DEAR DR. DONOHUE: When I return home after jogging 3 or 4 miles, I often have diarrhea. Do you know what may be causing this, and how I can prevent it? — A.D.

ANSWER: You’re not alone. In marathon races, a high percentage of runners have to stop to relieve themselves. Even at the distance you’re running, many experience diarrhea.

The explanations are many. While running, the legs demand more blood. The body diverts blood from the digestive tract to the exercising legs. That shortchanges the digestive tract a considerable amount of blood. Diarrhea results.

Another possibility is dehydration. The early response to dehydration can be diarrhea. This explanation leaves me puzzled.

A third and more convincing possibility is the jostling that the digestive tract takes when feet pound the ground. There’s not a whole lot to do about this, other than invest in cushioning shoes.

A fourth cause is the timing of eating, and what’s eaten. A large meal or a high-fiber meal, taken less than three hours before running, promotes diarrhea. The same goes for fatty foods. Caffeine stimulates the colon, which, in turn, brings on diarrhea. Smaller meals can be taken closer to the run, but you should be careful even about them.

One way to overcome your problem is to decrease your running distance. A lesser distance is not so hard on the digestive tract. Stay at the lower mileage for a month. Then gradually increase your distance until you’re back to the distance you currently run. Don’t eat the foods I mentioned, and don’t drink coffee before running.

You also might find that changing the time when you run stops diarrhea.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I can’t take it anymore. I am running into more and more people who think depriving the human body of food is the best way to lose weight. There are boot-camp instructors telling participants to eat less than 1,300 calories a day while putting them through grueling workouts five days a week. Supplements containing appetite suppressants are sold by people who are unlicensed, uncertified and, most of the time, uneducated in nutrition. Please inform your readers how malnutrition hinders peak physical performance, slows metabolism and hinders muscle growth. — J.S.

ANSWER: Starvation diets are unhealthy. They do pare away fat, but at an expense that is not worth it. For one thing, people who starve themselves inevitably regain the weight once they stop dieting. Often, they gain more than they formerly weighed.

At low calorie intakes, the body goes into starvation mode. Fat is burned. But so is protein, which you need for muscle building. Truly bad things happen when people pursue this kind of diet for any length of time.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I read your column about heading in soccer players.

I am 62 years old and played soccer all during high school.

Now, as you can see from the enclosed report, I have several herniated disks in my spine. I was never in a car accident. I wonder if any survey has been taken on neck problems of soccer players years later in life.

Nothing bothered me until age 52. Perhaps this is a coincidence, or possibly a result of heading the ball. — D.O.

ANSWER: I can’t find any survey designed to associate soccer playing and heading the soccer ball to spinal disk protrusion in later life. I have doubts that disk protrusion later in life could be related to high-school soccer playing. It’s probably related more to aging, something no one likes to hear.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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