Let's talk about the causes of loose stools in an adult that bothers for a long time. Loose stools in an adult for a long time: causes and treatment Frequent loose stools

Diarrhea can overtake a person at the most inopportune moment, regardless of gender and age. An upset bowel movement, accompanied by diarrhea, is a common phenomenon. It is caused by various reasons: poor-quality or heavy food, poisoning, infections and microbes, pathological changes in the body. In addition, there are different forms of diarrhea. It can be acute or chronic. There are cases when an adult has a loose stool once a day for a fairly long time. Many people are very often worried about whether this phenomenon refers to diarrhea or whether it is another pathological condition. First of all, let's deal with these categories. And so, loose stools are feces of a watery consistency. And diarrhea is a painful condition in which frequent and violent bowel movements occur. In this case, the main symptom of diarrhea is loose stools, although sometimes feces can have a thicker, mushy consistency. Based on this, we summarize that loose stools are a sign of diarrhea, which in certain situations can have a thicker consistency of feces. What causes diarrhea in an adult and is manifested by daily one-time defecation for a long period? We will consider the answers to these questions in this article.

Why does an adult have diarrhea with a single bowel movement for a long time?

A daily one-time bowel movement with loose stools for several days indicates that a person's diarrhea has become chronic. It is almost impossible to get rid of this problem on your own, besides, unskilled actions can only harm the body, therefore, if symptoms of diarrhea appear, you should seek help from a doctor. In order to get rid of this unpleasant symptom, you must first of all find out the reasons that provoked daily diarrhea, and only after that start treatment.

As a rule, the acute form of diarrhea is accompanied by pain in the intestines, bloating, fever, and gas. But the chronic form with loose stools does not have such symptoms. It manifests itself as a one-time liquid bowel movement, mainly during the day. It is important to monitor the condition of the feces. Even if diarrhea is of a daily nature, but there is no mucus, bloody impurities in the feces and the feces do not consist entirely of water, then this condition does not pose a particular danger. But it is imperative to consult a doctor for advice. In most cases, eliminating the above causes will fix the problem.

What to do with loose stools

In an adult, diarrhea accompanied by loose stools may indicate serious pathological disorders in the body. But often, a person does not even think about it, and at the first symptoms of diarrhea, meaning the first watery bowel movements, he begins to self-medicate and drink pills. But is it that simple? Of course not. First, the clinical picture of diarrhea is distinguished. After all, it can have an acute form, in which loose stools are repeated every two to three hours, or even more often, while a number of other symptoms are present, this condition is quite dangerous, since it can lead to dehydration. In this case, there are general rules, the so-called necessary measures before carrying out a full examination and establishing the cause of diarrhea:

Completely refuse to eat during the day.
Increase your fluid intake. For this, it is recommended to drink strong black tea or chamomile broth;
To prevent dehydration and its possible consequences, it is necessary to drink Regidron.

Regarding other medications, it is worth consulting a doctor, as they may have side effects, contraindications, or individual intolerance. Secondly, the acute form of diarrhea can be caused by infectious diseases, then the patient is protected from contact. They are treated with drugs with pronounced antiviral and antibacterial effects.

In chronic diarrhea, when there is one bowel movement per day, but for a long time, then if the examinations carried out did not reveal any serious disorders in the body, the following recommendations should be followed:

introduce into your diet the daily use of cereals on the water, it is best to give preference to rice and rice broth;
drink yogurt or kefir with bifidobacteria every day;
drink blueberry or cranberry jelly;
eat only lean meat, while cooking it exclusively for steam;
completely eliminate fatty foods;
drink plenty of fluids, both plain water and herbal teas with honey.

Following these requirements, in most cases, you can quickly get rid of diarrhea. Also, for an adult patient, the doctor may prescribe the intake of special antidiarrheal drugs that will speed up the healing process.

Loose stools or diarrhea, in adults and children, is not an independent disease, but one of the symptoms of various pathological processes in the body. Translated from the Greek "Diarrhea" means "expiring." This condition is manifested by too frequent (more than 2 times a day) intestinal emptying, characterized by liquefied secretions. In colloquial speech, you can often hear another name - "Diarrhea". The greatest danger is diarrhea in children, as they quickly become dehydrated, which carries very serious complications.

