Diaherra is a type of watery stool that can occur up to several times a day. Most of the time, diarrhea lasts for a short time, just about a day or two (this is called acute diarrhea), but it can happen for long periods of time, depending on its cause. It is possible for diarrhea to last for three to four weeks, and this is called chronic diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea usually hints at a more serious problem than your body trying to empty itself of something bad that you ate. No matter what type of diarrhea you have, these home remedies for diarrhea can help.

What Causes Diarrhea?

There are a couple of different things that cause diarrhea. Contaminated water and food, parasites, viruses, food allergies, strong medicines, and incorrect colon functions can cause diarrhea. It can also come as a side effect of a recent stomach surgery.

 

What Else to Except with Diarrhea?

Most of the time, the most common things that come with diarrhea are stomach pains or cramps, loss of bowel control, and needing the bathroom more often and with little to no warning.

 

Home Remedies for Diarrhea

1. Stay Hydrated

Drinking enough liquid is very important because when suffering through diarrhea, you are losing more water through the stool than you should be. You want to drink enough water, but there other drinks that you can enjoy as well that can help to hydrate you.

Drink clear liquids and sports drinks. There are also a couple of things that you want to avoid because they make your diarrhea worse. Those drinks with alcohol, caffeine, or a lot of sugar.

 

2. Bland Diet

Avoid overly spicy foods because they can irritate your stomach and make diarrhea worse than it was. So tacos and burgers are not the way you want to go at the time being. There is something called the ‘BRAT’ diet. This is an acronym for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Simple and light things that could be trusted with the stomach flu. It should settle easy.

In addition to the BRAT diet, you can enjoy potatoes, baked chicken without the skin, oatmeal, and chicken soup.

 

3. Probiotics

Probiotics are good bacteria in your stomach that keep your stomach healthy and moving. There are a handful of different foods that you can add to your diet to get more probiotics. The things you want add to your diet are dark chocolate, aged soft cheese, sauerkraut, cottage cheese, green olives, pickles, tempeh, sourdough bread, and yogurt.

If you find that you do not care for most of the foods on the list or if you get tired of eating the same foods, you can try the pill or powder form of the probiotics. If you plan on taking the probiotics as the pill or powder, you should talk to your doctor about the proper dosage.

4.  What Not to Eat

Like there are drinks you should avoid, there are also foods that make your diarrhea worse. High fiber foods are the last things you want to eat when dealing with diarrhea, so it is best to cut down on foods with lots of fiber.

You should try to avoid artificial sweeteners, cauliflower and broccoli, berries, cabbage, corn, beans, ice cream, milk, leafy greens, chickpeas, peppers, certain kinds of teas, and prunes.

5. Do Not Exercise

This tip might be rather easy for some of you while being harder on others. Since dehydration is the thing to avoid when it comes to diarrhea, it might not be a bad idea to skip the workouts until this passes on by. Working out can make you sweat, and the sweat can dehydrate you more than diarrhea already is.

 

6. Ginger

Ginger has been used for generations in treating stomach ailments from diarrhea to nausea, though admittedly, it has been found more effective with helping in the prior. That is not to say however that it is useless when fighting the latter. Try to add ginger teas or using the root as a seasoning in your cooking. You should be careful that you do not have too much of the ginger in one go because too much of the root can make diarrhea worse than it is, to begin with.

 

7. Teas

Most teas should be avoided when you are dealing with diarrhea, but there are two or three kinds of tea that people swear by for getting rid of diarrhea. The first is lemongrass. Lemongrass tea calms your stomach down and can help to ease the cramping. The other kind of tea is chamomile with myrrh and coffee charcoal. The latter kind of tea has been found to be quite effective against acute diarrhea.

8. Honey

Honey has almost countless health benefits for the body, and one of them is stopping diarrhea. With all of the anti-inflammation and antioxidants in honey, in addition, the different health pluses, it is not much of a shock that honey should help with diarrhea. All you need to do is stir four tablespoons of honey into a cup of hot water and drink it.

