2. Chronic Diarrhea: The Deceptive Distress
Diarrhea is one of those afflictions most people have experienced. It’s unpleasant, inconvenient, and usually a sign of something amiss in our dietary habits. Yet, in the context of Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome, it plays a much more crucial role.
The overproduction of stomach acid in ZES doesn’t only result in ulcers. This acid, when it moves to the intestines, can interfere with the digestive enzymes. The interference hampers the proper breakdown and absorption of food, leading to diarrhea.
This isn’t your everyday diarrhea either. It’s persistent and often accompanied by a lot of abdominal pain. The reason being, the acids keep aggravating the digestive system, causing an imbalance in the entire process.
A fascinating thing to note here is that diarrhea, in the case of ZES, isn’t a direct result of the syndrome but a consequence of its other symptoms. It’s an aftereffect of the excessive acids and their havoc in the digestive system.(2)
