 No matter what you want to call it … (if you’re squeamish, just know we’re talking about diarrhea and skip forward to the next paragraph). If toilet humor is your thing, here we go: Number 3, Chocolate Thunder, Poo Stew, Rectum Rapids, Turd Tea, Emergency Evacuation, The Squirts, Brown Bomb, Liquid Lunch, Poop Soup … I’ll stop now. (If you would like a few more unseemly names, see Travelers’ Diarrhea.) Don’t worry, I won’t continue with the graphic descriptions. What follows is a long list of situations where one might experience diarrhea and the most highly indicated remedies for each. Once again, if you are experiencing diarrhea beyond an acute bout, please seek professional medical advice. Before embarking on my long list of unfortunate bottom-related circumstances, let me share one of my first amazing homeopathic "wowee!" moments. We were traveling and my then young teenage son was very sick in the night with suspected food poisoning. I was hemming and hawing, trying to remember what I had learned about remedies. I went with Veratrum album and within minutes everything stopped. I mean, everything completely stopped. He slept the rest of the night and woke up fine and dandy. “Better out than in” is what we say around here! As a result of this experience, I keep a little vial of Veratrum album in my little travel kit that accompanies me every time I leave the house with my suitcase. Veratrum album is my go-to homeopathic remedy for if things are coming out of both ends. What else may point to the use of this remedy? The diarrhea (or vomiting) may be violent, voluminous and relentless. Collapse following diarrhea (not the only well indicated remedy in this rubric, but a good place to start). The person may be cold: cold limbs, generally chilly, and/or clammy. Diarrhea with perspiration. Diarrhea after eating fruit; diarrhea after eating cucumbers (technically a fruit, after all). Diarrhea during menses. Diarrhea which is made worse by movement/motion (Bryonia is another one to think of for this symptom). And, here’s one more unusual concomitant symptom for Veratrum album: hiccups during diarrhea. Isn’t that just what you need in that situation?! Children & Diarrhea: If you have an infant with diarrhea, administer Podophyllum on the way to see the doctor — dehydration can set in quickly. Diarrhea while cutting teeth: Chamomilla. Chamomilla is such an excellent remedy for children, in general, and it doesn’t let us down in this situation, either (but these symptoms are not confined to children. With everything homeopathy, if the symptoms match, the remedy would be effective for man, woman, child or animal.) Diarrhea with abdominal pain. Diarrhea: following anger; after taking a cold; after eating and, specifically after eating rhubarb. Emotional diarrhea or from excitement. During hot weather. Painless diarrhea. And, here is a rubric unique to Chamomilla (but hopefully you wouldn’t find this in a child!): diarrhea after smoking. The Elderly & Diarrhea: Like children, the elderly, too, have some remedies with great affinity to their age. In this particular situation, I would lean toward China officinalis. China is so good for enfeebled people, as can often be found in the later years. In particular, China is useful for weak digestion; dyspepsia/indigestion; flatulence; chronic belching. Dysentery, in simple terms, involves frequent bowel movements with blood and mucus in the stool, often accompanied by cramps and pain. Give some China while on the way to see a doctor. Please seek medical assistance if you are experiencing these symptoms. If diarrhea and constipation alternate in older individuals, consider Antimonium crud. On to the general list… If experiencing abdominal pain, and it feels like diarrhea is imminent, Aloe would be my first recommendation. There may be accompanying weakness. Diarrhea after eating and in particular, diarrhea following the slightest dietary indiscretion. Walking makes it worse. Lots of toots during the diarrhea. There are a few rubrics where Aloe and Sulphur “tie” when it comes to diarrhea: burning pain in the rectum; being driven out of bed in the morning, needing the toilet desperately (Sulphur has the specific times of 5-6 am); painless diarrhea; standing makes it worse. Where Sulphur “wins out” over Aloe: diarrhea after beer and nighttime diarrhea, especially after midnight. If the diarrhea alternates with another symptom, such as:
Diarrhea and emotions:
Feeling wiped out after all that wiping? China is a good place to start. If the weakness is particularly pronounced, also consider Phosphoric acid. If the act of wiping actually causes pain: Graphites. Diarrhea during pregnancy: Phosphorus Diarrhea during menopause: Lachesis Diarrhea following an injury: Arnica If it’s coming out as from a hydrant: Podophyllum If it has a really noxious smell: Baptisia Diarrhea following the consumption of:
