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It is common, affects everyone regardless of age, and has various causes. Usually, diarrhea is self-limiting, but it can be dangerous to your health and lead to dangerous complications. We explain how not to get “grounded” in diarrhea …
Not only a trivial ailment
Although diarrhea, commonly known as diarrhea, is considered an embarrassing condition, it is a serious medical problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhea affects approximately 2 billion people each year and is one of the top five causes of death in the world. Its victims are mainly children whose life-threatening dehydration progresses very rapidly.
Diarrhea is defined as passing stools of excessively loose consistency – semi-fluid, liquid or watery, with increased frequency – three or more times a day. The most common accompanying symptoms include increased intestinal motility, abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, nausea, general weakness and headache.
Due to its duration, we can distinguish diarrhea: acute (up to 14 days), persistent (14-29 days) and chronic (lasting 30 days and longer). However, due to the cause, we divide diarrhea into infectious and non-infectious.
The different faces of diarrhea
Infectious diarrhea is most often caused by:
- viruses (e.g. Rotawirus, Norowirus),
- bacteria (e.g. Clostridium difficile, Escherichia coli, Shigella, Salmonella, Vibrio cholerae),
- products of bacterial metabolism, the so-called enterotoxins,
- protozoa (e.g. Giardia intestinalis, Cryptosporidium minor).
The source of infection is contaminated food (unpasteurized milk, raw or undercooked eggs and meat) and water.
When it comes to non-infectious diarrhea, they are most often associated with the underlying disease (diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, colorectal cancer) or with the use of medications. An example is antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD), defined as a diarrheal syndrome that occurs during or up to 2 months after the end of therapy with antimicrobial drugs, mainly antibacterials. It is estimated that it concerns on average about 10-40 percent. patients receiving antibiotic therapy, depending on the drug used.
Post-antibiotic diarrhea is a consequence of disturbance of the intestinal flora caused by taking antibiotics. The most serious complication of antibiotic therapy is pseudomembranous enteritis, manifested by diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever.
Water, a light diet, and a good probiotic
Although in many cases diarrhea is a mild, short-lived and self-limiting condition that requires no special treatment, it can also be serious to your health and should not be taken lightly. The greatest risk is water loss and electrolyte disturbances. Particularly in infants, children and the elderly, life-threatening dehydration progresses rapidly. It leads first to loss of strength, drowsiness, weakness of the body, loss of consciousness, and in extreme cases to damage to internal organs and death.
Therefore, the most important thing in the treatment of diarrhea is to keep the patient well hydrated. It is estimated that 350-700 ml of fluid should be consumed after each loose stool. For irrigation, apart from still water and weak tea, it is worth using clear soups, mousses and compotes, as well as electrolyte preparations available at a pharmacy without a prescription.
When it comes to diet, meals should be easy to digest with little fiber. You should give up fatty meats and fish, pods, cruciferous vegetables, fresh fruit, hard and ripened cheese, nuts, seeds and seeds. The best choice will be steamed or boiled dishes. During diarrhea, it is advisable to eat small amounts of food at relatively short intervals (every 2-3 hours). You can return to a normal diet after you feel better.
As an adjunct in the treatment of infectious diarrhea, it is worth reaching for probiotics with proven effectiveness, which can restore the balance of the intestinal microbiota, and even alleviate symptoms and contribute to shortening the duration of such diarrhea. A good example is the probiotic drug Enterol, from Biocodex, containing a strain of special yeast Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745.
Previous studies have shown that the strain Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 has a positive effect on the causes and symptoms of infectious diarrhea, as well as on the disturbed intestinal microbiota through activities of the following nature:
- antimicrobial, inhibiting the growth of microorganisms that can cause diarrhea,
- neutralizing bacterial toxins,
- stimulating the immune system (immunostimulating effect),
- anti-inflammatory (enterohemorrhagic E. E. coli coli),
- restores the balance of the intestinal microbiota, which ensures the proper functioning of the intestines.
The probiotic drug Enterol is versatile and can be used for various causes of diarrhea: it works against bacteria, viruses and protozoa. In addition, it can be successfully used as a preventive measure against diarrhea associated with antibiotics and travelers’ diarrhea. Importantly, the safety of Enterol has been confirmed in clinical trials with children, so it can be taken by children, including infants.
Diarrhea drugs are also offered to slow down gastrointestinal motility or diastolic drugs. Their use is always worth consulting with a doctor, especially since in some cases they can slow down the excretion of pathogenic microorganisms and their toxins. Enterol works differently – on the one hand, it helps to fight bacteria and toxins in the intestines, and on the other, it supports the restoration of disturbed intestinal microbiota. Therefore, it can be used as a standalone treatment for infectious diarrhea or as an adjunct to a drug to stop it.
Unfortunately, not all diarrhea can be managed with home remedies. Alarm signals that require medical attention include: severe abdominal pain, blood, mucus or pus in the stool, passing small amounts of urine or anuria, intense diarrhea lasting more than two days (in the case of children, over a day).
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