If your stool is bright red or black — which may indicate the presence of blood — seek prompt medical attention. Food may be moving through the large intestine too quickly, such as due to diarrhea. As a result, bile doesn't have time to break down completely.
The only colors that may relate to disease are red, black and white. All other colors are not due to a medical problem. Normal stools are not always dark brown. Sometimes they are light brown, tan or yellow.
Pale or white poop: Chalky is not a good look on poop. It may mean your body isn't producing bile. It could be that you have an infection or that your bile duct is blocked. Pale poop could also be a side effect of medicines, including some used for diarrhea.
Normal stools are usually a light brown to dark brown color. Call your doctor if you have green, yellow, orange, clay-colored, bright red, dark red, or black stools. While there may be a harmless explanation for this, the colors can also be a sign of a serious health concern.
Stools that are pale, clay, or putty-colored may be due to problems in the biliary system. The biliary system is the drainage system of the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas. Food passes from the stomach into the small intestine. In the small intestine all nutrient absorption occurs.
All shades of brown and even green are considered normal. Only rarely does stool color indicate a potentially serious intestinal condition. Stool color is generally influenced by what you eat as well as by the amount of bile — a yellow-green fluid that digests fats — in your stool.
Peanut butter-colored poop is a symptom of fat malabsorption when your digestive system has trouble breaking and absorbing the fats from food. This problem can affect your organ, so you need to be concerned. As far as the color is concerned, peanut butter with a brown hue is normal.
Poops that are well-formed and easy to pass (Types 3 and 4) are the ideal kinds of poop. Poops that are entirely liquid or have too much liquid (Types 5, 6 and 7) indicate diarrhea or urgency. Sometimes diarrhea is caused by temporary illness and should pass in a few days.
The most common include: Abdominal pain, cramping or bloating that is related to passing a bowel movement. Changes in appearance of bowel movement. Changes in how often you are having a bowel movement.
Healthy Poop Should Sink in the Toilet
Floating stools are often an indication of high fat content, which can be a sign of malabsorption, a condition in which you can't absorb enough fat and other nutrients from the food you're ingesting, reports Mount Sinai.
Watery, usually nonbloody diarrhea — bloody diarrhea usually means you have a different, more severe infection. Nausea, vomiting or both. Stomach cramps and pain.
Yellow stool, sometimes called pale stool, has several different causes. The yellow color can come from a problem with your liver not being able to produce enough bile, or it could be from a bacterial infection.
Light-Colored Poop
If your poop is light-colored, yellow, clay-colored, or very light brown, this may be a sign of: An infection or inflammation (swelling) in your gallbladder, liver, or pancreas. Alcoholic hepatitis, which is inflammation in your liver caused by alcohol consumption.
Black or tarry stools may be due to bleeding in the upper part of the GI (gastrointestinal) tract, such as the esophagus, stomach, or the first part of the small intestine. In this case, blood is darker because it gets digested on its way through the GI tract.
Anxiety does not specifically affect the color of stool, but it can affect how food moves through the digestive tract. There are several ways that anxiety affects digestion, increasing the risk of yellow feces. Anxiety is also linked to IBS, which can cause yellow stool.
Take a look at the types below and the difference in each IBS stool colour: IBS-C (IBS with constipation) – likely to have a darker brown stool colour. IBS-D (IBS with diarrhoea) – likely to have a yellow stool colour. IBS-M (mixed – alternates between constipation and diarrhoea)
Common causes include: Chronic diarrhea Constipation Hemorrhoids Crohn's disease The skin of the anus can stick to the stool and make it difficult to clean the anorectal area after a bowel movement. Leaky gut Leaky gut is also known as fecal incontinence.
Yellow stool may be caused by: Bacterial, viral, or parasitic infections that may be causing malabsorption. One of the most common is giardiasis (also called giardia infection), caused by a microscopic waterborne parasite.
Yellow stool may indicate a malabsorption disorder caused by a parasite, illness, or disease. Malabsorption of fat can lead to an increased fat content in stools, which can be pale, large, foul-smelling, and loose. This is known as steatorrhea, and complications may include: malnutrition.
Most stomach bugs are always followed by pale stools or diarrhoea. If you're experiencing either of these symptoms, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible. Why do people get stomach bugs?