and South Asian countries/streets where the open serving of food items is found. Not only eating, even drinking polluted or contaminated drink can cause food poisoning.
Need to see a doctor:
Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea, fever, vomiting? Now it is high time we need to contact your doctor. For surely your stomach is contaminated with food poisoning.
These signs would start within few hours from the time the person has consumed the contaminated food to even few days after that.
Food Poisoning always means the body would lose a lot of fluid. Our body would go through diarrhea along with vomiting. The body becomes completely devoid of fluid. There is every chance that the person affected with food poisoning is completely dehydrated.
Extreme symptoms may vary from person to person. It could be anything like bloody stools, a running temperature. The temperature can be over 102.0 F. Further, there might be little urination due to lack of fluid. The vision could become blurry, extreme abdominal pain etc.
Food poisoning should never be taken lightly as in many cases it leads to completely dehydration and even leads to death. As a measure, the moment we identify these basic symptoms we need to take medical help to avoid making it lethal.
Causes for Food poisoning:
Food poisoning can be caused due to various other reasons. It could arise from preparing food in those utensils which are not cleaned properly. Even people who are cooking this food should be consciously hygienic. It could be transferred from them too. It is absolutely essential to store food in appropriate temperature. This is applicable for those foods which are stored as preservatives or that kind of frozen food.
Necessary steps should be taken to ensure that certain dairy products like cheese or coleslaw should not be refrigerated for a long time. Cooking such food would be a sure reason for food poisoning.
When we get a product from frozen shops and a lot of items like cheese, mayonnaise, coleslaw etc from dairy shops, we need to always make sure that these products have the word pasteurized mentioned on its label. This is done just to ensure that these foods are clearly processed in order to avoid any kind of contamination. Similar steps need to be taken for all kind of non-vegetarian items like meat, fish etc. The water which we drink or use for cooking. Also, of very much importance for all of us as ‘buyers’ we have to see that the product particularly the food items is well within the usable time. For that, the time for usage, manufacturing date, and storage instructions need to be seen and maintained.
People who are at Risk:
Food poisoning could be caused due to a large number of bacterias. Namely, Cholera, Toxins fish, Campylobacter enteritis, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli enteritis and Shigella. It is always essential to boil the water. The risk of the bacterial affecting old people and kids are more when compared to normal people. It is also necessary that pregnant ladies need to be extra careful in order not to be affected by the infection since their vulnerability to bacteria is more than the ordinary people. Apart from this, these bacterias might also cause the infection for those people who have weak immune system.
How to treat food poisoning?
There is no one particular treatment for Food poisoning. Different kinds of infection and different kinds of severity should be treated in a different sense. Once properly diagnosed, the treatment lasts only for a few days. But it is essential to cognise food poisoning at the right time.
In the condition of food poisoning, as mentioned earlier, the body loses out on a lot of fluid. This needs to be overcome by supplying additional liquid from outside. There are a lot of fluid given in order to replace the lost fluid. Electrolytes which consist potassium and sodium is advocated for people suffering from food poisoning.
Generally, the doctor prescribes certain antibiotics if the condition is severe. In extreme cases, antibiotics are essential for treating food poisoning. Further in case of pregnant women, the earlier the antibiotics are advocated for the mother, the better for the baby.
In certain cases where the vomiting and diarrhea do not stop, it might require hospitalization.
There are various ways through which food poisoning is diagnosed by our doctor. The most common one is a blood test or a test on stool culture. This is done to identify the bacteria responsible for the injection. Further, the medical practitioner also does a detailed study of various factors. The kind of food you have taken, the period for which you have been suffering from the pain and the lookout for factors like dehydration. It is the need of the hour to contact the medical practitioner at the right time to avoid any problems arising because of food poisoning.
Are you one of those people who are keen about roadside markets or from a frozen shop? There is nothing wrong with that. But make sure that you clean the products neatly and make sure to use hygienic methods before cooking that food. Bacteria are omnipresent. Let’s take that small extra effort to maintain our personal hygiene to avoid food poisoning. Let’s enjoy food without suffering from food poisoning.