Causes and when to see a doctor

Black stool can result when a person eats certain foods, such as licorice or takes iron supplements. Black, tarry stools are usually a sign of gastrointestinal bleeding, due, for instance, to a stomach ulcer.

A variety of foods and medications can make a person’s stool black. These can include:

• blueberries
• black licorice
• blood sausage
• iron tablets
• the indigestion medication bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol)

If a person has recently consumed any of these and their stool is black, there is likely no cause for concern.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) state that bleeding in a person’s gastrointestinal tract can also cause black, tarry stools. The gastrointestinal tract is the route that food takes through a person’s body.

According to NIDDK, the gastrointestinal tract can bleed for many reasons. Some are listed below.

Authors of an article in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics describe angiodysplasia as abnormal groups of vessels in the mucous membrane of a person’s gastrointestinal tract.

It is not clear why angiodysplasia happens, but it can cause bleeding and blood in a person’s stool, which can make it black and tarry.

A common treatment is argon plasma coagulation, which doctors use to seal the bleeding vessels.

According to NIDDK, benign tumors or cancerous formations in the esophagus, stomach, colon, or rectum can cause blood in a person’s stool, which may make it black and tarry.

A benign tumor is a tumor that is not cancerous. Whether they are benign or cancerous, tumors can weaken the gastrointestinal wall and result in bleeding.

Genetics Home Reference define ulcerative colitis as a gastrointestinal disorder that causes ulcers to form within the large intestine. This can result in blood in a person’s stool, which may make the stool appear black and tarry.

NIDDK note that the cause of ulcerative colitis is unclear. Doctors can treat the condition with medications and surgery.

Colon polyps can cause blood in the stool, giving it a black, tarry appearance.

These polyps are small growths that form in the large intestine. They are not necessarily cancerous, but they can become cancerous over time.

A doctor may suggest surgery to remove the colon polyps.

Share on PinterestSmoking can increase the risk of esophageal issues.

If a person has problems with their esophagus, this may cause bleeding, which can turn a person’s stool black and tarry.

NIDDK report that these problems can include esophageal varices and gastroesophageal reflux.

Liver issues can cause esophageal varices, which are enlarged veins in the esophagus. Treatment will focus on stopping the bleeding and resolving the underlying condition that is causing the esophageal varices.

If a person experiences gastroesophageal reflux frequently, they may have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

The key causes are complications from certain medications, smoking, or increased pressure in the abdomen. This pressure can result, for example, from being overweight or pregnant.

A person can often manage GERD by avoiding certain foods and not overeating. A doctor may also prescribe medications.

If an ulcer forms in a person’s stomach, this can cause bleeding which may make the stool black and tarry.

NIDDK note that the long-term use of some drugs, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, can cause stomach ulcers. A bacterial infection can also be a cause.

As well as blood in a person’s stool, symptoms include:

• dull, burning pain in the stomach
• bloating
• burping
• vomiting
• having a low appetite
• losing weight

If a doctor thinks that drugs such as ibuprofen or aspirin are causing stomach ulcers, treatment usually involves no longer using these pain relievers.

Or, the doctor may prescribe medications to help fight a bacterial infection.

If a person’s stool is black because of what they have eaten, the color will eventually change with the diet. However, there is no reason for people to avoid foods that have this effect if they are not experiencing any other symptoms.

If bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract is responsible for black, tarry stools, a doctor will need to diagnose the exact cause of this. Many gastrointestinal issues are treatable.

Share on PinterestA doctor can offer advice on lifestyle changes to prevent black stool.

A doctor will have to determine the underlying cause of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract in order to treat it, if this is the reason that a person’s stool appears black and tarry.

They may recommend that the person avoids certain foods. Also, the doctor may advise against taking specific medications and propose alternatives.

Some causes of bleeding require minor surgery to correct.

The doctor will be able to advise on the best way to prevent further bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, based on the diagnosis, as well as any lifestyle changes that they think the person should adopt.

If a person’s stool is black, the likeliest reasons are that they have eaten certain foods or that there is bleeding in their gastrointestinal tract.

For a person who has no other symptoms and who suspects that foods are to blame, there should be no cause for concern.

However, if a person notices blood in their stool or experiences any other symptoms, they should speak to a doctor, who can determine the cause.

What does healthy poop look like?

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Published May 24, 2021

Published May 24, 2021

Healthy poop depends on a number of things. How long it takes you to poop, how often you poop and what your poop looks like are all relevant. Here we walk through the different shapes and colors, along with some tips for healthy digestion.

Types of poop

The Bristol Stool scale shows seven types of poop:

• Type 1: Separate hard lumps (constipation)
• Type 2: Sausage-shaped but lumpy (mild constipation)
• Type 3: Sausage-shaped with cracks on its surface (healthy)
• Type 4: Smooth and soft like a snake (healthy)
• Type 5: Soft blobs with clear-cut edges (lacking fiber)
• Type 6: Fluffy and mushy with ragged edges (mild diarrhea)
• Type 7: Entirely liquid, watery (diarrhea)

Poops that are hard and difficult to pass (Types 1 and 2) indicate constipation. Drinking more water and eating high-fiber foods can ease constipation. Foods high in fiber include beans, nuts, vegetables and fruits.

