Overview

It is a gastrointestinal condition, where the patient has complaints of the frequent passage of loose and watery stools, mostly unformed stools, which leads to excess water loss, malabsorption of nutrients and leads to an electrolyte imbalance. Diarrhoea happens when not enough water is removed from the stool, or too much fluid is secreted into the stool, making it loose. It can be caused by a short-term illness that gets better in a few days, but if diarrhoea continues for weeks, it is said to be chronic. When left untreated, it may require hospitalisation.

Causes

Causes of diarrhoea can be categorised as short-term and long-term, or chronic. 

Short-term causes of diarrhoea include,

• Food poisoning - from food and water

• Viral gastroenteritis — caused by rotavirus or norovirus infection

• Waterborne parasites, such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia

 Other causes include

• Change in diet 

• Certain food ingredients

Long-term causes of diarrhoea  can be  due to illnesses like,

• Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis)

• Food intolerances, such as lactose intolerance

Symptoms

• Abdominal cramps and continuous discomfort

• Bloating

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Fever

• Blood or mucus in the stool

• Urgent, sometimes uncontrollable urge to pass stool with force, released with flatus

Ayurvedic View

Atisara, due to causes such as adhyashana(eating food before digestion of previous food),virudha ahara(intake of incompatible food), etc., all lead to manda agni(low digestive power and along with aggravated dosha reach pakvashaya(colon), which liquefies the faeces, and the person passes liquid stools; this is diarrhoea. Here, aggravated vata brings down mutra(urine) and sweda(sweat) to pakvashaya(colon), causing dravatva (liquifies) pureesha mala(faeces), causing vatika type diarrhoea. When aggravated pitta dosha due to drava guna(liquid property)leads to low digestion capacity, reaches pakvashaya(colon) and causes disintegration of stool due to pitta gunas like ushna(heat),sara(ability to flow-mobility), it leads to paithika diarrhoea. When aggravated kapha dosha due to its qualities like guru(heaviness),sheetha(cold),snighdha(unctuouness), etc, moves adho gati(downward), leads to agni mandhya(low digestive fire)and liqufies pureesha mala(faeces)in the colon, leading to kapha type of diarrhoea. Ayurveda way of approach is to do deepana and pachana of the ani(improve metabolism), bring dosha to prakruta awastha (balance state )from disease-causing quality to a healthy state by ayurvedic panchakarma treatment and guidance towards following of healthy diet, lifestyle and a more calm, relaxed mind.