Diarrhea is a pathological condition in a child or adult, in which patients experience frequent urge to defecate( three or more).The stool becomes liquid, sometimes there are undigested food particles. Diarrhea is not an independent disease, but a characteristic symptom that accompanies many of the body's malfunctions associated with the work of the gastrointestinal tract. Diarrhea can last for several days, one week, two or three, a month and even a year. Prolonged diarrhea is a sign of the presence of a dangerous chronic disease. It is the time frame that can indicate the causes of the appearance of a loose stool, and give an answer to the question of what to do. If the described malaise does not pass for a long time, it is necessary to undergo a complete examination.
Given the duration of the course of the malaise, three stages are identified:
- Acute diarrhea( does not go away for 7 or 10 days).
- Prolonged diarrhea( lasts from 2 to 11 weeks).
- Chronic diarrhea( from 3 months to a year and more).
Diarrhea lasts longer than a week
What should I do if I do not have diarrhea for a week? It is necessary immediately to call a doctor and try to find out with him the cause of severe illness of the child or adult. Weekly diarrhea can provoke several factors, so it is important to study the patient's condition in detail and outline a plan of action to eliminate the syndrome.
The main provocators of a week diarrhea are well studied. The acute stage develops always when eating disorders, when food allergies occur, when certain foods or medications are intolerant.
Intestinal infections caused by bacterial poisoning, enter the gastrointestinal tract of viruses, toxins, protozoa, pathogenic microorganisms can provoke acute diarrhea. Among the causes of weekly diarrhea is:
- Viral gastroenteritis.
- Food poisoning.
- Traveler's Diarrhea.
- Bacterial enterocolitis.
- Parasites.
- Diarrhea caused by prolonged medication.
Each disease has its own clinical picture, its mechanism for the appearance of weekly diarrhea, so you can answer the question what to do after a thorough examination. So, for example, if the patient does not have diarrhea for several days or a week, if severe nausea and constant vomiting, painful spasms in the intestine are added to this ailment, if all these symptoms appear simultaneously and within the first three days do not pass, but only intensify, there is a possibility of the development of viral gastroenteritis. Confirm the diagnosis may lack of veins of blood or pus in the stool. Such a disease is not accompanied by an increase in temperature.
Viral gastroenteritis is transmitted from person to person for several days, so strict adherence to the rules of personal hygiene helps prevent the appearance of weekly diarrhea. Food poisoning can also explain why the adult patient and the child do not have diarrhea for a week, and the stomach constantly hurts. This is a short-term disease, it occurs when toxins or pathogenic bacteria enter the stomach together with food, whose vital activity leads to the formation of poisons. They cause a general intoxication of the body. In a sick child or an adult, about two hours after using the provocateur, a severe pain in the abdomen first appears, then a loose stool, the temperature rises sharply, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. What to do? Purification of the stomach leads to a noticeable relief, treatment is reduced to adherence to a strict diet. It is she who helps get rid of 7-day diarrhea.
Traveler's diarrhea is another diagnosis that can explain why the patient has been suffering from liquid stool for a week already. In the intestine of a healthy person there is a large number of bacteria that participate in digestion processes. There are special strains among them. They, being within the tract, are completely harmless, but, getting beyond it, become pathogenic. So there are, for example, urinary tract infections, sepsis. Sometimes foreign strains enter the body from the outside, so there is traveler's diarrhea.
Tourists, visiting exotic countries, states with a bad environmental situation, run the risk of contracting enterotoxic strains that can provoke sudden diarrhea. They also become sources of strong stomach pains, nausea and severe vomiting. All these symptoms appear on the seventh day after consuming a poor-quality or contaminated product, poor drinking water. With proper treatment, all signs disappear after 7 days, which is why travelers' diarrhea has been included in the described list.
When pathogenic microorganisms are introduced into the intestinal mucosa, a bacterial enterocolitis is diagnosed. It promotes inflammation of the mucous layer, so diarrhea occurs, in the stool there are veins of blood or pus, the body temperature rises sharply, it is accompanied by fever and abdominal pain. Is it possible to eliminate them? What can I do to make a fortune? Refer to specialists. As a rule, with proper treatment, all the indicated symptoms disappear completely after 7 days, after 2 weeks the patient is discharged home.
Very rarely diarrhea does not pass more than a week due to infection by parasites. In this case, other symptoms, such as fever, nausea and vomiting, are not observed. But pus in the liquid stool is present. Parasites enter the body after drinking dirty water.
Prolonged use of certain medications in adult patients can also lead to a week of diarrhea and abdominal pain. That is why treatment with drugs that can neutralize the level of acidity of gastric juice, containing magnesium, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory pills, antibiotics, antiarrhythmics, medicines used to reduce high blood pressure, should be carried out under the supervision of a doctor.
Providing weekly liquid stool in a child for months is possible with Misoprostol, Quinidine, Olsalazine, Colchicine, Metoclopramide, Cisapride. Solving the question of what to do, if diarrhea does not pass, it is important to immediately exclude the use of medications, and only then involve symptomatic therapy.
Diarrhea lasts two weeks
When diarrhea does not pass for 2 weeks, but there is no sign of dehydration, it is a long form of malaise. Factors that can provoke a prolonged course of the syndrome, too, must be listed. It:
- Frequent and very long use of antibiotics.
- A child under one year of transition to artificial feeding.
- Poorly healed intestinal infections.
- Hypotrophy.
- Deficiency of anemia.
- Avitaminosis.
- Diathesis in children.
- Celicium.
- Malabsorption syndrome.
What happens to the body when the loose stool lasts for several days or more than 2 weeks? A sick child or an adult appears watery feces, there are impurities of mucus, but there is no blood, complaints about severe flatulence and bloating are possible. A person can complain of anxiety or irritability, slow spreading of the skin fold, constant thirst and abdominal pain.
Prolonged two-week diarrhea is dangerous because it can lead to the development of a syndrome that provokes poor absorption of trace elements coming from outside. This leads to weight loss, decreased bone density, and increased fragility. If the malaise lasts longer than 7 days or 2 weeks, there is a risk of avitaminosis. In a child, such a complication can give impetus to a delay in mental and physical development. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore the appearance of a malaise, do not wait for 2 weeks, try to decide independently what to do, to combat the described symptoms, using traditional medicine. Without identifying sources of malaise, any therapy will look meaningless.
Diarrhea lasts 3 weeks
If diarrhea does not occur for 3 weeks in a child or in an adult patient, doctors diagnose Chronic Diarrhea. It can arise for various reasons. Here are the most common of them:
- Irritable bowel syndrome. It forms persistent disturbances of the intestinal peristalsis, because of which the feces quickly fly through the entire tract of the irritated bowel. What to do, how to treat such a disease? Good helps hypnosis, a sick child and an adult should strictly adhere to a special diet, which involves the exclusion from the diet of products that can enhance peristalsis of the bowel. Drug treatment of 3-week diarrhea is aimed at the elimination of concomitant symptoms( abdominal pain, discomfort during defecation, vomiting, high fever).
- Infectious diseases. Among the pathologies that can cause a 3-week liquid stool, there is lambliasis, a syndrome of acquired immune deficiency, chronic infections of the gastrointestinal tract. Understand in this situation what to do, can only an experienced doctor after a thorough laboratory examination.
- Dysbacteriosis. Describe the exact mechanism that triggers a 3-week diarrhea in dysbacteriosis, but no one can, but it is definitely established that the pathogenic bacteria move very quickly from the small intestine to the thick one, and vice versa, therefore, irritable bowel syndrome is formed. What it is necessary to do or make at a dysbacteriosis? Observe the diet, drink a course of antibiotics and bacteriophages, drugs that can normalize the intestinal microflora.
- Post-infectious Syndrome. In some adult patients, after suffering acute viral infections, bacterial or parasitic invasions, a 3-week malaise also develops. It is associated with existing complications, you can understand what to do to eliminate painful symptoms, after carefully studying the history.
- Inflammatory bowel diseases, which are accompanied by inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, are also capable of provoking a three-week diarrhea.
- Colon cancer.
- Malabsorption of carbohydrates or fats.
- Endocrine pathologies( hyperthyroidism and Addison's disease).
- Prolonged intake of laxatives.
Diarrhea 2 months
A discomfort provocateur, which lasts 2 months, can become a food allergy, an individual intolerance to a certain product, an adult's diarrhea of 2 months may arise as a reaction to the use of a synthetic substance( dye, preservative, flavor).Knowing why the malaise does not pass, which can provoke a short, protracted and prolonged diarrhea, it's easy to start worrying about your health in time.