What your poop (color, smell, and shape) is telling you about your health
The subject of stool warrants plenty of attention. That’s because your poop color, smell, and shape say a lot about your health.
Basically, your bodily emissions are whatever is left behind once your digestive system completes absorbing nutrients and fluid from the foods and drinks you consume. During a lifetime, the average person produces roughly five tons of poop. The majority of waste discharged from your bowels is about 75 percent water, with the remainder being both dead and live bacteria; undigested food particles; miscellaneous cells; fiber; mucous; proteins and salts; as well as other matter.
On average, though, the human body needs between 18 and 72 hours to convert food into this waste before passing it out of your system. While some people have a bowel movement once daily or three times per week, those who could be described as more “regular” do so as many as three times every day. Continue reading…
Poop is supposed to be brown, right? Well, sometimes, the color of your poop can change, and for a number of different reasons too. Some causes of color changes are harmless, such as consuming a food or beverages with a certain dye or pigment. Other causes could actually signify a more serious health condition.
Yellow poop can be scary or alarming, as it is not a common color to see in your toilet. Unlike green poop, which is usually due to a harmless cause, yellow or pale-colored poop is more likely to be a sign of an illness, so it’s important to spot when your poop has turned yellow. Continue reading…
Orange poop can be quite startling as it is definitely not a color you anticipate your poop to be. Even green poop is more common than orange poop! The good news is, more often than not, orange poop isn’t a cause for serious concern and will resolve itself on its own. On the other hand, depending on duration, it could be a sign of something more serious, so it’s important to note how long you’ve been experiencing orange poop, along with other factors that can help you narrow down on the exact cause.
Here we will outline the common causes of orange poop to help you distinguish what is a natural occurrence and when you should see a doctor. Continue reading…
Have you ever looked in the toilet and asked yourself, what does green poop mean? Green stool may be scary to see, but the causes vary greatly from dietary causes to even discharged bile. More often than not, green poop is benign, so there isn’t much cause for concern. But before we explain more about green poop, let us explain why poop is typically brown.
Brown poop is a result of leftovers mixed with dead red blood cells along with other waste from your digestive tract. Bile is typically a greenish yellow color and so the other waste that makes up your stool adds the darker hue.
Normally, when your poop is an alternative color aside from brown, it is a result of not properly absorbing your food or because your food isn’t spending enough time in the digestive tract. For example, in the case of diarrhea, products in the digestive tract are coming out too quickly, so it often isn’t the normal brown color you are used to. Continue reading…
Black stool can result from dietary changes to even revealing a serious medical condition, so it’s important to pay attention if you’re seeing black after a bathroom trip. Along with a change in color, black stool may also be tarry in texture and more foul-smelling, which is a clear signal of a serious underlying gastrointestinal problem. Continue reading…