Experiencing diarrhea right after you eat is referred to as postprandial diarrhea. It might simply have actually begun taking place, where case it is severe, or you might have had it for a long time and it is a chronic condition. Discovering the common causes of diarrhea after meals will assist you have the ability to work with your doctor on a reliable treatment plan.
Any new or ongoing gastrointestinal sign should be given the attention of your physician so that you obtain an accurate medical diagnosis and treatment plan. Although diarrhea after eating may be the outcome of one of the health conditions explained here, it can likewise suggest other major diseases.
Causes of Diarrhea Everytime You Eat
Severe diarrhea is an unexpected start of diarrhea episodes. Diarrhea due to any cause might occur after eating, as the simple act of consuming stimulates muscle movement within your big intestinal tract to clear your bowels. When you have an underlying cause such as an infection, gastrointestinal disorder, or IBS, these contractions may be stronger and more painful than usual and featured a sense of urgency. These may be causes of severe diarrhea:
- Bacterial infections such as Salmonella or E. coli
- Gastrointestinal disorder
- Viral infections (typically described as the “stomach flu”).
- Parasites such as Giardia.
- Medications such as antacids, antibiotics, chemotherapy.
- Lactose intolerance (may also be a chronic cause).
- Irritable bowel syndrome with predominant diarrhea (IBS-D), which might likewise be a chronic cause.
What to Do For Acute Diarrhea
Stay hydrated. You will have to change the fluids and minerals that your body is not absorbing due to the quick transit of stool through your system. Attempt to drink water and clear fruit juice and sip broth.
Do not rush to utilize an over-the-counter diarrhea item such as Imodium or Kaopectate. These products ought to not be utilized if you have a fever or there is mucous or blood in your stools. Pepto Bismol may be an alternative however talk to your medical professional first. None of these medications should be given to children without approval from the kid’s physician.
Be careful with your diet and just consume little meals. Check the lists of what to consume when you have diarrhea and foods to prevent when you have diarrhea. After your diarrhea has passed, learn what to eat when you are feeling much better.
When to Call Your Doctor
You should call your doctor instantly if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms:
- Blood in your stools.
- Dehydration symptoms including reduced urine, dry mouth, sunken eyes.
- Fever above 100 F or that lasts more than 3 days.
- Serious stomach pain.
Worsening of diarrhea symptoms, or if diarrhea is still present 2 days later on in a baby or child, and five days later on for an adult.
Know the warning gastrointestinal symptoms, which are particularly unsafe symptoms to watch out for that call for an instant medical assessment. These consist of rectal bleeding, vomiting, lack of appetite, substantial weight loss, fever, abdominal pain and cramping at night, and anemia.
Causes of Chronic Diarrhea After Eating
An ongoing problem with diarrhea every time after meals may be because of a wide array of illness that have chronic diarrhea as a sign. If you have among these disorders, the simple act of eating a meal may function as a trigger for diarrhea episodes. Attending to the underlying health problem can help to cause relief from the symptom of running to the restroom after meals.
- Infection: As with intense diarrhea, there are infections that can trigger chronic diarrhea. These include Clostridium difficile, Giardia lamblia, and amoeba.
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): Just the simple act of eating can be sufficient to set off the symptom of diarrhea in some individuals who have IBS. It is not clearly understood why there is such a hyperreactivity of the digestion system in this condition.
- Bile acid diarrhea (BAD): Researchers are starting to discover evidence that some individuals who are diagnosed with IBS in fact have BAD. Bile acids are secreted by your gallbladder in order for your digestive system to absorb fats. When these acids are not reabsorbed correctly, they serve to promote contractions in your big intestinal tract, leading to diarrhea. Sometimes the reason for BAD is unknown; other times it happens following surgery or health problem including your digestion organs (your gallbladder, pancreas or your little intestine, for example).
- Gallbladder removal: Without a gallbladder, some individuals experience a problem with bad regulation of bile acids into the little and large intestinal tracts, causing similar symptoms as BAD. Although this sign normally fixes itself quickly after the surgery date, for some individuals it stays an ongoing problem.
- Lactose intolerance: People who have lactose intolerance absence sufficient quantities of the enzyme required to break down lactose, a sugar found in milk and milk items. This can cause the sign of diarrhea after consuming dairy foods. Lactose intolerance can be identified through making use of a breath test or an elimination diet.
- Sugar malabsorption: In addition to lactose, some people are unable to absorb the sugars fructose and sorbitol. Fructose is discovered in many fruits and high fructose corn syrup. Sorbitol is also found in some fruits as well as artificial sweeteners. Like lactose intolerance, fructose or sorbitol malabsorption can be recognized through using breath testing or an elimination diet.
- Celiac disease: People who have celiac disease experience an autoimmune reaction in reaction to ingesting gluten, a protein discovered in wheat, rye, and barley. Diarrhea from celiac disease is typically odorous, and stool may be more likely to float rather than sink. Celiac disease has severe health consequences and you need to be screened for this disease if you are experiencing chronic diarrhea after eating.
