What are your stools like and what do they reveal about your health?

The current custom of using the toilets to defecate, cleaning oneself with paper and flushing so that the water washes away the feces means that many people do not have the habit of observing what their bowel movements are like. However, observing and reviewing how they are can give an idea about what the state of our digestive system and our health.

Regular observation may be more effective in preventing problems than sophisticated testing.

In fact, there are many types of ideal stools, depending on the diet, its quality and quantity, and chewing. The important thing is that defecating should be a natural and pleasant experience. If not, the feces could put us on the track if something is wrong.

A health diagnosis through your feces

To gather information we will take into account the following main points: consistency, color and overall appearance.

1. Consistency

Several comparative tables have been used, although the most used is the bristol Scale, used to establish normality criteria. It takes into account both the texture of the stool and the time it spends in the colon until we expel it.

According to this scale, feces can be basically diarrheal, pasty or hardwhich can be due to various causes.

when they are hard

They come in two main forms:

As separate hard pieces, like nuts, difficult to excrete. They are what is known as goat feces. They can also come out as cohesive fragments sausage-shaped, hard or dry, but lumpy.

These types of depositions indicate constipation and are usually due to a lack of fiber in the diet or a sedentary lifestyle, although it can also occur due to digestive tract problems or the intake of medications (anticholinergics and narcotic analgesics).

When they are doughy, but not too much

His sausage shape It is quite characteristic, although it can vary:

Like a sausage with some cracks on the surface.Like a smooth and soft sausage.

These feces would fall within normality. Defecation does not cause any discomfort and is a sign of a balanced diet and good hydration.

when they are soft

Here we find three types, depending on the degree to which they are undone:

Soft pieces with well-defined edges that are easily excreted. Soft pieces with ragged edges. Watery or completely liquid stools that are passed in a very short time.

When the stools are so soft it is a sign of diarrheausually caused by indigestion or some type of intestinal virus.

If they are liquid and abundant, the origin is usually in the upper small intestine.

If they are scant and very mucous, the problem is closer to the anus.

Some are produced only by the irritation of the rectum. In that case, they are usually very scanty and mucous.

2.Color

The color is variable, but we must be attentive if we detect an abnormal color:

dark or black color

It is usually for the presence of blood of high origin, typical in duodenal ulcer bleeding. In the first case (blood) they are sticky and are called “manes”.

It may also simply be due to taking medication such as coal, bismuth or iron, or the recent consumption of certain foods, such as wild berries.

Pale or clay-colored

They may be acholic stools, due to the complete Obstruction of the bile ducts.

They can also be whiter for a dairy diet or the ingestion of barium porridge (which is given before performing certain x-rays or CT scans).

yellowish color

Are greasy stools and it is the fat that gives them their color. They are very similar to the acholic and sometimes difficult to differentiate, but in the greasy ones there are bile pigments that do not exist in the acholic ones.

gall color

They are hypercolic stools, due to intense discharges of bile in liver and digestive diseasesas well as in hemolytic jaundice due to great destruction of red blood cells.

Red color

They are usually from parts close to the anus; are frequent in hemorrhoids, fistulas, polyps or tumors.

Green color

It is the typical color of the children’s diarrheafor rapid transit.

3. General appearance

Observing the depositions we can detect other attention-grabbing features beyond consistency and color.

if they have pus

If it is in large quantity, it is almost always because Prostatic, tubal, or appendicular perirectal abscesses (appendicitis not discovered in time).

When an abscess is opened in higher reaches, the pus (not in enormous amounts) usually mixes with the stool and goes undetected. It is the case of pericholecystitis, perigastritis, psoas and vertebral abscesses.

In microscopic amounts, it can be inflammatory, ulcerative, or dysenteric colitis.

If they have mucus or membranes

In feces the presence of small amounts of mucus is normal.

Mucus is increased in almost all colitis, but its increased presence may also be due to spastic, functional, or simple constipation.

If they contain calculi or stones

If they are small, They can be biliary or pancreatic or from intestinal sands.

when they are big, These are stones that have formed in the intestine.

Other times we can observe undigested substances or food in feces due to pancreatic or biliary gastric insufficiency.

A simple act of prevention

Most variations in the appearance and consistency of our stools, if they do not cause further problems, are considered normal.

When feces reveal a problem, In addition to treating the disease, the care will be general: not only for food, but also to improve all aspects related to digestion.

For improve digestion It is important, for example, to chew and salivate well, eat to your heart’s content, enjoy food without harming the animals or the environment, and consider a vegetarian diet if it is not already followed.

There is no need to be obsessed: most of the alterations do not cause problems and are normal.

oneself is usually the first to realize of when the stools go out of their normality, and more if he maintains the habit of observing his stools in a natural way.

The simple observation that everyone can make at home is probably more effective than any sophisticated test to prevent digestive problems and maintain one’s health.