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How can chronic diarrhea contribute to vitamin deficiencies?

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rickets, a nutritional disease — nutritional disease Children with rickets. The disease, which most commonly strikes children, causes bone deformities such as bowlegs. Rickets is caused by a lack of vitamin D or calcium.

In the context of nutritional disease, chronic diarrhea contributes to vitamin deficiencies primarily through increased losses of vitamins from the body.1

While vitamin deficiencies are most commonly caused by an inadequate diet, they can also occur as a secondary condition when the body loses essential nutrients at an accelerated rate. Chronic, severe diarrhea acts as a mechanism for these increased losses, depleting the body's stores of vitamins faster than they can be replenished.1

Additionally, gastrointestinal disorders that cause diarrhea may be associated with impaired uptake of nutrients, as some diseases reduce the overall absorptive function of the bowel. When the intestine is unable to properly transport nutrients into the bloodstream, it leads to malabsorption, which can further exacerbate the risk of avitaminosis (vitamin lack). If the diet is not adjusted to compensate for these increased losses or reduced absorption, clinical deficiencies may develop.12