Diarrhea

Diarrhea means frequent loose bowel movements. Diarrhea is acute when it starts suddenly and clears up within a few days. Most people have diarrhea once in a while, usually after eating or drinking contaminated food or liquid or when they have stomach flu.

Diarrhea that doesn't go away after a few days or keeps coming back is called chronic. It may be a sign of other medical problems.

Diarrhea can be serious in very young children and the elderly because it can cause dehydration (a loss of too much fluid from the body).

How does it occur?

Acute diarrhea may be caused by:

What are the symptoms?

With the frequent loose bowel movements, you may also have:

How is it diagnosed?

Your health care provider will review your symptoms and examine you. Your provider will make sure that you are not getting dehydrated and that you do not have appendicitis. A sample of your blood or urine may be tested. You may need to give 1 or more samples of bowel movement (stool samples) for lab tests.

How is it treated?

You need to replace the fluids and body chemicals that are lost when you have diarrhea. Your health care provider will probably advise you to drink plenty of clear fluids. Sports drinks or other oral rehydration solutions (OES) can help you replace lost salts as well as fluid. You can make a rehydration solution with packets from the drugstore or by mixing:

Drinking other nonalcoholic drinks made with clean water will also help prevent dehydration, but you may not get all the salts you need. Your provider may prescribe an antibiotic if your diarrhea is caused by bacteria. If an antibiotic taken for another illness is causing the diarrhea, your provider may ask you to stop taking that antibiotic.

How long will the effects last?

The symptoms of acute diarrhea usually last less than 3 days. Sometimes the diarrhea is gone after just a few hours, but sometimes it lasts as long as 2 weeks.