My stool has changed its colour and consistency of late. Kindly let me know what this could mean.
Ibukun (by SMS)
As with size and consistency, the color of the stool can be a helpful signal about what’s going on within your body. In healthy individuals, varying shades of brown are considered the norm. Even a hint of green is considered healthy. But if your stool is turning black, it could be due to your ingestion of iron supplements, or bismuth medications (such as Pepto-Bismol).
However, if you haven’t had any of that, black stool could be a sign of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract. It may seem like red would be a more likely color for this sort of concern, but since it’s taken a while to travel down, it’s older and darker. While hints of green are quite normal, if your stool has gone from brown to full green, it may mean one of two things.
You’ve added lots of green foods like spinach to your diet, or your stools are passing through you too fast. If your stool is a chalky light shade, it might mean you’re lacking bile.
Bile is a digestive fluid that comes from your liver and gallbladder, so if you’re producing white stool, it probably means your duct is blocked. Pale stool could also be a side effect of certain medications like anti-diarrhea medicine. Red stool can mean bleeding, either due to hemorrhoids or bleeding in the lower intestinal tract. If your stool is a little red, however, there may be no need to fret immediately.
There are other, less serious reasons for this change in color. Foods like beets, cranberries, red gelatin, or tomato juice can turn poop red as well. Greasy, stinky, yellow stool is typically a sign of too much fat. This could also be a direct relation to a malabsorption disorder like celiac disease, where your body isn’t absorbing enough nutrients. If your stool looks bright yellow, it could signify a condition called giardiasis, which is caused by an intestinal parasite in North America and the world.
Typically, you can develop giardiasis from contaminated water or exposure to someone with the condition. A green stool here or hard stool there happens to the best of us. When this type of irregularity carries on for more than a day or two, you should take action and talk with a doctor. The same goes for changes in color or consistency or constipation.
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