Food Poisoning Treatment and Prevention

While you are cooking food in your kitchen, you are cautious about handling the preparation but same is not the case in restaurants and other spots where they might be cautious or not. So, food poisoning is not very uncommon, most of the cases are mild and need no hospitalization. A day or more resting can make you feel better. But it can be deadly if you don’t know how to respond to food poisoning. Almost 3000,000 people a year undergo this situation in hospitals.

Food poisoning may happen when you intake food which contains bacterias, parasites, viruses, or other intoxication by the preformed bacterial toxins. It affects the people who share the same intoxicated food.

Causes of Food Poisoning:

Contamination of anything that is related to taking the deadly germs inside your body is the basic cause of food poisoning. It may be due to the unprocessed or unhygienic processed meat, poultry and food items.

Many types of microorganisms are culprit but E.Coli and Salmonella typhi are the main culprits in severe food poisoning.

Symptoms:

The symptoms start showing up after 2-3 hours after taking food. Most of the cases can be treated at home. Other severe ones require hospitalization. The symptoms include:

•    Diarrhea. In severe cases, it might get bloody.
•    Abdominal pain and painful cramps.
•    Nausea and vomiting.
•    Headache.
•    Fever and chills.
•    Weakness that might get serious if left unchecked.

These toxins effect differently on different persons. For instance, you have consumed some food with your friends and you are experiencing food poisoning, it is not necessary that the other persons will also experience the same issue. It depends upon immunity as well.

Treatment:

There are some signs when one should immediately go for medical help as the condition is not getting better.

•    If a child has been vomiting for more than 12 hours.
•    Diarrhea is not getting better.
•    101F fever with persistent diarrhea.
•    Food poisoning from mushroom, fish or botulism should immediately be handled by the doctor.

So, the treatment is basically the management of proper body fluids and eating proper diet. Ultimately you will feel better in a couple of days.

The 3 goals of managing food poisoning are:

1.    Management of diarrhea
2.    Replenishment of fluids
3.    Control nausea and vomiting along with proper rest.

The fluids can be given in the form of IV.

The doctor usually doesn’t prescribe antibiotics in common cases. The antibiotics are only indicated for a condition when patient has constitutional symptoms and a live organism, that caused food poisoning, is suspected. Empiric therapy is usually initiated immediately against the causative agents.

Prevention:

Just the “prevention is better than cure” so, a few tips can keep you away from falling victim of food poisoning. These are

Washing Habits: Wash your hands properly before you begin with anything related to food and wash them after wards. Also, wash the meat and other raw materials properly before beginning with.
Temperature Considerations: A proper temperature ensures the removal of any filthy germ in food especially meat, poultry and dairy. Whenever you cook, make sure you cook it on the right temperature for the right duration.
What to Choose: always choose the raw materials in cans or cartons which are FDA approved and properly processed. Do not use the product if its seal is broken or taste feel spoiled or spot any difference or smell.
Being Specific: Be very specific about healthy eating habits.

By following prevention, you can save yourself many pounds of cure. These little tips might feel so slight, but they defiantly weighs enough to put your health at a risk.