A toxin is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms. Several foods naturally contain or produce toxins, especially the plants. Since we very rarely eat animals which are naturally poisonous, the chances of being infected by toxins produced by them are very rare. In some cases, the food eaten by an animal creates toxin in its body. However, the animal will be immune to that toxin produced in its body.
Now, we are going to have a look on different types of toxin and their deadly effects on people. In addition, we will also come to know how to treat the food poisoning caused by them.
1) Ciguatera: Ciguatera is a form of toxin which is created by many dinoflagellates species. These algae are consumed by subtropical and tropical marine finfish and the toxins will be gathered in their bodies. When people eat those fish, the toxins will enter their bodies and they become prey to the ciguatera food poisoning. Though people of tropical and subtropical regions are more prone to this toxin, people living in other parts of the world can also get affected by food poisoning because of the increase in fish food consumption.
Normally, marine finfish species like groupers, barracudas, snappers, jacks, mackerel, and triggerfish contain ciguatera toxin. But other species can also have this toxin. The symptoms of ciguatera food poisoning will begin to show within 6 hours after the consumption. The notable symptom types of this food poisoning are gastrointestinal and neurological. While the former type contains nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the latter type has headaches, muscle aches, numbness, paresthesia, ataxia and delusions.
When ciguatera food poisoning reaches serious level, it may result in cold allodynia. This symptom is a burning sensation on contact with cold. At this stage, even doctors can fail to understand these symptoms and misdiagnose them for multiple sclerosis. The symptoms of this food poisoning may last from weeks to years depending on several conditions.
Unfortunately, there is no certain type of treatment for ciguatera food poisoning. However, with the help of supportive treatment, this food poisoning ailment can be cured. The best way to curb this food poisoning ailment is to avoid fish food in diet for certain period of time. In addition to this measure, taking certain measures to get rid of the above mentioned symptoms will help in curing this food poisoning ailment in a short period of time. Even though ciguatera food poisoned people are cured, it can reappear if they consume nuts, alcohol, fish or its products, and poultry products. Even certain type of chemicals can trigger this food poisoning ailment again.
