One of the most common health complaints that you will come across is diarrhea. This health problem occurs suddenly and varies from person to person. The range of diarrhea could be commencing from a mild, temporary factor to probably life-threatening one.
Research has stated that more than 2 billion people are suffering from diarrhea. And around 1.9 billion of them are children who are nearly 5 years of age. The symptoms and causes of diarrhea are many. Let us know in details how does it occur!
What is diarrhea?
Diarrhea is a form of the wrong functioning of bowel movements where you tend to pass loose or watery stools. The cause of passing stool can be 3 to more number of times in a day. This abnormal functioning of the body normally lasts for a few days. Some do need to undergo treatment while others can be cured without any treatment.
Diarrhea can be two types. It can either be acute or chronic. Coming to acute diarrhea, this condition mainly lasts for nearly 2 to 3 days. The main cause of acute diarrhea could be due to viral or bacterial infection. At times, it time even lead to food poisoning. Another form of acute diarrhea is caused by travellers. The main reason behind this diarrhea cause is that due to travelling from places to places, you might get exposed to bacteria. And that might not suit your normal body functioning.
On the other hand, chronic diarrhea is not that normal. It can last up to more than 4 weeks. People who are suffering from an intestinal disorder or diseases like celiac disease or Crohn’s disease have higher chances for chronic diarrhea.
Symptoms of Diarrhea
You already know the main basic symptom of it is water passing out of the stool. Now, this passing of stool can be accompanied by pus, mucus, blood, or excess amount of fat.
The other normal symptoms of diarrhea are –
- Fever
- Bloating
- Sheer weakness in the body
- Painful abdominal cramps
- Nausea
- Dehydration
The symptoms of diarrhea are not that common in adults and children. It kind of varies in them.
Symptoms of Diarrhea in Adults –
- Body Weakness
- Passing of Urine than the normal range
- Dizziness
- Thirst
- The skin on the back of your hand tends to be slow to return down to its original state
Symptoms of Diarrhea in Children –
- The passing of urine than normal
- Irritability
- Almost no tears while crying
- Listlessness
- Drying of mouth
- Some even face sunken of eyes, losing weight, cheeks or belly fat.
What Causes Diarrhea: Top Main Causes Of Diarrhea
1. Diarrhea can occur due to a number of factors. The main cause of diarrhea is due to the infection that is caused in the gastrointestinal tract. Bacteria, viruses and parasitic organisms are the microbes that are mainly responsible for the diarrhea causes.
2. When it comes to acute diarrhea, the most common causes are the presence of certain bacterias that involve Salmonella, Shigella.
3. One of the most common causes of diarrhea is due to irritable bowel syndrome. The symptoms of IBS is quite complex. You will be able to feel abdominal pain and sheer cramps. Not only this, you will be able to come across alternation in the bowel movement habits that involve constipation, diarrhea and others.
4. Another cause of diarrhea is Inflammatory Bowel Disease. This form of disease results in chronic diarrhea. This term is another name for ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. You will be able to find blood in your stools.
5. Known as the stomach flu, Viral gastroenteritis causes inflammation in the stomach. It also affects the intestines. This is caused by different viruses. This is highly contagious and can be caused by getting in touch with people suffering from it or even due to a certain food or even water. The symptoms of this infection often result in the causes of diarrhea where you feel like vomiting and have nausea. It mainly lasts from 1 to 10 days.
6. Food poisoning is another of the most important causes of diarrhea. It is mainly caused when you consume contaminated food with bacteria, viruses or parasites. At first, the symptoms are not that severe, but the range of the suffering might last for even a month. It is severely dangerous and needs immediate emergency help. Most of the common symptoms of food poisoning involve diarrhea causes. You will be able to feel dehydration, weakness, loss of appetite and so on.
7. Some people suffer from food allergies. That means there are certain food elements that do not tend to suit the normal functioning of the body. The food can be allergens, or food like eggs, peanuts, cow’s milk which do not tend to suit the immune system of the body. Often due to food allergies, people tend to suffer from IBS as well as stomach cramps and even diarrhea.
8. Many people cannot have the potentiality to intake dairy products. People suffer the conditions of lactose intolerant. This condition occurs when the small intestine stops formulating enough enzymes to digest the lactase and break down the lactose. People suffering from such a condition tend to have symptoms like abdominal cramps, frequent bowel movements, nausea and even become one of the major causes of diarrhea.
9. Another of the causes of diarrhoea is colorectal cancer. This cancer is mainly caused in the rectum or colon. The symptoms of the commencement of cancer involve constipation, diarrhoea, colour change in the stool, bleeding while passing out stool, as well as bleeding from the rectum.
There are other main factors leading to chronic diarrhoea. Among all the factors, some of the major chronic diarrhoea cause is –
1. Drug-induced diarrhoea which involves the intake of laxatives and drugs including antibiotics leading to the cause of diarrhoea.
2. Various bacteria and viruses can lead to chronic infections. Use of excessive use of antibiotics can be one of the major causes of diarrhoea.
3. At times, certain hormonal changes or factors lead to diarrhoea cause. It is mainly known as the endocrine causes where diseases like Addison disease and carcinoid tumours lead to the effect.
4. Microscopic colitis is known as persistent diarrhoea that is mostly caused in the adults. This occurs mainly during the night time.
What are the complications caused due to diarrhea?
Mainly there is two possible complication that might result from diarrhea cause. That involves dehydration that occurs from either acute or chronic diarrhea. Another factor is that when people suffer from chronic diarrhea, they might face malabsorption.
There are certain tests and medications that you can opt for. It is better to consult the doctor when you are facing such uncomfortable conditions. Children and infants should be taken to the doctor immediately to seek the best treatment before things get worse. And it is always better to seek help if children over 1 year are facing more than 6 episodes of bowel movements within 24 hours.
People who are suffering from the conditions of diarrhoea after any surgery or after being in the hospital for longer days should seek medical assistance. Or adults who are having sleeping problems due to diarrhoea should seek help from the professionals as they will be able to solve the issues without facing any more difficulty. As rightly it is said, “Prevention is always better than cure.”
