Symptoms:
Frequent and loose watery bowel movements. This is often accompanied by cramping, abdominal pain, thirst, sudden need to eliminate, vomiting, and possible fever.
Cause:
Severe diarrhea can produce a loss of essential electrolytes, such as potassium, and result in pale pallor, listlessness, and dark circles under the eyes.
Diarrhea in infants is serious. Something must be done right away. If the child has five or more watery stools a day, consider it diarrhea.
Possible causes include overeating, food poisoning, stress, incomplete digestion of food, taking certain drugs, flu, intestinal parasites, caffeine, contaminated water, infection (viral or bacterial), eating certain foods (such as unripe fruit, spoiled protein, or rancid fats), eating soap (from improperly rinsed dishes), ingesting certain chemicals, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, etc.), cancer, traveling to foreign countries, poor digestion, or lactose intolerance from milk products. Giardia lamblia, a microscopic parasite, is the most common form of water-borne infestation in the United States.
A rich meal of wine, lobster, creamy desserts and all the trimmings is a good start toward diarrhea. It is all too much for the body to handle. The body rejects the whole thing and sends it all out.
Dysentery is diarrhea which is caused either by a disease organism of some kind or overeating of rich food. The symptoms are the same as diarrhea, but may be longer lasting.
Prevention requires cleanly food sources, careful food storage and preparation, self-discipline, and cleanliness.
Treatment:
• Because of the ongoing diarrhea, people with IBS require as much as 30% more protein than normal, as well as an increased intake of minerals and trace elements.
• Avoid xanthine-containing foods such as chocolate, tea, coffee, and spicy foods. Also avoid drugs, cold liquids, and carbonated beverages. All these may produce diarrhea.
• Milk may also induce diarrhea. Lactose intolerance and virus are leading causes of diarrhea.
• In case of chronic diarrhea, electrolyte and trace mineral deficiencies are likely. Rice water, lime water, potato broth, and fruit will help restore lost electrolytes.
• It is recommended that no raw fruit juices be given until the acute stage is past.
• Garlic is helpful in helping purify the gastro-intestinal tract.
• Carob powder is high in protein and helps stop diarrhea.
• Keep liquid consumption high, in order to replace lost fluids.
• Antacids are the most common cause of drug-related diarrhea. Antibiotics and a number of other medicinal drugs cause it also.
• While you have diarrhea, do not prepare food for others, and wash your hands carefully.
• Some say to use bran and pectin foods, in order to tighten the bowels and stop the diarrhea; others say to let it run its course, in order to rid the problem foods, etc., out of the system. But, generally, it is considered best to use fiber foods to get the diarrhea stopped. When increasing fiber intake, also increase fluid intake.
• The deciding factor is whether the diarrhea was caused by a bacteria or virus. If so, you want the body to throw it off through the bowels, if (if) this will happen fairly rapidly.
• Helpful herbs include white oak bark, an astringent which stops diarrhea. Also useful are American blackberry, barley, clove root, whortleberry, black currant, burdock, and echinacea.