# Instant diarrhea



## 14969 (Nov 7, 2006)

When I have a diarrhea attack it's often within MINUTES of eating something. I figure it's GOT to be a chemical reaction. I'm sure it can't be the food I just ate going through. But it's causing some sort of chemical reaction that turns whatever is in my bowels to instant water. That's what made me think Gallbladder eventhough I have NO other GB symptoms. I've seen a lot of people talking about how fast they're processing food, but it's always been in terms of hours. What could make one react with diarrhea within minutes (5-15min. after eating)? Also, I've not been able to pinpoint any one food. Fast food or homemade. Twice plain old rice did it, other times no reaction to rice. Can eat McD's one time- fine , next- well you know. Is a fast chem. reaction still most likely gallbladder or bile related? If so, how else other than stones (none on US or CAT) and no nausea or pain in GB. Often (maybe 1x day or everyother day at least)_ not even pain with diarrhea, just very fast instant urge to find toilet ASAP. Thanks again, LJC


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Not chemical.When you eat the stomach tells the body that it ate. The intestines then move things along the GI tract. This is called the gastrocolic reflex.Everyone's colon gets more active after meals. If you put a probe in a normal person you will find the colon is most active around the time they get up with peaks of activity after each and every meal.Some meals trigger a bigger reflex than others. Heavy, rich fatty or large meals trigger a bigger reaction than smaller meals. Even some normal people have to poop after a high fat meal. IBSers seem to be more sensitive to this reflex than normal people, so the results are more dramatic. If you haven't already extracted all the water from the stool in the colon, you will have loose or watery stools. If you have extracted all the water already then it will be a normal formed stool, but may be smaller than when you have one bowel movement a day.What comes out is whatever was already at the end of the colon, not the food you just ate. IBSers do not lose excessive amounts of weight compared to what they are eating or have lots of nutrient deficiency diseases. If you really pooped out what you just ate in minutes then you would be losing weight and have lots of problems with all sorts of vitamins and minerals.Some people are really consistant with this happening every single meal (that was me, every single meal did this, no matter what, although for me the pain was worse than the urgency). Some people only do this when the IBS is already upset for other reasons. That may be why it doesn't make sense with what you ate. Some days it will respond that way to anything, some days you are having a normal response to meals.This is the reason IBSers are often told to take antispasmodic medication they are prescribed 20-30 minutes before a meal. These drugs can reduce the response to the "I just ate" signals. Some people do this with a small dose of Imodium.Bile can cause diarrhrea, but only if you have too much and only after it reaches the colon. The small intestine is designed to tolerate the bile. Usually you recycle the bile before it gets to the colon. The colon can be irrritated by the bile so it can try to "flush" it out. This isn't as immediate as the gastrocolic reflex response, as it take some time for the bile to reach the colon.Hope this helps.K.


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