In this episode of Side Eff@¢ks, Tina and Leah talk about poo that just won’t quit—diarrhea. No matter what the cause, this episode offers tips and advice about what you can do to normalize your bowel function.

Nearly every cancer treatment will affect bowel function, so diarrhea is not uncommon. Whether it is chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, immunological, or biological (targeted) therapy (or a combination!) the gut is most likely to be affected. Since rapidly dividing cells line the gastrointestinal tract, the result is often (although not always) loose stool/ diarrhea.

How about after treatment is over?

Having unpredictable/excessive bowel movements can be life-altering, and eventually affect your overall health too. 

Tina and Leah talk about how to sleuth the cause of loose stool. Then, as always, they give you some ideas of how to go about addressing the various causes.  (A review of digestive processes and an intro to this topic was done in the first podcast of this series: Bowel Changes.)

Links we mentioned on this episode and other cool stuff:

Diarrhea management handout from equalhope.org

Managing chemotherapy-induced diarrhea 

Recipes from Cancer Support Community website

Chemotherapy-Induced Constipation and Diarrhea: Pathophysiology, Current and Emerging Treatments

Charcoal for diarrhea from Irinotecan (CPT-11)

Probiotics for diarrhea from Irinotecan (CPT-11)

An examination of the effect of castor oil packs on constipation in the elderly  (abstract only)

Transdermal absorption of castor oil (it was the Meridian Institute, not Heritage!)

Unofficial Theme Song: L7 Sh*tlist

Tell us your thoughts on this episode!

Support the show

Become a member of The Cancer Pod Community! Gain access to live Q&As, exclusive content, and so much more! Join us today!

Check out our website! Looking for more information? We have blogs, merch, and all of our episodes listed by season and category.

Shop our favorite reads! We've joined with Bookshop.org to offer some of our fave books!

Have a comment or suggestion? Email us at [email protected]

Follow us wherever you browse. We're always @TheCancerPod:

• Instagram
• Bluesky
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

THANK YOU!!