Extreme gastrocolic response

The entire digestive system can be up to 30 feet long in adults — much too long for food to pass right through you. What’s most likely happening to you is something called the gastrocolic reflex. The gastrocolic reflex, or gastrocolic response, is a normal involuntary reaction to food entering the stomach. When food enters the stomach, the body releases a hormone that causes the colon to contract. These contractions move previously eaten food further through the digestive system, which can result in the urge to pass stool.

For some people, the gastrocolic reflex is mild, causing no symptoms. For others, especially when they get old, the gastrocolic reflex is intense, and the urge to go to toilet after eating can be particularly severe. Gastrocolic reflex isn’t a condition or disease, but rather one of your body’s natural reflexes. It signals your colon to empty food once it gets to your stomach in order to make room for more food. However, for some people that reflex goes into overdrive, sending them running to the restroom right after eating. It may feel as if “food goes right through them,” and it can be accompanied by pain, cramping, diarrhea, or constipation.

That exaggerated gastrocolic reflex isn’t a condition in itself. It’s typically a symptom of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in adults. Some people experience this reflex more frequently and more intensely than others.

Research has shown that certain digestive disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome , speed up the movement of food through the colon after eating.

Certain foods and digestive disorders may trigger particularly strong or long lasting effects of gastrocolic reflex. These include anxiety, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, oily foods, food allergies and intolerances, gastritis, IBS, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) .

When these disorders worsen your gastrocolic reflex, you’ll usually experience some other symptoms, like abdominal pain, bloating that's relieved or partially relieved by passing gas or having a bowel movement, frequent need to pass gas, diarrhea or constipation, and mucus in stool.

Some overweight people even try to urinate as soon as they eat because the food that entered the system puts pressure on the bladder.

Sometimes you might feel an urgent need to excrete that isn’t related to your gastrocolic reflex. This could be the case when you have diarrhea.

Usually, diarrhea lasts just a few days. When it lasts for weeks, it could be a sign of an infection or digestive disorder. Common causes of diarrhea include viruses, bacteria and parasites, from eating contaminated food or by not properly washing your hands, medications, such as antibiotics, food intolerance or allergies ,consuming artificial sweeteners, abdominal surgery or gall bladder removal.

Fecal incontinence can also cause an urgent need to excrete. Those with incontinence can’t control their bowel movements. Sometimes stool leaks from the rectum with little to no warning.

Incontinence could range from leaking a bit of stool when passing gas to a complete loss of control over the bowels. Unlike with gastrocolic reflex, a person with incontinence might unexpectedly poop at any time, whether or not they’ve recently eaten.

Some common causes of incontinence include: Muscle damage to the rectum. This can happen during childbirth, from chronic constipation, or from some surgeries., damage to the nerves in the rectum. It could either be the nerves that sense stool in your rectum or those that control your anal sphincter. Childbirth, straining during bowel movements, spinal cord injuries, stroke, or certain diseases like diabetes can cause this nerve damage, diarrhea. It’s harder to keep loose stool in the rectum , damage to the rectal walls reduces how much stool can be retained. Rectal prolapse (the rectum drops into the anus), rectocele -iIn females, the rectum sticks out through the vagina.

How do you handle this problem then?

While it’s not possible to prevent gastrocolic reflex, there are things you can do to make it easier to live with. First, take note of when you experience the gastrocolic reflex and what you’ve eaten before it happens. If you notice a pattern between eating certain foods and your gastrocolic reflex becoming stronger, chances are that avoiding those foods will help reduce its intensity.

Some common trigger foods include dairy, high fiber foods, like whole grains and vegetables, greasy and fatty foods, such as fries.

Stress is another common trigger for gastrocolic reflex. Managing your stress can help you manage your gastrocolic reflex.

Most people experience the effects of the gastrocolic reflex from time to time.

See your doctor if you experience an ongoing change in your bowel habits, or if you’re constantly running to the toilet after eating. They can figure out the underlying cause and get you the right treatment.

Some overweight people might even feel like urinating after eating because of the pressure induced by the food that entered the system.