When you drink water or eat food that contains toxins or harmful bacteria you can get what is called food poisoning. Many people experience food poisoning each year. It’s often caused by poor food handling practices or poor storage of food. This type of poisoning can occur is restaurants with poor sanitary conditions. Those most at risk are babies, elderly people, and pregnant women. During growing and harvesting of food contamination can occur and then transfer the poisoning onto people. Contamination can also occur during processing and packaging of food and spread throughout the food chain. This often leads to food recalls to remove the contaminated batches form the supply and prevent the spread of the poisoning.
Symptoms
Food poisoning tends to cause various level of nausea and it can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, or vomiting. There can also be headaches as well as fever associated with food poisoning. The symptom can occur quickly after eating the food or they can occur several days later. A person can be sick for a few days or a week. Some cases can require hospitalization and some people can die from complications. More common symptoms are flu-like in nature. If you suspect you have food poisoning you should see a doctor. You may have something else besides food poisoning so it’s important to get the right diagnosis.
Food poisoning tends to impact the nervous system. If you eat shellfish contaminated with saxitoxin you can have paralysis and weakness around the mouth within a few minutes. Scombroid which is fish poisoning can cause skin rash, flushing, and pain episodes in the intestines or stomach. If you are poisoned by mushrooms this will attack your nervous system and you could have tears, salivation, shrunken eyes, vertigo, sweating, seizures or even slip into a coma. If you happen to swallow insecticides that have been left on produce you could have similar symptoms. This is why it’s important to wash your produce and fruit before you consume it.
One of the most common problems associated with food poisoning is the loos of fluids or dehydration. This cаn be a life threatening condition. Episodes of severe diarrhea associated with food poisoning can leave a person dehydrated. You lose water and the electrolytes sodium as well as potassium when you’re dehydrated. Listeria poisoning is problematic for babies and E. coli can cause problems for their kidneys. Some episodes of food poisoning can lead to severe nervous system damage.