Treatment of food poisoning

Treatment of food poisoning should be timely, that is, the sooner the procedures begin, the less toxins will have time to enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.

The first symptoms of intoxication appear 2-4 hours after eating poor-quality food or 5-12 hours after eating poisonous mushrooms, berries, and plants. Nausea, vomiting, colic, and diarrhea are typical signs of food poisoning. Headache, elevated body temperature, rapid pulse, general weakness, and cyanosis of the skin indicate acute intoxication, which requires immediate medical attention. Poisoning with poisonous plant substances - mushrooms, berries - can develop slowly, but sometimes it escalates rapidly, so literally every minute counts. Timely medical intervention, professional treatment of food poisoning not only neutralizes intoxication, but sometimes saves a person's life.

Treatment of food poisoning at home is possible only with a mild degree of intoxication. More severe situations, accompanied by threatening symptoms, require treatment in a hospital, and even in intensive care. Such cases include intoxication with alcoholic beverages, mushrooms, canned food (botulism), medications.

If the slightest signs of intoxication appear, you must begin to act immediately.

1. In case of nausea or vomiting, when the body tries to cleanse itself of toxins, it is recommended to drink plenty of fluids, which help to remove harmful substances. In fact, activation of the gag reflex can neutralize intoxication if used in a timely manner. You need to drink as much as your stomach allows, that is, until vomiting stops, which should contain relatively clean liquid at the end, without any food or mucus impurities.
2. In case of mild poisoning, a gentle diet is recommended: on the first day, only drinking is possible, then you need to eat only boiled, mashed, light food. The diet should include dietary products - porridge on water, vegetable broths, crackers, alkaline mineral water without gas, biscuits.
3. Consciously replenishing the fluid lost through vomiting and diarrhea will help restore the body's water balance. The best drinks are alkaline mineral waters without gas, pharmaceutical preparations (Regidron, Gastrolit), chamomile decoction, weak tea. Potassium permanganate solutions are a thing of the past, since their use can only harm, not benefit.

How to treat food poisoning in more severe situations, when the symptoms become threatening, can only be decided by a doctor.

Medicines for food poisoning

This is a standard "traveler's" kit, which should be in the luggage of all those who like to relax in the summer in warm regions or hot countries. In principle, such a kit will help to cope with the first symptoms of intoxication both on hiking trips and at the dacha. It should be remembered that the "home first aid kit" kit is not an alternative to professional medical treatment. Medicines for food poisoning, which should be in every home as "first aid" drugs:

1. Activated carbon packaging. Why packaging? Because the dosage is 1 tablet per 10 kilograms of body weight, and it should be taken 3-4 times a day. This is an old, reliable way to adsorb toxins and remove them from the body.
2. Entoban or Intetrix, which help with intestinal intoxication caused by E. coli. These are bactericidal drugs that work well on amoebas, candida and other types of microorganisms, but they are contraindicated for pregnant women and children.
3. Polysorb or Enterosgel are excellent medicines for food poisoning. These drugs correct the microbiocenosis (dysbacteriosis), absorb and remove toxins, restore the structure of the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract. Smecta is also effective - a packet of dissolved contents three times a day and a mild form of intoxication will be defeated.
4. Linex is a drug that fights dysbacteriosis, as it contains three types of natural microflora components - lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and enterococci.
5. Regidron is a drug that restores normal water-salt metabolism in the body and neutralizes dehydration. Regidron helps to stop acidosis (increased acidity).
6. No-shpa as a safe antispasmodic will help relieve pain from colic.

Antibiotics for food poisoning

This is the doctor's prerogative, since only a professional, i.e. a doctor, can determine the root cause of poisoning and prescribe an adequate drug. In addition, many antibiotics do not act on bacterial toxins at all and can even increase bowel disorder (diarrhea). This is explained by the fact that antibacterial therapy can destroy useful, necessary microbes along with harmful ones. Antibiotics for food poisoning are indicated only in extreme cases, when the exact cause of the disease is identified, indicating the targeted action of the drug, and the benefit from its use exceeds the risk of complications.

Levomycetin for food poisoning is indicated only for intoxication with pathogens determined in laboratory conditions. Just like therapy with other antibiotics, treatment with levomycetin should be prescribed only by a doctor. In addition, statistics show that only 10% of intoxications require the use of serious antibacterial agents. Therefore, Levomycetin for food poisoning, as well as taking Furadonin, Furazolidone and other so-called "folk" drugs, not only does not help, but often harms. Such self-medication can aggravate the severity of the intoxication and lead to irreversible consequences. It should also be taken into account that the uncontrolled use of prescription drugs from pharmacies greatly distorts the clinical picture and complicates the diagnosis of intoxication.

[ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ]

Enterosgel for food poisoning

This is the safest way to quickly remove intoxication and protect the body from the spread of intestinal infection. The drug is suitable for all age groups and has no contraindications. Enterosgel is available in a very convenient form for use - a paste, which can be slightly sweetened, which allows it to be used for small children.

Enterosgel, due to its composition, helps remove toxins and allergens from the body, and taking the drug in the first hours after intoxication significantly increases its effectiveness. If you take Enterosgel in time for food poisoning, you can avoid prescribing and using more serious drugs, including antibiotics. The drug adsorbs and removes almost all external and internal toxins, including bacteria, allergens, heavy metal salts, poisons, radionuclides.

Scheme of application of the sorbent:

• Adults: one tablespoon three times a day.
• Three times a day, one teaspoon – children under five years of age.
• Three times a day, one dessert spoon – children aged 5 to 14-15 years.
• If the condition is determined to be severe, Enterosgel for food poisoning is taken in a double dose.

[ 4 ], [ 5 ]

Activated carbon for food poisoning

This is a drug that has been tested by many patients for a long time. Activated carbon for food poisoning is often the first remedy that the victim begins to take. Carbon reduces the level of intoxication, as it absorbs toxins, in addition, the drug is able to reduce or normalize the level of creatinine and urea. Activated carbon in victims of poisoning reduces the feeling of nausea, helps to cope with temporary diarrhea. The calculation of the dose is quite simple - 1 tablet for every ten kilograms of a person's weight. Carbon should be taken 2-3 times, perhaps more often, it all depends on the severity of the poisoning. Do not forget to wash down the drug, you need to drink as much as possible: dehydration will be eliminated, and the carbon will begin to act faster.

There are also contraindications - these are severe swelling, suspected gastrointestinal bleeding, pregnancy.

[ 6 ], [ 7 ], [ 8 ], [ 9 ]

Gastric lavage for food poisoning

This treatment of food poisoning is indicated in the absence of vomiting or if it activates it. If the poisoning is determined to be severe, then you should call an ambulance. Before its arrival, you can try to reduce the severity of the intoxication by rinsing. Let us immediately stipulate that a solution of potassium permanganate is not suitable, since invisible to the eye crystals that have not dissolved can seriously damage the already irritated mucous membranes of the esophagus. The main rule, which involves rinsing the stomach in case of intoxication, is to drink and induce vomiting until the vomit becomes relatively clean, without any admixtures of food residues. Mineral water without gas, plain purified water, water with added salt (1 tablespoon of salt per liter of water) are suitable as liquids.

You also need to remember who is contraindicated for rinsing:

• If the victim has lost consciousness. A person will not be able to drink liquid, much less vomit in such a state, moreover, there is a risk of asphyxia.
• Children under two years of age. Washing in small patients is hardly possible at home; rather, inpatient procedures are indicated for them.
• Anyone who has previously been diagnosed with cardiac diseases, or those who have had a heart attack or stroke. Vomiting can overload the heart and worsen the patient's condition.
• Pregnant women.

Gastric lavage for food poisoning also involves taking laxatives if the victim shows obvious symptoms of poisoning but does not have diarrhea.

Enema for food poisoning

A very controversial method of treating food poisoning from the point of view of modern medicine, since the absorption of toxins most often occurs in the upper zone of the intestinal tract, and only the siphon procedure is considered cleansing in the sense of removing intoxication, which is practically not used at home. The siphon method of cleansing is contraindicated, as well as other enemas, in the following diseases and conditions:

• Suspected intestinal volvulus.
• Symptoms that are characterized as an "acute abdomen" picture.
• Strangulated hernia.
• Hemorrhoidal or intestinal bleeding.
• Acute inflammation of the appendix.

An enema is dangerous for food poisoning because the symptoms of intoxication are often similar to the above-described conditions, which may include diarrhea, colic, increased body temperature, and vomiting. Also, gases should be released during an enema; if this does not happen, intestinal obstruction is possible, which is eliminated only in hospital conditions.

What to do in case of food poisoning?

Diarrhea that lasts for an hour or an hour and a half should not be stopped. An exception is bowel disorder in children under two years of age, since their body weight is small, and intense diarrhea can cause severe dehydration. Bowel disorder in adults is a natural way that the body uses to remove toxins.

You can activate the gag reflex by drinking plenty of fluids and pressing on the root of the tongue. But this method is only possible for adults: unconscious victims, small children, patients with chronic internal diseases, pregnant women - this is the group of people for whom artificially induced vomiting is contraindicated.

