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In medicine, diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea (see spelling differences), refers to frequent loose or liquid bowel movements. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ... The differences in the spellings of British English and American English are as follows: Spelling differences between U.S. usage on one side and British and Commonwealth usage on the other are generally more conspicuous than spelling differences within the Commonwealth. ... Defecation or feceation (known colloquially as pooping or shitting) is the act of eliminating solid or semisolid waste material from the digestive tract. ...

Although for many people diarrhea is merely unpleasant, diarrhea that is both acute and severe is a common cause of death in developing countries and a major cause of infant death worldwide. It is often due to gastroenteritis. In medicine, an acute disease is a disease with either or both of: a rapid onset; a short course (as opposed to a chronic course). ...  Newly industrialized countries  Other emerging markets  Other developing economies  High income  Upper-middle income  Lower-middle income  Low income A developing country is that country which has a relatively low standard of living, an undeveloped industrial base, and a moderate to low Human Development Index (HDI) score and per capita... is the death of infants in the first year of life. ... See also Bacterial gastroenteritis and Diarrhea Gastroenteritis is a general term referring to inflammation or infection of the gastrointestinal tract, primarily the stomach and intestines. ...

The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) is a coding of diseases and signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or diseases, as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO). ... // A00-A79 - Bacterial infections, and other intestinal infectious diseases, and STDs (A00-A09) Intestinal infectious diseases (A00) Cholera (A01) Typhoid and paratyphoid fevers (A010) Typhoid fever (A02) Other Salmonella infections (A03) Shigellosis (A04) Other bacterial intestinal infections (A040) Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection (A045) Campylobacter enteritis (A046) Enteritis due to Yersinia... // K00-K93 - Diseases of the digestive system (K00-K14) Diseases of oral cavity, salivary glands and jaws (K00) Disorders of tooth development and eruption (K01) Embedded and impacted teeth (K02) Dental caries (K03) Other diseases of hard tissues of teeth (K04) Diseases of pulp and periapical tissues (K040) Pulpitis (K05... The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The Disease Bold textDatabase is a free website that provides information about the relationships between medical conditions, symptoms, and medications. ... eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base that was founded in 1996. ... Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. ...

Causes

Diagram of the human gastrointestinal tract.

Diarrhea is most commonly caused by viral infections, parasites or bacterial toxins.^[1] In sanitary living conditions where there is ample food and a supply of clean water, an otherwise healthy patient usually recovers from viral infections in a few days. However, for ill or malnourished individuals diarrhea can lead to severe dehydration and can become life-threatening without treatment.^[2] Image File history File links Stomach_colon_rectum_diagram. ... Image File history File links Stomach_colon_rectum_diagram. ... Gut redirects here. ... A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ... A parasite is an organism that lives in or on the living tissue of a host organism at the expense of it. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water (hydro in ancient Greek) from an object. ...

Diarrhea can also be a symptom of more serious diseases, such as dysentery, cholera, or botulism, and can also be indicative of a chronic syndrome such as Crohn's disease or severe mushroom poisoning syndromes. Though appendicitis patients do not generally have diarrhea, it is a common symptom of a ruptured appendix. It is also an effect of severe radiation sickness. Dysentery (formerly known as flux or the bloody flux) is frequent, small-volume, severe diarrhea that shows blood in the feces along with intestinal cramping and tenesmus (painful straining to pass stool). ... Distribution of cholera Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. ... Botulism (Latin, botulus, sausage) is a rare, but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin, botulin, that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. ... Crohns disease (also known as regional enteritis) is a chronic, episodic, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and is generally classified as an autoimmune disease. ... Binomial name (Vaill. ... Appendicitis (or epityphlitis) is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. ... In human anatomy, the vermiform appendix (or appendix, pl. ... Radiation poisoning, also called radiation sickness, is a form of damage to organic tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. ...

Diarrhea can also be caused by dairy intake in those who are lactose intolerant. Lactose intolerance is the name given to the condition (found in the majority of humans) in which lactase, an enzyme needed for proper metabolization of lactose, is not produced in adulthood. ...

Symptomatic treatment for diarrhea involves the patient consuming adequate amounts of water to replace that loss, preferably mixed with electrolytes to provide essential salts and some amount of nutrients. For many people, further treatment is unnecessary. The following types of diarrhea indicate medical supervision is required: An electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that behaves as an electrically conductive medium. ... This article is about common table salt. ... A nutrient is a substance used in an organisms metabolism which must be taken in from the environment. ...

• Diarrhea in infants
• Moderate or severe diarrhea in young children;
• Diarrhea associated with blood
• Diarrhea that continues for more than two days;
• Diarrhea that is associated with more general illness such as non-cramping abdominal pain, fever, weight loss, etc;
• Diarrhea in travelers, since they are more likely to have exotic infections such as parasites;
• Diarrhea in food handlers, because of the potential to infect others;
• Diarrhea in institutions such as hospitals, child care centers, or geriatric and convalescent homes.