If you find your appetite increases with diarrhea: Petroleum. Cold hands with diarrhea: Phosphorus Cold feet: Lycopodium Cold limbs: Arsenicum album, Camphora and Veratrum album Positionally speaking: If lying down make it worse: Dioscorea If lying down makes it better: Bryonia (though it may be worse lying on your side) Sitting upright makes it worse: Bryonia Time of day: If it starts after you have risen from bed and moving around: Bryonia or Nat sulph After midnight: Arsenicum album or Sulphur If the diarrhea causes sleeplessness: Phosphorus I changed my mind. I will use one more dysphemism: the sharts, also commonly referred to as “gambled and lost” (Flanagan 2010). If you are having diarrhea during rectal flatus, there are a number of well indicated remedies, but I would start with Aloe — the remedy for an insecure rectum (click that link to read the previous article with the same name.) What would cause an “insecure rectum?” Let’s go back to Giulia Enders’ Gut for this explanation. Apparently we have a pair of “sophisticated” sphincters which Enders takes a few pages to explain and I am going to try and shrink it down to the bare essentials using her words, (but the full explanation is certainly worth a read). “The outer muscle is a faithful servant of our consciousness. When our brain deems it an unsuitable time to go to the toilet, the external sphincter obeys and stays closed with all its might. … Our internal sphincter is a no-nonsense little guy. His motto is, ‘If it’s gotta come out, it’s gotta come out!’ … The external sphincter, on the other hand, has to deal with the vagaries of the outside world and its many options.” Suffice it to say, we need these two sphincters to communicate well. A few more remedies for involuntary stool (not necessarily diarrhea):
As you can see, homeopathy can be invaluable when it comes to diarrhea — there is a homeopathic remedy for almost any situation! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits References:
Enders, G., 2015. Gut : the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. Greystone Books. Flanagan, D., 2010. Everybody poops 410 pounds a year : an illustrated bathroom companion for grown-ups. Berkeley, Ca: Ulysses Press. Murphy, R., n.d. Homeopathic Remedy Guide. accessed through Radar Opus software.
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 Pooping is under appreciated. We all do it. Some of us appreciate it. Some of us find it a nuisance. Some of us struggle with it daily. Some of us find it funny. Some of us find it disgusting (there may be some scientific evidence for this one (Curtis et al. 2011). Some of us find it embarrassing. Some of us find it unseemly and certainly not a topic for polite discussion. If you find yourself in that last category, I hope to change your mind starting today and continuing over the next couple of weeks because poop is so amazingly important! Don’t believe me? Try not having a poop for a few days and see how you feel! Not surprisingly, finding a good homeopathic remedy for an individual can be helped along with some fecal details. It’s one of those little tidbits that really can relay a lot of useful information. Also not surprising, lots of people have poop issues but they never bring it up until after the fact. (After the fact: "My constipation is better after that remedy" after never having mentioned the problem.) Even if a homeopath asks directly about pooping, it is not uncommon for the answer to be along the lines of, “all good there” — implying "move on". (If you find yourself in a homeopathic consult, put whatever squeamish embarrassed-ness you may have aside and fling those poop facts out there!) If you’re not in the habit of taking a peek after you poop, I suggest you re-evaluate that decision. If you don’t look, who else is going to … until it’s too late and you find yourself at the doctor’s office leaving a stool sample to find out what is going wrong? Keeping an eye on your deposits can help you keep an eye on your health. Back to how important poop is… Poop takes waste from our bodies — preventing the build up of toxins and maintaining a healthy gut. Poop can have an effect on our psychological wellbeing. Poop reflects our physical health. The color, consistency and frequency of poop can indicate an underlying health issue such as digestive problems, infections, or nutrient deficiencies. Stool samples are used to diagnose infections, detect bacteria, viruses or parasites and also to screen for medical conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer. So, that’s a lot of poopy talk, but what is this poop we are actually talking about, anyway? According to Taber’s Medical Dictionary, feces is bodily waste such as food residue, bacteria, epithelium, and mucus, discharged from the bowels. People poop generally once or twice daily (1.2 times a day on average), totaling about 1.8 oz to a whopping 28 oz for the average adult and between 2.6 oz and 13 oz per day for children (Rose et al. 2015). For reference: a tennis ball weighs about 2 oz. A can of soda weighs about 12 ounces. On the high end of this scale, 28 oz equates to 1.75 pounds which is approaching the weight of a typical pineapple sold in grocery stores (Measuring Stuff 2022). 😳 Where does all this stuff come from? Poop is (generally) made up of 75% water and 25% solid matter. 