eli5 – what causes diarrhea and why does (or can) it cause such pain in your stomach?
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Your body does. Essentially it’s a response to something in your intestines that your body thinks is a problem (usually bacteria, viruses, or some chemical/substance), so it washes it out with water. That’s why dehydration is such a concern with diarrhea. As for the pain, depending on the person a normal bowel movement will move through you pretty slowly over the course of several hours. Diarrhea on the other hand is given the freaking fast pass and shoots through you like a fat kid at disney world, which the muscles that move your intestines now have to all move way faster than normal and in sync with eachother, causing cramping. I read one study that claimed normal digestion is incredibly painful, but it happens so slowly that our brain can block out any pain, before we can process it. No clue if that’s true though
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