Food poisoning is an acute disease, usually accompanied by a digestive disorder. It can be caused by the ingestion of various microorganisms into the body with food, most often bacteria.
Most cases of poisoning are caused by rapid reproduction in foods of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Poisoning most often provokes poor-quality products with expired shelf life or those that were stored in inappropriate conditions or prepared in violation of sanitary norms.
Poisoning often causes poisonous mushrooms and plants, collected and eaten by ignorance or negligence.
Typical symptoms of Food Poisoning
The first signs of poisoning can appear in half an hour after eating poor-quality foods, but more often - in 4-6 hours, and sometimes - a day later.
Typical symptoms of poisoning: diarrhea (stools are watery, offensive, with undigested remnants of food), severe nausea, repeated vomiting.
Also characterized by weakness, dizziness, fever, chills, heaviness or painful spasms in the stomach, flatulence, profuse salivation.
Keep in mind
Often, milk and dairy products, cakes and cakes with cream, glazed curd cheese, soft cheese, boiled sausage, pates, eggs, home-made mayonnaise, salads dressed with mayonnaise or sour cream, tomatoes and tomato juice, soybean sprouts most often cause poisoning.
First aid in food poisoning
At the first signs of food poisoning, it is necessary to wash the patient's stomach to empty it. For washing, a weak (pale pink) solution of potassium permanganate can be used, strained through a paper filter or a four-layer gauze.
Also, a solution of baking soda (1 teaspoon per 1 liter of boiled water) or table salt (2 tablespoons without a "slide" for 5 liters of water) is suitable.
The solution for washing should be prepared in advance in an amount of 8-10 liters. It must necessarily be warm (temperature - 35-37 ° C) to prevent supercooling of the body, as well as slow the intestinal peristalsis, which will slow the progress of toxic substances along the gastrointestinal tract.
In the first method, you should drink 2-3 to 5-6 glasses, then cause vomiting, irritating the root of the tongue with two fingers.
The washing procedure should be repeated until the leaky water is clean.
We must try to provide the patient a complete peace, if he is shivering, wrap up warmer.
The first day is better to refrain from eating, on the second day you can enter with mashed vegetable soups with rice, mucous broths, gradually expanding the menu. Until full recovery, we must avoid pickled, sharp, salty and smoked foods that irritate the gastric mucosa. The patient is recommended to drink boiled water, weak sweet tea, berry fruit, jelly. Carbonated drinks are prohibited.
On a note
Poisoning takes enterosorbents. These drugs bind and remove toxins, poisons, microbes and bacteria from the body, preventing the ingress of poisonous substances into the blood. They help to remove symptoms of poisoning and normalize a person's condition.
To prevent dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhea, special saline solutions are used, replenishing fluid loss and restoring the acid-base balance, which is disturbed by the loss of electrolytes. Usually they are available in the form of powders, which must be diluted in liter of hot boiled water. The resulting solution in an amount of 10 ml / kg of body weight should be drunk after each liquid stool in small sips, stretching the portion for an hour.
If diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting, then after each attack of vomiting, you must additionally take a solution of 10 ml / kg of body weight.
By the way
At a poisoning (including food, but especially at medicinal or alcoholic) the liver suffers, in fact this body should neutralize toxins and deduce them from an organism. To restore normal liver function help preparations of hepatoprotective action - plant or containing essential phospholipids.
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Food Poisoning[/caption]Also for improving liver function, biologically active additives containing lecithin, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, selenium and chromium, polyunsaturated fatty acids omega-3 are used.
To the doctor!
Most often the symptoms of poisoning pass independently within a week, only symptomatic treatment is enough. However, in some cases, poisoning is dangerous. Be sure to seek medical help if:
- against a background of intestinal and gastric disorders, a severe headache, pain in the kidney, liver, or other internal organs is observed;
- the patient has a high fever, severe perspiration, a feeling of suffocation;
- a young child or an old man has poisoned himself;
- there is a suspicion that you have poisoned yourself with mushrooms;
- strong vomiting, diarrhea persist for two days;
- symptoms of poisoning persist for longer than a week.
SOS!
Especially dangerous are poisoning by canned food, in which, due to a violation of the technology of preparation, botulinum toxin is formed, which causes a serious disease - botulism.
Symptoms
increased muscle weakness, frequent shallow breathing, dilated pupils, muscle paresis or paralysis, dry mouth, vomiting, loose stool, vision damage, speech impairment, lack of facial expression, pale skin.
In the first place, the muscles of the eyes, larynx, then the respiratory muscles suffer. Botulism can be fatal, so if you suspect it, you should immediately call an ambulance.
Prevention of Food Poisoning
The best prevention of food poisoning is compliance with the rules of hygiene in cooking, proper storage of food and elementary vigilance.
Pay attention to the color, smell and taste of food. An unpleasant putrefactive smell, sourish taste, tingling in the tongue should be careful. A sign that the product is spoiled may be a change in its consistency, the appearance of mucus on its surface.
Do not throw away the products covered with mold, spoiled vegetables and fruits without regrets, even if only a tiny barrel, swollen cans and packets of juices or sour-milk products have rotted.
The bank, "rolled up" with an iron lid, should open with a characteristic cotton, indicating that it was sealed sealed. If there was no cotton, canned food should not be eaten.
When buying, be sure to check the production dates and shelf life of products, the integrity of the package.
Regularly conduct an audit in the refrigerator.
Do not buy ready-made salads dressed with mayonnaise: they quickly deteriorate.
Observe the thermal mode of cooking.
Thoroughly wash vegetables and fruits, dishes and cutlery, hands before eating and preparing food.
Before you break an egg, wash it with soap.
More often change kitchen towels, a washcloth for washing utensils, after all in them pathogenic bacteria collect.
Get a few cutting boards. Greens, vegetables and fruits, cheeses and sausages should not be cut on a board on which raw meat and fish were cut.
Do not store in one compartment of the refrigerator raw meat and fish and ready-made foods.
Do not cook a lot of food for the future. Cooked meals in a refrigerator should not be stored longer than three days.
Be picky in choosing food points.