A severity score is used to aid diagnosis in children.^[3] Abdominal pain can be one of the symptoms associated with transient disorders or serious disease. ... An analogue medical thermometer showing the temperature of 38. ... Weight loss, in the context of medicine or health or physical fitness, is a reduction of the total body weight, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon and other connective tissue. ... Travelers diarrhea (TD) is the most common illness affecting travelers. ...

Types of diarrhea

There are at least four types of diarrhea: secretory diarrhea, osmotic diarrhea, motility-related diarrhea, and inflammatory diarrhea.

Secretory diarrhea

Secretory diarrhea means that there is an increase in the active secretion, or there is an inhibition of absorption. There is little to no structural damage. The most common cause of this type of diarrhea is a cholera toxin that stimulates the secretion of anions, especially chloride ions. Therefore, to maintain a charge balance in the lumen, sodium is carried with it, along with water. artery anatomy, showing lumen The lumen (pl. ...

Osmotic diarrhea

Osmotic diarrhea occurs when there is a loss of water due to a heavy osmotic load. This can occur when there is maldigestion (e.g., pancreatic disease or Coeliac disease), where the nutrients are left in the lumen, which pulls water into the lumen. Coeliac disease (pronounced ), also spelt celiac disease, is an autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy. ...

Motility-related diarrhea

Motility-related diarrhea occurs when the motility of the gastrointestinal tract is abnormally high. If the food moves too quickly, there is not enough time for sufficient nutrients and water to be absorbed. This can be due to a vagotomy or diabetic neuropathy, or a complication of menstruation. A vagotomy is a surgical procedure that is performed only in humans. ... Diabetic neuropathies are neuropathic disorders that are associated with diabetes mellitus. ... Not to be confused with Mensuration. ...

Inflammatory diarrhea

Inflammatory diarrhea occurs when there is damage to the mucosal lining or brush border, which leads to a passive loss of protein-rich fluids, and a decreased ability to absorb these lost fluids. Features of all three of the other types of diarrhea can be found in this type of diarrhea. It can be caused by bacterial infections, viral infections, parasitic infections, or autoimmune problems such as inflammatory bowel diseases.

Infectious diarrhea

Main article: Infectious diarrhea

Infectious diarrhea is diarrhea caused by a microbe such as a bacterium, parasite, or virus. See also Bacterial gastroenteritis and Gastroenteritis and Enteritis This may be defined as diarrhea that lasts less than three and a half weeks, and is also called enteritis. ... See also Bacterial gastroenteritis and Gastroenteritis and Enteritis This may be defined as diarrhea that lasts less than three and a half weeks, and is also called enteritis. ... A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is so small that it is microscopic (invisible to the naked eye). ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ... This article is about biological infectious particles. ...

Malabsorption

These tend to be more severe medical illnesses. Malabsorption is the inability to absorb food, mostly in the small bowel but also due to the pancreas. Malabsorption is the state of impaired absorption of nutrients in the small intestine. ... The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine systems of vertebrates. ...

Causes include celiac disease (intolerance to wheat, rye, and barley gluten, the protein of the grain), lactose intolerance (Intolerance to milk sugar, common in non-Europeans), fructose malabsorption, pernicious anemia (impaired bowel function due to the inability to absorb vitamin B12), loss of pancreatic secretions (may be due to cystic fibrosis or pancreatitis), short bowel syndrome (surgically removed bowel), radiation fibrosis (usually following cancer treatment), and other drugs such as chemotherapy. Coeliac disease (also termed non-tropical sprue, celiac disease and gluten intolerance) is an autoimmune disease characterised by chronic inflammation of the proximal portion of the small intestine caused by exposure to certain dietary gluten proteins. ... Wheat - a prime source of gluten Gluten is an amorphous mixture of ergastic (i. ... Fructose malabsorption is a condition in which the fructose carrier in enterocytes is deficient. ... Pernicious anemia (also known as Biermers anaemia or Addisons anaemia or Addison-Biermer anaemia) is a form of megaloblastic anaemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency dependent on impaired absorption of vitamin B12 in the setting of atrophic gastritis, and more specifically of loss of gastric parietal cells. ... Cobalamin or vitamin B12 is a chemical compound that is also known as cyanocobalamine. ... Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. ... Short bowel syndrome is a malabsorption disorder caused by either the surgical removal of the small intestine or the loss of its absorptive function due to diseases. ... Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer. ...

Inflammatory bowel disease

The two overlapping types here are of unknown origin:

• Ulcerative colitis is marked by chronic bloody diarrhea and inflammation mostly affects the distal colon near the rectum.
• Crohn's disease typically affects fairly well demarcated segments of bowel in the colon and often affects the end of the small bowel.

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Large intestine. ... The rectum (from the Latin rectum intestinum, meaning straight intestine) is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the gut in others, terminating in the anus. ... Crohns disease (also known as regional enteritis) is a chronic, episodic, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and is generally classified as an autoimmune disease. ...

