By Dr. Mercola
The size, shape and color of your bowel movements can tell you a lot
about your health. This is why you should take a minute to observe
what's in the toilet bowl before flushing it away.
The "perfect" stool should be shaped like a torpedo. It should be
smooth, soft and easy to pass, as opposed to small and hard
(pellet-like) or overly loose.
The appearance and frequency of your stool gives you clues about how
your gastrointestinal tract is functioning and can even signal serious
disease processes that could be occurring, like infections, digestive
problems and even cancer.
Further, making dietary changes will often lead to significant
changes in your stool, which you can use as a visual tool to monitor
your underlying health.
Analyze Your Stool Online Using StoolAnalyzer
Because you're living in the 21st century, it's no longer necessary
to make guestimates about what type of changes you should make to
improve your health and, thereby, the condition of your stool. You can
instead use an online tool called StoolAnalyzer to make these
suggestions for you.1
As it says on StoolAnalyzer.com, "This program is designed to help
you analyze your feces and change your diet so that you can achieve the
'perfect stool.'"2
The program takes just a few minutes to complete and includes visual
images to help you analyze your poop, asking questions regarding your
poop's:
Shape
Color
Size
Frequency
Behavior (floating versus sinking)
You'll receive a score based on a 100-point scale (with 100 being a
perfect score) along with dietary recommendations to improve the health
of your stool.
This is not a substitute for an ongoing relationship with a holistic
health care provider, but it can give you an idea of what's healthy and
what's not when it comes to your stool.
The Bristol Stool Chart
Another handy tool for gauging the health of your digestive tract and
stool is the Bristol Stool Chart. Like StoolAnalyzer, this chart takes
into account shape and texture of your stool, as well as how difficult
or easy it is to pass.
Normal stool is shown in types 3, 4 and 5, "like a sausage or a
snake, smooth and soft" to "soft blobs that pass easily." Type 4,
however, is ideal.3
Signs of Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Stool
The next time you have a bowel movement, compare what you see in the
toilet with the information in the chart below. You should be able to
accurately gauge whether your stool is healthy or unhealthy.
If yours is the latter, it's time to make some dietary changes and consult with a holistic health professional to figure out what's gone awry in your digestive tract.
Healthy Stool
Unhealthy Stool
Medium to light brown
Stool that is hard to pass, painful, or requires straining
Smooth and soft, formed into one long shape and not a bunch of pieces
Hard lumps and pieces, or mushy and watery, or even pasty and difficult to clean off
About 1 to 2 inches in diameter and up to 18 inches long
Narrow, pencil-like or ribbon-like stools: can
indicate a bowel obstruction or tumor; narrow stools on an infrequent
basis are not so concerning, but if they persist, definitely make a call
to your physician
S-shaped, which comes from the shape of your lower intestine
Black, tarry stools or bright red stools may
indicate bleeding in the GI tract; black stools can also come from
certain medications, supplements or consuming black licorice.
If you have black, tarry stools, it's best to be evaluated by your health care provider
Quiet and gentle dive into the water; it should fall into
the bowl with the slightest little "whoosh" sound — not a loud, wet
cannonball splash that leaves your toosh in need of a shower
White, pale or gray stools may indicate a lack
of bile, which may suggest a serious problem (hepatitis, cirrhosis,
pancreatic disorders, or possibly a blocked bile duct), so this warrants
a call to your physician. Antacids may also produce white stool.
Natural smell, not repulsive (I'm not saying it will smell good)
Yellow stools may indicate giardia infection, a
gallbladder problem, or a condition known as Gilbert's syndrome. If you
see this, call your doctor.
Uniform texture
Presence of undigested food (more of a concern if accompanied by diarrhea, weight loss, or other changes in bowel habits)
Sinks slowly
Floaters or splashers
Increased mucus in stool: This can be associated
with inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's disease, or ulcerative
colitis, or even colon cancer, especially if accompanied by blood or
abdominal pain
Very bad odor: If your stool has an
extraordinarily bad odor, it should not be ignored. I am referring to an
odor above and beyond the normally objectionable stool odor.
