What Is a Drug?

Broadly speaking, a drug is any substance other than food intended to affect the structure or any function of the body (1).

Drug As a Medication

According to the United States Federal Drug Agency (FDA), a drug is an article (substance) intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation (lessening), treatment or prevention of disease, recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) (2), Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary (1).

continue reading Drug, Medication, Supplement, Remedy – Definitions

Common Medications and Remedies Causing Diarrhea

Syrups for Children

Children’s syrups (anti-cough syrups, analgesics etc.) are often sweetened with fructose or sorbitol that can induce diarrhea in children with otherwise healthy gut and especially in those with fructose malabsorption. 

Fruit Syrups and Juices

Syrups or juices from apples, pears, watermelon, prunes, plumes, mango, peaches or cherries may cause diarrhea due to high sorbitol or fructose content. Check labels for fructose, sorbitol, HFCS or polyols. 

continue reading Diarrhea Induced by Drugs, Remedies or Other Mediaction

Causes and Symptoms of Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea (AAD)

Antibiotics, like ampicillin, clindamycin, cephalosporins or any other antibiotic, may cause diarrhea in adults or children (but rarely in infants). Antibiotics destroy normal intestinal bacteria thus enabling harmful bacteria, like Clostridium difficile, to overgrow and cause:

• Watery diarrhea, appearing from 1-2 days after the start of antibiotic treatment to several weeks after stopping of treatment (1)
• Blood or mucus in the stool
• Left side abdominal pain or cramps
• Bloating and gas with barnyard smell.

Diagnosis may be suspected from the symptoms and antibiotic therapy. Diarrhea often stops on its own in 2-14 days after antibiotic withdrawal (1). Antibiotic should not be withdrawn without consultation with a doctor.

continue reading Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea (AAD) – Prevention & Treatment

Diarrhea may be contagious or not, depending on the cause.

Infectious diarrhea, due to bacterial or parasitic food poisoning, or due to rotavirus infection may be transmitted by stool-to-mouth (fecal-oral) route (with hands, water, food, toys and other objects contaminated with the stool). Additionally, viral diarrhea can be contracted by droplet infection that is by inhaling droplets of nasal secretions or saliva of an infected and sneezing or coughing patient (usually small child).

Diarrhea is not likely to be transmitted by inhaling the odor of diarrheal stool. Diarrhea due to bacterium Clostridium dificcile or yeast Candida albicans overgrowth is not likely contracted by a healthy person, but it can be contracted by someone with lowered immunity (a person with AIDS, or a patient after antibiotic treatment, during or after chemotherapy and so on).

Diarrhea in most of other disorders (IBS, food allergies, liver, gallbladder, pancreas disease, celiac disease, lactose intolerance, Crohn’s disease) is not likely contagious, unless affected person develops a subsequent infection.

It is often not known why a certain person has a diarrhea, so it should be assumed that diarrhea is always contagious, even if it is not.

Prevention of Diarrhea

1. Hygiene

• Washing hands after every contact with the stool (toilet, soil, animals)
• Cleaning surfaces, contaminated with stool, soil, chemicals
• Keeping small children out from daily care centers, if they have diarrhea, or if many other children have it
  
  continue reading Is Diarrhea Contagious? How Can Be Diarrhea Prevented?

A term remedy is derived from Latin re- = again, and mederi = to heal, meaning something what heals again and again. The term is used as opposed to a drug, and refers to a non-prescription healing aid.

Synonyms: cure, restorative, counteraction, reparation, redress, relief, aid, help, assistance.

Home remedies include certain foods, drinks, ointments, compresses, baths, splints, and so on. 

Remedies are NOT the same as over-the-counter drugs. There are no rules that would determine which product may or may not be called a remedy, and what may or may not be its ingredients. On the other hand, an over-the-counter drug ingredients are strictly regulated by FDA (US Federal Drug Administration).

Treatment of Acute Diarrhea in ADULTS

Acute diarrhea in most cases stops on its own in few days. If there’s no fever or other debilitating symptom, affected person can continue with regular activities but should avoid any strain.

Fluid Replacement

An adult with a mild diarrhea can drink plain water or tea, a cup (250 ml) at the time, and repeatedly through the day to maintain more than 200 ml of translucent or bright yellow morning urine and more than 500 ml of daily urine. In severe diarrhea, drinks with sugar and salt, like Gatorade or Rehydralyte, are recommended since they provide faster rehydration. Combination of diluted fruit juice (1:1) with salt crackers or salt broth is also appropriate. Drinks to avoid: alcohol, caffeinated and carbonated drinks, and in prolonged diarrhea also milk; they may all aggravate diarrhea.

continue reading Treating Diarrhea with Rehydration, Diet, Remedies, Medications

Orange stool may normally appear after ingestion of:

• Beta carotene  - vitamin A supplements
• Beta carotene in foods (if ingested in large amounts): carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, turnip greens, winter squash, collard greens, cilantro, fresh thyme, apricots, mango, pumpkin
• Antacids containing aluminium hydroxide
• Artificial colors in drinks, sweets, ice creams, sauces, etc 
• Medications in certain combinations

continue reading Orange Bowel Movement & Orange Diarrhea

Causes of green bowel movement:

Food

Green bowel movement may be normal for a person that ingests a lot of:

• Green leafy vegetables like broccoli, lettuce, spinach, cabbage
• Black licorice
• Baby formula – vegetable mashes
• Artificial colors, commonly added to ice creams, soda, fruit juices, or other drinks, morning cereals, milk products, sweets, etc.
• Iron-rich foods like enriched breakfast cereals, red meat, spinach, beans, etc.

Dark green color may persist for up to five days after ingesting above mentioned foods. Supplements or artificial colors may give bright green color to the stool.

In infants, the stool is green in first days after delivery, and later due to breastfeeding. Some baby formulas can also give green color to the infant stool.

Children on clear-liquid ”starvation diet” during illness may have green watery stools.

continue reading Green Bowel Movement & Green Diarrhea – What Are the Causes?

Black colored stool may be due to:

FOOD

• Beets
• Blueberries or blackberries in large amount
• Licorice
• Raw or undercooked red meat, or other foods with substantial amount of animal blood, like Black pudding

continue reading Black Bowel Movement & Black Diarrhea – Causes

How the Healthy Bowel Works?

Terms explanation:

• The GUT refers to the complete digestive tract from the mouth to the anus.
• The BOWEL consists of small intestine (and this from duodenum, jejunum and ileum), and from large intestine (and this from cecum, appendix, colon, and rectum)
• The STOMACH is an organ lying between esophagus (gullet) and duodenum; stomach also refers to the whole abdomen.

Bowel anatomy (Picture 1). Stomach lies right below the bottom end of the breastbone. The small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum) fills up the most of the abdominal cavity. The large intestine starts in the lower right abdomen with the appendix, runs up as the ascending colon toward the liver, then as the transverse colon below the stomach, then on the left side down as the descending colon, in the pelvis it widens into the sigmoid colon, and ends as the rectum and anal opening.

continue reading Small and Large Intestine – Anatomy, Function, Flora, Pictures