Food poisoning – causes, symptoms, treatment

Food poisoning – viral

Viruses that cause food poisoning eventually lead to gastroenteritis. A characteristic symptom of viral poisoning is vomiting with diarrhea. To alleviate and heal the sick person, your doctor may advise you to stick to a strict, easily digestible diet and drink plenty of fluids.

Food poisoning – fungal

Food poisoning of the fungal type is usually chronic. This poisoning occurs when you eat a product that has mold on it. Very often many of us discover the mold site and eat all the rest, which is a huge mistake. Why? The mold that we see is not enough, because apart from the cut part, the mold has attacked the rest of the product, which at first glance is edible, but it is not.

Food poisoning – bacterial

Bacterial food poisoning occurs when products are not properly stored, when we do not maintain proper hygiene of the product and our hands, and when consuming products after the deadline. Characteristic symptoms of this poisoning are diarrhea along with acute abdominal pain. The main recommendation of a doctor to relieve symptoms and cure poisoning may be to introduce an easily digestible diet, hydrate the body, and a good solution may be to take substances such as, for example, healing coal. Bacterial poisoning is also divided into intoxication, infection and toxicinfection:

Intoxication is – the action of toxins that are found in food before consumption, a good example is e.g. poisoning through botulinum toxin. The symptoms of botulism can be really drastic, e.g. dizziness, facial paresis, vision problems, etc.
This is where bacteria build up in the intestinal epithelium
Toxicoinfection is a mixed type that is caused by a collection of bacteria in the intestinal epithelium and toxins that are visible to the intestine

Symptoms

A characteristic symptom of bacterial food poisoning is diarrhea with abdominal pain, sometimes other symptoms may occur, such as:

Nausea
Vomiting
Strong abdominal cramps
Fever
Chills
Muscle aches

Symptoms most often occur after an hour after consuming a contaminated product, but most often symptoms appear after about 12 hours. The time of food poisoning usually lasts from 1 to 3 days, but during bacterial poisoning, this time can be extended up to a week.

Prevention

The simplest slogan for prevention is care here’s what we eat. By distinguishing several principles, we should:

Consume products with a good expiry date, do not eat those after the expiry date
Throw a product with mold in the trash, because the mold gets to the entire product, not just what we see.
Let’s buy products from a known source
Let’s wash fruits, vegetables and meats
Let’s take care of hand hygiene before a meal
Let’s choose restaurants that are known for cooking on the basis of fresh products

Treatment

Usually, food poisoning is quite mild, which results in no need for hospitalization of the patient. The main recommendations your doctor may recommend are:

Adequate diet
Irrigation
Help with substances such as coal
Drinking electrolytes
Vomiting (at an early stage to get rid of poisoning)