Our stools can really tell if we're healthy or not. Your stools should ideally be neither too hard nor too soft, but an enormous variation exists in what's normal for individuals, in terms of how frequently their bowel movements occur and just how hard or soft the stools are. Some people 'go' only once every few days, whereas other people have as much as four or five going number 2 a day. Your own bowel habits can also vary from day to day and be impacted by stress, a big change in diet, travelling and never drinking enough fluid.
Diarrhoea means that your stools are unusually loose and frequent, although it may sometimes occur in cases of severe constipation, when loose bowel contents bypass hard stool in the blocked-up back passage. Diarrhoea can be due to a number of causes, which range from anxiety to bowel cancer, but when it hits suddenly, the most likely cause is a viral infection.
The symptoms often start to improve within 48 hours, you don't normally need any treatment and most of the time the problem goes away by itself. If your symptoms haven't settled after about a week, or if you continue being unwell, contact your doctor for advice. Replacing the lost fluid is essential.
Contamination called gastroenteritis is easily the most common reason for the start of diarrhoea. People struggling with gastroenteritis may have acquired the infection from contact with someone else who has similar symptoms, but this scenario isn't always the case. The main symptoms of gastroenteritis are usually relatively mild. Beginning with the more common, these symptoms include:
You often get better after seven to 10 days without receiving any specific treatment, but a few weeks may pass before your stools return completely to normal.
Diarrhoea due to tummy bugs can make you feel rotten but usually isn't dangerous - so long as you make sure that you drink enough fluids to change those you lose. If you have acute short-term diarrhoea, you don't normally need any treatment or tests. However, if your symptoms persist for a week or more, your doctor may request you to have stool or other tests. Seek medical advice if your diarrhoea is severe and also you notice the following additional symptoms:
Also visit your doctor if you develop diarrhoea after travelling abroad, particularly if your symptoms don't settle on their own after a few days or else you have blood-stained diarrhoea together with fever and abdominal pain. In very rare and severe cases - usually when you're dehydrated - you might need hospital treatment so fluids can be administered to you through a drip.
Anti-diarrhoea medicines such as loperamide (available from your pharmacist) may sometimes help by slowing down the movement of bowel contents, but they also have the potential to prolong your illness, because diarrhoea is your body's way of getting rid of the bugs. Taking such medicines can mean that the bugs remain in your body for extended.
Although experts accustomed to advise not eating anything for a day or two while you've diarrhoea, studies have shown that no harm exists in consuming foods high in carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, rice or pasta) or fruit once you feel like it. Salty soups, too, are fine and may help you by replacing the salt lost with the loose stools. However, if you don't seem like eating anything, don't be concerned. Not eating for a couple of days does no harm, and your appetite will probably return soon.
If you're a woman, severe diarrhoea that can last for more than Twenty four hours can make the combined oral contraceptive pill less effective, and so you're at a heightened risk to become pregnant. If this situation applies, you need to make use of additional contraceptive precautions during as well as for seven days after recovery.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Nancy Butler at 03102011
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