Many people eat wild berries and mushrooms. In this case, poisoning often develops, since there are many poisonous plants. According to statistics, approximately 4% of all cases of food intoxication are poisoning with poisonous mushrooms. In this case, the patient's condition is especially severe and it is difficult to cure it. Some remain disabled due to damage to the liver, kidneys and other important organs.
There are also frequent cases of death, especially with incorrect or untimely first aid. Therefore, when picking mushrooms, you need to know well which ones are edible. It is also important to have an idea of what should be done in the first place in case of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms.
Types of mushrooms
There are about 3,000 types of mushrooms in total. But you can only eat no more than 400. Moreover, many of them are similar in appearance to inedible ones, so picking mushrooms is recommended only for those who are good atunderstands them. There are only a few varieties that are widespread and completely safe. These are mushrooms, boletus, boletus, mushrooms, champignons, raincoats, boletus and some others. When properly harvested and prepared, they do not cause illness.
Possibly edible mushrooms are also popular among mushroom pickers. They are characterized by the fact that they contain a burning milky juice, which can cause poisoning. Therefore, they must be soaked for a long time before use, then boiled in several waters. These are milk mushrooms, volnushki, russula and some other species.
But poisoning by poisonous mushrooms happens most often. These are the ones that contain toxins and are unsuitable for human consumption. They cannot be neutralized by any means, and often even a small piece can cause serious illness or even death. These are pale toadstool, fly agaric, bile, satanic, false mushrooms, false chanterelles, lines.
Poisoning with poisonous mushrooms and plants
Most often this happens due to inexperience, when a person begins to collect wild berries or mushrooms, which he does not understand much. A child can also get poisoned by tasting them. And in children, intoxication develops faster and they endure it hard. Therefore, children under 8 years old are not recommended to eat mushrooms, because it is indigestible food. Their cell membranes are made up of chitin, which takes a long time to break down. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat them for people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, pregnant womenand the elderly. They can develop intoxication even when eating edible mushrooms.
In addition, poisoning by poisonous mushrooms and plants in such people and children is always more difficult to endure. They are more likely to develop serious complications. About 20% of children after such a pathology become disabled, and in 2-3% of cases death occurs. In addition to mushrooms, poisonous plants can cause poisoning. In our country, these are belladonna, hemlock, dope, hemlock, henbane, lily of the valley, foxglove, wolfberries, nightshade and others. Moreover, children are most often poisoned by poisonous berries.
Mushroom poisoning can occur when a child tastes mushrooms raw, which is rare. Basically, this condition develops in the whole family after eating improperly collected or cooked mushrooms. At the same time, adults can easily endure intoxication, and for a child everything will end badly. Therefore, the prevention of poisoning by poisonous mushrooms and plants is especially important in families with young children. It is necessary to carefully check everything that the child eats, when walking through the forest, make sure that he does not take anything in his mouth, does not pick unfamiliar plants.
Causes of poisoning
Discomfort and dangerous symptoms after eating some plants and mushrooms most often appear in those who do not understand them. Mostly inexperienced mushroom pickers are poisoned, collecting all the mushrooms, at least a little similar to edible ones. But the reasons for this situation can also be improper cooking. Even edible mushroomscan cause poisoning if cooked incorrectly.
This can happen with insufficient heat treatment of conditionally edible mushrooms. You can immediately fry only some types, for example, champignons, mushrooms, raincoats. The rest must first be boiled, some in several waters. In addition, poisoning can develop when picking mushrooms near roads, factories, within the city. At the same time, even the most edible of them can become poisonous, because they can accumulate heavy metals.
You should also not eat old, wormy mushrooms or those that were collected a few days ago. Intoxication can occur due to spoiled cooked mushrooms, even edible ones. If they were not properly cooked, not s alted enough, bacteria will be released, which will become a source of poisoning.
And with insufficient processing of canned mushrooms, botulism can develop. The infection enters the body with poorly washed, boiled or s alted mushrooms, if the rules for canning or storing ready-made mushrooms are not followed.
General symptoms
Most often, the first signs of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms appear within 1-2 hours after their use. Sometimes symptoms begin to appear later, even after a day or more. It depends on what toxins or poisons are contained in the pulp. Some immediately affect the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, others enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. In this case, the liver and kidneys are most often affected, fungi canalso affect the central nervous system, disrupt the work of the heart.
Therefore, the symptoms of intoxication may be different depending on which mushrooms were eaten and in what quantity. In addition, it depends on the age of the patient, his body weight, he alth status and other individual characteristics.
