Diarrhea – Diarrhoea

Diarrhoea is repeated passage of loose or semi-liquid stools in large quantities. It is the result chiefly of indigestion or bacterial or chemical irritation and under certain circumstances, it is nervous in origin. In diarrhoea there is no tenesmus (or bearing down and stools are large in quantity and without mucus or slime. For distinction from cholera, see under the heading, Cholera.

Treatment

Spt. Camphor: Chill, rigor pain in stomach; extremities and face cold; diarrhoea of summer season or associated with cold.

Chininum Ars. 6x: Ordinary diarrhoea.

Rheum 3: Sour smell in stools and in sweat.

Croton Tig. 6: Copious yellow watery motion.

Rumex 3: Morning diarrhoea, greyish motions; patient wakes up with uncontrollable urging for stools.

Aconite 3x: Diarrhoea due to cold; patient feels chilly, thirsty and feverish.

Chamomilla 6: Hot, foetid, greenish liquid evacuations: bilious vomit; gripes; headache; diarrhoea of infants at dentition period; child screams constantly; wants to be taken up in arms; motions are sticky or watery or greyish or greenish and smell of rotten eggs.

Pulsatilla 3-30: Stools changing in character; bitter taste in mouth; nausea or vomiting; eructations; aggravation at night; diarrhoea following fatty food.

Antim. Crud 6: Tongue coated white; eructations; nausea; loss of appetite; liquid or bilious motions.

Ipecac. 3x-6: Nausea and vomiting; foul smelling stools; bloody stools; summer diarrhoea with gripes; greenish or greenish yellow diarrhoea of children.

Oleander 3-30: Diarrhoea after indigestion.

Zingiber 6: Due to drinking contaminated water.

Nux Vomica 3x-30: Due to over-eating or night keeping or drinking.

China 6, 12, 30: Diarrhoea due to over-eating of fruits in summer; painful or painless diarrhoea or reddish motions, coming on after eating or at night or in the morning,; weakness; loss of appetite, thirst; frequent liquid motions with gripes; stools are gushing out with force.

Arsenic 3x-30: Restlessness before evacuations; pain in the abdomen; nausea at the time of eating oneself; straining; weakness and burning sensation in anus after passage of stools; palpitation; foul smelling, dirty coloured, scanty stools; much thirst; chronic diarrhoea due to eating stale fish, milk or vegetables or acids, ice-creams, iced-fruits, etc.

Dulcamara 6: Diarrhoea due to wet cold bilious motions at night; flatulence and diarrhoea in the afternoon; stools of variegated hue; liquid stools mixed up with broken-down masses: vomiting and purging simultaneously: burning pain in hands diarrhoea of rainy season.

Iris Vers. 6: Choleric diarrhoea: tympanitis; burning sensation in anus; nausea or vomiting; uncontrollable eructations during summer, or autumnal diarrhoea or cholera of infants.

Merc. Vivus.: 6 Straining and griping; tenesmus, patient-feels that he has yet to ease himself although there is nothing in his rectum; bilious stools with or without blood.

Merc. Sol. 6-30: Bilious, bloody or mucus stools; griping before stools and relieved by passage of stools; stools clay-coloured, yellow.

Bryonia 6-30: Summer diarrhoea, diarrhoea due to drinking cold water; nausea or fainting on sitting up; much thirst; clay-coloured foetid stools.

Verat. Alb. 6-30: Watery or rice-water like copious stools passed with much noise, or unconsciousness; pain in abdomen; cramps in legs; pulselessness; cold sweat on forehead.

Podophyllum 6: Diarrhoea of teething children; copious stools of variegated colour; diarrhoea after eating or drinking, sensation of emptyness of lower abdomen; painless diarrhoea aggravated in the morning. Stools frequent, watery, foetid, gushing out. Good for those who are bilious.

Phosphorus 6-30: Weakness, flatulence, and belchings with diarrhoea (in chronic dyspepsia); diarrhoea during cholera-time. Stools profuse, watery, pouring out as if from a hydrant, better after sleeping. Bloody stools, white particles like boiled sago.

Calc. Carb 6-30: Weakness and emaciation; pallor of face; now loss of appetite now keenness of it; chronic diarrhoea due to acid fermentation; diarrhoea of children (whose forehead sweats profusely or of those who are scrofulous).

Aloe 6: Yellow, foetid stools; eructations follow quickly upon urging for them; pain in the pelvish before and during passage of stools; morning diarrhoea, urging for stools wakens the patient, driving him out of bed at about 6 a.m.; diarrhoea with passage of flatus.

Nupher Lutea 3x: Diarrhoea between 4 and 7 a.m. stools are sour-smelling, yellow and liquid; flatulence; burning sensation in hands after evacuations.

Colocynth 6: Cutting or griping pain in abdomen or around the navel, doubling up the patient; aggravation of pain and diarrhoea after eating; relief of pain after each copious evacuation or on bending forward or on pressing on the abdomen; stools are at first watery, then bilious and sometimes bloody.

Ferrum Met, 6-30: In chronic cases leading to exhaustion where undigested stools are passed with much straining.

Sulphur 12, 30: Stools yellow or dirty-white in colour; painless diarrhoea; stools coconut of undigested food; morning aggravation; chronic diarrhoea with excoriated anus; patient wakes up with urgent call for the closet which he has to visit atonce.

Try also—Thuja 30, Magnesia Phosph, 12x (trit.), Ricinus 6, AEthusa 6, Calc. Carb. 6, Lachesis 6, Apis Mel. 6, Carbo Veg. 3, China 3x-200.

Indication of remedies according to causes of diarrhoea:

• Eating rich food— 6, Nux Vom 30, Antim. Crud 6, Ipecac. 6.
• Drinking of contaminated water or eating jack-fruit— Chamomilla
• Taking ice or ice-cream— 6, Carbo Veg. 6.
• Inhaling foul air—Baptisia 3x, Ars. 6.
• Exposure to cold in winter— Camphor, Acon, 3x, Bryonia 6.
• Exposure to heat in day and cold at night time— Bryonia 3x-30.
• Exposure to cold in rainy season—Dulcamara 6, Rhus Tox.
• Eating too much tarts or fruits—China 30, 6.
• Summer Diarrhoea—China 3x, A. 6, Iris. 6, Bryonia 6, Ars. 6.
• Mental excitement—Ignatia 6, Chamomilla 12, 6.
• Drinking milk—AEhusa 6, Calcarea
• Eating fatty food— 6.
• During teething of babies—Chamomilla 12, Carb. 6.
• Due to fear or joy—Coffea 6, Opium 30
• Due to grief—Ignatia
• Diarrhoea of pregnanoy or after delivery—Antim Crud 6, China
• Chronic diarrhoea— 30, Calcarea Carb. 30. Lyco. 30, Aloe. 30, Acid Phosph. 6.

Keep patient warm in bed so far as practical. Give him to drink boiled water when cooled. Weak tea (without milk), ghole (butter-milk, whey), glucose in water, coconut water. As soon as the diarrhoea subsides, arrowroot or barley gruel or plasmon arrowroot or Horlick’s malted milk be given. Albumen-water may also be given. Thereafter soups and finally rice may be allowed.