Diarrhea (Loose Motion) home remedies with its causes, symptoms, cautions, and FAQs

Diarrhea causes, symptoms, cautions and ayurvedic treatment

 

Diarrhea is the most common disease and every person had suffered at least once in life. It is the irregular bowel movements that can be watery and loose. It means that when human body refuses to accept whatever you have eaten up or body become allergic to the food intake then it starts to flush out the poop (unabsorbed food). It is very common and not so serious disease generally. sometimes, physicians called such state as stomach flu or intestinal flu. 

Diarrhea may be present standalone or may be with other disease as well namely abdominal pain, headache, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss. Fortunately, Diarrhea is a short-lived disease if patient obey some general medical guidelines / medications, he /she can recover easily. However, in few cases, it may become severe and can be transformed into later stage i.e. IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) or more serious bowel disorder i.e. IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease).  

Diarrhea Causes 

There can be a number of diseases and conditions that can cause diarrhea. Nowadays, Diarrhea may be caused by:-

• Viruses: In 2021, COVID-19 had shown some symptoms of diarrhea in lots of patients where they are loosing lots of body fluid and body weight. 
• Lactose Intolerance: Lactose is a natural sugar found in milk and other dairy products. In Diarrhea, bowel become irresistible to dairy products and poses difficulty in recovery. Lactose intolerance is highly absorbed in aged patients because enzymes required for digesting the lactose become ineffective or less potent as you grew older.  
• Bacterial infection or parasites: The main cause of diarrhea is bacterial / parasitic infection ingested into the human body due to exposure to pathogenic bacteria.  
• Alcohol abuse: Alcohol contamination or high level of artificial alcohol in wines can be extremely dangerous in Diarrhea / low potency bowel like diseases. In extreme cases, it may prove fatal.
• Fructose (generally found in all kind of natural fruits) or high intake of processed sugars can also upset digestive system or diabetes
• Laxative abuse: Digestive system allergy to certain types of foods
• Intestinal Disease: Some people unknowingly used to suffer from chronic intestinal disease like IBS (Irritable Bowel syndrome), IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, and small intestine bacterial overgrowth (when bad bacteria outnumbers good bacteria in bowel) 
• Radiation Therapy: Radiation therapy 
• Surgery: It usually poses such situation because body has its memory to do thing however due to weakness caused by surgery, body struggles to process food especially sugary foods.

General cause of Diarrhea

Diarrhea Symptoms

Diarrhea can cause serious fluid loss / dehydration in body that may result in even death, if not cured on time. Diarrhea can damage the effectiveness of body immune system. To understand the symptoms better, these can be classified into two categories-

• Uncomplicated Diarrhea
• Complicated Diarrhea

Uncomplicated Diarrhea

You can consider this category as non-serious and minor abstinences or medications can cure it very easily within few days. Such symptoms generally includes-

• Thin & loose body: Due to dehydration, body can be seen as thin & lousy. You may feel tiredness and low at energy. These symptoms are common. After recovery, you can easily gain the original state of body within few weeks. 
• Watery Stool: Water like stool that stinks with flush and smells very bad while pooping. In this situation, people get panicked and rush to doctor which is very common and advisable. Such situation occur only when digestion become very ineffective and body can not burn the food and eject all food in watery situation. At this stage, patients used to consume a lot of water. Luckily, this state can also be cured very easily remaining at home with proper medication. However, such situation can be permanently cured/eradicated with the treatments advised below. 
• Nausea and vomiting: This happens when body can not pass stool downwards due to n-number of reasons. Therefore, intestine reflux the watery waste through the mouth. However, it is still curable and not so serious situation.
• Abdominal cramps: Diarrhea can cause cramps in stomach due to inability in sustaining food or blisters in intestine.

Complicated Diarrhea

Patients with such symptoms can be considered in serious situation. Such symptoms includes-

• Weight loss
• Fever
• Blood mucus or undigested food in the stool

Diarrhea: Primary treatment(s) 

All kind of above diarrhea related problems can be solved at home using herbal diets & medicines. Most of related problems are solved within few days. In some cases, it may take time if proper abstinences are not followed. So primarily patient can follow the following procedure-

• Prepare a mixture of psyllium husks with curd. Feeding the patient daily in the morning and evening will cure him. “A Psyllium husk thickens the stool and reduces the intestinal pain”.

Psyllium Husk

  

If still you feel that there is slow recovery or something more is needed as per the symptoms then refer the following remedies as per the symptoms-

Any kind of loose motion

If stool is not tight and body is not able to hold it or you feel uncomfortable just after drinking water, then you should opt for the following remedies for at least 1 week. Remember, Don't ignore the causes of diarrhea as mentioned earlier in this article and take precautions of those as well for faster recovery. 

• Grind dried Amla and Inknut (Black Harad) in 2:1 ratio in electric blender; Make it delicate.

Harad and Amla

• Consume 1-1 grams of this mixture at morning and evening will fresh water while empty stomach. It strengthens the stomach & cures all kind of diarrhea.

