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Junior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 23
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Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 23
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"I had food from a local restaurant that made me pretty sick. I had a horrible stomach ache and diarrhea all night long."
This might be ciguatera poisoning. It can vary from person to person, even if they all eat the same food. Read the material below -- it's from
http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/illness/ciguatera_fish_poisoning.html
One reason it can be so variable, even without the issue of different ethnic groups, is that one person might have already been exposed to ciguatera.
It's cumulative. The person with the worst reaction could be the person who has eaten other meals, which already contained ciguatera.
Clinical Presentation:
Ciguatera presents primarily as an acute neurologic disease manifested by a constellation of gastrointestinal (diarrhea, abdominal cramps and vomiting), neurologic (paresthesias, pain in the teeth, pain on urination, blurred vision, temperature reversal) and cardiovascular (arrhythmias, heart block) signs and symptoms within a few hours of contaminated fish ingestion.
The pathognomic symptom of Ciguatera intoxication is hot/cold temperature reversal, although not all patients report this.
The attack rate has been reported to be 73%-100% with ingestion of contaminated fish, without any apparent age-related susceptibility.
Acute fatality, usually due to respiratory failure, circulatory collapse or arrhythmias, ranges from 0.1% to 12% of reported cases; presently in the Pacific, the mortality is less than 1%. Lethality is usually seen with ingestion of the most toxic parts of fish (ie. the liver, viscera, roe and other organs).
The clinical picture may be variable among individuals, even with the same food source, different ethnic groups, and possibly with different types of fish and/or geographic location.
HAIR LOSS:
"There is no proven test for ciguatera poisoning, either in patients or contaminated fish. Over 175 gastrointestinal, neurological and cardiovascular symptoms have been recorded. Diarrhea, abdominal pain, and nausea usually appear within 24 hours of eating the ciguatoxic fish; the illness can progress to include numbness, itching or tingling of lips, hands and feet, low pulse rate, high pulse rate, dizziness, severe fatigue, hair loss, rashes, anxiety, depression, and . . . "
Last edited by NTLegend; 09-16-2007 at 06:07 PM.
Reason: To add "hair loss" because Brian mentioned it (in post farther down)
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