White or clay-like stool is caused by a lack of bile, which may indicate a serious underlying problem. Bile is a digestive fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Stool gets its normal brownish color from bile, which is excreted into the small intestine during the digestive process.
Food can affect the color of your stool, and eating some foods may make your poop lighter in color. However, foods should not turn your stool white. Certain medications, such as those containing bismuth subsalicylate, can temporarily turn your poop white.
Gastrointestinal infections caused by certain bacteria, such as Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter, can also lead to pale stools. These infections typically cause symptoms like diarrhoea, nausea, and abdominal pain as well.
Pale stools can result from dietary choices, an infection, or an underlying medical problem, such as gallbladder or liver disease. People with persistently pale stools may need medical treatment.
Gray or Clay-Colored Stool
The stool can be gray or clay-colored if it contains little or no bile. The pale color may signify a condition (biliary obstruction) where the flow of bile to the intestine is obstructed, such as obstruction of the bile duct from a tumor or gallstone in the duct or nearby pancreas.
Pale stools could be a sign of liver damage, as pale, clay, beige or sand coloured stool may be a sign that your body, most notably your liver is not producing enough bile, or it may not be draining bile properly. Bile makes up part of the colouring of your stool.
Pale stools and other warning signs of late-stage fatty liver disease | TheHealthSite.com.
If your pale stools are caused by something structural, like blocked bile ducts, you may need surgery to remove the blockage or widen the passageway. Hepatitis may require antivirals, while a liver transplant is the only way to resolve cirrhosis.
Clay: a stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. Clay colors are a family of nature inspired neutrals — that resembles earth tones.
What does light-colored stool mean? White or light gray poop in kids can be a sign of liver disease. Blocked bile ducts in babies can lead to light gray or pale yellow stool. An all-milk diet may also lead to white stool, as can certain medicines.
Alcoholic Hepatitis: Alcoholic hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver due to excessive drinking of alcohol which can result in the pale stool. Biliary Cirrhosis: Biliary cirrhosis is the inflammation of the liver's bile ducts. It results in fatty pale stools.
If your stool is not normal-colored (light or dark brown), it means you have some gut issue, whether it's just food that didn't sit right, food poisoning, or a virus. But sometimes it can be a sign of bleeding (red/black stool), or a liver or gallbladder issue (very pale stool), so don't ignore a discoloration.
If a tumor blocks the pancreatic duct, insufficient pancreatic juices in the intestines can lead to poor absorption and diarrhea, as the undigested food passes quickly through the digestive tract. If this happens, stool may float due to the higher fat content, appear bulky, greasy, and unusually pale.
If your liver doesn't make bile normally or if the flow from the liver is blocked, your poop will look pale like the color of clay. Pale poop often happens along with yellow skin (jaundice). The extra bilirubin that makes your skin look yellow also can make your pee unusually dark.
Acute liver failure can develop quickly in an otherwise healthy person, and it is life-threatening. If you or someone you know suddenly develops a yellowing of the eyes or skin; tenderness in the upper abdomen; or any unusual changes in mental state, personality or behavior, seek medical attention right away.
Liver Disease
Liver diseases like alcoholic cirrhosis, liver cancer, and hepatitis can cause pale or white poop. This is because when the liver isn't working properly, bile and bilirubin can't reach the small intestine, which results in pale-colored stool.
As liver failure progresses, you may experience some or all of the following symptoms: Jaundice, or yellow eyes and skin. Confusion or other mental difficulties. Swelling in the belly, arms or legs.
Bile is usually required for digestion of fat. The main function is it emulsifies the fat so the intestinal and pancreatic enzymes can act on the fat, dissolve them so that it gets absorbed well. So whenever there is lack of bile reaching the intestine due to blockage of duct the fat absorption becomes impaired.
Bile is yellow-green, and as it travels through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, enzymes cause changes that turn it brown. All shades of brown-colored stool are normal. If a person's stool is red or black, or other changes remain longer than 2 weeks or come with other symptoms, they should consult a doctor.
Anxiety does not specifically affect the color of stool, but it can affect how food moves through the digestive tract.