 

9. Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar, like honey, is amazing for fighting off whatever illness or flu that might be causing diarrhea. To use apple cider vinegar for its antibiotic powers, trying mixing two tablespoons of it with two tablespoons of honey into a glass of warm water.

10. Buttermilk

Drink a glass of buttermilk with a half teaspoon of dry ginger three times a day. Some people swear this helps, some people disagree. Perhaps it works because of the ginger, or perhaps it works as a placebo? There has to be a point in trying it if it has helped someone, right?

 

11. Get More Sleep

As it was mentioned, working out too much or even at all while suffering from diarrhea is a bad idea. One way to keep your mind off of not being able to work out if it is something you do often is to get more sleep. Not only does it keep you busy, but sleep can also help to fight off a virus or illness if your diarrhea came as on a symptom of being sick. So try your best to get at least eight hours of sleep a night.

12. Supplements

There are supplements you can try taking that should be able to help you. Probiotics were already talked about yes, but there are other kinds as well. One example being glutamine powder. Taking five grams of glutamine powder twice a day can assist in healing your digestive tract.

You can also look into taking two digestive enzymes before each meal to help you to absorb more nutrients. A half cup of aloe vera juice three times a day can help in keeping your digestive system’s lining healthy.

 

13. Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint essential oil has been found helpful with stopping a number of stomach issues. It has been found to help things ranging from bowel inflammation, lessening loose stools, and easing the digestive tract. With some people, peppermint oil has even helped to ebb away IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

 

14. Bismuth Subsalicylate

A short name for this and an example is Pepto-Bismol. This is an over the counter medication that people use for heartburn and diarrhea. When using it for diarrhea, it lessens the amount of time that you are ill while also shrinking how often you need the restroom.

 

15. Not Too Cold, Not Too Hot

You should try to avoid eating or drinking anything that is too hot or too cold. Eating and drinking things that are too far in either direction can cause your stomach to become upset again and can lead to nausea and make your diarrhea worse. So when getting something to drink, keep it at a room temperature.

16. Portion Control

Eating too much food in one sitting can make your stomach upset and kick the digestion into double time to get things out again. So instead of eating the three big meals, have five or six smaller ones spread out through the day so that your stomach has real time to digest the food.

17. Listen to Your Body

There are going to be times when your body says that it can eat, and it will know it cannot hold more food. There will be times when your body says that it will not be able to handle food at the moment. Listen to those feelings. Your body knows what is best for it. So if you feel hungry, eat; if you do not feel that eating would be the best idea at the moment, do not eat.

 

18. Stay Home

Staying home for 48 hours when you have diarrhea is better for everyone. It makes it easier for you to deal with it lessens others’ chances of getting the illness that is giving you diarrhea in the first place. It also lets you catch up on sleep and to destress at least a little.

 

19. Clean the Toilet

Cleaning the toilet regularly while you have diarrhea and after the diarrhea is finally gone lessens the chances of you getting it again and makes it harder for the people you live with to get it. So while cleaning your toilet is not the most fun thing it can protect your health. You do not just want to wash the bowl, you want to wash the whole toilet all the way to the handle and lid of the box.

 

20. Do Not Share Things

By this, that is bedding, utensils, towels, cups, whatever. You can spread your illness to others your get their illness and no one wants either one of those things so it is better for both parties involved if you both kept your things to yourselves.

There are times when it would be wise to see your doctor about your diarrhea. If you have been suffering through it for more than two days or if your child has had it for more than 24 hours, if you find yourself dehydrated, if you are running a fever, if the stool appears black or had blood and or puss, and you have severe pains in the stomach. These are all signs that there is an underlying issue.

 

Sources

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/stomach-liver-and-gastrointestinal-tract/diarrhoea

https://www.everydayhealth.com/diarrhea/treatment/dos-donts-treating-diarrhea-quick-relief/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/travelers-diarrhea/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20352188

https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/home-remedies-diarrhea/

https://www.health.com/digestive-health/diarrhea-home-remedies?slide=528233#528233

https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/most-effective-diarrhea-remedies#probiotics

https://www.everydayhealth.com/digestive-health/diarrhea-treatment/

https://medlineplus.gov/diarrhea.html