What Causes Diarrhea to Become Severe?

An occasional bout of diarrhea that corrects itself is typically not something for alarm. However, diarrhea that lasts more than two to three days or is reoccurring over weeks or months is reason for concern. Symptoms of watery diarrhea are especially severe and alarming if there is blood and pus in the stool or if it is in the form of watery emission. These can be signs of a more severe underlying infection that can be fatal if not treated properly.

Untreated watery diarrhea can also lead to death if extreme dehydration occurs. You absorb water into your body through the intestine, and if this doesn't happen you can quickly become dehydrated. Thus, it is very important to take severe cases of diarrhea seriously and seek proper treatments. In short, diarrhea becomes severe if left untreated or if treated improperly.

Unfortunately, one potential cause of severe diarrhea is the very antibiotics used in mainstream medicine to treat the infections that cause diarrhea. This can develop within anything up to a month after taking them, and though this affects only a small proportion of people administered them, it still amounts a large number of people in numeric terms. 0.5% of a population of 50 million that is treated with antibiotics amounts to 25,000 that will suffer severe diarrhea because of it.

That is one reason why natural remedies are the best option and are generally more effective that mainstream medicine. What causes diarrhea are predominantly stress, infections (bacterial, viral and or parasitic), physical trauma, bad diet and toxins. Of these, any can cause severe diarrhea, although it is generally infections and toxins that cause diarrhea to become severe to the extent that it can threaten life.

Infections

Hundreds of different types of bacteria live in your colon, and without them you could not stay alive. These are colloquially termed 'friendly bacteria'. However, harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites can also enter your gastrointestinal system, and your body can react by trying to expel them in the form of diarrhea. Most viral intestinal infections come and go quickly, and are expelled after short periods of diarrhea. Many bacteria and parasites, however, persist and can cause serious problems. Viruses clear up quickly, but bacteria and parasites persist and multiply and this is where probiotics enter the arena.

Probiotics contain friendly bacteria that can compete with unfriendly invaders that cause diarrhea and eventually displace them. Probiotics work in more than one way, but they start by stimulating the immune system that destroys invading organisms, and they then compete successfully with infectious invaders for those sites on the epithelial cells of the intestine. Unfriendly intestinal invaders do no harm until they occupy your body cells and linings, and if these cells and linings are already populated by friendly bacteria, the dangerous squatters cannot get in.

There is a lot of documented evidence for the effect of probiotics on intestinal bacteria, and how the effects of acute infectious diarrhea are rapidly dissipated. These friendly bacteria, including strains of lactobaccili and beneficial forms of streptococcus are effective with both adults and children, and are also effective in treating what is commonly known as 'traveler's diarrhea', caused by E. Coli.

Most people are familiar with the name E. Coli, and it is one common cause of 'food poisoning' which is a gastrointestinal infection of a toxic agent, such as E. Coli, but not necessarily so. Probiotics can be effective in displacing E. Coli, and ejecting it out of your body along with your diarrhea.

Toxins

What causes diarrhea to become severe other than gastrointestinal infections? One major cause is toxins. This term refers to just about any non-living agent, such as heavy metals, pesticides, pollutants and the toxic by-products of the biochemistry of bacteria.

These are notoriously difficult for mainstream medicine to treat, but a natural substance known as activated charcoal can adsorb these toxins and pass them through the body without them doing further harm. Adsorption is different to absorption, in that the toxins attach to the charcoal's large surface area, and cannot affect the body further. Failing activated charcoal, you can use burnt toast in an emergency.

If you have diarrhea and believe it to be caused by something that you have eaten, you can treat it by deliberately burning toast, scraping off the black bits and drinking it mixed with water. As soon as you can get some activated charcoal, continue the treatment till you feel better.

Don't overdo it though, because charcoal can adsorb the nutrients in your intestine as well as the toxins. This treatment can be effective against bacteria, viruses, heavy metals and other pollutants. Finally take a nutritious drink containing those essential nutrients lost with your diarrhea, such as bananas (potassium), oily fish if you can face it or in a supplement (essential fatty acids and vitamin D) and juiced greens (vitamin C and other antioxidants).

What causes diarrhea to be severe is normally better treated by natural means, but such extreme cases may need expert medical help. Seek professional advice should your own attempts with natural remedies fail. However, for the vast majority of cases the treatments outlined above will be less liable to produce unwanted side effects than mainstream treatment using synthetic drugs, and will also be more effective.