Almost every person has experienced discomfort associated with intestinal dysfunction. And one of the most common pathological conditions is diarrhea. It manifests itself in an increase in the number of bowel movements and changes in the quality and color of stool.
Often serves as a sign of intestinal infections caused by harmful microorganisms (viruses, bacteria). Therefore, it is very important if loose stools appear in time to contact specialists who will identify the cause of this condition.
Diarrhea is also dangerous because this process contributes to dehydration of the body, which can lead to disturbances in water-electrolyte balance. Timely therapy will help not only get rid of unpleasant symptoms, but also prevent unwanted and even dangerous consequences.
What can cause loose stools?
Loose stools appear due to damage to the digestive organs.
Common causes are microorganisms that attack the digestive organs.
These are: salmonella, dysentery bacilli, entero- and rotaviruses and other pathogens. Children are prone to infection with Giardia, which causes giardiasis.
Food poisoning that occurs as a result of eating poor-quality food that has expired or has violated storage conditions is very common. Worm infestations, which are characterized by pain in the umbilical region, loss of interest in food or vomiting.
Ulcerative colitis may also be accompanied by blood-streaked diarrhea. This disease is non-infectious in nature and manifests itself in damage to the intestinal mucosa, as a result of which ulcers form on its walls.
Children sometimes experience symptoms of irritable bowel disease, which also leads to thinning of the stool. Changes in stool can also be affected by stressful situations, which result in changes in both the psycho-emotional background and physical state.
Why can diarrhea occur every day?
Every day, loose stools in an adult can occur for a variety of reasons. Among them the following groups can be distinguished.
Poor nutrition
The foods we eat and our usual diet largely determine the nature and frequency of stool. The following factors contribute to increased frequency of bowel movements and loose stools every day:
- fruits and vegetables with a pronounced laxative effect - beets, plums and prunes, apricots, peaches, figs, fresh dairy products, pickled vegetables;
- products high in coarse plant fiber - legumes (beans, peas, beans), white cabbage, rye bread, bran. They enhance intestinal motility, promoting rapid emptying, resulting in diarrhea developing every day;
- very fatty dishes and products - butter in large quantities, fried, smoked. If there is an excess of them in the diet, the pancreas is overloaded, and it cannot cope with the digestion of incoming food.
With improper nutrition, the stool is unformed, with lumps of undigested food, often accompanied by flatulence.
Poisoning
Diarrhea in the morning every day can occur due to poisoning from poisons, salts of heavy metals (in production or when ingested with poor-quality food), household toxins (ingestion of detergents), and certain medications. A feature of diarrhea in this case is the presence of weakness, abdominal pain; in severe poisoning, convulsions and loss of consciousness may occur.
Infectious diseases
Intestinal infection is one of the most common causes of loose stools every day in an adult. Its development can be caused by viruses, bacteria, protozoa and fungi - accurate identification of the causative agent of the infection is possible only through diagnostic tests (blood and stool tests).
Symptoms of an intestinal infection, in addition to diarrhea, are:
- temperature increase;
- frequent vomiting;
- the presence of pathological impurities in the stool (mucus, blood, greens);
- cramping abdominal pain;
- weakness, lethargy, loss of appetite, muscle pain and headaches.
Chronic diseases
Loose stools can develop every day due to chronic diseases, most often with damage to the gastrointestinal tract due to:
- acute and chronic pancreatitis;
- irritable bowel syndrome;
- cholecystitis;
- peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum;
- Crohn's disease;
- digestion and absorption disorders (gluten enteropathy, lactase deficiency, etc.);
- chronic colitis and enterocolitis.
Diarrhea every day in adults and adolescents can also occur for other reasons:
- when the climate and usual diet change - “travelers’ diarrhea”;
- during pregnancy;
- in some women during menstruation and 1–2 days before it begins.
Up to contents
Diarrhea in babies.
Diarrhea in babies is not always a dangerous symptom.
For children under 1 year of age, unformed and unsolid feces are normal. This is facilitated by specific nutrition (mother's milk and formula), as well as the imperfection of the children's digestive system.
However, if blood, foam, mucus is visible in the baby's stool, or the discharge becomes watery, then this may be an alarming signal. In these cases, you need to contact a specialist.
Normally, the stool of children under one year of age should be yellowish in color and have a sour smell; whitish lumps are allowed in the stool. Emptying, as a rule, occurs 6-7 times a day. And upon reaching one year of age, the norm becomes emptying from 1 to 3 times a day. At the same time, ordinary soft stools should not be a cause for concern.
Diarrhea
Vomit
Gastritis
Pancreatitis
Jaundice
Diabetes
29540 07 June
IMPORTANT!
The information in this section cannot be used for self-diagnosis and self-treatment.
In case of pain or other exacerbation of the disease, diagnostic tests should be prescribed only by the attending physician. To make a diagnosis and properly prescribe treatment, you should contact your doctor. Diarrhea: causes of occurrence, what diseases it occurs with, diagnosis and treatment methods.
Definition
Diarrhea is defined as loose or loose stools three or more times a day, producing more than 200 ml of liquid stool. However, frequent stools are not considered diarrhea. Unformed, loose stools in newborns and breastfed children are also normal.
Diarrhea, or diarrhea, occurs due to impaired absorption of water in the intestines. Significant loss of fluid can lead to dehydration, and the removal of large amounts of electrolytes (potassium, sodium, chlorine ions) can disrupt the normal course of intra- and intercellular processes. According to the World Health Organization, acute diarrhea causes more than 2 million deaths per year.
