Diarrhea Can Be A Symptom Of A Serious Illness

Author: Joe Fowler Time for reading: ~3 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

Diarrhea, in addition to being a harmless bowel disorder, can also be an alarm for a serious illness.

Diarrhea can be a symptom of a serious illness. It is repeated, watery bowel movements a day, which are accompanied by pain, bloating, and in some cases with nausea, vomiting, general fatigue, fever.

The reasons can be varied. In most cases, diarrhea goes away on its own and does not require special treatment, as it is caused by an error in diet, consumption of unfit food, stress and more.

But there are cases in which serious attention should be paid, because infrequent bowel movements can be a signal for more serious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. There are acute and chronic diarrhea.

In acute cases, the most common causes are intestinal infections (caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites), side effects of medications, food poisoning and more. It passes in a few days.

While chronic diarrhea persists for more than two weeks and is associated with more serious diseases. Therefore, even if the infrequent bowel movements continue for a long time, it is mandatory to seek medical help.

One of the possible causes of improper bowel movements is malabsorption and mass digestion . Malabsorption is a disorder of the absorption (absorption) of nutrients by the cells of the small intestine, and maldigestion is impaired intralumenal (intra-intestinal) digestion, which can affect the breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates or fats.

The typical symptoms of these disorders are diarrhea (in which the stool reaches 300 g per bowel movement); swelling; deficiency of important nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins (A, D, E), iron, potassium, calcium, etc., which is manifested by the corresponding symptoms (visual disturbances, edema, muscle weakness, etc. ).

Another common cause of chronic diarrhea is lactose intolerance. This disease is a congenital or acquired intolerance to lactose (so-called milk sugar, which is found in milk and dairy products).

Lactose is broken down by the enzyme lactase so that it can pass through the small intestinal mucosa into the blood. Deficiency of this enzyme leads to non-absorption of lactose by the body and its entry into the undigested form in the colon.

There, the milk sugar is improperly processed by the action of large intestinal bacteria and the mucous membrane becomes inflamed. This leads to the appearance of the typical complaints of the disease - diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain.

Symptoms appear quickly after consuming milk or dairy products , and their intensity depends on the amount of lactose in the food consumed . Such a disease is fructose intolerance, in which such symptoms occur due to consumption of fruits, honey, fruit juices, marmalades and other products containing fruit sugar.

There is also a lack of an important protein that is responsible for the absorption of carbohydrates. Gluten allergy ( celiac disease ) is a serious disease belonging to the autoimmune, in which the body has an intolerance to the protein gluten contained in wheat, rye, barley.

The disease has different symptoms in different patients, but the most common are diarrhea (stools may be greasy), weight loss, abdominal pain, bloating.

Diagnosed in time and with proper diet, the disease is completely controllable. Diarrhea is also a symptom of chronic inflammation of the intestines . The most common diseases in this group are Crohn's disease and chronic ulcerative colitis.

Crohn's disease can affect the entire digestive tract, while ulcerative colitis affects the colon. The symptoms of the two diseases are similar - abdominal pain, loss of appetite and weight loss, diarrhea (in some cases with the presence of impurities of blood and mucus in them), general fatigue, as characteristic of ulcerative colitis as a clinical picture is pain in joints, skin rashes, eye problems (uveitis).

Treatment of each of these diseases leads to the cure of diarrhea as a symptom and the associated loss of water and electrolytes.

Diarrhea Can Be A Symptom Of A Serious Illness

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