The main symptom of diarrhea is loose stools at least 3 times a day. This condition can be acute or chronic. In the first case, a person has a loose stool for at least a week, and in the second, more than 3 weeks. The cause of loose stools in adults and children is not only bacterial and viral infections, but also a number of diseases. In this case, the primary pathological process can be localized in the intestine or in other organs, and changes in the nature of the stool have their own characteristics.

Causes of loose stools

The human body is an integral system, a failure of one of the organs signals health problems. The appearance of loose stools in adults should be alarming, since a minor eating disorder cannot be immediately distinguished from a serious illness. Watery stools in adults are not a sign of a serious illness if:

When an adult eats a lot of plant foods (especially foods rich in fiber) and consumes a lot of water (it is important, but too much of it thinns feces). As soon as a person normalizes his nutrition, then the feces will take the form they should.
With severe dysbiosis. For example, after a person has been treated for a long time with antibiotics that kill the beneficial intestinal microflora. For treatment, you must take drugs that contain the right amount of beneficial bacteria. Such drugs can be distinguished by special marks indicating what kind of active culture they contain.
With a sharp change in food preferences. This often happens to tourists visiting a new country and trying unfamiliar food. The stomach and intestines are not used to new food and at first react to it by releasing more enzymes, which accelerates peristalsis. Gradually, the body gets used to it, and the work of organs returns to normal.
Food allergic intolerances. Most often adults have food intolerance to lactose, so they should not consume dairy products. As a rule, when consuming these products, nothing terrible happens, just active seething, heartburn, flatulence, diarrhea in the form of loose stools begin.
Anxiety. Many people notice the difference between a state of rest and moments of intense excitement, for example, a person may have diarrhea in the form of loose stools (as a rule, a nervous type of diarrhea can be distinguished by the fact that the frequency of bowel movements is moderate enough, does not cause severe discomfort).
Change of the regime of the day. Another fairly harmless reason for the appearance of loose stools. If a person drastically changes the daily routine (for example, begins to wake up much earlier than his usual time), then in the morning he may have liquid feces. You can distinguish this type of diarrhea by the fact that liquid bowel movements are one-time and during the day the work of the intestines returns to normal.

With normal indigestion, a person may experience abdominal pain, bloating with severe gas, and seething. If there was a slight food poisoning, then weakness and fever may occur. A similar picture is observed in diseases associated with infection with viruses. Diarrhea in adults associated with these causes is not dangerous and disappears in a few days. But there are also more serious reasons for loose stools that make a person think about their health:

infection with pathogens (salmonellosis, dysentery, gastrointestinal flu);
inflammatory processes in the gastrointestinal tract (ulcer, hepatitis, gastritis);
deficiency of various enzymes;
poisoning associated with toxic damage (lead, mercury).

Dehydration is an alarming symptom. This manifests itself in dryness of the skin and mucous membranes, the lips are cracked, there is a strong thirst, urination is very rare, the urine becomes dark. Pulse and pressure may increase, sometimes muscle cramps begin. This condition requires clarification of the diagnosis and qualified treatment, possibly in an inpatient setting. Simply stopping the diarrhea will not be sufficient. Therefore, you should not postpone the visit to the doctor.

Loose stools with blood

If loose stools are accompanied by blood, this means that there is a source of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. These are mainly walls in the colon or small intestine, in which case you may notice red or burgundy blood in clots or streaks in the stool. In this case, there is a suspicion of dysbiosis, ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

If the blood in the stool is very dark, almost black, this suggests that the bleeding has occurred in the upper parts of the digestive tract. This can be the esophagus, stomach, or duodenum. In this case, the risk of stomach ulcers and duodenal tumors should not be ruled out.

In adults, diarrhea with blood is observed in almost all infectious diseases of the body, such as dysentery and salmonellosis. In this case, along with blood, there may be mucus in the stool, and diarrhea can be very frequent. Also, diarrhea with blood can be an indicator of hemorrhoids and rectal tumors.

In this case, it is worth paying attention to additional symptoms, such as a sensation in the anus of pain and burning, which becomes stronger with the immediate process of emptying. Rotavirus infection in adults, internal hemorrhoids, the body's defensive reaction to toxic substances are accompanied by feces with blood, so you should immediately consult a doctor.

Loose stools in the morning

Diarrhea in the morning is perceived by many as normal. But it's not always so harmless. Diarrhea is acute and chronic. One-time diarrhea in the morning is not considered dangerous, and you can determine its cause yourself. The reasons may be quite obvious. You just ate or drank something wrong. But everything is not always limited to loose stools: serious poisoning or an infection in the intestines is possible.

