What Causes Loose Bowel Movements?

Posted on 6 days ago

Question: I have had loose bowel movements for over a week now. no stomach cramping though.
Its not diarrhea I don't think

If you need additional questions just emailed me.
Just wanted to see if there are any over the counter medicine
I could try.

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
please provide more information

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

I'd need more information to provide an answer. Important things to know include the following:
- how many bowel movements per day do you have?
- is there any blood or mucus besides the stool?
- do you have fever?
- do you have other symptoms like nausea or muscle aches, etc?
- does the stool smell differently? Worse than usual?
- is the stool oily / greasy? And does it sink or float on the water?

Since you've noticed that the green salads make things worse, it may just be the food. If you've been having loose stool all your life when you ate green salads then you've got your answer. Otherwise an investigation wouldn't go amiss.

In such cases I usually start the investigation with stool examination for ova and parasites and a stool culture. Depending on the symptoms and test results other tests might be also necessary.

I hope it helps! I'll be glad to continue this discussion if you'd like to provide more information.

Kind Regards!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar