Western Differentiation

In Western medicine, diarrhoea is first of all differentiated between acute or chronic. Acute
diarrhoea is further differentiated between infective and non-infective. Infective diarrhoea ("food
poisoning") may be due to infection of various organisms such as salmonella, Escherichia coli,
staphylococcus or clostridium. Non-infective causes include mostly poisonous plants (such as
mushrooms) but most of all, medicinal drugs. Drugs which most commonly cause diarrhoea as a
side-effect are antibiotics, antimitotic (against cancer) drugs and digitalis.

Chronic diarrhoea is classified as inflammatory or non-inflammatory. The two most common
causes of inflammatory chronic diarrhoea are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In more
recent years, AIDS may also be a cause.

Non-inflammatory causes include irritable bowel and neoplasm.

Inflammatory Causes of Chronic Diarrhoea

Crohn's Disease

This is characterized by a chronically inflamed and greatly thickened small intestine with
narrowing of its lumen and ulceration of the mucosa.

Its main manifestations are diarrhoea and abdominal pain with stools which may rarely contain
mucus and blood.

From the point of view of Chinese medicine, this condition often corresponds to Damp-Heat in
the Intestines.

Ulcerative Colitis

This is characterized by ulceration of the large intestine. It is often accompanied by iritis,
arthritis and erythema nodosum.

The main clinical manifestations include diarrhoea with blood and mucus in the stolls and
abdominal pain.

From the Chinese point of view, this condition often corresponds to Damp-Heat and stasis of