How Botulism Works

Botulism bacteria creates a type of poisoning and paralysis -- but how does it actually work? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about the effects and spread of botulism.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brainstuff from house Stuff Works dot com where
smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, how
does boculi is um work? Have you ever heard someone
say don't feed honey to babies. It's one of those
rules that needs more publicity because it's important. But what
is wrong with honey? It has to do with botuli

(00:22):
is um. The word boculi is um describes a type
of poisoning. Boculi is m bacteria create a protein called bachlin,
which invades excitatory nerve cells where they meet with muscle
fibers and blocks the junctions so that no signals can
get through. The result is paralysis, and in severe cases,
it totally immobilizes and kills the patient. Botulism bacteria are

(00:47):
common in nature, but they're killed by oxygen. Therefore, the
bacteria forms spores that protect them from oxygen, and these
spores activate once they get into oxygen free environments. The
most common way to get botchuli is um is from
improperly canned food. Once the can is sealed, it creates

(01:08):
an oxygen free environment. The can is then heated, and
if it's heated properly, the spores die If the can
isn't heated properly, the spores activate inside the sealed can
and fill it with toxin. Because botch alen is a protein,
heating will destroy it. But if the canned food is
eaten cold, botulism occurs. Babies get botulism from honey in

(01:32):
a different way. Bees naturally collect botuli is um spores
as they're out collecting nectar, and they mix those spores
into the honey. Most people can eat these spores without
any problem because we have robust immune systems that eliminate
the spores. Infants, on the other hand, do not have
these defenses yet, so when a baby eats honey, the

(01:54):
spores find themselves inside the oxygen free intestine of the
baby and they come to life. They produced the tocsin
wall inside the baby, and that poisons the baby. Do
you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so,
please send me an email at podcast at how stuff
works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

(02:15):
other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.