eli5 – what causes diarrhea and why does (or can) it cause such pain in your stomach?

Question

eli5 – what causes diarrhea and why does (or can) it cause such pain in your stomach?

In: 2

Answer 1

Hi. Doctor here. There are a couple different kinds of diarrhea.

For INFECTIVE diarrhea, the body tries to flush the invader out of your system by ADDING water to the gut and speeding up gut motility. That water being added is from the body’s own water reserves, hence the risk of dehydration.

for OSMOTIC diarrhea (such as after ingesting sugar-concentrated foodstuffs like very sweet sodas), the high concentration of sugars PULLS water from the body to the gut and the increased water content in the gut leads to liquid stool. Again the water being pulled here is from the body’s cells itself, hence the risk of dehydration.

Hope that helps.