Stinky stool can be associated with a number of health problems, such
as a malabsorptive disorder, Celiac disease, Crohn's disease and
chronic pancreatitis.
How Often Should You Poop?
There is a wide variation in what's considered normal bowel-movement
frequency. Specifically, three bowel movements per day to three per week
may be normal for you, and the frequency may change from day to day or
week to week. This is because many factors influence your bowel habits,
including:
Diet
Travel
Medications
Hormonal fluctuations
Sleep patterns
Exercise
What's most important is to monitor how you feel and how easily your
bowel movements occur. If you're not moving your bowels often enough,
you may need to push or strain, and you may feel uncomfortably bloated
or gassy. When you do go, the stool may be dry and hard or pellet-like,
which are signs of constipation.
Straining is not normal during a bowel movement, nor is experiencing
feelings of incomplete elimination, bloating, crampiness or sluggishness
after going number two. If you're over the age of 65, your risk of
becoming constipated increases significantly.
Chronic, untreated constipation can lead to fecal impaction, which can
be a serious medical condition. Laxatives should be avoided at all cost
and used only as a last resort, not only due to the potential side
effects but also because your body may become dependent on them. Laxatives
may decrease your colon's ability to contract and can even eventually
damage your large intestine's nerves, muscles, and other tissues.
Fortunately, although constipation is very common, it is also usually
temporary and relatively easy to resolve — without resorting to
laxatives — by using the natural strategies at the end of this article.
You're Probably Missing Out on These Two Pooping Principles
If you're an adult, you may think you know all there is to know about
moving your bowels. However, if you live in the developed world you may
be missing out on a key strategy that could make pooping much easier: squatting.
Your body is designed to eliminate while squatting, while modern-day
toilets put your body in an unnatural position. Sitting on a modern
toilet is designed to place your knees at a 90-degree angle to your
abdomen while squatting places your knees much closer to your torso.
This changes the spatial relationships of your intestinal organs and
musculature, optimizing the forces involved in defecation. Squatting
straightens your rectum, relaxes your puborectalis muscle and allows for
complete emptying of your cecum and appendix without straining, which
prevents fecal stagnation and the accumulation of toxins in your
intestinal tract.
Non-westernized societies, in which people squat, do not have the
high prevalence of bowel disease seen in developed nations; in some
cultures with traditional lifestyles, these diseases are uncommon or
almost unknown. Special toilets and stools that get your body into a
more "squatty" position can help you get closer to the ideal even if
you've been sitting for decades. What's the other pooping principle you
may be missing out on?
A bidet! Bidets
provide superior hygiene, are gentler on your skin and are better for
the environment than toilet paper; with a bidet seat, you can even
install one right on your existing toilet. Bidets are common in certain
parts of Europe, South America, the Middle East and Japan; they haven't
caught on widely in the U.S., but their use does appear to be
increasing.4
Tips to Optimize Your Bowel Movements
The strategies that follow will help to optimize your digestive health,
reverse and prevent constipation and support healthy bowel movements.
They're safe for children and adults alike.
Remove all sources of gluten from your diet (the most common sources are wheat, barley, rye, spelt and other grains)
Eat a diet that includes whole foods,
rich in fresh, organic vegetables and fruits that provide good
nutrients and fiber; most of your fiber should come from vegetables, not
from grains
Avoid artificial sweeteners, excess sugar
(especially fructose), chemical additives, MSG, excessive amounts of
caffeine and processed foods as they are all detrimental to your
gastrointestinal (and immune) function
Boost your intestinal flora by adding naturally fermented foods
into your diet, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and kefir (if you tolerate
dairy); add a probiotic supplement if you suspect you're not getting
enough beneficial bacteria from your diet alone
Increase
your fiber intake; good options include psyllium and freshly ground
organic flax seed (shoot for about 50 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories
consumed daily)
Make sure you stay well hydrated with fresh, pure water
Avoid pharmaceutical drugs, such as painkillers like codeine or hydrocodone, which will slow your bowel function.
Antidepressants, and antibiotics can also cause a variety of GI disruptions
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