But there are common signs of poisonous mushroom poisoning:
- abdominal pain, sometimes burning or cutting;
- severe nausea;
- uncontrollable vomiting, and it does not bring relief to the patient;
- loose stools, very frequent;
- cold extremities, pale skin, fever;
- sometimes stomach bleeding begins;
- blood pressure often drops, weakness, drowsiness, headache develop;
- may experience hallucinations, delusions, nervous overexcitation or loss of consciousness.
Such manifestations of intoxication usually take place in three stages. The first develops within a day after eating mushrooms. It is characterized by signs of damage to the organs of the gastrointestinal tract. Then, within 1-3 days, an improvement in the patient's condition can be observed, usually he feels only weakness. Some patients believe that they had a common food poisoning. Poisoning with poisonous mushrooms is much more dangerous, as toxins affect the internal organs or the central nervous system.
It becomes noticeable sometimes immediately, and sometimes after 72 hours. Therefore, if nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea appear after eating mushroom dishes, it is necessarybe sure to see a doctor. But these symptoms should appear within the first day and a half. If they are not present at this time, you can no longer be afraid of poisoning.
Toadstool poisoning
Different mushrooms have different effects on the body. It depends on the individual characteristics and age of the person, but many symptoms are characteristic of a particular type of fungus. Poisoning with pale toadstool is especially serious. Up to 95% of cases of eating a small piece of this mushroom is fatal. And even timely first aid for poisoning with poisonous mushrooms from this species does not always contribute to recovery.
The poison of the pale toadstool quickly penetrates the liver and kidneys, disrupting their work. Death occurs due to severe renal and hepatic failure. Heart failure is also common, and fluid buildup in the body can lead to pulmonary edema.
Recognize the poisoning of the pale toadstool is difficult. First, the usual symptoms develop: abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea. There are also pains in the muscles and in the head, the body temperature drops. After some time, signs of gastric bleeding appear, severe weakness, shortness of breath, yellowing of the skin, and impaired urine outflow develop. The patient needs medical assistance during the first day after eating pale grebe, then it will be impossible to save him.
Features of poisoning by other types of mushrooms
When poisoned by other poisonous mushroomsdifferent symptoms appear. You need to know what symptoms you need to see a doctor as soon as possible:
- If there is increased salivation, tearing and sweating, it may be poisoning with fly agaric or talkers. At the same time, blood pressure decreases, the pupils narrow, the pulse quickens, shortness of breath appears. The patient may begin hallucinations, delusions, and other signs of mental disorders.
- Orrelanin is also a deadly poison. It is found in the mountain cobweb, fleshy-reddish umbrella, lepiots. These are little-known mushrooms, they are very rarely eaten. The danger is that the symptoms of intoxication do not develop immediately after the poison enters the body. It may take some time for the patient to notice signs of kidney failure.
- It is also dangerous to eat morels and stitches. They contain the poison gyromitrin, which causes the breakdown of red blood cells in human blood. In addition to signs of disruption of the gastrointestinal tract, convulsions appear, liver failure develops, the patient may fall into a coma.
- Psychic mushrooms are rarely eaten, but poisoning by them is also possible. These are psilocybes - they cause a state of intoxication, hallucinations. A person develops psychosis, depression.
- When using slightly poisonous mushrooms, most often false mushrooms, bile or satanic, rows, pigs, some russula, mainly signs of damage to the gastrointestinal tract develop. This is severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain. In debilitated people, children andthe elderly may experience convulsions, disruption of the nervous system.
First aid for poisoning with poisonous mushrooms
If you feel bad after eating a mushroom dish, the first thing to do is to see a doctor. It is impossible to eliminate the effects of exposure to poisons and toxins on your own; medical assistance is needed. In case of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms, it is very important to provide it as early as possible, sometimes the clock goes to the count. Dangerous consequences develop especially quickly in children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. Therefore, when the first signs of intoxication appear, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. It's best to call an ambulance. Before the arrival of the doctor, you need to remove tight clothing from the patient and provide him with fresh air.
First aid for poisoning with poisonous mushrooms is to wash the patient's stomach. This is necessary to eliminate as many toxins as possible that have entered the body. To do this, drink at least 5 glasses of water, you can use a weak solution of potassium permanganate or an activated charcoal solution. Then they induce vomiting. This should be done several times until the vomit no longer contains food debris. If the patient does not have diarrhea in the first few hours after poisoning, he should be given a laxative. It can be castor oil, olive oil or magnesium sulfate, as well as a cleansing enema. But if the symptoms appeared only a day after eating poisonous food, this should not be done.
There are other first aid measures for poisoningpoisonous mushrooms. A sick person needs to be covered, sometimes it is required to attach a warm heating pad to the legs. You can not put it on your stomach, since the cause of the ailment may not be poisoning, but acute inflammation, which will only worsen under the influence of heat. With frequent vomiting and diarrhea, it is necessary to replenish fluid reserves. For this, the patient is given s alted water. It should be drunk little by little, in small sips. You can also drink strong sweet tea or milk, activated charcoal, "Smecta", "Enterosgel" or other sorbents. They will slow down the absorption of toxins.
