What happens to body during diarrhea? Especially the water part? Normaly, the water we drink is absorbed in the body and most part of thrown removing toxic elements via urine. But, during diarrhea body losses lot of water and we become dehydrated and weak. Suppose due to some process let’s say like Osmosis the water travels thru membrane and finally transforms into another substance, blood. So, during dehydration, does this process reverse? Why do we feel weakness? Also, when body knows it’s getting weak why it is still dehydration without absorbing any water? Someone please explain whole process.
In: Biology
Your small intestine typically has a lot of water, no matter what. Your intestinal tract has to be well lubricated to move the food along the many feet of intestines. It’s not *just* water that’s in your intestines, of course, there’s all kinds of enzymes and secretions in it, but it’s still mostly water.
Typically during a normal bowel movement, it takes roughly 48 hours from when you ate your meal for it to be defecated. When it gets into the large intestine, the “water” from the small intestine gets reabsorbed for the most part. This happens passively, and is not directly controllable. Water just flows from the intestine back into the blood stream. This way, the body keeps the intestine well lubricated, but recycles the water.
When you have diarrhea, your body believes there to be something wrong with something in your digestive system, and shoots everything out as fast as possible. It doesn’t have time to let the water slowly filter back into circulation. Better to be a little dehydrated and have to drink some water, than keep a pathogen in the intestines.
As for water transforming into blood, an important thing to remember is that blood *is* water. Blood is just water with some blood stuff in it. Your urine is just water with some waste products in it. The body doesn’t differentiate between the water that’s in blood or the water that’s in intestinal juices. It doesn’t keep them separated.
As for why your body doesn’t stop the process when it “knows” you’re getting weak. Your body is not conscious. It doesn’t think these things through. One part of your body senses a problem, and tries VERY hard to remedy that problem. And the rest of the body is playing catch up. Your body can and does hurt you, even with the best intentions. Your body is designed to survive, but sometimes it’s a little too eager and tries so hard to help that it can hurt you.
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