OK, as I suddenly find myself with an inexplicable case of the trots with no other apparent symptoms (stomach cramps, fever, etc.), I find myself wondering just what the heck is going on with my body, anyway?
I mean, I know that diarrhea is “excessive and frequent evacuation of watery feces” (thanks, American Heritage dictionary), and I know that it can be caused by such things as lactose intolerance or various nasty germs, but what is the actual mechanism involved?
My limited understanding of the human digestive system leads me to believe that in the normal course of events liquids pass from the stomach, through the kidneys, and into the bladder, whereas solids pass into the colon. Presumably, there is some mechanism involved that regulates this – separating the liquid from the solid and sending each on its merry way.
So, what’s going on when I have diarrhea? Are the liquids and solids not being separated properly? Is my body somehow producing an overabundance of liquid that is being diverted to the colon? Is there a blockage to my bladder that is preventing the liquids from going where they need to go?
And yes, I am drinking plenty of water to prevent myself becoming dehydrated, thanks for your concern.
And if I may make this a two-fer post instead of starting my own thread, how does a product like Imodium stop diarrhea?
After suffering for several days and varying my diet with no discernable changes I took two tiny Imodium tablets and was made whole again. Does the Imodium work through absorbtion into my bloodstream, or is it direct-acting in my gut a la Pepto-Bismol?
As was explained to me, anit diarrhea meds slow the push from the intestines, allowing them more time to absorb fluids.
The immune system will try to flush out millions of bacteria by pushing waste through the intestines so quickly that the intestines don’t absorb the moisture. Hence the fast and frequent and loose bathroom visits, plus the discomfort associated with all the pushing.
Meds slow the pushing, increase the absorbtion.
But, the diarrhea does push out millions of bad guys.
OK, so now I understand what is supposed to be going on in my body, thanks to Fear Itself. I’m still not sure on what goes wrong with the process when diarrhea is involved, however.
Diarrhea has multiple mechanisms, each with multiple causes. And what treats one type of diarrhea successfully can fail to help, or even worsen another type.
Sorry, can’t elaborate now. Will try later, unless another doper addresses this first.
In most cases, replacing lost fluid to prevent dehydration is the only treatment necessary. Medicines that stop diarrhea may be helpful in some cases, but they are not recommended for people whose diarrhea is from a bacterial infection or parasite–stopping the diarrhea traps the organism in the intestines, prolonging the problem.
Diarrhea may be caused by a temporary problem, like an infection, or a chronic problem, like an intestinal disease. A few of the more common causes of diarrhea are
Bacterial infections. Several types of bacteria, consumed through contaminated food or water, can cause diarrhea. Common culprits include Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, and Escherichia coli.
Viral infections. Many viruses cause diarrhea, including rotavirus, Norwalk virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, and viral hepatitis.
Hmmmm… Does this mean, then, that taking Imodium (or any other anti-diarrheal drug) is actually a bad thing since it leaves all those nasty bacteria to ferment and spread throughout my body?
When it’s caused by bacteria, like, let’s say, cholera, often the bacteria will secrete a protein known as an AB toxin. This consists of two parts, the A subunit and the B subunit. The B subunit binds to the surface of your cells, and basically opens up a channel, through which the A subunit enters your cell. Once inside, it mimics a normal cell signal protein involved in the uptake of liquids. The end result is that the whole liquid uptake process starts running in reverse. Water is pumped back out into your instestinal channel.
This helps your body rid itself of the bacteria, but it also produces a lot of feces packed with bacteria, which can go on and infect other people.
For instance, when I get stressed out, I get diarrhea. Almost instantaniously, actually - this can be…interesting.
Also, if I eat anything with fresh peanuts or peanut oil in it - about 20 minutes and Blammo.
In these cases, Pepto or Immodium are fine.
However, if I eat some bad chicken, or get the stomach flu, it’s better for me if I can get the salmonella or bacteria out of my system as fast as possible. Pepto or Immodium - bad.
Alice: Well, part of the problem is figuring out what the cause is, I guess. The last time (many years aho) I had sudden onset diarrhea like this, totally out the blue, it was but the first symptom in what turned out to be a really nasty bout of the flu. So far, I don’t seem to be having any other symptoms, though, and I didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary this morning (unless my normal food somehow became contaminated with something nasty).
My birthday’s this weekend, so let’s hope it’s just something I ate and not another round of “The Killer Flu that Wouldn’t Go Away”.
Barry, if the mechanism is a mystery, just know that the immune system will see something ‘bad’, and in some people some things are bad that aren’t in others and in most people there is a common number of ‘bad’ things.
The immune system sends some signal to the intestines to speed things up…to get the bad out now…by the millions, lightening the load literally that the immune system must punch out one by one.
The intestines push in response to the immune distress call…leaving no time to absorb fluids. Take a drug that slows the push and you defeat the immune response signals and the intestines slow down and absorb fluids.
Lactose intolerance is a bit of a special case because the presence of undigested lactose in the intestines reverses what is called the osmolality, and causes water to enter the intestines from the surrounding tissues instead of being removed from the intestines.
Most other causes of diarrhea just speed the peristalsis so that the water has no time to be absorbed. And there’s a lot of water to be pushed.
While looking up lactose intolerance, I found this quote from Milk Is Not for Every Body by Steve Carper:
Non-US dopers can just substitutes liters for quarts to get the same mental picture.
Philster: I get the general drift. Diarrhea is the body’s way of expelling something unwanted in a hurry, sort of an anal sneeze if you will. The absorption process described by Fear Itself can be a slow process, so the body just bypasses the process and shoves everything out the nearest available airlock.
Diarrhea has multiple mechanisms, each with multiple causes. And what treats one type of diarrhea successfully can fail to help, or even worsen another type.
Sorry, can’t elaborate now. Will try later, unless another doper addresses this first.
I also want to point out that the stomach does NOT drain into the kidneys. Kidneys filter the blood, not digested food.
From the stomach, food passes into the small intestine, where most of the nutrients are absorbed, then into the large intestine, where excess water is absorbed by osmosis. If the food doesn’t spend enough time in the large intestine for the water to be absorbed, you get diarrhea.
The kidneys, on the other hand, filter the blood, removing soluble nitrogenous wastes and excess salts and water. How well the kidneys do their job (or not) has nothing to do with the state of your digestive tract.
Related tangent – can’t diarrhea be caused by a foreign, inorganic object entering the digestive tract? I’m thinking mainly of tiny slivers of plastic (cheapie spatula) or metal (aluminum foil).