Don't be surprised by loose stools in the morning if you've been taking laxatives. In this case, additional treatment is not required. Also, a one-time loose stool is possible if you have experienced a strong nervous shock the day before. Since the factor is of a psychological nature, the disorder goes away by itself.

When should you see a doctor?

Loose stools for a long time makes you think about eliminating unpleasant symptoms. How to determine if medical intervention is needed? There are a number of signs that need attention:

frequent urge to defecate;
heaviness, abdominal pain;
increased gas production in the intestines;
loose, yellow stools;
the appearance of blood or black stools;
frothy green stool.

A white coating on the tongue, severe diarrhea for a long time informs about problems that need to be quickly resolved.

Call an ambulance, or urgently go to the hospital in the following cases:

Long-term persistent diarrhea in a person with a chronic illness, in a child, elderly person, or pregnant woman.
When joining diarrhea, visual impairment, difficulty in swallowing and speech. These can be symptoms of botulism, a rare form of food poisoning commonly associated with eating improperly preserved foods.

Diagnostics

To make a diagnosis, you need to know when and how the disease occurred, which preceded the increase in stool frequency. Also important is information about the duration of the disease, the characteristics of its course, daily fluctuations (which complaints prevail in the morning, after eating, etc.). On palpation, it is possible to establish not only the localization of maximum pain, but also the presence of neoplasms.

Blood (general analysis, liver enzymes, antibodies, etc.), urine (OAM) and feces (coprogram, analysis for helminth eggs, for occult blood) are subjected to laboratory research methods. The results provide extensive information for differential diagnosis. This method allows to reveal the functional state of organs and systems, the degree of development of pathological changes, their cause and course in dynamics. It is especially important because the arsenal of instrumental diagnostic methods for diarrhea is scarce (endoscopic methods, intestinal x-rays). Ultrasound in this case will give little information due to the swelling of the intestinal loops.

How to restore bowel function

Of course, this will depend primarily on the root cause of loose stools. How to get rid of this unpleasant symptom - only the doctor will tell you after the examination. Treatment will depend entirely on the diagnosis, for example:

Treatment of irritable bowel syndrome is complex and includes both drugs that regulate intestinal motility (for example, Loperamide) and drugs that normalize the psychoemotional state of a person. Only in this case can the result be achieved.
If you have an intolerance to any product, you can get rid of the unpleasant symptom of diarrhea by excluding one or another food product from your diet (for example, cereals for celiac disease and cow's milk for hypolactasia).
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease require special attention, and treatment should be carried out only by a competent specialist in this field. The drugs of choice in this case are anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as hormonal drugs, the action of which will also be aimed at reducing the inflammatory response.
To reduce the symptoms of dysbiosis, probiotics will be especially effective - preparations containing live beneficial bacteria, which, when colonized in the large intestine, will contribute to a better digestion process and minimize diarrhea. These include tools such as Bifiform, Linex, Primadophilus and much more.
If persistent diarrhea was caused by an infectious agent that persists for a long time in the body, then antibiotics will come to the rescue, which should only be prescribed by a doctor.

Regardless of the cause of diarrhea, drugs that replace the loss of fluid in the body should serve as a mandatory component in treatment.

Drinking plenty of fluids

Any disease can have complications, but loose stools in adults for a long time causes dehydration. Therefore, you need to quickly restore the body's water balance. The patient is prescribed an abundant drink of pure, boiled liquid or special solutions with the addition of salt. These are Ringer's saline solutions, Regidron, Acesol. You should carefully monitor the patient's condition. If vomiting begins, they drink water often, in small portions.

Medical treatment

Treatment for loose stools in an adult depends on the underlying cause. After the examination, the doctor will prescribe the necessary medications that will help get rid of the disease that caused the diarrhea. To restore the density of feces, doctors prescribe medications:

Enterosorbents are drugs that give the feces a density (bind the structure). This group of drugs includes Smecta, Polysorb, Ultra-Adsorb, Activated carbon, Polyphepan, Filtrum.
Prebiotics - means for the treatment and prevention of loose stools, but that arose exclusively against the background of dysbiosis. Example: Lactobacterin, Bifidobacterin, Bifikol, Hilak Forte, Rioflora Balance.
Means that slow down intestinal peristalsis, that is, reduce its motility. Such funds include Phtalazol, Enterofuril, Enterol, Intetrix, Sulgin, Furazolidone.
Herbal remedies to help thicken stools. Appointed with a slight liquefaction of feces. For example: burnet root, dried blueberries, pomegranate peel.

