This is a very good question and is becoming increasingly
common. If you have diarrhea for more than four weeks – it is chronic, although
many who have suffered will call it chronic after just a day. The misery of diarrhea felt by patients is
equal to the amount of investigation we do to figure out what kind
of diarrhea it is.
Besides an infection or inflammation, some people have
diarrhea from irritable bowel, while some people suffer from medications.
Some people will not just have diarrhea but actually will
have fecal incontinence from inflammation occasionally caused by fecal impaction
or chronic constipation.
It's important to know if there is any previous travel to
tropical areas. Doctors will test for
celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Type I Diabetes, thyroid
disease and iron deficiency anemia, weight
loss, infertility, elevated liver enzymes and chronic fatigue syndrome.
There are a lot of drugs that can cause diarrhea including
citrates, magnesium-- containing antacids, anti-arrhythmics, antibiotics,
calcitonin on steroidal anti-inflammatory medications stimulant laxatives and
cancer medication.
Whatever the cause of your chronic diarrhea, this is a
challenge for physicians to figure it out and the best start is to go to the
doctor and give them an appropriate history on your diarrhea. Our first goal
would be to figure out and categorize the type of diarrhea that you had, and
once that is done, the rest is as they say smooth sailing.
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