Diarrhea Treatment
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The sort of treatment that can be offered to you depends on what causes diarrhea in the first place. I would like to talk to you more about diarrhea causes and the medicine for diarrhea that will help improve your symptoms. It may even stop diarrhea you are having!
I'm sure you are aware that diarrhea causes significant suffering throughout the world and is actually a common feature of a lot of different illnesses. It has a significant economic impact too, both in terms of days off work and the morbidity associated with the illness including death in some situations. Infective diarrhea is the commonest diarrhea and whilst normally self limiting, it does have significant health implications, particularly in third world countries.
What Causes Diarrhea?
Diarrhea is defined in various ways, but most people define diarrhea as the need to go to the toilet to evacuate their bowels either too frequently and/or producing loose to watery stools.
Technically, the diagnosis of diarrhea is made if the stool weight is greater than 250g a day, although in practice this is rarely confirmed. The causes of diarrhea can be found divided up in a classification system outlined below and diarrhea treatment can then be targeted according to this.
Diarrhea Causes
There are various diarrhea causes which can be classified in so many ways. The cause is important as it determines the type of diarrhea treatment available. The easiest way to classify them is in to either acute or chronic diarrhea causes. Acute diarrhea (sudden onset and short-lived) is usually due to Stomach Flu Symptoms and doesn’t normally require any diarrhea treatment apart from keeping hydrated with fluids and rest. Drugs (most drugs can cause diarrhea), diet indiscretions or an acute form of inflammatory bowel disease can also underlie acute diarrhea.
Chronic diarrhea causes are numerous, but are commonly characterised as either osmotic diarrhea (water pulled into the bowel due to hypertonic, non-absorbed substances in the bowel lumen), secretory diarrhea (where the bowel passes excessive secretions into the bowel in the form of fluids and salts or ‘electrolytes’, inflammatory diarrhea (see colitis symptoms ) - due to damage to the bowel wall) and abnormal motility (the bowel moves by a process called peristalsis and this can be increased or decreased). IBS diarrhea may be part of abnormal motility , although it is really an entity in its own right! These forms usually require diarrhea treatment to keep symptoms under control, either slowing down frequency or even to stop diarrhea occuring.
Coloured Diarrhea
Sufferers often define their diarrhea by color. Some complain of yellow diarrhea , green diarrhea and black diarrhea or maybe bloody diarrhea . These are also quite good classifications and within these there are many causes and diarrhea treatment options. For more information on what causes diarrhea like this, click on the links to reveal more detail.
What Investigations Are Required To Look For Diarrhea Causes?
Acute diarrhea is usually self-limiting and doesn’t usually require further investigation unless it either doesn’t settle or causes more extreme illness.
When chronic or continuing diarrhea, this does need investigating and your doctor will be able to help you with this. The degree of investigation depends on your history, but you may require blood tests, a stool sample and referral to a gastroenterologist for further investigations such as a colonoscopy procedure , flexible Sigmoidoscopy , CT colonography or barium enema to help make a diagnosis and aid diarrhea treatment targeting. Again, click on the links to learn more about these investigations as they are too complex to give any detail on one web page.
Medicine For Diarrhea
As you are now aware, diarrhea treatment depends on the underlying cause. In acute diarrhea, by far the most important treatment is fluid to keep you hydrated, electrolytes (salts) and sugar to prevent further dehydration and its complications. Drinking at least 3L’s a day should be considered as loss of fluid is not only from the diarrhea, but also from sweating and a natural tendency not to drink so much because of the illness or through associated vomiting! If the diarrhea cause is thought to be drug induced, withdrawal of the drug after discussion with your doctor should be considered.
Treatment of diarrhea should always be directed at the underlying cause, but if this is not possible, as in IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, then trying to alleviate symptoms or stop diarrhea with medications should be considered. This is usually in the form of antidiarrheals such as Loperamide (Imodium), Codeine Phosphate , Kaolin and Morphine, or more unusual treatments such as cholestyramine (Questran) and Sucralfate help to stop diarrhea. These medicines do work, but should only be taken after discussion with your doctor, particularly when using them in the longer term.
With IBS, the diarrhea is usually a problem 1st thing in the morning and it is sometimes better to let it pass, rather than take a drug. However, this is not always possible, so I usually suggest taking antidiarrheals at bedtime. This often helps to reduce the morning frequency or severity that sometimes occurs in IBS.
Diet in diarrhea is a very important form of diarrhea treatment and you can read more about this in the IBS diet section. This may involve reducing dairy products, gluten free diets, low fat diets and other measures.
Other Web Pages On This Site That May Interest You
Why Not Book An Appointment With A Doctor Online?
If you need online medical help with your diarrhea treatment or any other issues, why not visit my online medical health page. You will be able to book an appointment online to discuss your medical problems or ask for advice on anything that is worrying you, perhaps clarify drugs, ask for a second opinion and much more. Just go to ask a doctor online and book your appointment with me now!
Colon Cancer
Learn all about colon cancer symptoms (one of the diarrhea causes) and investigation. Go to the colon cancer symptoms page now.
The Complete Stomach Flu Guide
If you have stomach flu or gastroenteritis you can find help with this by going to the Stomach flu symptoms page.
Try Manuka Honey
Learn about the health benefits of manuka honey,a natural medicine that can help with diarrhea treatment. Just go to health benefits of manuka honey page now!
Acai Berry
You’ve learnt about some diarrhea treatment options, now learn all about the health benefits of the acai berry by going to acai berry information page now!
Feedback About Your Experience of Diarrhea To Help Others
Feedback about diarrhea and how you manage it to help other sufferers! By feeding back you are letting other sufferers know your experiences of diarrhea and also contributing to the IBS Help Online community. You may be helped from the comments from others too!
It’s so easy to do and you will remain totally anonymous unless you provide your name for others. No one will be able to contact you directly apart from through the comments and there is absolutely no registration, so it couldn't be easier!
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