Treatment of acute diarrhea, which is accompanied by pain, cramps, vomiting, is carried out with medications to reduce intestinal motility. If the cause of loose stools is malabsorption, drugs with bile acids are prescribed during therapy. Each drug is prescribed by the doctor individually, according to the diagnosis. Self-use of loose stool remedies can provoke complications.

One of the consequences of diarrhea is dysbiosis. The task of the therapist is to restore the microflora of the digestive system. For this, after the treatment of loose stools, he uses drugs with beneficial bacteria. Additionally, a course of vitamins (in tablets, injections) is prescribed to avoid vitamin deficiency. The loss of fluid with loose stools is then compensated for by droppers with glucose, sodium chloride. The preparations quickly restore the water balance and have a detoxifying effect.

Sparing diet

To eliminate symptoms and restore the proper functioning of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, you should review your diet. A gentle diet is based on basic principles:

a balanced menu throughout the day to ensure the normal process of life;
reducing the load on the digestive system;
gradual expansion of the diet.

The diet for chronic diarrhea makes special demands on the cooking technology. Therapists recommend boiling or steaming food. Forget about smoked or fried foods in order to get rid of loose stools. The framework of therapeutic nutrition provides for the use of dishes only in a warm form (exclude hot and cold). The portions are reduced so that the stomach gradually gets used to working correctly.

Chronic diarrhea in adults occurs due to poor diet. When planning a diet, you should pay attention to the shelf life of food. There are a number of products that are useful for chronic diarrhea:

stale bread, crackers;
broth (meat, vegetable);
low-fat varieties of meat, fish;
boiled eggs;
low-fat cottage cheese (milk, kefir is not allowed);
baked apples;
natural jelly (no chemicals and dyes);
weak tea, coffee.

After the restoration of the gastrointestinal tract, you should gradually expand your diet. When adding a new type of product to your menu, carefully monitor the reaction of the body. If there are no negative results in the form of renewal of loose stools, then after a certain period of time, introduce a new dish. Do not forget about the processing technology, giving preference to steamed or boiled types of food.

Preventive measures

Wash your hands after using the toilet, changing your baby, and before eating. Hands should be washed with warm water and soap. After cooking, especially if you have handled raw meat, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly. Be careful with food. Unpasteurized dairy products, eggs, poultry, and meat can contain bacteria that cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. The meat must undergo complete heat treatment. Wash kitchen boards and knives thoroughly. Do not eat unpasteurized dairy products, especially those of unknown origin. Do not leave cooked food warm for a long time. this can provoke the growth of dangerous bacteria.

If you are traveling, do not drink raw water or any untreated water, especially of unknown origin. It is better to drink water from well-known manufacturers, packaged in bottles or cans. To purify local water, it must be boiled for 15 minutes, you can also add tablets or drops of iodine and chlorine, or use a special filter. When using chlorine and iodine tablets, read the instructions carefully and follow them. Also, in no case should you eat unwashed fruits and vegetables (it is advisable to wash them only in clean water and very thoroughly, and even better to peel them). Avoid fruits such as melons, which are often pumped with water to increase their weight.

Loose stools in a person who is far from medicine always causes alertness, although, according to doctors, it serves as an alarming symptom only in certain situations. In cases where the bowel disorder is in the nature of diarrhea, it is advisable to consult a doctor. Therefore, the question is natural: is it possible to distinguish loose stools or a slight bowel disorder from real diarrhea or diarrhea and how to do it? Can a watery consistency of feces be observed in an absolutely healthy man or woman? Let's understand in more detail.

The same or different?

First, let's figure out how diarrhea will differ from loose stools, is there any difference between the concepts. To do this, we will give a definition of what constitutes diarrhea. Diarrhea (diarrhea) is a symptom in a child or adult, in which frequent bowel movements occur with a change in the consistency of feces. All of the above are the main signs of diarrhea. However, there are other variants of the bowel disorder, mistakenly called diarrhea. Other symptoms:

Rapid stools without change in consistency.
Altered consistency without frequency.

