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Diarrhea: The Return of Side Eff@¢ks!

Do you find yourself running to the bathroom several times a day?

In this episode of Side Eff@¢ks, Tina and Leah talk about poo that just won’t quit—diarrhea. No matter what the cause, this episode offers tips and advice about what you can do to normalize your bowel function. 

Nearly every cancer treatment will affect bowel function, so diarrhea is pretty common. Whether it is chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, immunological, or biological (targeted) therapy (or a combination!) the gut is most likely to be affected. Since rapidly dividing cells line the gastrointestinal tract, the result is often (although not always) loose stool/ diarrhea. 

How about after treatment is over?

Having unpredictable/excessive bowel movements can be life-altering, and eventually affect your overall health too.  

Tina and Leah talk about how to sleuth the cause of loose stool. Then, as always, they give you some ideas of how to go about addressing the various causes.  (A review of digestive processes and an intro to this topic was done in the first podcast of this series: Bowel Changes .)

Links we mentioned on this episode and other cool stuff:

Diarrhea management handout from equalhope.org https://equalhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/EH-PH-Diarrhea-v109.12312021.pdf

Managing chemotherapy-induced diarrhea  https://jhoponline.com/jhop-issue-archive/2012-issues/december-2012-vol-3-no-4/15408-chemotherapy-unduced-diarrhea-options

Recipes to manage diarrhea from Cancer Support Community website https://www.cancersupportcommunity.org/taxonomy/term/406

Chemotherapy-Induced Constipation and Diarrhea: Pathophysiology, Current and Emerging Treatments https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5093116/

Charcoal for diarrhea from Irinotecan (CPT-11) https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2004.11.125

Probiotics for diarrhea from Irinotecan (CPT-11) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2015.03.008

An examination of the effect of castor oil packs on constipation in the elderly   (abstract only) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2010.04.004

Transdermal absorption of castor oil (it was the Meridian Institute, not Heritage!) https://www.meridianinstitute.com/reports/castor2.pdf

Unofficial Theme Song: L7 Sh*tlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCZVRQ3z5qE

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The Cancer Pod is a resource for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and everyone in between. This podcast is for education, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Do not apply any of this information without first speaking to your doctor. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast by the hosts and their guests are solely their own.