Diarrhea - causes, treatment

1. What diarrhea is
2. Causes of diarrhea
3. Types of diarrhea
4. Main signs of diarrhea
5. Dangerous symptoms
6. Treating diarrhea
7. Prevention of diarrhea

Diarrhea is a functional disorder of the intestinal tract featuring frequent urge to empty intestine and loose stools. Often, diarrhea is a symptom of food poisoning, as well as of dangerous pathologies, for example, chronic hepatitis, pancreatitis and other infectious and inflammatory diseases.

What diarrhea is

When normal acting intestine is disordered, the digestion process accelerates. Fecal masses do not have time to form and dilute, there is a frequent liquid stool. The nature of the feces depends on the cause and in every specific case the feces are of different consistency, color, odor, lean or plentiful, and featuring various impurities, for example, mucus.

The diarrhea is not dangerous and is quickly eliminated by medications. The health risk is vital microelement loss and dehydration, which constantly accompany diarrhea. Therefore, you need to know how to treat diarrhea at home, what medicines you should always have in the medicine cabinet and how to avoid an extremely unpleasant condition in the future

Causes of diarrhea

Diarrhea can be caused in an adult by banal overeating, overdrinking coffee and alcohol, fatty meal. Such a state runs quickly and without problems, and diarrhea does not happen. In other cases, indigestion is due to the following reasons:

• viral, bacterial, parasitic and fungal infections;
• body intoxication with poisonous substances and medical preparations;
• using low-quality water and products;
• allergic reactions to food and medications;
• dysfunction of the stomach and liver;
• diseases of the small and large intestine;
• irritable bowel syndrome;
• chronic pancreatitis;
• tumor formation;
• stress.

In each case, the diarrhea intensity and features differ and may be accompanied by other unpleasant manifestations: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever.

Types of diarrhea

Diarrhea can be acute and chronic. In the first case, stool disorder can be single, lasts for several days, a week, or maximum two. The reasons are viruses, bacteria, food poisoning or allergies. A diet and an effective diarrhea medication help.

Chronic intestinal disorder features a prolonged period with rare remissions: diarrhea can last for e a month, in particularly neglected cases, diarrhea is observed for years. Most often, the cause of such a prolonged bowel disorder is a serious gastrointestinal disease, that must be diagnosed and treated by specialists.

Main signs of diarrhea

Adults` diarrhea symptomatic has following typical manifestations:

• weakness and chills;
• frequent stool;
• lancinating pain in the stomach;
• increased gas formation;
• nausea and vomiting;
• headache;
• high temperature.

In this case, the patient should take a proven diarrhea remedy and antipyretic, drink much, be peaceful and follow proper rational diet.

Dangerous symptoms

A severe diarrhea happens without temperature pretty often, but this is a bad sign indicating body weak immune defense. Phone an ambulance if there are life-threatening symptoms:

• water stool;
• signs of dehydration (dark urine, cyanosis, muscle spasms, disorientation);
• stool with blood or mucous;
• black stool (risk of internal bleeding);
• white stool (bile ducts are blocked with stones or a tumor);
• prolonged severe pain in the abdomen.

If the complex of symptoms is manifested in a person who has returned from Africa or Asia, he/she needs urgent hospitalization.

The childish stool color and consistency helps to establish a possible cause of intestinal disturbances:

• jelly feces of crimson color can be caused by dysentery;
• green stool means active producing staphylococci;
• gray frothy stool means there are rotaviruses in the body;
• fatty stool featuring particles of undigested food signals intolerance to the diet components.

One of the reasons for developing childish diarrhea featuring uncharacteristic color and odor is often dysbacteriosis. The specialist must diagnose the disease and prescribe appropriate treatment.

Treating diarrhea

Before treating diarrhea at home, determine the nature of the pathological condition. If this is an acute form, treatment in adults begins with taking a medicine against diarrhea, for example, Filtrum.

Natural sorbent in the form of tablets effectively stops diarrhea, prevents producing pathogenic microorganisms, strengthens local immunity, improves peristalsis, without destroying intestinal microflora.

If you feel nauseous with diarrhea, this is a normal reaction and reflex detoxication effect. Therefore, if the patient suffers from diarrhea and vomiting, he/she should prevent dehydration by drinking as much as possible non-carbonated mineral water, fruit drinks, natural vegetable juices. If the patient suffers from high temperature meanwhile, he/she should take an antipyretic.

It does not matter whether the stomach suffers or not with diarrhea, it is necessary to reduce pressure in the gastrointestinal tract, excluding fatty, fried, sweet, spicy things, brown bread, dairy and sour milk products, coffee, alcohol.

During the first week of treating diarrhea the patient is recommended to follow the diet:

• dietary steamed meat;
• low-fat broth;
• boiled rice;
• dried white bread;
• bananas;
• mashed apples.

In case of appearing dangerous symptoms described above, the patient needs qualified medical care. The doctor will diagnose the disease, identify causes of intestinal disorders and prescribe a treatment with individual drugs: antibiotics, probiotics, sorbents.

Prevention of diarrhea

To avoid viral and other intestinal infections coded A 08 in the ICD-10, which are accompanied by diarrhea, the patient is recommended to adhere to a number of simple rules:

• Wash hands thoroughly before having meal;
• Avoid drinking raw water;
• Avoid having stale food;
• Wash vegetables, fruits and berries.

As a preventive measure, the patient can take natural sorbents, eg. Filtrum, and always have the drug at hand as an effective remedy against diarrhea. Taking care of your health and following basic rules of hygiene, you can avoid such an exhausting state as diarrhea and protect yourself and your family from the problems associated with treating dangerous intestinal diseases.

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