30% of that solid matter consists of dead bacteria; about 30% indigestible food matter such as cellulose; 10-20% is cholesterol and other fats; 10-20% is inorganic substances such as calcium phosphate and iron phosphate; and 2-3% is protein (Britannica 2019). (Short hand: 10 parts water, 1 part bacteria (dead and alive), 1 part indigestible fiber and 1 part mixture of fat, protein, dead cells, mucus (Richman and Sheth 2007). With all the basics out of the way, let’s get back to homeopathy. In preparing for this mini-series on poop, I was browsing through my little assortment of poop books. (What? Don’t you have one of those?!) Judging by my quick look on the internet, my poop book collection is woefully slim … there are poop log books which claim to help you improve your gut health; poop coloring books; books about how to poop in the woods; an absolute ton of books for kids about pooping; and, a surprisingly large number of bathroom guest books 😳. (I guess that’s one way to encourage people to talk about this heretofore forbidden topic.) To get us in the poop mood, however, I am going to be relying on What’s your Poo Telling You? By John Richmond and Anish Sheth, M.D. The very first page of the introduction talks about “the feeling of unbridled elation that results from unleashing the perfect poo. Although difficult to achieve, this Poo-phoria lends a feeling of ecstasy, even invincibility, that some have likened to the perfect buzz.” Cheerfulness after a stool is a symptom in a few homeopathic remedies, but Natrum sulphuricum is the most highly indicated. (Paradoxically, anxiety, confusion or weakness following a stool may also indicate Nat sulph. Men who may benefit from Nat sulph also may have an increased desire for sex during stool. In short, if there are residual emotions following a stool, Nat sulph may be worth considering.) * If you experience ANY of these physical symptoms, or, if you have recently had a change in bowel habits, be sure to seek professional medical advice. In particular, pain, blood, excessive mucus, especially if they are ongoing, should be evaluated professionally. What other intestinal indicators may lead you to Nat sulph?
What if having a poop leaves you little irritated instead of cheerful? In that case, I would look to Nitric acid. What other intestinal indicators may lead you to Nitric acid?
If you find yourself in a state of tranquil serenity following a stool, that may lead you to Borax. Borax is a smaller stool-related remedy, but other indications may be:
Note: A small amount of mucus on the stool is usually not a cause for concern. Mucus lines your intestines to keep your colon running smoothly, among other tasks. However, if there is excessive mucus in or on the stool it may be a sign of an underlying condition such as: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, food poisoning, bowel obstruction or blockage, cancer of the rectum or colon. If you have excessive mucus or even a small amount of mucus which is on-going, seek professional medical advice, especially if it is accompanied by abdominal pain, bloody stools, fever or weight loss (Mayo Clinic). Check out this article for more information. It’s important to remember in these situations that cheerfulness, irritation or tranquility after a stool is not something pathologic — it’s not a problem and it doesn’t need to be addressed. These symptoms may just be useful in leading you to an overall remedy for an individual (or, an animal). However, some other stool related symptoms may be calling for attention and the post-evacuation mood might help you get to the best remedy. Back to our book to round out this opening article on emotions and poop… Number 3, as What Your Poo Telling You calls it … AKA diarrhea. I will be writing a longer article on diarrhea shortly, but today, going with the emotions involved with pooping, I will just mention a few remedies where mental/emotional symptoms are the leading indicator of a remedy for diarrhea. When diarrhea is triggered by emotions, the first remedies to consider are Argentum nitricum and Gelsemium. I have written about Argentum nitricum a few times before (see: What Goes Up; Feel the Fear; My Little Bag of Wellness). Gelsemium is an absolute go-to remedy for anticipatory anxiety (see: Back to School; The Big Goodbye). Gelsemium is bold type and underlined for ailments from anxiety. Nervous tummy sending you running to the toilet? Gelsemium. Another emotional diarrhea symptom for Gelsemium is diarrhea from bad news. Arsenicum album could be considered here, too, especially if there is any burning pain associated with it. (I see a new article in the making, comparing Arg-nit, Gels and Ars. Sit tight. I’ll get to it one day.) If it is diarrhea after anger, Colocynthis is the remedy to grab for ailments from anger. Homeopathic Colocynthis pains are almost always better by pressure and by warmth -- bending double or a hot water bottle helps the abdominal pains associated with the diarrhea. (I see where you're going with that thought and yes, it can be very helpful for menstrual cramps.) Diarrhea following chagrin or humiliation: Staphysagria. Diarrhea following grief? Phosphoric acid is another remedy for diarrhea after anticipation, but it is an even bigger grief remedy… weakness and sorrow and depression, mental exhaustion. Diarrhea after mental exertion? There’s a 3 way tie between Arg-nit, Nux vomica and Picric acid (see: Taxing Remedies for more info on Pic ac). How about the other side of things, like