Diarrhea - What Do You Know? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Excessive speed of peristalsis

A sudden fright can cause an almost instant need to go, but this is part of the survival mechanism to lose weight before running away. This was clearly instituted before man wore clothing. The physical reason for loose motions is the peristalsis has speeded up, for whatever reason, not allowing enough absorption of water before it reaches the rectum.

There is a far rarer syndrome of very weak peristalsis where the food does not get passed along the gut naturally but flows through using mainly gravity, and does cause a similar result with most solid food, and requires a special diet to control.

Answer: Amoeba

Amoebic dysentery is a major killer in the third world, caused by drinking infected water. Tapeworms cause few symptoms unless the type which can form dangerous cysts in various tissues elsewhere, while plasmodiums cause malaria and pinworms cause anal itching as the major symptom.

Answer: Botulism

Botulinum toxin, excreted by the bacteria clostridium botulinum, is a paralysis agent, so disables and potentially kills by shutting down the muscles, ultimately the lungs, causing suffocation. The other three are typified with diarrhea, although each illness produces its own variations allowing doctors to narrow down the likely cause. Botulism however will cause constipation as it has the opposite effect on the bowel to the others.

Answer: Colon

The longest part of the intestine is the small intestine, around 22 feet in the average man, which mainly absorbs the nutrients, while the colon then absorbs around 80% of the water. With diarrhea the speed taken to pass through does not allow long enough for it to soak through so basically passes to the other end in various states of liquidity.

The other parts absorb smaller amounts but would not cause diarrhea if the colon has had time to complete its work.

Answer: Rehydration

The major result of all diarrhea is dehydration. As most water is absorbed to the body via the small intestine, anything you drink, as well as the electrolytes such as sodium and potassium, will not reach the bloodstream but most will have passed straight through following an attack of diarrhea. A balanced formula such as Dioralyte, or a glass of water with a teaspoon of sugar and pinch of salt is the quickest way to replace lost water and salts. If the symptoms persist and do not allow subsequent absorption the patient would be put on an intravenous saline drip to replace the loss directly to the bloodstream.
For mild diarrhea bananas and white rice are a good way to avoid medicines as work to absorb whatever is present and slow passage by providing bulk.
Paralysing the bowel is for symptom release, especially after a persistent attack which does not subside after an hour or so. This is usually with a popular non-prescription drug such as Loperamide.

Antibiotics are only given when the likely cause is an infection, which for acute diarrhea would be the commonest reason, but doctors recommend waiting 24-48 hours as most clear on their own by then as the body has expelled the toxins naturally.

Answer: Cadmium

The body is a clever machine, recognising many foreign materials, and acts promptly to expel them as fast as possible. If you have swallowed such a chemical first take immediate medical advice, as besides offering specific treatments per chemical ingested, the doctor may advise not taking a medicine to stop the diarrhea as you want your body to pass the toxin through as fast as possible before it can absorb much of it. In these cases diarrhea acts as a natural protection mechanism.

Cadmium however affects the respiratory and circulatory system more, as well as potentially damaging the liver and kidneys, and can also be carcinogenic over time.

Answer: Cholera

All these illnesses are causes of severe diarrhea, but in the case of cholera the sheer speed of passage means most water ingested is sent straight through. As a result constant rehydration can save many lives alone, as it is the dehydration which causes the most cholera deaths, mainly in the third world, and if nothing else is available clean water and electrolytes can be vital in keeping the patients alive through the acute period of the disease.

Answer: Diverticulosis

Diverticulosis is caused by small pouches in the bowel, mainly caused by a long term lack of dietary fibre allowing the muscles to weaken, and when inflamed becomes diverticulitis. The muscle tone reduces from lack of purchase on the food over time and eventually fails. An improved diet and symptom relief is normally enough to treat when diagnosed at an early stage, but if long term and more severe investigations must be carried out to make sure nothing else has developed.

Irritable bowel syndrome has as yet mystified the medical profession, who have a few basic symptomatic treatments such as peppermint oil, and is shown to worsen under stress, and can come and go over a lifetime with no generally accepted cause. The other two are clearly diagnosable and often genetic, but not definitely understood as to their origins. They are thought to be auto immune or the result of an immune deficiency, and mainly controlled with anti-inflammatories such as steroids, but currently unable to be cured. Severely damaged parts of the intestine may need surgical removal, and if enough is gone a colostomy may be required as there is no longer enough to complete the passage from end to end with a resection.

Answer: Yes

Too much thyroxine from an overactive thyroid gland has many symptoms often including diarrhea, the disease itself being named thyrotoxicosis or Grave's disease. Unlike the intestinal causes the related symptoms such as bulging eyes (exopthalmos), nervous anxiety, rapid pulse and others are related to an overstimulated sympathetic nervous system, allowing a fairly direct diagnosis.

This activity increases peristalsis as well, thus speeding up the passage through and not allowing enough time for absorption of water with the related result. Treatment is initially with various drugs, and if recurrent total removal of the thyroid gland is the final resort, and replaced by a lifetime of taking an oral thyroxine replacement.

Answer: Nocturnal attacks

As there are so many different types and features of diarrhea, each trademark symptom can both eliminate some causes, and indicate others, and diagnosis of all disorders works generally on a flow chart and venn diagram method, eliminating what it can not be and collecting symptoms together which are unlikely to occur with any other cause but those within the relevant venn diagram circle.

Diarrhea can be divided into so many categories, as indicated over the whole quiz, including the timeframe, associated symptoms and even absent symptoms, which can all tell a doctor fairly quickly whether it is a short term attack from either bacteria or poisoning, or something chronic and if so whether intestinally related or an indirect symptom of something affecting the body more generally, like diabetes. A wide range of digestively unrelated symptoms such as those occurring in diabetes or thyrotoxicosis will therefore show a doctor not only is the diarrhea more likely to be part of a wider syndrome recognisable by the associated symptoms, or caused by some form of irritation or overstimulation of the intestines directly.