ABSTRACT
Acute diarrhoea is a symptom that nearly everybody has experienced. Chronic diarrhoea is associated with significant morbidity. Hypocalcaemia is characterised by sensory symptoms consisting of paresthesiae of the lips, tongue, fingers and feet, and motor symptoms and signs including carpopedal spasm, generalised muscle aching and spasms of facial muscles. Water-soluble vitamins are more rapidly turned over, and are less readily stored than fat-soluble vitamins, which are stored in the liver and fatty tissues. Vitamin D deficiency in growing children causes rickets. Vitamin D deficiency in adults results in osteomalacia, and muscular weakness. Patients taking antibiotics may lack vitamin K because intestinal flora are destroyed. Coeliac disease is a relatively common, lifelong inflammatory disease predominantly affecting the upper small intestine due to gluten in the diet of genetically susceptible patients.
