Natural remedies for diarrhea

What herbs, foods, etc. do you use to treat diarrhea?

Activated charcoal, carrot soup with nothing added mainly boiled carrots mashed up, or white rice cooking water i.e. the water the rice has cooked in.  Charcoal is good as it will absorb toxins.

It depends on what is causing the diarrhea. I've had problems with parasites (amoeba). That's not your average bacterial infection that goes away relatively fast. The only thing that worked for me was raw garlic. About 6 medium sized cloves, once a day every other day. Relieve started after a week or two,  but since parasites are notorious for hanging around I needed to repeat this every second week for months to get them out and not show activity again.

I think it is important to clarify between acute and chronic diarrhea.

Chronic or long lasting might indicate an issue with the person's diet. The first thing that comes to mind is a need for fiber to be incorporated. Dried figs are easy to obtain and tend to be more gentle than prunes. Eating one or two a day as a supplement can be effective.

Hi Jennifer,
I agree with what other people have said about chronic vs acute diarrhea. I have had some experience with the chronic version, and I agree it is very usually related to diet. Getting the gut bacteria back in balance helps out a lot. Sometimes it can be caused in part by magnesium deficiency. So taking magnesium can help... just be careful, because if you are not deficient in magnesium, taking too much or the wrong kind can give you diarrhea.

My spousal unit has some issues with IBS, and flares are often associated with stress. He’ll do things that work for him to help manage the impact of the stress, but we also use blackberry leaf & root tincture to help with the symptoms. It’s pretty gentle, but effective.

I've spent a few yeas in the tropics, and I lived in a rural community where our water system was compromised. So- in the tropics it was protozoans, and in the community it was probably microbes but also, unknown at the time, there was arsenic in a bad well where the geology was predominately volcanic. So- it can really be
"the shits"
In the tropics gingers were available fresh and with species diversity, and they and coconuts got me thru diarrhea w/o starving. (consulting with locals with some reputation) I also used some fermented fruit juice/herb combinations (low alcohol) AKA "tepache" to nutrify, add flora, and not end up too weak from fasting. In Oregon, I eventually resorted to a consultation with a Chinese Doctor at the College of Oriental Medicine in Portland. I don't remember the details of the prescription which was a Chinese herbal mix. It was quite effective. I also depended heavily on green drinks from the garden, (edible flowers, dandelion, etc. chickweed, etc,) but having a regime change in the community I was pushed out, and that, which meant leaving the well water (unknowingly at the time) probably was the eventual key to health. The general pattern I discern is to flood the digestive track with friendly fluids and keep it up, with high-fiber foods and ferments intermittently. Occasionally, when protozoans are found by a clinic or whatever, I resort to prescription meds as the final solution, (you'll readily make a deal with the devil!) followed by restoring digestive flora.

also in many developing areas where it grows easily, carob is a common treatment that can be very effective, and there's lot of research on it in children. i've never had need to use it, but i would if i had to.