Types of diarrhea
According to the clinical course:
- acute diarrhea - lasts up to 4 weeks, caused by bacterial, parasitic or viral infectious diseases of the intestine;
- chronic diarrhea - lasts more than 4 weeks, and its cause is pathological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract.
Separately, there is “travelers' diarrhea” - a clinical syndrome that develops in people traveling to other countries and climatic zones.
It usually lasts no more than 7 days. By pathogenesis:
- secretory diarrhea (profuse watery stool more than 1 l/day);
- osmolar diarrhea (copious stool (polyfecal matter) with a large amount of semi-digested food residue (steatorrhea));
- hyper- and hypokinetic diarrhea (liquid or mushy stool);
- exudative diarrhea (loose, loose stools with mucus and/or blood).
Possible causes of diarrhea
Diarrhea can be caused by food poisoning, eating stale or incompatible foods, alcohol, too much coffee, too fatty or spicy foods.
Diarrhea is usually a symptom of an infection in the gastrointestinal tract, which can be caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses and parasites. The infection spreads through contaminated food, drinking water or from person to person as a result of poor hygiene. The patient experiences symptoms of intoxication: fever, chills, body aches, general malaise, lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting. High fever is more characteristic of invasive infections that cause an inflammatory response. With severe inflammation in the intestines, erosions and ulcers develop and, as a result, bloody diarrhea.
In addition, diarrhea can be caused by various diseases and pathological conditions:
- lack of pancreatic enzymes, chronic pancreatitis;
- neoplasms of the pancreas, adrenal glands or intestines;
- ischemia of the small and large intestine;
- irritable bowel syndrome;
- intestinal dysbiosis;
- resection of the stomach or intestine with the formation of a blind loop or short small intestine;
- congenital disorders of the absorption process;
- obstructive jaundice of any nature;
- diseases of the thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism, thyrotoxicosis);
- diabetes;
- radiation exposure;
- taking certain medications (laxatives, antibiotics, antacids, etc.);
- neurogenic disorders.
Diarrhea is often included in the symptom complex of the following syndromes:
- syndromes of acute gastritis and rhitis are characteristic of salmonellosis, bacterial food poisoning, intestinal yersiniosis (pseudotuberculosis);
- acute enteritis syndrome is typical for cholera, viral diarrhea, coli infection caused by Escherichia coli, intestinal yersiniosis;
- acute colitis syndrome develops with dysentery, coli infection, amebiasis (amebic dysentery);
- acute rocolitis syndrome is characteristic of salmonellosis, intestinal yersiniosis, campylobacteriosis;
- profuse diarrhea with a significant admixture of blood may indicate the onset of the development of ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease;
- acute infectious diseases of viral etiology (rotavirus, norovirus, adenovirus, coronavirus) occur with symptoms of intoxication and primary damage to several parts of the gastrointestinal tract (stomach, small and large intestine) and with the development of enterocolitis and rocolitis syndromes.
Involvement of the stomach and small intestine in the pathological process may be accompanied by severe dehydration and electrolyte disturbances due to fluid loss.
During diarrhea, water and electrolytes (sodium, chlorine, potassium and bicarbonate) are eliminated from the body through loose stools, vomit, sweat and urine. Chronic diarrhea often causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which can lead to the development of anemia. Diarrhea in a child is especially dangerous, as it is fraught with very rapid development of dehydration, tachycardia, drop in blood pressure and shock.
Which doctors should you contact if you have diarrhea
? If you have diarrhea, you should contact your general practitioner or. The doctor will prescribe the necessary examination and determine the cause of the disease. Often, consultation with an infectious disease specialist is required to make a correct diagnosis.
Diagnostics and examinations for diarrhea
The diagnostic algorithm for acute diarrhea involves determining its cause, identifying an inflammatory or other etiological factor, and verifying the disease.
Diagnostic difficulties rarely arise only when diarrhea becomes the first manifestation of a systemic disease or dominates the clinical picture.
Along with a physical examination (measuring weight, temperature, heart rate and blood pressure), a proctological examination is performed.
The nature of the stool is determined by the location of the intestinal lesion (small or large intestine). Depending on the color and consistency of the stool, the cause of diarrhea can be assumed:
- Yellow diarrhea - occurs as a result of increased intestinal peristalsis (stool moves quickly and is not fully formed), may be accompanied by pain and heaviness in the abdomen.
- Liquid green stool is recorded in viral and bacterial infectious diseases. The color of stool is explained by the active increase in the number of pathogens and the accumulation of leukocytes. May be accompanied by frequent vomiting and abdominal pain.
- Diarrhea with blood occurs due to gastrointestinal bleeding. If the upper parts of the digestive system are affected, the stool turns black. Stool with scarlet blood indicates bleeding from the rectum.
- White, loose stools occur when there are tumors or stones in the body that compress the bile duct. This condition is also accompanied by darkening of the urine and yellowing of the skin.
- Water diarrhea occurs in cholera. In this case, bowel movements are very frequent, and there is a high risk of rapid dehydration.
Laboratory examination methods:
- ;
- ;
- general urine analysis;
What should you do if your child has abnormal stool?
Smecta is an excellent remedy for diarrhea.
The most important thing is to never resort to self-medication, as it can only worsen the situation.
It is urgently necessary to call a doctor to your home, who will make an initial diagnosis and give the necessary recommendations. Mothers need to know that if their baby has diarrhea, they should not stop feeding for more than two days.
A child, like an adult, needs nutrition even in this state. However, foods that cause fermentation processes in the intestines should be excluded from the diet.