Watery loose Motion

In such situation, avoid consumption of water or cold water frequently. Don't consume heavy foods that contains high caloric or protein value. Instead of water, follow the following remedy-

• Take a cup of lukewarm water or you can make it hot as much as you can consume.
• Mix one teaspoonful ginger extract.
• Consume this mixture on every 1 hour interval in a day. It will benefit the patient.

Powerful watery loose motion (Like Jet)

W  With the above mentioned herbal treatment, you should follow some naturopathy treatment as mentioned below-

• Mix 50 grams of dried & delicate Amla powder with water properly and prepare pulpy mixture. 
• Lie down on the ground keeping navel point upward to the sky & make round boundary with this pulpy mixture around naval point leaving a hole/blank space in the mid. 
• Fill this hole with fresh ginger extract. 
• Sleep for 20-30 minutes mindlessly. 

It is seen that this therapy can cure potent & prolonged diarrhea without any medication. Repeating this for few days can eradicate diarrhea. It won't come back again easily.

Diarrhea: Additional Treatment(s)

It is also advised that any person suffering from diarrhea like disease, he/she should not follow the regular diets including spicy, cold, sour, and dairy products because such products need more digestive enzymes to decompose these foods in the bowel. Instead of heavy foods, patient should follow light diets that can be digested within few minutes. Apart from the above treatments, patient can additionally opt for the additional treatment as listed below for faster recovery or if you see very mild symptoms of diarrhea in daily life. 

GharkaBaidya will advise you follow the below steps in your daily life routine instead of catching diarrhea to keep your bowel healthy and sound-

• Consume at least 250 grams butter-milk (whey) with 1 gram roasted cumin & ½ grams black salt after meal.
• For proper digestion, consume roasted cumin seeds and roasted aniseed with curd.
• Rub ginger extract around the navel for healthy stomach.
• Roast equal quantity of aniseed and cumin on the frying pan. pestle it properly. Consume this mixture at every 3 hour in a day in 3-3 grams quantity.

The amazing fact about the above remedies is that all of these are available in your kitchen. Just rush to kitchen and identify the above items. 

All diseases related to stomach

For any type of stomach problem, if it is not diarrhea or it is unrecognizable and you want to treat it by yourself. Then, you can follow the below treatment- 

• Grind 12 grams aniseed (saunf) & 6 grams of white cumin delicately 
• Mix it with 12 grams of sugar (Avoid processed sugar which is prepared by chemicals). Store this mixture in a bottle.
• Consume 1 gram of this mixture at evening. Repeat it for 10-15 days and it will benefit you in all kind of stomach pain.

Diarrhea: Cautions

While adopting any of the above said remedies, you are advised to strictly follow the below cautions / abstinences for faster recovery because herbs, prescribed in the above treatments are purely risk free and natural, need digestive system to purely available for these herbs. Remember to intake these herbal formula at empty stomach. 

• Do not consume solid foods only eat Buttermilk. Twice in a day or consume rice with curd.
• Do not Serve Curd and rice in case of fever.

If in any case, your diarrhea is chronic and above medicines are not helping you out properly. So, in this case, you should visit your physician as early as possible to avoid further serious damages. 

Diarrhea FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Who can be infected by the Diarrhea?

It can happen to any person irrespective to age & gender. It can have some serious impacts on-

• Young children
• Patients with long medication history or any type of stomach related surgery
• Elderly persons

Can diarrhea pose threat to human health seriously?

Generally, diarrhea is cured by immune system automatically within few days. However, if your body fails to cure by itself then diarrhea may pose several risky complications including dehydration, kidney failure, electrolyte imbalance, and malnourishment to other body organs.

If such situation ignored for long time, human body can develop some serious issues showing the following signs-

• Dark urine & urine loss due to inability of body in sustaining the water inside
• Rapid heart beat rate; further it may induce anxiety
• Dry & dull skin
• Dizziness
• Irritated behavior
• other mental ailments

 Are prolonged medications especially anti-biotics causes diarrhea?

Yes, Prolonged medications or anti-biotics can cause diarrhea because of killing / increasing ineffectiveness of bowel enzymes. Anti-biotics poses severe load on liver as well. Liver is the main organ that is responsible for boosting immunity in human body. That's why, patients on medicines can suffer from diarrhea for a long period of time. Any medication need doctor's help.

Any color of diarrhea may have different alarming states?

Stool color is totally depends upon what you have eaten up. However, if you see red color or black color in stool then that can be an alarming situation. During diarrhea or any bowel related problems, it is advisable that you should keep track of the stool color. Following stool movements are considered more severe-

• Black stool
• Blood or puss in stool
• Greasy, sticky and extremely smelly stool 

Can Diarrhea be fatal?

Diarrhea is very common disease and usually occur due to shift in environmental seasons. However, it doesn't mean that it can't be fatal. Diarrhea attacks on those constituents which are very necessary to live alive including precious electrolytes and water content in body. If you are continuing to loose these fluids or body can not sustain it due to contamination in water or food poisoning or other type of pollution. It can be fatal. 

In history, we have seen that a large population was wiped out due to such common diseases like diarrhea. So, maintain proper hygiene & consume fresh foods and fresh water.