What Causes Diarrhea After Consuming Spicy Food In An Elderly Person?

Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 Answered on

Thu, 3 Dec 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : 70 year old man, while eating spicy food( chicken, chilly spicy food) getting loose stools(motions) why, and what is the remedy to recover from it.

Answered by Dr. Amit Jain (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
it may be due to overgrowth of abnormal bacteria Iin the intestine

Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thanks for putting your query in hcm. It may be due to some malabsorption syndrome. Also at tgis age the movement of intestine is slower than normal leading to overgrowth of abnormal bacteria in the intestine which leads to loose motion. So I will suggest you to take probiotic and tablet rifaximin 400mg twice a day for at least 2 weeks. You can discuss with your primary physician about these medications. If there is no improvement then visit a gastroenterologist for physical examination and evaluation who will do some tests like stool examination and endoscopy to see for the cause and manage accordingly.

I hope I have answered yiur query and this will help you. Wish you a good health

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad