What causes alternating constipation and diarrhea?

Constipation and diarrhea occur alternately. These people must understand whether their bodies are affected by certain diseases, such as common colitis, colon cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome. These diseases may manifest as repeated symptoms of alternating constipation and diarrhea.

1. Intestinal tuberculosis. This disease is generally seen in young and middle-aged people, with more women than men. The lesions are mainly located in the ileocecal region, and may also affect the colon and rectum. There are three main types of intestinal tuberculosis: ulcerative intestinal tuberculosis, hyperplastic intestinal tuberculosis and mixed intestinal tuberculosis. Ulcerative intestinal tuberculosis is often accompanied by diarrhea and paste-like stools, mostly without pus and blood, and not accompanied by tenesmus. Sometimes diarrhea alternates with constipation. Hyperplastic intestinal tuberculosis is mainly characterized by constipation.

2. Fill with feces. Most of the patients are middle-aged and elderly people. When they are constipated, they feel dull pain in the abdomen and cannot defecate every time they want to. A long, hard lump can be felt in the lower left abdomen, and watery diarrhea may occur suddenly. When the feces are completely discharged, the lump in the lower left abdomen quickly disappears and the diarrhea stops. In fact, this lump is a manifestation of fecal matter remaining in the intestinal cavity. This type of diarrhea is pseudo-diarrhea.

3. Colon cancer. It is more common among middle-aged and elderly people. Regardless of whether it occurs in the transverse colon, left flexure colon, right flexure colon, etc., there may be significant weight loss, very significant anemia, fatigue, poor appetite, and varying degrees of abdominal pain. For example, in cases of transverse colon cancer, a movable mass that is not related to bowel movements can often be felt around the navel. For example, in the early stages of left-sided colon cancer, when there is incomplete intestinal obstruction, although there are symptoms of alternating constipation and diarrhea, the abdominal mass is not easy to feel. For example, cancer of the right colon and cecum can easily be felt as a lumps on the right side of the abdomen.

4. Irritable bowel syndrome. IBS is a common functional bowel disease characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort accompanied by changes in bowel habits without organic lesions. It is mainly divided into diarrhea type, constipation type and mixed type. Diarrhea-type IBS often causes urgent bowel movements, with watery stools, usually 3 to 5 times a day. In a few severe attacks, the stools may be more than ten times a day, and may contain mucus but no pus or blood. In some patients, diarrhea and constipation occur alternately. Constipation-type IBS often has difficulty in defecation, and the stool is dry and small in volume, resembling sheep dung or thin rods.

5. Intestinal obstruction. The most common diseases in children are intussusception and ascariasis, while the most common diseases in middle-aged and elderly people are hernia, intestinal adhesions, and tumors, which can all cause intestinal obstruction. When the intestinal lumen is not completely blocked, alternating constipation and diarrhea is also common because the intestines proximal to the obstruction are affected and inflamed. As intestinal obstruction gradually increases, blood in the stool and pseudodiarrhea may occur.