You're enjoying a beautiful wilderness trail.
It's been a long walk,
and you're starting to get hungry.
But it's a long way back to the car,
and you didn't bring any food with you.
Those mushrooms look delicious.
So you eat them.
Soon, you start feeling nauseous.
Then you start vomiting and hallucinating.
You're having severe abdominal cramps,
and you feel like you're about to pass out.
You ate a poisonous fungus.
And if you don't act quickly,
you could die.
Here's
Fungi come in all shapes and sizes.
And tens of thousands of organisms
fall under the category of fungi.
Until the late 1960s,
there were only two classifications
of life-forms,
plants and animals.
But these "plants" don't contain
chlorophyll, the green pigment.
Without chlorophyll,
photosynthesis can't happen.
So in 1969,
ecologist Robert Whittaker suggested that
these be given their own classification.
So the kingdom of fungi was created.
Fungi are essential to our lives.
They help create penicillin and other drugs.
Yeast is a fungus too.
It ferments wine and beer,
and helps some breads to rise.
And some mushrooms are delicious foods.
But if you eat a poisonous mushroom,
what can you do to survive?
After you eat a poisonous mushroom,
it can take 20 minutes to 24 hours
before you start feeling symptoms.
So keep a sample in a bag,
and give it to the medical staff
who are treating you.
Some fungi have more than one toxin,
so keeping a sample is key to surviving.
Write down the date and time
when the fungi was eaten,
and how much was consumed.
And keep track of the symptoms,
and when they occurred.
This timeline can help
the medical team to treat you.
Even if you feel completely fine
after consuming a strange fungus,
it's best to assume the worst
and head straight for a hospital.
This applies to your pets,
as well as you and your children.
So if you're going for a trek in the wild,
find out where the nearest hospital is
before you leave home.
If you forget to do this,
make sure you have your phone with you.
It could help you pinpoint your position
if you need to call for emergency help.
If the closest hospital or ambulance
is far away,
having some activated charcoal
could help to save your life.
So keep some in your backpack,
just in case.
Activated charcoal has a different
internal structure than regular charcoal.
It's much more porous,
and it binds to toxins
so your stomach can't absorb them.
Then it passes out through your feces.
Sometimes, doctors use it to treat overdoses.
Just make sure it's activated charcoal,
not the stuff you use for barbecues.
And if you can,
contact a poison hotline before consuming it.
You've got the poison hotline number
in your phone,
right?
Remember, peeling or cooking
a poisonous mushroom will not make it safe.
Only eat a mushroom
if you are 100% certain
that it's not poisonous.
If you're not sure,
just leave it alone.
Ingesting even a small amount
of the wrong fungus can be fatal.
Eating a webcap,
a common mushroom in
North America and European forests,
can cause kidney failure and even kill you.
Or, even if you eat a False Morel,
you can suffer nausea,
abdominal pain,
and even die from liver failure.
And there's also the death cap mushroom.
Eating just one
is enough to kill a healthy adult.
There are many symptoms
you can feel after eating poisonous fungi.
They could be anything from a
pain in your belly
to vomiting,
diarrhea,
and hallucinations.
Some fungi are more toxic
at certain times of year,
as they go through various stages.
So a toxic reaction could happen fast,
or take a long time to occur.
And even sudden, violent reactions
can seem to be cured after 24 hours.
At this point,
you might be discharged from the hospital.
But potentially fatal damage
could be happening,
even though you are not
feeling any symptoms.
If you consumed a lot of toxins,
be careful for the next week.
Be vigilant, and watch for changes
in skin color and overall health.
It might save your life.
So stick to safe mushrooms
that you buy at a grocery store
or other trusted sources.
You wouldn't want to stop enjoying
mushrooms on your hamburger,
or in a stir fry,
or with a steak.
But what about if you ate
a strawberry with a little soft patch on it?
Or an old sandwich
that you thought was safe,
but it turned out to be covered in mold?
Should you be worried?
How safe is eating mold?
Well, hold onto your tastebuds a little longer,
and watch How to Survive Eating Mold,
right here