Hello and welcome to Zoe Shorts, the Bite Size podcast where we discuss one topic around

science and nutrition. I'm Jonathan Wolf and today I'm joined by Dr. Will Bussiewicz.

And today's subject is Chronic Diaria.

It's right Jonathan, the rather distressing sound in chronic diarrhea. There's a lot

more to this topic than you might think. Above all else, the most important thing is to

understand the underlying cause of the diarrhea.

I think we're also going to discover some more about how our amazing guts work and keep

our whole body healthy. Definitely. And I want to share a few tricks of the

trade that people can look for if they have symptoms. And sometimes it even involves your

sleep patterns. Interesting. Let's jump into it then.

Well, everyone unfortunately knows what diarrhea is. I think we've all had, you know,

some unpleasant toilet experiences at some point in the past. And we did a podcast on that already.

But what I want to know first of all will is what's the difference between sort of normal diarrhea

and what you're describing as chronic diarrhea?

Chronic diarrhea, Jonathan is defined as loose or watery

stools, which happens three or more times within 24 hours. But the key here is how long it's been

going on for. So this is not a one day or one week thing. This is at least four weeks of this type

of diarrhea. Wow. I mean, that sounds really terrible. Are there any other symptoms that people

would watch out for if this is happening to them? Yeah, I hate to say it. But many of us have

experienced this. You could experience anal irritation when you have this kind of chronic diarrhea.

Of course, there can be loss of bowel control, which leads to incontinence. You could have abdominal

discomfort or the urgent need to run to the Louvre. This is all sounds really miserable.

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