Food Poisoning Symptoms

Food poisoning is caused due intake of leftover food stuff which is contaminated by bacteria, viruses, environmental toxins or toxins present in food itself. The harmful bacteria present in the leftovers can upset your stomach and you can suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, headache, and an upset stomach with cramps troubling you till the bacteria is flushed out.

The symptoms of food poisoning depend on the type of contaminant, the amount eaten, the person’s general health and his resistance power. The symptoms can be seen within 2 to 6 hours of eating the contaminated food. The most common symptoms are Diarrhea, Abdominal pain or cramps, Nausea, Vomiting, Headache, Weakness accompanied with fever. If the food poisoning is mild, you can opt for home remedies, but in severe cases you need to consult a doctor or even get hospitalized. Food Poisoning is caused due to harmful bacteria and viruses that attack our internal system. These symptoms occur as the food-borne bacteria releases toxins in our body. These toxins affect our internal organs like stomach, small intestine and large intestine, all of these are major organs of our digestive system. Due to vomiting and diarrhea the victim may further suffer from dehydration. The major bacteria affecting the victim’s health are listed below:

Salmonella: This bacterium gives victim flu like symptoms due to which you can suffer for up to 7 days.

Botulism: This is the most harmful bacteria which has a paralyzing effect on the nervous system. Initial symptoms are visible within 18 to 48 hours after consumption of food contaminated due to Botulism. In the beginning you may experience dryness in mouth, nausea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain and blurred vision. As the nervous system is affected, the brain fails to perform accurately and thus restricts the nerves to carry messages from brain. The face and the neck area are also severely affected as the control over muscles in these areas is lost. You are not able to eat as you can’t swallow anything properly which further leads to choking of any foreign body in lungs and thus may lead to death of the victim.

If treated on time and under proper guidance of doctors you can save the victims life. A powerful injection is given to the patient suffering from food poisoning, which helps to counteract toxin caused due to bacteria and thus limits paralysis. But the serum injected cannot help recover the already damaged nerves, it prevents further damage of these nerves. The severity of the condition depends on the amount of food consumed.

Staphylococcal food poisoning:

The symptoms for this type of food poisoning are severe abdominal pain or cramps along with high fever, vomiting and diarrhea. This bacterium affects the body of the victim after about 6 hours of consumption of contaminated food. The staph bacteria releases toxin called enterotoxin which occurs mainly due to consumption of dairy products, pastries and fish products. This food is a home place for such harmful organisms.

Food Poisoning is a common but a dangerous disease which in severe cases can affect the nervous system paralyzing the victim or in acute cases may lead to death. Thus, food consumed should be eaten with utmost care as leftover food can lead you to severe health hazards.

By: Sean Anderson

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