It is impossible to give the patient any medicine before the arrival of the doctor, it is also undesirable to eat anything, as this will aggravate the symptoms of disruption of the gastrointestinal tract. It is especially harmful to drink alcoholic beverages, since alcohol promotes faster absorption of toxins and poisons. It is undesirable to artificially induce vomiting or give a laxative to a patient who has a drop in blood pressure, convulsions or loss of consciousness.
Dangerous consequences of poisoning
Without timely medical attention, symptoms progress. Only in rare cases does this condition go away on its own after a couple of days, usually if the mushrooms were conditionally edible or simply old. Usually, poisoning with poisonous mushrooms leads to liver damage and the development of kidney failure. Often, a fatal outcome also develops due to severe dehydration of the body. It is impossible to independently determine the cause of the ailment and choose a treatment,therefore, the only salvation for the patient will be to see a doctor for examination. The presence of toxins in the body can often only be detected by blood tests.
Not everyone knows the danger of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms. And when, after a violation of the digestive tract, a slight improvement occurs, they believe that everything is behind. But toxins and mushroom poisons continue to be absorbed into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. It is impossible to get rid of them on your own. They penetrate the liver, disrupt the functioning of the kidneys, the nervous system. Often, after 2-3 days, the consequences of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms become irreversible.
The most common serious complication is dehydration, which develops due to frequent vomiting and diarrhea. The liver is also affected. It increases, pains appear in the right side, jaundice develops. Kidney damage is expressed in violation of urination, the appearance of edema. Heart failure often also develops. At the same time, shortness of breath, heart rhythm disturbance, and blood pressure drops.
When some poisons enter the body, mental disorders develop: neurosis, delirium, hallucinations, suicide attempts. Often the patient also develops convulsions, loss of consciousness, he falls into a coma. Some toxins destroy red blood cells, leading to anemia and other conditions.
Treatment Method
It is very important to save the leftover mushroom dish and show it to the medical staff. This will help to more accurately choose a treatment method, since different types of mushroomscan adversely affect various organs. Treatment of such poisoning is necessarily carried out in a hospital. The patient is admitted to the toxicology department. There, first of all, his stomach is washed in order to finally remove all poisons and toxins from the digestive tract. Then the patient is given a laxative so that the toxins are not absorbed in the intestines.
Providing assistance in case of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms in the hospital also consists in the introduction of various intravenous solutions. These may include rehydration medications, glucose, kidney support, and liver cleanses. Only for some mushrooms there are specific antidotes, for example, in case of fly agaric poisoning, the patient is given Atropine. Sometimes a blood transfusion or hemoabsorption is required, that is, its purification.
Prevention
To avoid poisoning, you must be very careful when choosing mushrooms. This is especially true for those who buy them on the market. It is not recommended to purchase homemade canned mushrooms, caviar, dried mushrooms. The prevention of poisoning by poisonous mushrooms includes a careful choice of what is eaten. You need to know the signs of edible and inedible mushrooms well. The mistake of many mushroom pickers is that they think that a poisonous mushroom will smell bad. But it is not always the case. In addition, the rim under the cap and the discoloration of the flesh when cut are also not always a sign of toxicity.
Fans of quiet hunting should know the basic measures to prevent poisoning by poisonous mushrooms. The main rule - if the fungus is suspicious, it is better not totake. After all, you can get poisoned even if you collect only edible mushrooms. It is dangerous if they are old, wormy or overgrown. In this case, bacteria are formed in them, which can lead to serious intoxication. When harvesting, do not put mushrooms in bags, as they quickly deteriorate there. It is advisable to process them on the same day they were collected, while thoroughly cleaning and rinsing.
Some types need to be boiled before cooking, sometimes even in several waters. Mushrooms that have been lying for a long time should not be eaten, especially if they have become slippery or moldy.
There are several misconceptions among fans of mushroom dishes, which increase the risk of poisoning. You can not be guided by them when choosing mushrooms and when preparing them:
- It is believed that litmus paper will change color when in contact with a poisonous mushroom. But this is not so: she can react to edible and not change from poisonous.
- Some mushroom pickers believe that you need to put a silver coin in a pan in which mushrooms are boiled. It will darken if a poisonous mushroom has entered the dish. But this is also not an indicator.
- It is also a delusion that when a poisonous mushroom comes into contact with milk, it quickly turns sour.
You can't be guided by such advice. It is important for lovers of quiet hunting to remember that you can only collect those mushrooms that you are completely sure of. Only then can you enjoy mushroom dishes and avoid poisoning.