Diarrhea cannot be called loose stools in a child or an adult, which appeared once. It is important to understand that the key point that distinguishes diarrhea from an intestinal disorder (indigestion) is its significant increase - more than 5–6 rubles per day.

Let us examine some cases of the appearance of frequent stools without changing the consistency of feces. The main symptoms of such an intestinal disorder will be an increased urge to use the toilet and an increase in the volume of stool, while there is no diarrhea as such. Frequent bowel movements with thick stools can occur if you eat too much plant foods and foods that contain fiber in combination with a lot of water. Plant food increases intestinal contents due to pectins, and the fiber swells under the influence of fluid. Both that, and another provoke mechanical irritation of the intestinal wall, increases peristalsis and leads to increased stool frequency.

Watery stool - dangerous or not?

The appearance of loose stools in children, especially newborns, however, as in adults, is always alarming, since it is almost impossible to immediately distinguish a minor eating disorder from a serious illness. The presence of general warning symptoms, examination and a thorough analysis of information about life, food addictions, and diseases that a person has will help to recognize a more serious pathology. Watery stools in adults are not a sign of a serious illness if:

When an adult eats a lot of plant foods (especially foods rich in fiber) and consumes a lot of water (it is important, but too much of it thinns feces). As soon as a person normalizes his nutrition, the feces will take the form they should.
With dysbiosis. For example, after a person has been treated for a long time with antibiotics that kill the beneficial intestinal microflora. Despite the onset of symptoms, dysbiosis rarely causes complications and changes a person's condition, although sometimes it lasts more than a week. To treat the condition and accelerate recovery, doctors advise taking medications containing beneficial bacteria.
With a sharp change in food preferences. The situation often happens to tourists coming to a new country and trying unfamiliar food. The symptom is called travelers' diarrhea. The stomach and intestines are not accustomed to new food and at first react to new food by disrupting the release of enzymes, accelerating peristalsis. Gradually the body gets used to it, and the work of the organs returns to normal.

If the traveler's diarrhea stretches indefinitely and the symptoms of general intoxication (fever, diarrhea, vomiting, chills) increase, the infectious nature of the disease should be excluded. A less common cause of stool disorder, especially when it comes to loose stools in infants, is food allergic reactions. The condition differs from diarrhea in the absence of significant violations of the general condition, as well as possible skin manifestations of allergies.

It is important to understand the difference between common allergies and food intolerances for certain foods or their components, such as lactose (dairy intolerance). The cause of the condition is a decrease in the concentration or almost complete absence of enzymes that break down milk sugar. Food intolerance is sometimes the cause of serious illnesses such as celiac disease. Pathology is diagnosed in early childhood, when a baby, after the introduction of complementary foods or supplementary foods in the form of cereals with cereals containing gluten, unexpectedly develops frothy and fetid diarrhea.

Sometimes, frequent stools can appear for reasons that are completely unrelated to the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, for example, with increased anxiety. Nervous type of diarrhea appears in moments of intense excitement and is popularly called "bear disease." The symptom is associated with a violation of the nervous regulation of peristalsis and its acceleration. It is easy to define "nervous" diarrhea - it occurs in a person in situations of the same type, does not lead to a change in the general state and does not appear at rest.

A change in daily routine can lead to intestinal upset. If a person begins to wake up much earlier than his usual time, then in the morning he may have liquid feces.

This type of diarrhea can be distinguished by the fact that liquid bowel movements are one-time and during the day the work of the intestines returns to normal.

Some men complain that the next morning after drinking a lot of alcohol, they have diarrhea. Some of the stronger sex, who are anxious about their own health, immediately take pills to escape from infection. Of course, infectious causes in this situation cannot be ruled out, but frequent loose stools can be the result of exposure to alcohol itself. Causes of symptoms:

Acceleration of peristalsis under the influence of alcohol.
Destruction of beneficial microflora.
Deceleration of liquid absorption.

All symptoms should disappear in parallel with the extinction of hangover and diarrhea are not. If the symptoms persist for a long time, the stool becomes more and more liquid, diarrhea appears with pathological impurities (blood, mucus), you should consult a doctor.

