What is Diarrhea? What is Good for Diarrhea?

Although diarrhea may seem like a simple health problem, it can even be fatal, especially in children under the age of 5 and in elderly, debilitated patients and patients receiving treatment for other reasons.

Although diarrhea may seem like a simple health problem, it can even be fatal, especially in children under the age of 5 and in elderly, debilitated patients and patients receiving treatment for other reasons.

What is Diarrhea?

Diarrhea is defined as defecation more than 3 times a day or more frequent, waterier or larger amounts of defecation than the person’s usual defecation. Dozens of diseases that cause mucosal damage in the intestine, such as viruses, bacteria, food poisoning, lactose intolerance, and ulcerative colitis, can cause diarrhea. It can be acute, persistent or chronic, and often the person with diarrhea will recover on their own without the need for medical treatment.

Diarrhea that lasts longer than four weeks is called chronic diarrhea. If diarrhea has become chronic, it should be kept in mind that there may be a serious underlying disease and a medical evaluation should be made by consulting a physician. In the treatment of diarrhea, it is important to identify the disease causing diarrhea and approach it accordingly.

What Causes Diarrhea?

Diarrhea is not a health problem that occurs as a result of a single disease. There may be many different reasons.

Diseases that cause diarrhea:

• Intestinal infections; viral, bacterial infections, bacterial toxins
• Infections caused by parasites
• Other intestinal factors; carcinoma, antibiotic treatment, heavy metal poisoning
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Cholestatic syndromes; bile duct obstructions, hepatitis
• malabsorption syndromes; celiac (gluten enteropathy), short bowel syndrome, diverticula
• pancreatic insufficiency
• diabetic neuropathy
• hyperthyroidism
• Nutritional deficiency (malnutrition)
• food allergies
• laxative use

To find the cause of diarrhea, it is necessary to question the duration of diarrhea, the frequency of defecation and the color of the stool. Patient history is also an important factor in determining the cause of diarrhea.

What are the symptoms of diarrhea?

Although diarrhea manifests itself with increased defecation, it also has many different symptoms. A person may have only one or several of these symptoms.

Diarrhea symptoms:

• Urgent desire to defecate
• Increased frequency/number of defecation
• watery defecation
• Swelling
• Gas
• Stomach ache
• mucus in stool
• bloody defecation
• Weakness
• Nausea and vomiting
• Symptoms and signs of fluid loss (dehydration)
• Fire
• weight loss

Symptoms vary depending on the disease causing diarrhea. Weight loss, bloody stools and dehydration are among the serious symptoms of diarrhea.

Clinical course

Babies and young children cannot recover from diarrhea as easily as adults. While diarrhea in an adult often improves without treatment, diarrhea in young children and infants can sometimes be a sign of a serious condition. Even if it occurs for a simple reason, it lasts for a long time and if left untreated, serious conditions such as dehydration and malnutrition may occur.

The most common cause of diarrhea in babies and young children is infections. Infection is triggered by lack of access to clean water, poverty, and low birth weight. Apart from infections, there are other factors that cause diarrhea.

Conditions that cause diarrhea:

• infections
• Poor hygiene conditions
• Long-term antibiotic use
• Inability to breastfeed
• Early transition to complementary foods
• malnutrition
• food allergies
• intestinal diseases
• lactose intolerance
• Use of drugs that suppress the immune system

Malnutrition occurs as both a cause and a consequence of diarrhea. As a result of malnutrition, immunity decreases and the risk of diarrhea increases in babies. Malnutrition occurs in babies with diarrhea because the absorption of nutrients from the intestine is not complete. Getting medical support is essential to break the vicious cycle of malnutrition-diarrhea; because malnutrition causes serious health problems and even death in young children and babies.

Malnutrition is a virulent factor that negatively affects the course and treatment of the disease in adults, especially in patients receiving treatment for other reasons (chronic diseases, cancer, etc.) and should be treated very energetically.

Malnutrition findings:

• Gastroenteritis
• Electrolyte and fluid balance disorder
• infections
• low blood sugar
• drop in body temperature
• Anemia
• vitamin deficiencies

Medical treatment is essential in malnutrition. However, the risk of malnutrition in short-term diarrhea is very low. It should not be forgotten that malnutrition occurs as a result of very serious and persistent diarrhea.

Another clinical condition that causes serious problems as a result of diarrhea in both adults and children is dehydration. Dehydration is a symptom that occurs as a result of excessive fluid and electrolyte loss from the body as a result of frequent and watery defecation. It indicates that the amount of fluid in the body has decreased.

Signs of dehydration:

• Restlessness and irritability
• Dryness in mucosa-covered organs such as mouth and eyes
• Sunken eyeballs
• Increase in pulse rate
• Decreased urine output
• Increased breathing rate and depth
• decrease in blood pressure
• Decrease in skin turgor
• Loss of consciousness in case of advanced dehydration

Dehydration is classified into three degrees: mild, moderate or severe, depending on the percentage of fluid lost from the body. In mild and moderate dehydration, oral fluid replacement is performed as the patient remains conscious. However, since loss of consciousness occurs in severe dehydration, fluids are not given orally. Intravenous fluid replacement is recommended instead.

What is Good for Diarrhea?

Since diarrhea is a life-limiting health problem that significantly reduces the quality of life, everyone with diarrhea thinks of “What is good for diarrhea?” comes the question. Foods are seen as the biggest help in treating diarrhea at home. Especially foods containing pectin, guar gum and mucilage, which we call soluble fiber, help stop diarrhea by drawing excess water from the intestine. In addition, foods containing probiotics are also good for diarrhea by regulating the bacterial balance in the intestine.

Foods that are good for diarrhea:

• Yogurt; Probiotics are effective.
• Rice; It retains water and prevents sodium loss thanks to the glycine it contains.
• Tea, coffee, cocoa; It retains water, but excessive consumption increases bowel movements.
• Potatoes; It has water-retaining properties thanks to its starch content.
• Apple; It contains pectin and is water retaining.
• Banana; It has water-retaining properties because it contains soluble fiber.
• Peaches, pomegranates, grape juice, carrots and pasta are also recommended.
• In the presence of nausea, foods such as saltine crackers are effective in reducing nausea.

Foods that should not be eaten in case of diarrhea:

• Oils; It is restricted because it accelerates the passage of nutrients through the intestine.
• Whole wheat and bran products; It increases bowel movements.
• Bulgur wheat; It accelerates bowel movements due to its insoluble fiber content.
• Sugar alcohols (found in chewing gum), lactose, fructose and excessive amounts of sucrose are not recommended as they may increase diarrhea.

When to consult a doctor?

In adults:

• If diarrhea is very persistent and does not go away for a long time,
• If the stool is foamy and has a very bad smell,
• If there is blood in the stool or the color of the stool is black,
• If nausea and vomiting are severe enough to prevent food intake,
• If there is a fever that does not go away for more than 24 hours,
• If diarrhea occurred after traveling abroad,
• If you have symptoms of severe fatigue and confusion,
• If the urine color is very dark,

In young children and babies:

• If the baby is less than 2 months old,
• If there is an additional disease such as diabetes or kidney failure,
• If there is constant vomiting,
• If there is a significant increase in the number and volume of defecation (defecation more than 8 times a day),
• If there are signs of severe dehydration,
• If there is a serious decrease in food and fluid intake,

A doctor should be consulted without wasting time. Diarrhea is usually caused by infection and goes away on its own.

However, if you or your patient have the above symptoms, it would be appropriate to consult the nearest health institution.