BODY SIGNAL ALERT DIARRHEA, ACUTE, NONBLOODY: DESCRIPTION AND POSSIBLE MEDICAL PROBLEMS
When you were a kid and you had diarrhea, you’d probably do anything else but admit to it. And now that you’re an adult, you’re probably the same way. Some people act as though they’re ashamed when they have diarrhea.
Diarrhea is a sudden change in your usual pattern of elimination that usually results in more than three soft bowel movements a day. You may also have a sense of urgency and discomfort in your bowel.
Food poisoning is the most common cause of diarrhea that appears suddenly. If you have food poisoning, you will also probably be vomiting and have fever and cramps. Food poisoning results when staphylococcus bacteria in contaminated food—most often dairy products, pastries, or mayonnaise-based foods—form a toxin in the digestive system. The symptoms first appear about two to six hours after eating a contaminated food. Summertime picnics and barbecues are the number one cause of food poisoning; you should always keep salads and other foods covered and on ice, since staphylococcus bacteria can grow very quickly on a picnic table on a hot summer day.
A more severe type of food poisoning occurs when food is tainted with salmonella, a bacteria that is found most often in raw chicken.
A sudden case of diarrhea may also be due to traveling to another area of the country; this is known as traveler’s diarrhea and is caused by bacteria in the water supply. Traveler’s diarrhea usually occurs 24 to 72 hours after drinking the water, and you may also have fever, vomiting, and pain for up to a week. This form of diarrhea is seen especially in people who travel to Mexico; it is frequently referred to as Montezuma’s Revenge.
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