What Causes Diarrhea? Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
What is Diarrhea
Diarrhea is a condition that occurs due to presence of loose and watery stool. It is a normal condition that may affect many people a few times a year. Diarrhea mostly occurs due to germs, side effects of medicines, or lactose intolerance. In some conditions, if diarrhea lasts more than 3-4 days, it causes excessive release of electrolytes and nutrients from body that result in dehydration. In this condition, if diarrhea could not be treated immediately, it causes deficiency of electrolytes and water in blood that may result in organ failure like kidney failure etc.
Let’s see why and how diarrhea occurs.
How Diarrhra Occurs
Diarrhea occurs due to dysfunction of small intestine and it may have many causes such as infection of small intestine,
side effects of medicines, food allergies, and some digestive disorders. If we want to understand how does diarrhea come about?
It occurs due to dysfunction of small intestine leading to malabsorption and maldigestion. Because small intestine does not work properly in case of diarrhea, so, electrolytes and water cannot absorb from intestine into the blood; instead, release in the stool from our body. It is called malabsorption.
While in case of maldigestion, food coming from stomach called chyme cannot properly digest in small intestine, but release in the stool from our body, which causes deficiency of nutrients and water in body, called dehydration. Dehydration causes lack of blood flow to body organs that increase the chances of organ failure.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Diarrhea
To diagnose diarrhea, patients medical history is collected,
and their physical examination is performed. While blood and stool tests are also performed to identify digestive disorders and microorganisms. Most of the time, diarrhea goes away on its own within few days. However, in some cases, patients are advised to drink a lot of water, while antibiotics and viral vaccines are also prescribed to inhibit growth of germs or microorganisms.
Home Remedies for Diarrhea
You can apply following Home Remedies to overcome Diarrhea Speedily
1. Drink Plenty of Fluids
2. If you have a mild case get Plenty of Water
3. If you have more sever Diarrhea, You May need to replace Lost Salt as well an Electrolyte Solution
4. Eat a B.R.A.T Diet (Fruit, Rice, Toast)
5. Avoid Exercise
6. Try Ginger
7. Consider Supplements
8. Use OTC Medications (e.g Loperamide, Bismuth Subsalicylate etc)
