Food poisoning

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Food poisoning is preceded by the consumption of spoiled foods, poisonous mushrooms, plants, and foods that have become temporarily poisonous under certain conditions, such as green potatoes.

Food poisoning can also result from eating foods containing heavy metal salts and other toxic chemicals.

Symptoms of food poisoning

Food poisoning is similar in symptoms to food poisoning.

Main features:

  • nausea, vomiting
  • diarrhea (stools up to 10-15 times a day)
  • abdominal pain
  • high (37.5-39оС) body temperature
  • low blood pressure
  • tachycardia (rapid heartbeat)
  • fainting
  • muscle cramps.

First aid for food poisoning

To provide first aid, it is necessary to determine which product the patient was poisoned with: ask relatives, the victim, or determine by the appearance and smell of the vomit. If the poison entered the body no more than 2-4 hours ago, then it is enough to remove the infected products and toxins by gastric lavage. To do this, you can drink 1.5 liters of a 0.1% solution of potassium permanganate or a 2% solution of baking soda. After that, you will need to induce vomiting. It is advisable to do the washing twice.

Also effective are the Smecta product and activated charcoal. “Smecta” is used in a similar way in the amount of 1 sachet, and coal – 4 tablets every 2-3 hours, but not more than 12 tablets per day. The condition of the poisoned may worsen after 10-12 hours, so you should not leave them alone.

How to avoid food poisoning?

To avoid food poisoning, follow these rules:

  • do not use unknown, also wormy, damaged, withered and old mushrooms;
  • carefully check edible mushrooms, which have very similar counterparts among poisonous mushrooms. For example, champignon and pale grebe;
  • before pickling or pickling mushrooms, they will need to be carefully processed;
  • also, you can not eat damaged dried mushrooms with mold;
  • in no case do not eat green potatoes, sprouted ones will need to be thoroughly cleaned;
  • do not use bitter almonds and seeds of peaches, apricots, plums, as they contain amygdalin, which turns into hydrocyanic acid in the human stomach;
  • also poisonous is caviar of pike, perch, mackerel, burbot and lima liver during spawning;
  • do not store food with a high concentration of acids (sauerkraut) in glazed earthenware dishes, in dishes with damaged enamel or galvanized coating;
  • do not buy canned food with a bulging lid, wrinkled or without a label.

Mushrooms

Quite often there are cases of mushroom poisoning. This poisoning occurs not only because of carelessness and ignorance of people which mushrooms are edible and which are poisonous. It is not uncommon that poisoning occurs due to the consumption of reheated edible mushrooms.  

 Collect mushrooms should be very careful. Pecheritsy, pale toadstool, satanic mushroom very much damage the digestive organs. Pale grebe acts so strongly that the symptoms of poisoning are detected after half an hour, after a maximum of 4 hours. This weakness, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea. Both green and pale toadstool also affects the kidneys and liver, abdominal pain, diarrhea, yellowness, a feeling of complete exhaustion, and a decrease in urine appear. Such symptoms are detected after 6-12 hours.

Panther (tiger) and red fly agaric affect the nervous system. A person who has eaten such a mushroom feels a headache, tinnitus, excitement, ebb and flow of heat, verbosity, after which he loses consciousness.

First aid . At the first sign of poisoning, it will be necessary to empty the stomach by inducing vomiting. The victims are also given coal and milk, and an ambulance is called.

meat poison

Butolotoxin is a poison that occurs in old canned meats, mayonnaise, and smoked meats. Butolotoxin is a very dangerous poison, after 12-30 hours after eating such food, vomiting, headache, diarrhea, double vision, impaired swallowing, paralysis of the limbs appear. Weakening of cardiac activity and paralysis of the respiratory center caused by this poison become the cause of death.

First aid. At the first signs of butolototoxicon poisoning, it is necessary to help the victim clear the stomach by inducing vomiting, then give him milk to drink, give gastric charcoal and call an ambulance.

salmonellosis

In fish and potato salads stored for 10-12 hours, pathogenic germs called salmonella can occur. Poisoning caused by such germs causes severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. The victim should immediately give gastric coal and call an ambulance.