An interesting physiological cause of diarrhea is pregnancy, or rather, the process by which an "interesting" situation ends - childbirth. At the moment preceding the birth of a child, the woman's body begins the process of self-cleaning of the intestines, which in the future will allow childbirth to proceed more physiologically. In parallel with diarrhea, a woman may experience contractions, pain in the lower abdomen, and water withdrawal. And in the late stages of pregnancy, a woman may develop infectious diarrhea, so it would be useful to see a specialist, it is not only about her own health, but also the condition of the baby.

Pathology

Disruption of the normal functioning of the intestines is often a symptom of very dangerous diseases. In this situation, it will be important not only to distinguish diarrhea from loose stools, but also to determine the diagnosis and receive the correct treatment. The reasons for the appearance of pathological loose stools are:

Salmonellosis. Feces with a disease of a dark green (marsh) color, in appearance, resembles marsh mud. Sometimes mixed with mucus, blood. In severe cases, the general condition is disturbed: there is a temperature, chills, general weakness. Other symptoms include severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Dysentery. Stool is watery, with a lot of mucus, streaks of blood, possibly pus. The general condition changes.
Typhoid fever. The feces are liquid. The disease is accompanied by the appearance of a characteristic rash and a change in general condition.
Cholera. The stool is very thin, quickly becomes almost colorless and resembles rice water. A dangerous disease often causes complete dehydration and is fatal.

In adults, loose stools can appear with liver disease, including viral hepatitis. Disorder of normal bowel movements occurs after operations on the gallbladder (including after removal of the organ), the pancreas. The symptoms can hardly be called diarrhea: the stool often becomes mushy, and its frequency does not exceed 3-4 r. \\ Day.

The danger is black diarrhea, especially accompanied by sharp pains in the abdomen. Melena (the medical name for "bloody" black stools) is the main symptom of gastrointestinal bleeding. The condition with an ailment is rapidly deteriorating: the skin of a person turns pale, blood pressure drops and the pulse accelerates. Gastrointestinal bleeding requires urgent surgical treatment, so if symptoms appear, you should see a doctor immediately.

Black, loose stools can occur after eating a lot of dark colored foods that contain fiber, such as blueberries or blueberries. The condition cannot be called diarrhea: stool frequency can be observed only 1-2 times.

Important Factors

It happens that people completely misunderstand the nature of the chair, especially when it comes to small children. Young mothers are often frightened when they see the discharge of their own baby, meanwhile the doctor who comes to the call to the frightened mother says that everything is in order. However, the contents of a pot or diaper do not inspire confidence. Who is right?

In most situations, the truth is on the side of the specialist. The chair of small children - artificial and infants - is seriously different from that of an adult. Let's start with infancy:

The stool of a breastfed baby is odorless, yellow. Sometimes on the diaper, you can see light white lumps, which are undigested mother's milk. Stool in infants happens much more often than in an adult: 10–12 bowel movements are considered normal at a certain stage. However, the indicator is very individual.
In a bottle-fed baby, the stool has a specific fecal odor. The frequency of bowel movements is much less frequent: up to 3-4 rubles / day, in terms of the consistency of the mass, they resemble mustard of medium density.

As the infant's diet expands, the bowel pattern becomes more adult-like. The introduction of any complementary foods, supplements or juices can lead to the short-term appearance of frequent and thinner stools. If the general condition does not change, the child is cheerful and cheerful, the mother should not worry - there is no need to talk about diarrhea.

Loose stools in an adult or child can be one of the manifestations of diarrhea. Each specific situation needs a detailed analysis, but it is sometimes difficult even for a specialist to fully determine the diagnosis, so it is not worth delaying a visit to the doctor. The speed of contacting a specialist is very important, as early treatment reduces the risk of complications and increases the chance of a speedy recovery.

It can have many reasons. Diarrhea is often accompanied by a high fever, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. It does not cause significant problems for adults, but children can have quite serious complications.

Causes of the appearance of loose stools in adults

Loose stools in an adult can be due to the use of dirty or unboiled water, food allergies or medications. Do not rule out the presence of intestinal infection or stress. Diseases such as ulcerative colitis, rectal cancer, Crohn's disease and malabsorption can also lead to diarrhea.

Adults usually cope with this ailment on their own. Unless, of course, diarrhea overtook in distant Asian or African countries. Here you cannot do without the help of doctors, because the infections that are in the air there can lead to death.

