One of the common health problems is food poisoning is due to intake of contaminated food. Poisons in some mushrooms or certain seafood, bacteria, viruses, environmental toxins are the chief sources for contaminating the food. The symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and nausea are generally attributed to the food poisoning.

Food poisoning comes from eating foods that contain germs like bad bacteria or toxins, which are poisonous substances. The present environment is surrounded with bacteria and it is anticipated mild cases of food poisoning is very common. You might have experienced with food poisoning problem at your childhood unknowingly thinking that it was due to stomach bug as told by your parents.

Symptoms

Whenever you were affected with food poisoning, generally doctor will first diagonise for the symptoms like upset stomach, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps and dehydration, to more severe illness such as paralysis and meningitis. Testing the stool will give confirmation about the food poisoning.

Our body's defense mechanism plays a major role in nullifying the bad effects of food poisoning within few days without any aid of medicines. In the case of continued illness seek medical advice. Children, elders, pregnant women and the persons who use antacids heavily are at more risk of getting food poison .

Causes

Food poisoning occurs when an individual consumes food that has been contaminated by a poisoning agent. These agents can include toxins, bacteria, viruses, or parasites. All contaminants are not food poisoning agents and there are more than 250 agents that causes food poisoning. Poisoning from a bacterial agent is a common occurrence. The most prevalent types of food-borne bacteria are E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter, and Shigella. Because bacteria needs time to multiply, the symptoms for bacterial food poisonings may not manifest until 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated food.

Poor sanitation or preparation leads to food contamination. Food handlers who do not wash their hands after using the bathroom or have infections themselves often cause contamination. There are two important conditions that promote contamination of food are improper packing of food and storing food at inappropriate temperatures.

Treatment

There is no exact need for treatment of food poisoned persons immediately as the symptoms generally will vanish shortly. The doctors opinion must be taken if the symptoms are not reducing even after 3 to 4 days. But this is not the case with all the persons, and an immediate attention should be given to elderly person or children. Keep a sample of any remaining food as well as a sample of the patient's feces, which can be tested for the presence of infectious microorganisms. If the cause is non-infectious, such as poisonous mushrooms, you may need to be treated urgently to eliminate the poison from your body.

Treatment of food poisoning is usually aimed at preventing dehydration. In severe cases fluids and salts may be administered intravenously in hospital. Appropriate antibiotics are used depends upon the poisonous bacteria present in the food. Patients usually recover quite rapidly from an attack of food poisoning and rarely experience long lasting health consequences. In very rare cases, there is a risk of septicemia if bacteria spread into the blood stream. Both dehydration and septicemia can cause shock - a condition that is sometimes fatal. For more information on go to foodpoisoning.com.