How to stop diarrhea caused by spicy food

When you consume spicy foods, the compounds that give them heat move through your body relatively unchanged. Since they arent nutrients, your body doesnt absorb them, says Luigi Basso, M.D., a specialist in coloproctology and laparoscopic surgery at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy.

That means your poop is laced with spicy particles. And since the last part of your anal regionyour rectum and anusis lined by cells similar to those in your mouth, spicy foods can burn just as much on the way out as on the way in, says Dr. Basso. Ouch.

Your biology might be making it worse

This burning poop sensation can happen to anyone, but it's often worse in people who have certain gastrointestinal issues to begin with. So "make sure you don't have other things going on that would predispose you to being more sensitive," says Bruno P. Chumpitazi, M.D., a spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association and director of the neurogastroenterology and motility program at Texas Children's Hospital.

"A lot of people with irritable bowel syndrome can be overly sensitive to foods," he says. And spicy foods can engender things like pain and discomfort. Hot foods can also be challenging for people with hemorrhoids or anal fissures, says Dr. Chumpitazi. Those fissures are just like they soundlittle tears which tend to be caused by constipation and sometimes even by diarrhea. Which means you can have burning diarrhea, too.

How to poop in peace after eating spicy foods

The receptors that alert your brain to the burn are inside your digestive tract, so it's best to tackle the problem for good from the inside with strategies like these:

Tweak your menu.

Limit spicy foods that are both spicy and fatty, like chicken wings or quesadillas smothered in hot sauce. Excess fat can be a problem because the bile salts your body uses to digest them can irritate the skin around your anus, says Brooks D. Cash, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of South Alabama.

If youre not giving up wings any time soon, soak up some of the fatty acids in your gut by taking a fiber supplement before or right after you eat to avoid burning poop, Dr. Cash suggests.

Even better, have a diet that's consistently high in fiber, says Dr. Chumpitazi. Not only is it good for your health in so many ways, it may prevent constipation, anal fissures, and even hemorrhoids, which may be at the root of the burning poop or burning diarrhea issue. And until the fiber works, some people find relief from fissures and hemorrhoids by sitting in a warm bath (no soap needed).

Eat chili peppers for 3 weeks straight.

Yes, this strategy is over-the-top. But if you absolutely cant live without spicy foodsno matter how much discomfort it causestry eating a lot of them in a short period of time.If you only eat spicy foods for a couple days, you induce rectal hypersensitivitythat burning pain, plus the frequent urge to go number two, says Sutep Gonlachanvit, M.D., chief of the division of gastroenterology at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

But continuous [spicy food] ingestion for greater than 3 weeks can induce desensitizationwhich in turn can reduce rectal sensation, he says.

In his research, people who consumed 2.1 grams of hot pepper per daya similar quantity to 1.25 teaspoons of cayenne pepperexperienced this benefit.

In other words, youre putting your butt through hot pepper bootcamp by training pain receptors in your gut cells to cope with the spices better. It's a little bit like putting on your shirt in the morning, says Dr. Chumpitazi. "In the beginning, you sense that it's on. Very quickly, your brain knows the receptors are sending very similar signals. It knows how to process them and it can stop paying attention to those signals over time."

The trade-off: Deal with a burning butthole forever, or for 3 weeksand then never again.

Clean your butt.

The receptors are on the inside of your GI tract, so putting something on the outside is unlikely to help in the long run. But as a short-term fix, you could apply a soothing cream to a clean buttuse one such as Calmoseptine ointment , which contains calamine to reduce itching and burning.

Just apply a dab the size of a dime to the anal opening and create a thin smear, advises Arnold Wald, M.D., a professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

One more thing: If discomfort lingers after you've taken a burning poop, see your doctor. Pain in your butt can be a symptom of more serious problems like an infection, abscess, or cancer, says Steven D. Wexner, M.D., director of the Digestive Disease Center at Cleveland Clinic Florida.

There’s no denying we’re a nation of curry lovers, with millions of us tucking in regularly to our favourite spicy dish. While it might leave our taste buds tingling, have you ever noticed your gut is far from happy the morning after?

Unfortunately, spicy food is one of the many foods that can trigger diarrhoea in those of us who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. But what’s the reason for this? And does it mean we need to say goodbye to our weekly balti? We chat to registered dietician Laura Clark to uncover the connection between spicy foods and IBS.

The problem with Capsaicin

One of the reasons many of us struggle with spicy food is a compound called capsaicin, which is found in things like chilli and pepper. It’s thought that this compound gets things moving in our guts – which isn’t great news for those of us who are already prone to diarrhoea.

“Capsaicin, found within spicy food, accelerates gut transit time (or the speed which food moves through our guts),” explains Clark. Therefore, while this compound could benefit those who suffer with predominately constipation symptoms, it’s not so helpful to those with diarrhoea.

But diarrhoea isn’t the only IBS symptom that could be triggered by capsaicin. “Capsaicin can also cause abdominal pain and a burning sensation when it comes into contact with a certain receptor in the gut wall,”  says Clark.

Why do some people have more symptoms than others?

If capsaicin triggers diarrhoea, surely we’d all need to avoid it, right? Well, not exactly. As we mentioned earlier, the problem begins when capsaicin interacts with a type of receptor in our gut. It’s thought that those who have IBS have more of these receptors present in their gut lining, making them potentially more susceptible to this problem than others.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone with IBS needs to ditch the spicy foods, but monitoring your intake could be worthwhile in getting to grips with IBS. “IBS sufferers do not necessarily need to avoid all spicy foods but it is a common gut irritant. A food and symptom diary can help decipher links,” suggests Clark.

Is capsaicin the only problem with spicy food?

If you prefer something milder than a vindaloo, you might wonder why you’re still struggling. But there’s many potential IBS triggers in your average curry. “Often the food that comes with a curry can be problematic too, for example onion, garlic or fat content.” explains Clark.

Many spicy dishes use plenty of garlic and onion – both of which are high in FODMAPs, a type of short chain carbohydrate that some individuals with IBS can find difficult to digest. Avoiding garlic and onion as part of a low FODMAP diet has been proven to make a real difference to IBS symptoms in many individuals.

But, even without garlic, many curries are equally high in spice and fat. Fat, like capsaicin, can trigger gut movement; with creamy dishes often a double whammy, since some individuals with IBS might struggle with fatty foods and may also be lactose intolerant.

Healthcare professionals quoted in this article do not endorse any brands or products.

Looking for relief

This series of Telegraph Spark articles, brought to you by Imodium®, is about taking control of your digestive health, so you can continue eating and enjoying the food you love.

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