Diarrhoea is defined as the abnormal passage of loose or liquid stools more than three times daily and/or a volume of stool greater than 200 g/day. There is no agreement on the duration of symptoms that define chronic as opposed to acute diarrhoea. Some authorities define persistent diarrhoea as that which lasts longer than 14 days whilst others use a cutoff point of four weeks. Persistent diarrhoea suggests a non-infectious aetiology and therefore should be further investigated.
Chronic diarrhea can have a substantial impact on your quality of life and overall health. At its mildest, diarrhea is an inconvenience; at its worst, it may be disabling and even life threatening.
CAUSES OF CHRONIC DIARRHOEA
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Bile acid malabsorption/diarrhoea.
Colonic:
Diverticular disease.
Colonic neoplasia, including colorectal cancer.
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s colitis.
Microscopic colitis: a type of inflammatory bowel disease, which typically presents in older age groups, with chronic watery diarrhoea. Colonoscopy appears normal and a definitive diagnosis can only be made with multiple colonic biopsies.
Ischaemic colitis.
Constipation with faecal impaction and overflow.
Small bowel:
Coeliac disease.
Crohn’s disease.
Other small bowel enteropathies – eg, Whipple’s disease, tropical sprue, amyloid, intestinal lymphangiectasia.
Bile acid malabsorption – eg, Crohn’s disease affecting the terminal ileum, after ileal resection, cholecystectomy, coeliac disease, bacterial overgrowth and pancreatic insufficiency.
Disaccharidase deficiency.
Lactose intolerance.
Small bowel bacterial overgrowth.
Mesenteric ischaemia.
Radiation enteritis.
Lymphoma.
Pancreatic:
Chronic pancreatitis.
Pancreatic carcinoma.
Cystic fibrosis.
Endocrine causes like:
Hyperthyroidism.
Diabetes mellitus (and other causes of autonomic neuropathy).
Hypoparathyroidism.
Addison’s disease.
Hormone-secreting tumours (VIPoma, gastrinoma, carcinoid).
Chronic infection – eg: amoebiasis, giardiasis, hookworm, Cryptosporidium spp., Entamoeba histolytica (may be bloody diarrhoea).
Recent antibiotic therapy and Clostridium difficile infection.
Previous surgery like gastrectomy, cholecystectomy or ileal resection.
Drugs: for example, laxatives, antibiotics, digoxin, cytotoxic drugs, magnesium-containing antacids, metformin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Food additives such as sorbitol and fructose.
Alcohol: diarrhoea is common in alcohol abuse.
Immunodeficiency.
Factitious diarrhoea (may be associated with an eating disorder).
HOMOEOPATHIC MANAGEMENT
Both acute and chronic diarrhea cases are well managed with Homoeopathy. Chronic diarrhea point towards simple to very grave diseases. In either kind of cases the Homoeopath aims to find out the individual peculiarities of the constitution inorder to reach a Genetic Contitutional similimum. Homeopathic medicines are most effective when they are prescribed for the unique set of symptoms of the sick person has, not just the name of the disease the person has. Pathogenesis of the remedy is also has to be considered before making the prescription. sBecause of the need for this degree of precision, the more knowledge the user has on how to select the individually determined medicine, the better the results with homeopathic medicines. Such a treatment of will bring about normal bowel habits, along with that it will root out the basic problem.