Adult Liquid Stool Treatment

During diarrhea, you need to drink a lot of warm liquid: broth, water or tea. Alcohol, coffee, juices and milk should never be consumed. In order for the digestive tract to completely absorb the incoming fluid, you must drink often and in small sips. This is the only way to exclude dehydration and prevent fluid from flying through the body like a pipe.

If you don't feel like eating, you don't need to do this, the main thing is to drink. As soon as the appetite appears, you can eat bananas, rice, bread crumbs or oatmeal, that is, anything that will help strengthen the stool and calm the digestive tract.

Diarrhea rarely lasts for more than two days. If the diet does not work, you can start taking medication. The cheapest remedy is “Activated Carbon”, the fastest is “Imodium”. There are also a huge number of drugs for diarrhea, each person gets what suits him best.

In order for this unpleasant phenomenon not to befall in the future, it is necessary to take preventive measures, for example, wash your hands before eating and after the street, carefully choose food. Eggs, meat, milk can contain large amounts of bacteria. In order to destroy them, it is necessary to thoroughly rinse the food and carry out the correct heat treatment. The boards, knives and utensils in the kitchen should be in perfect condition. Do not keep food outside the refrigerator for a long time, it can quickly deteriorate.

What is diarrhea?

If you can't get rid of diarrhea at home, you need to call an ambulance or just go to the hospital. Dehydration is less that prolonged diarrhea can lead to. If it's all about infection, the consequences can be dire.

29.03.2017

Diarrhea is never an independent disease, but indicates a malfunction in organs and systems. can be a symptom of infectious and non-infectious diseases. The greatest danger is represented by dehydration during diarrhea, as well as the loss of vitamins and minerals, and as a result, vitamin deficiency. Liquid stool in an adult is dangerous for a long time, since it can cause hypovolemic shock if the patient is not given rehydration therapy.

Chronic diarrhea symptoms

With chronic diarrhea, the patient has a systematic liquid stool 3 or more times a day for at least 3 weeks. If diarrhea persists for no longer than 3 weeks, they speak of acute diarrhea. With diarrhea, there are urgent, sometimes uncontrollable, urges. Frequent loose or mushy stools are accompanied by flatulence (increased gas production), rumbling, and abdominal pain. With diarrhea, fever and a general weakening of the body can be observed.

With diarrhea, the mass of unformed stool increases to 250-300 g per day, the water content in feces increases to 60-85%.

With diarrhea, food liquefaction occurs, its incomplete digestion, therefore, pieces of food can be observed in the feces. Stool characteristics can vary depending on pathogenesis.

Pathogenesis

What to do if you have diarrhea? First you need to determine the type of diarrhea. There are the following types of diarrhea:

Secretory diarrhea - profuse (more than 1 liter) watery diarrhea, usually painless. Prolonged diarrhea is accompanied by an increase in body temperature, stool frequency increases up to 15 times a day, false desires are not observed.
Osmotic diarrhea is profuse, frothy stools, in which half-digested food may be interspersed. Prolonged diarrhea is accompanied by abdominal cramps.
Exudative (invasive) diarrhea is liquid, abundant feces, in which pus and spotting are often observed.
Motor diarrhea is a moderate discharge with particles of undigested food.

Diarrhea can be infectious or non-infectious. Often, diarrhea is provoked by prolonged use of medications: antibiotics, magnesium-containing antacids, various laxatives, non-steroidal drugs. Medicines can cause mixed diarrhea (exudative-secretory, motor-secretory, etc.).

Osmotic diarrhea

Due to an increase in the content of electrolytes in the intestinal lumen, water is discharged, followed by its retention in the intestine. Osmotic diarrhea is caused by:

An important difference between osmotic diarrhea from other types is its cessation after 2-3 days of fasting.

Secretory diarrhea

In this disorder, the secretion of electrolytes and water predominates over absorption. This may be due to:

infectious diseases (toxicoinfection, salmonellosis, cholera, yersiniosis, E. coli, staphylococcus aureus),
hormonally active tumors (carcinoid, gastrinoma, VIPoma),
hereditary diseases (for example, chloridorrhea),
non-infectious reasons: long-term use of drugs and laxatives, acute poisoning with arsenic, mushrooms, heavy metal salts, alcohol.

After elimination of enterotoxin, the work of the gastrointestinal tract is getting better, incessant diarrhea passes.

In addition, hereditary diarrhea due to gene mutation can be a rare case of this type of diarrhea.