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Main article: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Another possible cause of diarrhea is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Symptoms defining IBS: abdominal discomfort or pain relieved by defecation and unusual stool (diarrhea or constipation or both) or stool frequency, for at least 3 days a week over the previous 3 months.^[4] IBS symptoms can be present in patients with a variety of conditions including food allergies, infective diarrhea, celiac, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Treating the underlying condition (celiac disease, food allergy, bacterial dysbiosis, etc.) usually resolves the diarrhea.^[5] IBS can cause visceral hypersensitivity. While there is no direct treatment for undifferentiated IBS, symptoms, including diarrhea, can sometimes be managed through a combination of dietary changes, soluble fiber supplements, and/or medications. In gastroenterology, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or spastic colon is a functional bowel disorder characterized by abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits which are not associated with any abnormalities seen on routine clinical testing. ... Constipation or irregularity, is a condition of the digestive system where a person (or animal) experiences hard feces that are difficult to egest; it may be extremely painful, and in severe cases (fecal impaction) lead to symptoms of bowel obstruction. ... Dysbiosis (also called dysbacteriosis) is the condition of having microbial imbalances on or with in the body. ...

Other important causes

• Ischemic bowel disease. This usually affects older people and can be due to blocked arteries.
• Bowel cancer: Some (but not all) bowel cancers may have associated diarrhea. Cancer of the large intestine is most common.
• Hormone-secreting tumors: some hormones (e.g. serotonin) can cause diarrhea if excreted in excess (usually from a tumor).
• Bile salt diarrhea: excess bile salt entering the colon rather than being absorbed at the end of the small intestine can cause diarrhea, typically shortly after eating. Bile salt diarrhea is a possible side-effect of gallbladder removal. It is usually treated with cholestyramine, a bile acid sequestrant.

In medicine, ischemia (Greek ισχαιμία, isch- is restriction, hema or haema is blood) is a restriction in blood supply, generally due to factors in the blood vessels, with resultant damage or dysfunction of tissue. ... Diagram of the stomach, colon, and rectum Colorectal cancer includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. ... For the professional wrestling stable, see Ravens Nest#Serotonin. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Large intestine. ... In biology the small intestine is the part of the gastrointestinal tract (gut) between the stomach and the large intestine and comprises the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. ... The gallbladder (or cholecyst, sometimes gall bladder) is a pear-shaped organ that can accomodate up to 60 ml of bile (or gall) until the body needs it for digestion. ... Cholestyramine (Questran®, Questran Light®, Cholybar®) is a bile acid sequestrant, which binds bile in the gastrointestinal tract to prevent its reabsorption. ... In pharmacology, bile acid sequestrants a group of medication used for binding bile in the gastrointestinal tract. ...

Alcohol

Chronic diarrhea can be caused by chronic ethanol ingestion.^[6] Consumption of alcohol affects the body's capability to absorb water - this is often a symptom that accompanies a hangover after a heavy drinking session. The alcohol itself is absorbed in the intestines and as the intestinal cells absorb it, the toxicity causes these cells to lose their ability to absorb water. This leads to an outpouring of fluid from the intestinal lining, which is in turn poorly absorbed. The diarrhea usually lasts for several hours until the alcohol is detoxified and removed from the digestive system. Symptoms range from person to person and are influenced by both the amount consumed as well as physiological differences. Grain alcohol redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Hangover (disambiguation). ...

Treatment

In many cases of diarrhea, replacing lost fluid and salts is the only treatment needed. Medicines that are available without a doctor's prescription include loperamide (Imodium) and bismuth subsalicylate Pepto Bismol and Kaopectate.^[7] Imodium redirects here. ... ... Bismuth subsalicylate is the active ingredient in the popular medication Pepto-Bismol that is used to treat diarrhea and other temporary discomforts of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract. ... Kaopectate , Kaolin and Pectinis an orally taken medication from Pfizer for the treatment of mild diarrhoea. ...

See also

• Constipation
• Drinking water
• Feces
• Steatorrhea
• The Diarrhea Song
• Traveler's diarrhea

Constipation or irregularity, is a condition of the digestive system where a person (or animal) experiences hard feces that are difficult to egest; it may be extremely painful, and in severe cases (fecal impaction) lead to symptoms of bowel obstruction. ... Tap water Mineral Water Water of sufficient quality to serve as drinking water is termed potable water whether it is used as such or not. ... Horse feces Feces, faeces, or fæces (see spelling differences) is a waste product from an animals digestive tract expelled through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation. ... Steatorrhoea is the formation of bulky, grey or pale faeces. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Parenthood. ... Travelers diarrhea (TD) is the most common illness affecting travelers. ...

Footnotes

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Harrisons Principles of Internal Medicine is an American textbook of internal medicine. ...

External links

Look up diarrhea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Reducing deaths from diarrhoea through oral rehydration therapy. 1: Bull. World Health Organ. 2000;78(10):1246-55.
• Travelers' Diarrhea
• Rehydration Project