Causes
of Acute
Diarrhea
When
a bout of diarrhea last for less that 14 days it is
defined as “Acute Diarrhea”. Anything over 14 days
is considered to be a
chronic case. An acute
case of diarrhea
can be caused by an infectious agent (bacterial, viral or parasitic), a
side
effect of a medication, a rectal blockage or just stress.
Diarrhea
is caused by excess water in the
bowels. The
different conditions may
bring this condition about in different but the principle remains the
same.
Infectious
agents
The most
common cause of diarrhea is through
contracting an
infectious agent. These
agents can come
in the form of bacteria, a virus or parasite. Gastroenteritis
is a term used by
doctors to describe the onset of
vomiting and diarrhea cause by an infectious agent.
This
condition is also called stomach flu
or gastric
flu.
Some
of these infectious agents
can be transmitted person to
person but are most commonly transmitted through food.
76
million people are stricken with food
poisoning every year in the Untied States and 5,000 will die from it. Recognizing
the traits of dangerous strains
of food poisoning is important.
Stress
People
who suffer from anxiety can manifest that stress as
acute diarrhea. In fact,
stress is a
leading trigger in acute and chronic diarrhea cases because how it
affects the
digestive system. Think about
the
“butterflies in you stomach” or having a
“gut feeling” or “feeling you stomach
drop”. These
saying help to illustrate
the link between our minds and digestive systems. Our
stomachs and intestines have more nerve
cells than our entire spinal cord and there is a nerve highway from our
brains
directly to our digestive systems. Stress
in our brains can unleash hormonal confusion in our digestive systems
that can
trigger different behaviors. These
messages can cause stomach aches, loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhea
in some
people or increase the urge to eat in other people.
Stress
is can be an extreme wild card in how
it affects the digestive system.
Intolerances
and malabsorptions
An
intolerance or malabsorption
affects the body’s ability
to absorb nutrients, minerals and/or vitamins from food.
These
conditions are normally narrowed to a
specific element that body have problems with. For
instance, lactose intolerance is when the
body can not breakdown and
digest lactose properly. Lactose
reaches
the small intestines and can not be broken down or absorbed. So
it spills out into the bowels causing
diarrhea along with gas, bloating and abdominal pain.
This
is normally the case will the majority
of intolerance and malabsorption conditions.
Side
effects
of Medication
Diarrhea
has also been known to be a side effect from
medication. Most of
these cases stem
from an antibiotic or chemotherapy. Antibiotics
can cause diarrhea by disturbing the good bacteria in the
digestive tracts. In most
cases the
diarrhea will subside after the treatment but some diarrhea episodes
can
balloon into inflammation of the colon called colitis or bloody
diarrhea. Eating
yogurt and taking zeolite and
probiotic supplements while on antibiotic will help diarrhea subside.
Chemotherapy
also causes diarrhea in many patients, mainly
because it kills the good cells that line the digestive tract along
with the
bad cancer cells. In
addition, it makes
the body more susceptible to infection. (Diarrhea
is also a symptom for certain cancers: colon cancer, lymphoma,
medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, pancreatic cancer and
hormone-producing
tumors)
In
addition to antibiotics and chemotherapy, diarrhea is a
side effect taking people taking some medications for heart disease or
post
organ transplant. In many
cases doctors
will lower the treatment dosage or prescribe something else to
counteract the
diarrhea.
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