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Rotavirus is one of the most common viruses that we can get in the community. It's one the most common causes of acute diarrhea, which means the diarrhea that comes on very quickly and lasts for less than two weeks. It is a virus that really has no treatment except for supportive care, which means maintaining your liquid intake and just allowing the virus to clear out of your system. Rotavirus is a virus that you can get from someone else that has the virus. So in a lot of nursing home communities, in a lot of areas where people are very close-knit, such as a cruise ship or an area where you have a lot of contact with other people's facilities such as areas where the same people are using the same type of restrooms, and if the cleanliness of it isn't maintained, there's definitely a high risk of getting that virus. And that's usually one of the viruses that you see in outbreaks in certain areas such as cruise ships.
Rotavirus is one of the most common viruses that we can get in the community. It's one the most common causes of acute diarrhea, which means the diarrhea that comes on very quickly and lasts for less than two weeks. It is a virus that really has no treatment except for supportive care, which means maintaining your liquid intake and just allowing the virus to clear out of your system. Rotavirus is a virus that you can get from someone else that has the virus. So in a lot of nursing home communities, in a lot of areas where people are very close-knit, such as a cruise ship or an area where you have a lot of contact with other people's facilities such as areas where the same people are using the same type of restrooms, and if the cleanliness of it isn't maintained, there's definitely a high risk of getting that virus. And that's usually one of the viruses that you see in outbreaks in certain areas such as cruise ships.
There are multiple different causes of diarrhea. Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome. It affects more women than men. Infectious diarrhea can affect anyone that comes into contact with the bacteria that can cause the diarrhea. There are multiple different types of infections that a patient can get that can cause diarrhea. The most common infections include C Diff, which is an infection that you get after taking certain antibiotics. Parasitic infections, E-coli, these are all infections that you can get from traveling or coming into contact with someone that had that infection. Other causes of diarrhea include autoimmune disorders such as Celiac disease in which you get an autoimmune antibody to your small bowel from gluten. And that can cause a malabsorptive process, which then causes diarrhea. Increased acid production in patients can cause diarrhea. Any type of GI malignancy such as pancreatic cancer, small bowel cancer, or colon cancer can cause symptoms of diarrhea. So when a patient has diarrhea, you really need to look into the exact cause of it. Other types of autoimmune disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and microscopic colitis, are all some of the common causes of new onset chronic diarrhea. If your diarrhea extends for over four to six weeks, it's something that you definitely need to see either your primary care physician or a gastroenterologist in order to do further testing to find out the exact cause of your diarrhea and to treat it.
Overeating of certain things can definitely cause increasing diarrhea symptoms. If you eat or consume too much sugars, carbohydrates, or if you drink excessively, all of these things can cause what's called an osmotic diarrhea, which can lead to loose stools for a period of time while you're doing that over eating.
Many medications cause diarrheal side effects. Antibiotics are one of the most common causes of diarrhea. They affect the flora and the bacteria in the GI tract, and that can subsequently allow patients to have diarrhea. The good thing about many medications that have that diarrheal side effect is that once you stop the medication, those symptoms usually go away. Some antibiotics cause a disorder called C diff infection, which is when your bacteria in your GI tract, the flora gets altered and a specific bacteria called C diff starts growing more than the surrounding bacteria, and that can end up having a diarrhea that requires subsequent antibiotic therapy.
One very large component as a cause of diarrhea is Irritable Bowel Syndrome. And one theory behind why people get Irritable Bowel Syndrome is technically thought of as the brain-gut access, which means that anything happens that makes you nervous, anxious, worried, most patients end up feeling in their gut. They feel cramping, they feel gurgling, and a lot of patients end up with diarrhea. Many studies have been done over the years to see the exact connection between this. Many studies have seen that we have as many Serotonin receptors in our Gi tracts as we have in our brain, if not more. And the fact that anything that sets off that Serotonin, such as excitement, anxiousness, anxiety, that also sets off the motility in the bowel, which then leads to diarrhea symptoms. And that's very common.
Many patients have a disorder known as Lactose Intolerance. This could happen at any age. Most of the time when patients get older, the lactose intolerance becomes more apparent. Those patients can definitely have diarrhea if they have any lactose containing meals such as any type of dairy meals. Now, the benefit of lactose intolerance is that it's easily treated if you take a pill called lactaid, which has the enzyme that assists with that deficiency. Patients are able to eat dairy products, ice cream, milk without any issues, usually.
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