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): The two forms of IBD– Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis– can both cause the sign of diarrhea after consuming. Unlike any of the above health problems, the diarrhea of IBD may consist of signs of blood in the stool. Any sign of blood in the stool needs to be right away brought to the attention of your physician.
- Disposing syndrome: This syndrome is most frequently experienced by individuals who have actually gone through bariatric surgery for weight loss. Discarding syndrome is likewise called rapid gastric emptying because the contents of the stomach empty too rapidly into the small intestinal tract. Eating can trigger symptoms such as diarrhea, specifically eating meals with high sugar content.
- Microscopic colitis: This kind of colitis is a clearly various health problem than ulcerative colitis. With microscopic colitis, inflammation of the cells lining the intestines can only be seen when tissue is taken a look at under a microscope. The cause of microscopic colitis is not well known. Its symptoms consist of persistent or intermittent episodes of watery diarrhea.
- Colon cancer: Chronic diarrhea is not usually a sign of colon cancer (irregularity might be more likely), nevertheless any change in the frequency of defecation has actually been related to the existence of cancer. Other symptoms of colon cancer include blood in or on the stool, fatigue, anemia, and unexplained weight loss. If you have any of these symptoms along with chronic diarrhea, you need to see your medical professional instantly.
- Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency: In this condition, the pancreas does not produce enough digestive enzymes to completely absorb the foods that you eat. Although there is a test for pancreatic exocrine operating that includes measuring the amount of fat in stools, researchers have actually theorized that this test may not be precise in detecting a moderate insufficiency that triggers postprandial diarrhea. Research in this location is quite minimal. An evaluation discovered one research study that revealed a little portion of IBS-D clients do experience pancreatic exocrine deficiency. In another small study, IBS-D patients who were offered pancrelipase, a form of pancreatic digestive enzymes, reported a decrease in episodes of postprandial diarrhea.
What to Do for Chronic Problems with Diarrhea After Eating
Tell your doctor. Any unusual symptom ought to always be given the attention of your physician. This assists to ensure that you receive a correct diagnosis and for that reason a practical treatment strategy can be developed.
Follow your physician’s orders to best handle your underlying health problem.
Eat little meals throughout your day and avoid fatty foods, such as fried food, fatty meats, and thick gravy. Large meals and fatty foods can increase the strength of intestinal tract contractions and thus prompt a diarrhea episode.
Usage relaxation exercises to soothe your body. Due to the close connection in between your brain and your gut, tension can be a trigger for diarrhea. Many individuals handle a great deal of stress in their lives, not to mention that having diarrhea after your meals is difficult. Both deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation abilities can be reliable in calming your body and for that reason provide the capacity for decreasing the emptying of your bowels.
Emerging Theories on Postprandial Diarrhea Syndrome in IBS
New theories are emerging to recommend that something else might be going on for some patients who have actually been identified with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). Research study on postprandial diarrhea is rather minimal. Here are opportunities that preliminary research has determined:.
- Postprandial Diarrhea Syndrome: Two IBS scientists, Drs. Money and Camilleri, have proposed three possible causes for what they call “postprandial diarrhea syndrome.” They acknowledge that diagnostic markers are restricted, and recommend that favorable action to treatment of the theorized problem may serve as confirmation of the diagnosis. They believe 3 medical diagnoses need to be considered: bile acid malabsorption (BAM), pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, and glucosidase deficiency.
- Extreme Gastric Acid: Excessive amounts of gastric acid have actually long been associated with the development of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). A small research study found that GERD medications provided to a group of IBS-D patients led to a considerable reduction in symptoms of diarrhea and postprandial seriousness. However, this finding has not been reproduced.
- Small Bowel Water Content: A group of researchers found that, compared with healthy control subjects, IBS-D patients have lower amounts of water in the small intestine and it travels through quicker to the large intestinal tract, which may contribute to postprandial diarrhea. This research dovetails with the FODMAPs theory for IBS as foods with high osmotic worth (meaning they produce higher volumes of fluid) are especially bothersome for people with IBS. If true, the development of medications that would slow transit time and hence better manage the flow of liquid into the large intestine might be of value.
The Bottom Line on Postprandial Diarrhea Research
Clearly, research into the elements behind postprandial diarrhea in IBS is quite minimal, and for that reason no definitive conclusions can be drawn. In addition, despite the variety of possible theories discussing the issue, data relating to treatments for this condition do not exist, so it’s uncertain thus far which treatments will help clients, and which do not.
Ideally, more research study will shed more light on the subject and offer some efficient treatment options. In the meantime, if you tend to experience urgent diarrhea episodes after eating, talk about the subject with your doctor to see if any of the proposed interventions would be a safe choice for you.