Exudative diarrhea

Persistent diarrhea in this form is caused by inflammation of the colon mucosa. The following diseases are the cause of inflammation:

tuberculosis,
diverticular disease,
ischemic colitis,
acute intestinal infections such as dysentery,
tumor processes in the intestine,
ulcerative colitis,
radiation colitis (radiation exposure),
vasculitis,
crohn's disease,
adeno- and rotoviruses,

This form of diarrhea can be seen to be infectious and non-infectious. Infectious occurs due to the penetration and spread of pathogenic strains (for example, the human immunodeficiency virus), as well as protozoa (amoebas). The non-infectious form is usually associated with ulcerative colitis.

Motor diarrhea

Irritable bowel syndrome occurs due to increased bowel motor function. Often observed after removal of the stomach or parts of it. Food enters the intestines faster, and diarrhea occurs due to insufficient digestibility.

A decrease in motor function is observed in dermatomyositis, diabetic polyneuropathy, scleroderma.

Diarrhea treatment

Since the causes of persistent stool are different, it is necessary to establish the mechanism of diarrhea before treatment. If diarrhea persists for several days, rehydration therapy is indicated for all patients, regardless of pathogenesis.

With non-infectious diarrhea, the underlying disease is initially eliminated. Antibiotics are given if the diarrhea is caused by bacteria or protozoa.

Diarrhea associated with a hormone-producing tumor will require serious medical attention. If the diarrhea persists for this reason, surgical removal of the tumor will be required.

What to do with different types of diarrhea:

With secretory diarrhea, Smecta, Enterol, Bifidumbacterin, Furazalidone, Bactisubtil are prescribed.
With osmotic diarrhea, Imodium, Loperamide, Regidron, Codeine phosphate are prescribed; antibacterial drugs, such as biseptol.
For motor diarrhea, Imodium is used, astringent adsorbents, for example, bismuth preparations.
With exudative diarrhea, prebiotics and probiotics (Bifiform, Linex, Hilak forte) are mainly used.

With diarrhea, as already mentioned, it is important to eliminate dehydration, that is, dehydration.

Rehydration for diarrhea

If diarrhea lasts a long time, ready-made pharmaceutical preparations are used to restore the water-salt balance, which are diluted with water and drunk, or you can use your own prepared drink. A tablespoon of salt and 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar are added to a liter of water, mixed with a spoonful of soda. The prepared infusion is drunk during the day, if there is no nausea and vomiting. The patient is supposed to drink another liquid: fruit drinks, non-mineral and mineral water without gas. Fruit juices are contraindicated.

With any diarrhea, regardless of pathogenesis, a violation of the natural microflora is observed, therefore, the use of prebiotics and probiotics, for example, Hilak forte, is indicated.

Diet for diarrhea

With prolonged diarrhea, a special diet should be followed. Diarrhea for several days and longer is provoked by products with a laxative effect. Dieting will help speed up treatment. A sparing diet is especially indicated for secretory diarrhea.

During treatment, the patient should be excluded from the menu fatty and dairy foods, alcohol, spices and spices, spicy foods, plums, beets, sweet foods, sauces, black bread. Boiled white rice, white bread crackers, boiled or steamed low-fat meatballs, meatballs or cutlets, mashed apples and potatoes are allowed.

Stomach hurts and diarrhea occurs most often with indigestion and the penetration of toxins into the body. Attention should be paid to the quality of food (especially the shelf life and storage conditions), the degree of water purification, personal hygiene (hand washing).

Diarrhea in an adult can be caused by lactase deficiency, intolerance to dairy products. With this pathology, milk should be excluded from the diet, in which case diarrhea will disappear in the near future.

What to do if diarrhea occurs while away from home? Traveler's diarrhea is a special form of bowel disorder. Stool disorder occurs due to a change in climatic conditions, food unusual for the stomach, as well as the penetration of bacteria and viruses. Tourists traveling to countries with contaminated water sources (Asia, Africa, the Middle East) should be especially careful.

When traveling, it is better to take simple filters for water purification, antibiotics and prebiotics. You should avoid dishes with raw meat and fish, unwashed vegetables. When the temperature rises above 38 degrees and bloody diarrhea appears, you should seek medical help from common viruses and microorganisms that travelers bring from vacation - lamblia, dysentery amoeba, enterovirus, rotavirus, norovirus.