To prevent dehydration and help the body cope with intoxication, you need to drink a lot. Drinking should be done in small portions, but often. Sweet compotes and teas are unacceptable. Water can be salted, sweetened, but it is best to use special pharmaceutical preparations designed to restore water-salt balance.

In the first 24 hours after poisoning, it is better not to eat anything at all, so as not to provoke a new stomach upset.

The question of what to do in case of food poisoning becomes very relevant in case of severe symptoms of intoxication. In such cases, immediate medical assistance is needed, especially if we are talking about intoxication with mushrooms, canned food, poisonous berries or plants.

First aid for food poisoning

First aid helps reduce the rate of absorption of toxins into the intestinal tract and slows their spread through the bloodstream throughout the body. Therefore, immediate action often saves not only the health, but also the lives of the victims.

First aid for food poisoning is provided in ways that depend on what the person was poisoned with - mushrooms, food or poisonous plants: 1.

1. Poisoning by mushrooms, which are often the source of intoxication.

Symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, loose stools, dizziness and increasing headache, pale complexion, and cyanosis around the lips. Signs of mushroom poisoning do not always appear on the first day; they may only “start” on the second day after eating poisonous mushrooms.

Treatment of food poisoning is only inpatient; before the doctor arrives, you can try to wash out the stomach and induce reflex vomiting. The victim should be put to bed, his feet should be warmed (warm water bottle). Neither milk nor laxatives should be taken on your own, since the origin and type of poison is unknown.

2. Intoxication caused by poor quality products manifests itself in the first two hours. Nausea, cramping pains and colic in the abdomen, increased body temperature, chills, vomiting and diarrhea are symptoms of toxic infection.

First aid for food poisoning of this type consists of frequent drinking and activating vomiting. After induced reflex vomiting, you can try taking activated charcoal or Enterosgel. Sorbents are best used in the first 2 hours after intoxication. If the symptoms do not subside within 5-6 hours, vomiting and diarrhea become uncontrollable (with an admixture of blood and yellow-green mucus), blood pressure drops, you should call an ambulance.

1. Poisoning by poisonous plants is characterized by the following symptoms:
   • Uncontrollable vomiting.
   • Loss of coordination, dizziness.
   • Abdominal pain.
   • Weakness and drop in blood pressure.
   • Foam in vomiting.
   • Excessive salivation.
   • Dilation of the pupils.

Symptoms increase very quickly, so help for plant intoxication should be immediate. You need to call an ambulance immediately, give the person 300-400 milliliters of purified salted water to drink before it arrives and induce vomiting. You can take sorbents, but their effectiveness is unlikely, since the plant poison is absorbed quickly. It is best to use pharmaceutical drugs that should be in every home medicine cabinet - Enterosgel, Smecta, Regidron, Gastrolit. In parallel, it is necessary to put mustard plasters on the shoulder blades and shoulder area, and put a cold compress on the forehead. If convulsive syndrome appears, you need to make sure that the tongue does not fall back.

[ 10 ]

Folk remedies for food poisoning

This is the use of methods that are approved not by neighbors or relatives, but by doctors. Unfortunately, sometimes it is the intake of all sorts of infusions, warm milk or other supposedly effective means on the recommendation of all-knowing friends or a recipe read in a dubious newspaper that leads to sad consequences. Of the truly safe methods approved by medicine, we can recommend the following folk remedies for food poisoning:

• A soluble form of vitamin C should be added to the drink that is supposed to be taken during intoxication. In addition to the fact that ascorbic acid helps remove toxins, it activates the immune system. Vitamin C is especially effective in the first 3-4 hours after intoxication.
• Cinnamon infusion, which is prepared in the following way: 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon is poured with a glass of boiling water, infused for 15 minutes, filtered. The infusion should be drunk warm in small sips, the volume is up to 1.5 liters per day. Cinnamon is a good natural antispasmodic, it is able to utilize some types of toxins, that is, it helps with mild toxic infections.
• You can make a decoction of dill and honey. Dill removes toxins well and reduces the severity of vomiting without stopping it. Honey will help the heart and reduce the level of potassium excretion during dehydration. The decoction is prepared as follows: pour 300 ml of boiling water over a teaspoon of dill seeds (or chopped fresh plant), leave for 3-5 minutes, then boil for another 2-3 minutes. Strain, add a teaspoon of honey. It is convenient to make 1 liter of infusion at once, since it must be taken throughout the first day after intoxication.

Treating food poisoning with folk remedies does not involve taking a decoction of oak bark, pomegranate peel, that is, fixing agents, since diarrhea during intoxication in some sense helps the body to remove toxins faster. If diarrhea and other symptoms develop rapidly, folk methods will not be able to help, professional medical help is needed.

[ 11 ], [ 12 ], [ 13 ]