10 Reasons Why Getting Rid of Chronic Diarrhea is Tricky
To not get fat, I have to exercise 5+ times a week for 30 minutes or more. It’s a pain in the ass, but simple.
For me, and many others, fixing diarrhea wasn’t so simple. I didn’t just change 1 thing and I was fixed.
Fixing your chronic diarrhea is more like peeling an onion — there are many layers to the problem. And we have to keep peeling until our diarrhea is gone.
I can speak from experience because I used to have 2.1 hours a day on the toilet diarrhea’n. To fixed my chronic diarrhea, I had to sort out multiple issues to get my digestion back to normal.
In 2016 I averaged 0 hours of diarrhea a week (down from 14.7 hours a week). So keep reading if you want to understand how I went about fixing it.
Why Does Your Body Want to Have Diarrhea? (Reason #1 — Infections/Dysbiosis/Parasites)
Even though diarrhea is mega-uncomfortable, it serves a valuable purpose.
Simply put, diarrhea is your body’s fastest way to get bad stuff out of your intestines.
If you ate a burrito laced with ecoli, your body will detect that, and hit the eject button (diarrhea). If your body didn’t remove those bacteria ASAP, they could overwhelm your immune system and kill you.
Acute diarrhea from tainted food is one thing …but if you have chronic diarrhea, that could point to a chronic infection. The source of infection could be a stubborn bacteria like C. diff, or possibly a parasite like Giardia lamblia.
Another possibility is that your gut could be affected by “dysbiosis”. Dysbiosis means the probiotic bacteria in your GI tract are not in balance — and that could be a cause of diarrhea.
I myself was probably suffering from dysbiosis since taking probiotics helped my diarrhea decrease by 28.7%.
The take-away here is that intestinal infections and unbalanced gut bacteria are a common cause of digestive issues.
Why Does Your Body Want to Have Diarrhea? (Reason #2 — Allergies/Intolerances)
For my good friend Jeremy, eating bread is like eating a poison bomb that causes severe diarrhea…for the next 3 days (he has Celiacs disease).
But obviously there are billions of people who eat bread and don’t have diarrhea…so the lesson here is that everyone’s body will have different ideas of what “poison” is.
Here’s my body’s list of “poisons”:
- fibrous stems of bok choy
- raw bell peppers
- brussels sprouts
- broccoli stems
- raw tomatoes
- most nuts
Oh, and beer can be troublesome for me too…
Other substances that commonly cause diarrhea:
- overeating fruits
- fermented foods
- spicy food
- alcohol
- coffee
- dairy
- eggs
- soy
For many people, their body dislikes certain foods…and wants to get rid of them ASAP — so diarrhea happens so your body can expel these “poison” foods.
Why Does Your Body Want to Have Diarrhea? (Reason #3 — Drug Side Effects)
As covered above, individuals have different responses to the same food. In the same way, some people can have diarrhea side effects from medical drugs.
38.5% of Medical Drugs Can Cause Diarrhea
Digest Strong did an analysis of the top 200 drugs taken in the USA. We found that 48% of drugs have some digestive side effects.
And guess what and diarrhea was the #1 side effect. 38.5% of the top 200 medical drugs may cause diarrhea.
The drug with the most digestive side effects was Ibuprofen (25 digestive side effects)— so even over the counter drugs can cause digestive issues.
You should click here to check your medical drug side effects.
Why Does Your Body Want to Have Diarrhea? (Reason #4 — Issues With Supplements)
You have probably read about my 27.8% improvement in diarrhea symptoms after taking probiotics.
But, there are also people who feel worse after taking probiotics:
So once again…one man’s medicine is another man’s cause of diarrhea!
Too Much of a Good Thing Can Cause Diarrhea
One obvious sign of low magnesium is trembling:
To fix the trembling, people will take magnesium supplements. But if they take too much they might fix the trembling, but then they’ll have strong diarrhea.
So another possibility cause of diarrhea is taking too much of a good supplement.
Hidden and Problematic Supplement Ingredients
Some companies make capsules with vegetable gycerol or lecithin. Unfortunately some people experience side effects when taking it.
And even worse, there are some shady characters in the supplement industry who put unlisted, and sometimes problematic ingredients in the supplements.
Some supplements can also contain traces of gluten, diary, soy, egg, nuts and other allergens that can cause diarrhea in some people.
So consider stopping your supplements for a while to see if your diarrhea gets better. Or, make sure your supplements are clean as can be.
Why Does Your Body Have Diarrhea? (Reason #5 — Chronic Stress/Anxiety)
Our bodies are well designed for surviving attacks.
As soon as we realize we’re being attacked, adrenaline kicks in, water and energy gets routed to our muscles…and non essential functions like immunity and digestion are affected.
BUT — what if your job is pretty stressful and frustrating? Now you’re spending 8 hours a day with your digestion affected.
What if you’re also commuting 2 hours a day in heavy traffic? That’s 8+2=10 hours of your digestion being partially turned off.
What if you add on chronic relationship problems? Your wife just had a baby? Your local friends moved away and you’re lonely? Well, it means that your digestion will be further compromised.
And since it takes 24–72 hours for full digestion, if you digestion is affected 8+ hours a day, it can disrupt the digestive process and lead to problems — like diarrhea!
In another article I will go deep into how I dealt with stress. But just remember this for now:
Why Does Your Body Have Diarrhea? (A List of More 5 Causes to Consider)
The above 5 causes of diarrhea are pretty interesting to explain and very deep. The next few causes are in many ways more straightforward — so I’ll just list them off:
B Vitamin Level Issues
Irritable Bowel Diseases
Bile Acid Malabsorption
Bowel Tumors
Too Much Sugar
- I haven’t found much medical support for this, but I personally found that reducing refined sugar decreased my diarrhea substantially. I believe that unbalanced blood sugar can lead to stress, which indirectly leads to diarrhea…but that is my own personal speculation.
Working Through The Causes of Diarrhea — Finding Your Path to Strong Digestion
My path to fixing chronic diarrhea was unique — I had to work through these issues, in order from most impactful to least impactful:
- Chronic stress
- Parasites/dysbiosis
- Food allergies/intolerances
- Too much sugar
So what should you do now???
The truth is that it really depends. The path to strong digestion and freedom from diarrhea will vary widely…you could have just 1 issue to fix…or 5…or more.
And any one of these 10 issues might cause diarrhea:
- Infections/Dysbiosis/Parasites
- Allergies/Intolerances
- Drug Side Effects
- Issues With Supplements
- Chronic Stress/Anxiety
- B Vitamin Level Issues
- Irritable Bowel Diseases
- Bile Acid Malabsorption
- Bowel Tumors
- Too Much Sugar
I believe these 4 issues will require a doctor to work through, diagnose or rule out:
- Drug Side Effects
- Irritable Bowel Diseases
- Bile Acid Malabsorption
- Bowel Tumors
For these 2 causes, specialized practitioners and some specialized doctors may be useful for sorting these out:
- Infections/Dysbiosis/Parasites
- B Vitamin Level Issues
For these 4 issues, I personally believe you have to take 100% personal responsibility and experiment to sort them out:
- Allergies/Intolerances
- Issues With Supplements
- Chronic Stress/Anxiety
- Too Much Sugar
Things like food and symptom logs, and paying attention to my body were key to sorting these out for me…being open to experimenting and trying new things helped me get better faster.
I wish you digestive strength and good luck on freeing yourself from the tyranny of chronic diarrhea!
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P.S. The community over at https://www.reddit.com/r/ibs is a great place to ask questions about diarrhea and other digestive issues.
