In clinical practice, symptoms of constipation and diarrhea alternate, and functional dyspepsia, such as irritable bowel syndrome and colon cancer, are common. The treatment is all different and requires complete colonoscopy for early diagnosis and targeted treatment.
If the symptoms are recent, they are usually related to poor diet, emotional stimulation, or the effects of weather, causing transient gastrointestinal dysfunction, alternating constipation and diarrhea, and usually recovering with 2-3 days of lifestyle modifications.
If the recurrent constipation and diarrhea are prolonged and the stool is not bloody, with no apparent relationship to diet, consider irritable bowel syndrome, a functional intestinal disorder that is more common in young people and in patients with a family history of similar disorders. The current treatment is only symptomatic support, if the patient diarrhea can be given anti-diarrheal drugs, if the patient constipation to give laxative drugs, if necessary, anti-anxiety psychotropic drugs.
Patients with colon cancer can also have alternating constipation and diarrhea in the early stages, often accompanied by blood in the stool, poor appetite, and gradual weight loss.