excitement? Aconite, Argentum nit, Arsenicum album or Gelsemium. If that excitement is coupled with fear, then stick with Aconite. Sudden diarrhea following joy? Coffea cruda (see: Silence, Please!) One last emotion to talk about in regard to poop and that is fear. Touched on a couple of lines above, Aconite is the place to start for all things fear. There can certainly be a bit of crossover with anxiety, but fear, to me, is a result of a threat or impending danger and anxiety is a response to an anticipated or expected danger. However, a fear of losing control of one's bowels is a genuine fear, especially if one is already experiencing some goings-on in that area. Homeopathic Aloe is the remedy for an insecure rectum. Involuntary stool, with or without flatus. Involuntary stool following urination. Tune in next week for the second installment of the Doo-Doo Documents: The Bristol Stool Scale. Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits Reference list and poop-related books:
Britannica, 2019. Feces | biology | Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica [online]. Choi, B., 2024. Fun Poop Facts Kids Should Know • Human Body Learning [online]. Human Body Learning. Cohen, M., 2023. Mucus in Stool: Is It Normal & What Does It Mean? [online]. The IBS & Gut Health Clinic. Curtis, V., de Barra, M. and Aunger, R., 2011. Disgust as an adaptive system for disease avoidance behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences [online], 366 (1563), 389–401. Enders, G., 2015. Gut : the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. Greystone Books. Holzwarth, W. and Erlbruch, W., 2007. The story of the little mole who knew it was none of his business. London: Pavilion. Mayo Clinic, n.d. Mucus in stool: A concern? [online]. Mayo Clinic. Measuring Stuff, 2022. Things Around The House That Weigh 2 Pounds – Measuring Stuff [online]. Measuringstuff.com. Richman, J. and Sheth, A., 2007. What’s your poo telling you? San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books. Rose, C., Parker, A., Jefferson, B. and Cartmell, E., 2015. The Characterization of Feces and Urine: A Review of the Literature to Inform Advanced Treatment Technology. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology [online], 45 (17), 1827–1879. Tarō Gomi, 2020. Everyone poops. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. The Canadian Society of Intestinal Research, n.d. The Scoop on Poop [online]. Gastrointestinal Society. Venes, D. and Clarence Wilbur Taber, 2013. Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. [22nd ed., ISBN: 9780803629776]. Philadelphia, Pa.: F.A. Davis.  We have an old and delightful dog. Scratch that. We have a dog whose age is unknown but suspected to be old and he is mostly delightful except when he leaves dollops on the floor. Which, appears to be happening less frequently now, I am relieved to say.
Rufus is a big dog, a Great Pyrenees/Mastiff mix. Due to a suspected hard life prior to his arrival with us, at 130 pounds, he's not as big as he might otherwise be. This big fellow likes to sleep under the table on the screen porch. This is also where we find most of the dollops. I suspect that they just kind of fall out when he's trying to get out from under there. Here is how we have approached the problem: Aloe socotrina 200c, once daily to address the (suspected) involuntary stool. And, because in homeopathy, (as in life), it is important to remove any maintaining causes which may be contributing to a problem, we now slide the table to an angle at night to help him get out from under it easier but still giving him enough cover to feel safe. The dollops were less frequent almost immediately and (touch wood) there haven't been any now for a couple of weeks after they had been there, waiting for us, every morning and sometimes multiple times a day, including when he had not been struggling to get out from under the table. Aloe socotrina, the common aloe plant, is a strong rectal remedy. It can be helpful (in humans as well as big dogs and other creatures) with diarrhea, especially when there is a sense of urgency with rumbling and gurgling and the feeling of insecurity when passing gas and it is suggested when "every morning, on rising, has a hasty desire for stool" (Murphy 2006). At the risk of anthropomorphizing old Rufus … on the mental/emotional level, Aloe socotrina can present with ill humor, discontentment and (here's the truly human-like moment) "dissatisfied and angry about himself." We never shamed him, just cleaned it up and got on with the day, but he would sit and watch us with his head on his paws, looking, (dare I say it?), a little upset with himself. It's a tricky business pretending to know what's in your dog's mind. There is, however, no pretending to know what's going on when the dollops have diminished. |
Julia Coyte, CHomI am passionate about homeopathy and I love sharing this passion. Having a working knowledge of homeopathy shouldn't be kept a secret. If people have the ability to help themselves, their children and their friends when they have minor ailments, life just gets better for everyone. That is the purpose behind Ruminating on Remedies. Archives
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