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Diarrhea
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Diarrhea means the stool carries more water than it should. The small intestine and the large intestine work to absorb ions and other substances, and water follows them. When that work gets out of balance, the water stays in the tube and leaves with the stool.
The imbalance can take two routes. The tube can stop drying what passes through, or pour water on it: whether it absorbs less water or secretes more, the result is the same. Another way of classifying it gives two names, secretory diarrhea and osmotic diarrhea. In the osmotic kind, a solute that was not absorbed, such as lactose, the sugar in milk, stays behind in the intestine, and that solute holds water and draws it into the tube.
And there is another split, this one by duration. Acute diarrhea is three or more loose or watery stools a day for fourteen days or less. Once an episode runs past that mark, it is no longer called acute but chronic or persistent.
In brief
Diarrhea is an increase in the water in the stool, from an imbalance in the intestinal processes that absorb ions and water.
It results from reduced water absorption or increased secretion, and another classification splits it into secretory, from that secretion, and osmotic, where a solute such as lactose draws water in.
The tube can stop drying what passes through, or pour water on it.
The acute form is three or more loose or watery stools a day for fourteen days or less; beyond that, chronic or persistent.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingDiarrhea, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated