Diarrhea and night sweats can be symptomatic of a variety of different conditions. They usually are indicative of an issue within the stomach. However, regardless of what you suspect the issue to be, your first move should be to contact your doctor with your concerns. This article should only be used for educating yourself and not for diagnosis.
Diarrhea occurs when you’re sick as the body’s way of quickly clearing the digestive tract of bacteria, toxins, or viruses. Clearing out the gut in this manner helps prevent worse infections. Night sweats are often a secondary type of symptom which occur due to a fever. The fever begins as the body’s way of fighting off whatever is behind the issue (virus, bacteria, etc.).Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the leading causes of these two symptoms. IBD is a gastrointestinal disorder with symptoms such as abdominal cramping, bloating, increased gas, constipation, food intolerance, and diarrhea. In addition, IBD flareups can cause a fever, which in turn causes night sweats to occur. IBD is, in short, chronic inflammation of the stomach tissues. There are also different types of IBD, namely Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
- Crohn’s disease is defined as being a type of IBD in which the lining of the digestive tract, especially the deeper layers, are inflamed. It mainly affects the small intestine but can also affect the large intestine and occasionally the upper gastrointestinal tract.
- Ulcerative colitis consists of sores developing throughout the colon’s lining (large intestine) and the rectum.
Traveler’s diarrhea occurs when someone travels and consumes contaminated food or water and can cause diarrhea and night sweats. This contamination can come from several different types of bacteria, such as campylobacter, shigella, jejuni, or salmonella, but around 70% of the time occurs due to enterotoxigenic E. coli. In addition, certain viruses can also cause traveler’s diarrhea, such as norovirus and rotavirus. Finally, a parasite called giardia lamblia can also cause the symptoms of traveler’s diarrhea.
Gastroenteritis is one of the most common causes of the symptoms of diarrhea and night sweats. In truth, the term gastroenteritis covers a variety of different causes of the stomach illness, similar to traveler’s diarrhea. There are various bacterial causes and parasitic causes behind gastroenteritis. Still, the most common cause in the United States is norovirus.
Food poisoning is another frequent cause of diarrhea and night sweats. Food poisoning is similar to traveler’s diarrhea, as it occurs when contaminated, spoiled, or toxic food is eaten. Organisms that cause food poisoning can be introduced to food during any stage of processing and fairly often occur after eating at a restaurant where food has not been adequately prepared or cooked. However, food poisoning can also happen at home if the food is not handled correctly. Meat, eggs, and dairy are the most commonly contaminated food, which is why handling high-risk foods properly, whether at home or in a work environment, is essential.
To reiterate it once again, please be sure to contact your doctor if you have any health concerns.
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