ALTERNATIVE THERAPRIES SERIES :34 BLOOD POISONING

Kay Kay Healthcare Ltd.

BLOOD POISONING


SYMPTOMS

While recovering from surgery, an infection, or a wound, a person may suffer blood poisoning or specific shock. Symptoms are describe are below.

• High fever and chills, rapid breathing, headache, and nausea may indicate an attack of blood poisoning, or septicemia.

• Severe chills, low blood pressure, loss of appetite, and possibly loss of consciousness are potential signs of septic shock.

• Red line extending from a boil can be a sign of blood poisoning.

WHAT IS BLOOD POISONING

Blood poisoning, or septicemia, is a serious secondary infection that occurs when bacteria from an infected site somewhere on your body invade your bloodstream. If bacteria continue to multiply without being stop by your immune system, you run the risk of septic shock, a potentially life threatening condition. Blood poisoning occurs most frequently in people who have just had surgery or other invasive treatment and in people whose immune system are weakened by an acute or chronic ailment. Both blood poisoning and septic shock require immediate treatment to stop the spread of infection and to ensure full recovery.

CAUSES

Blood poisoning is almost always a complication of an infection and occurs when bacteria escape from the primary site and enter the bloodstream. Both the bacteria that caused infection and endotoxin release by your body’s immune system to battle those bacteria impede the blood flow to your body tissues. This triggers fever and chills the characteristics symptoms acute septicemia. If the poisoning is not brought under control by the body’s immune system or by medical intervention, septic shock begins. Although blood poisoning can result from infected surgical incision, wounds, or burns, types of infection can release enough bacteria into your blood to create septicemia. Such condition may range from urinary tract infections or pneumonia to boils and abscessed teeth or gum problems. Unfortunately septicemia is on the rise in hospitals: as the number patients undergoing invasive procedure for testing and surgery increases, the bacteria responsible for septicemia are continually evolving new strain that are immune to conventional antibiotics. In rare cases, blood poisoning develops from eating unpasteurized dairy foods, including certain soft cheese, that contain the bacterium listeria monocytogenes. Eating raw oyster or other sea food that infected with the bacterium vibrio vulnificus can result in lethal septicemia for members of certain high risks groups, such as people with liver disease, iron imbalances, and weakened immune systems.

DIGNOSTIC AND TEST PROCEDURES

If your thinks you have blood poisoning, your symptoms will be evaluated and your blood tested to identify the bacteria responsible. If symptoms indicate septic shock, you will be hospitalized; your blood will be tested for bacteria, blood gas level, and other indicators; and you may need an electrocardiogram (ECG) to check for irregular heartbeat patterns.

TREATMENT

If you have blood poisoning or septic shock, full recovery demand professional medical treatment. Alternative treatments may help to speed your recovery and increase your resistance to bacterial infection in the future.

CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE

Once the bacteria that have cause the blood poisoning are identified, your physician will give you oral or intravenous antibiotics to fight the infection and may choose to drain and disinfect the infected area. If you develop septic shock, you will need emergency treatment and intravenous antibiotics, which may include penicillin’s, cephalosporin’s, or aminoglycosides. Until you recover completely, you will probably need to stay in a hospital so that you can be monitored for potential complications.

ALTERNATIVE CHOICES

Although you must have immediate medical treatment for blood poisoning and septic shock, alternative therapies may assist recovery and strengthen the immune system to help prevent recurrence.

HERBAL THERAPIES

To stimulate the bacteria destroying function of your white blood cells, simmer 2 tsp. Echinacea (Echinacea spp.) in a cup of water for 15 minutes; drink a cupful three times a day. Eat garlic (alliumsativum) for its antibacterial and antiviral action, or take three garlic capsules three times daily.

PREVENTION

• If you develop a mouth infection, see your dentist for treatment or referral to a specialist. To speed recovery from an abscessed tooth, apply a warm water compress, eat soft foods, floss, and rinse regularly with warm salt water.

• If you develop a boil, place a warm water compress on it for 20 to 30 minutes three or four times daily units it bursts; this may take up to week. Apply compress for three days or until the boil is completely drained of pus.

• If the boil becomes infected or if redlines extended from it, see your doctor. An infected boil can cause septicemia, and squeezing an infected boil can spread the infection.