PHYSIOLOGY OF DIARRHOEA

Diarrhoea is a most distressing illness that lasts for 4 days with germ infection of the gut. It can last for years as a chronic illness for such afflictions as HIV/AIDS, typhoid fever and the many gut parasites.

Many of the more vicious gut parasites lay eggs in the epithelial cells of the gut. These parasites infest the gut of gay men involved in anal sex that includes anal licking. 

The most common parasite in Papua New Guinea is the Ascaris lumbricoides or roundworm that lays millions if eggs slowly destroying the digestive function of the gut.

But diarrhoea is a wonder of creation that protects the body and limits the spread of the illness into the body.

Over recent days, I have suffered badly from diarrhoea, only about the fourth time in 20 years. It may have been that I ate contaminated food somewhere in my travels.

The first that I knew was that my faeces had become the consistency of soup. Why does this happen? The germ had entered my mouth and passed down to the small intestine or gut.

The body went into lock-down. By some mechanism, the body shut down the epithelial layer of the small intestine. Now the body was no longer able to carry out its routine function of absorbing water, salts and nutrients.

Water, salts and nutrients then passed out of the body in a steady stream. This is diarrhoea.

So the body is in a state of increasing dehydration, with perhaps only a little water being absorbed. There must be some that manages to pass through or the body would shrivel like a potato crisp. The sufferer feels weak and tired as the diarrhoea progresses.

The sufferer becomes desperately thirsty and drinks copious amounts of water but most of this becomes part of the outward flow. This gives the sufferer an even stronger need for more water.

A sign that the body is not absorbing water is that the sufferer not longer urinates. There is little water being processed in the kidneys and stored in the bladder.

There will be a constant warning sign of an impending gut explosion. The gut regularly rumbles from the duodenum down.

Once that happens there are only a few minutes warning to head for the toilet. So it may be that the body has a mechanism to push the offending fluid out of the gut. It may also relax the anal sphincter.

After 3-4 days in a routine attack, the body starts to return to normal. The urgency of proximity to the toilet has dropped.

The sufferer starts to urinate which means that water is being absorbed. Faeces cease to be the consistency of soup but slowly gain body and thickness.

The sufferer will help recovery with plenty of vegetables, salt, sugar and no fatty foods.

My neighbours have helped me with cups of guava water made of guava leaves and sugar. Guava has vitamins that help recovery. That may explain why so many Papua New Guinea people love to eat green guava.