Diarrhea Totally Explained

Everything about Diarrhea totally explained

In medicine, diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea (see spelling differences), refers to frequent loose or liquid bowel movements.
Although for many people diarrhea is merely unpleasant, diarrhea that's both acute and severe is a common cause of death in developing countries and a major cause of infant death worldwide. It is often due to gastroenteritis.

Causes

Diarrhea is most commonly caused by viral infections, parasites or bacterial toxins. In sanitary living conditions where there's ample food and a supply of clean water, an otherwise healthy patient usually recovers from viral infections in a few days. However, for ill or malnourished individuals diarrhea can lead to severe dehydration and can become life-threatening without treatment.
   Diarrhea can also be a symptom of more serious diseases, such as dysentery, cholera, or botulism, and can also be indicative of a chronic syndrome such as Crohn's disease or severe mushroom poisoning syndromes. Though appendicitis patients don't generally have diarrhea, it's a common symptom of a ruptured appendix. It is also an effect of severe radiation sickness.
   Diarrhea can also be caused by dairy intake in those who are lactose intolerant.
   Symptomatic treatment for diarrhea involves the patient consuming adequate amounts of water to replace that loss, preferably mixed with electrolytes to provide essential salts and some amount of nutrients. For many people, further treatment is unnecessary. The following types of diarrhea indicate medical supervision is required:

Diarrhea in infants
Moderate or severe diarrhea in young children;
Diarrhea associated with blood
Diarrhea that continues for more than two days;
Diarrhea that's associated with more general illness such as non-cramping abdominal pain, fever, weight loss, etc;
Diarrhea in travelers, since they're more likely to have exotic infections such as parasites;
Diarrhea in food handlers, because of the potential to infect others;
Diarrhea in institutions such as hospitals, child care centers, or geriatric and convalescent homes.

A severity score is used to aid diagnosis in children.

Types of diarrhea

There are at least four types of diarrhea: secretory diarrhea, osmotic diarrhea, motility-related diarrhea, and inflammatory diarrhea.

Secretory diarrhea

Secretory diarrhea means that there's an increase in the active secretion, or there's an inhibition of absorption. There is little to no structural damage. The most common cause of this type of diarrhea is a cholera toxin that stimulates the secretion of anions, especially chloride ions. Therefore, to maintain a charge balance in the lumen, sodium is carried with it, along with water.

Osmotic diarrhea

Osmotic diarrhea occurs when there's a loss of water due to a heavy osmotic load. This can occur when there's maldigestion (for example, pancreatic disease or Coeliac disease), where the nutrients are left in the lumen, which pulls water into the lumen.

Motility-related diarrhea

Motility-related diarrhea occurs when the motility of the gastrointestinal tract is abnormally high. If the food moves too quickly, there isn't enough time for sufficient nutrients and water to be absorbed. This can be due to a vagotomy or diabetic neuropathy, or a complication of menstruation.

Inflammatory diarrhea

Inflammatory diarrhea occurs when there's damage to the mucosal lining or brush border, which leads to a passive loss of protein-rich fluids, and a decreased ability to absorb these lost fluids. Features of all three of the other types of diarrhea can be found in this type of diarrhea. It can be caused by bacterial infections, viral infections, parasitic infections, or autoimmune problems such as inflammatory bowel diseases.

Dysentery

Generally, if there's blood visible in the stools, it isn't diarrhea, it's dysentery. The blood is trace of an invasion of bowel tissue. Dysentery is caused by an excess of water by a release of antidiuretic hormone from the posterior pituitary gland. Dysentry is a symptom of, among others, Shigella, Entamoeba Histolytica, and Salmonella.

Infectious diarrhea

Infectious diarrhea is diarrhea caused by a microbe such as a bacterium, parasite, or virus.

Malabsorption

These tend to be more severe medical illnesses. Malabsorption is the inability to absorb food, mostly in the small bowel but also due to the pancreas.
Causes include celiac disease (intolerance to wheat, rye, and barley gluten, the protein of the grain), lactose intolerance (Intolerance to milk sugar, common in non-Europeans), fructose malabsorption, pernicious anemia (impaired bowel function due to the inability to absorb vitamin B12), loss of pancreatic secretions (may be due to cystic fibrosis or pancreatitis), short bowel syndrome (surgically removed bowel), radiation fibrosis (usually following cancer treatment), and other drugs such as chemotherapy.

Inflammatory bowel disease

The two overlapping types here are of unknown origin:

Ulcerative colitis is marked by chronic bloody diarrhea and inflammation mostly affects the distal colon near the rectum.

Crohn's disease typically affects fairly well demarcated segments of bowel in the colon and often affects the end of the small bowel.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Another possible cause of diarrhea is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Symptoms defining IBS: abdominal discomfort or pain relieved by defecation and unusual stool (diarrhea or constipation or both) or stool frequency, for at least 3 days a week over the previous 3 months. IBS symptoms can be present in patients with a variety of conditions including food allergies, infective diarrhea, celiac, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Treating the underlying condition (celiac disease, food allergy, bacterial dysbiosis, etc.) usually resolves the diarrhea. IBS can cause visceral hypersensitivity. While there's no direct treatment for undifferentiated IBS, symptoms, including diarrhea, can sometimes be managed through a combination of dietary changes, soluble fiber supplements, and/or medications.

Other important causes

Ischemic bowel disease. This usually affects older people and can be due to blocked arteries.

Bowel cancer: Some (but not all) bowel cancers may have associated diarrhea. Cancer of the large intestine is most common.

Hormone-secreting tumors: some hormones (for example serotonin) can cause diarrhea if excreted in excess (usually from a tumor).

Bile salt diarrhea: excess bile salt entering the colon rather than being absorbed at the end of the small intestine can cause diarrhea, typically shortly after eating. Bile salt diarrhea is a possible side-effect of gallbladder removal. It is usually treated with cholestyramine, a bile acid sequestrant.

Alcohol

Chronic diarrhea can be caused by chronic ethanol ingestion. Consumption of alcohol affects the body's capability to absorb water - this is often a symptom that accompanies a hangover after a heavy drinking session. The alcohol itself is absorbed in the intestines and as the intestinal cells absorb it, the toxicity causes these cells to lose their ability to absorb water. This leads to an outpouring of fluid from the intestinal lining, which is in turn poorly absorbed. The diarrhea usually lasts for several hours until the alcohol is detoxified and removed from the digestive system. Symptoms range from person to person and are influenced by both the amount consumed as well as physiological differences.

Treatment

In many cases of diarrhea, replacing lost fluid and salts is the only treatment needed. Medicines that are available without a doctor's prescription include loperamide (Imodium) and bismuth subsalicylate Pepto Bismol and Kaopectate.

Further Information

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