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. You can follow the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast) diet to reduce further GI upset. 

Struggling with chronic constipation or diarrhea?
Call 800.922.0000 to make an appointment with a primary care provider.

Shades of poop

For the most part, poop should be brown. Some of the foods we eat change the color of poop temporarily. But if it’s bright red or black, and nothing you’ve eaten is the culprit, let your doctor know.

• Brown: Any shade of brown is normal and healthy
• Black: Bismuth medications, iron supplements or dark foods like licorice can cause black poop. If none of these ring a bell, or the black color persists, see your doctor
• Green: Hints of green are fine. Green veggies like spinach, iron supplements or antibiotics may cause green poop. But if there’s too much green, your stools may be moving too quickly
• Red: If you’ve had recently eaten something red (think tomato soup or beets), then there’s no cause for alarm. But bright red poop could be a sign of bleeding. If you see red that’s not from food, call your doctor
• Yellow: This shade of poop is normal for babies who are breastfeeding. But if an adult has yellow poop that’s greasy and smelly, tell your doctor

Tips for healthy poop

Gastroenterologist Kathryn Hutchins, MD, offers these tips for better pooping: 

• Drink more water. Your body needs water to process foods. Drinking enough water makes poop soft and easier to pass
• Avoid irritating foods. Alcohol, caffeine and spicy foods can trigger your digestive tract. If you’re experiencing a lot of loose stools (especially type 6 on the scale), you might try avoiding these foods
• Exercise. Did you know inactivity can increase constipation? Try going for a brisk walk or stretch with some yoga poses to move things along
• Reduce stress. Stress can affect your bowel movements. Minimizing stress at home or work as well as getting plenty of sleep can help your gut health

“The timing matters, too,” says Dr. Hutchins. “If you find yourself spending more than 10 minutes on the toilet, that’s a sign that you might be constipated.”
 

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What color is poop? Types of stool colors

The color of stool can tell us a lot about our health and even alert you to signs that we might need to get tested.

Different colors of poop can mean different things, mainly depending on what we have eaten. We will probably notice if the color of the poop is different from the usual. But what does it mean if it’s green? And red, yellow, white or black?

In most cases, minor color changes in litter are related to diet. We don’t eat the same thing at every meal every day. But sometimes a change in color can indicate minor health problems. In rare cases, this means that something is seriously wrong with the digestive system.

Index

• 1 Why is poop brown?
• 2 poop colors
  • 2.1 Green
  • 2.2 Yellow
  • 2.3 blue
  • 2.4 Red
  • 2.5 Garnet or dark red
  • 2. 6 Orange
  • 2.7 Black
  • 2.8 Pale or white clay
• 3 When need to go to the doctor?

Why is poop brown?

Stool color is usually brown or light brown to dark brown. Your liver secretes a substance called bile into your gastrointestinal tract, which in turn ranges from deep yellow to light orange. When it interacts with the contents of your digestive system (what you eat), it changes color.

Approximately 75% of food consists of water. The other 25 percent is a mixture of undigested carbohydrates and fiber, fats, proteins, bacteria, mucus, old red blood cells, intestinal secretions, and chemicals from the liver, including bile. The brown color of feces is mainly due to bile and bilirubin.

La bile has a yellowish green color and plays many roles in the digestion process. The liver produces 500 to 600 milliliters of bile each day, which is stored in the gallbladder. When we eat, the gallbladder contracts to send bile to the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. One of the main jobs of bile is to break down the fats in the food you eat.

Bilirubin is another factor influencing the brown color of faeces. This is a yellow substance in the blood. It is formed after red blood cells are broken down and excreted through the liver and gallbladder into the digestive tract.

When you mix digested food with yellow-green bile and yellow bilirubin, you get a brown color. It can vary from dark brown to pale brown. But sometimes, for various reasons, poop can be a different color.

poop color

But what if you look back and see a strange color in the toilet? Should you laugh? Post on Instagram? Panic? Call your doctor?

As a rule, stool color changes depend on what you eat, and usually you have nothing to worry about. However, there are cases that deserve a little attention.

Green

Green stool is most likely caused by your diet. The culprits are spinach, green jelly, turquoise ice cream (or anything containing dye), black licorice, and black dragees. But this is normal and should not stop us from eating these antioxidant-rich foods. Your stool color should return to normal once the food has passed through your body.

Iron supplements and food colorings, including green, purple, and blue, can also give stools an emerald color. Conditions that speed up bowel activity, such as intestinal disorders or food poisoning, can also cause green stools. In women, green stools may occur during certain periods of pregnancy.

Yellow

If you have diarrhea, your stools may be yellow or greenish. Diarrhea this means things are moving through your system too quickly for stool to form properly. This also means that the stool has less time to darken.

Yellow poop can also be the result of extra fat in your diet and it could be a digestive side effect of a low carbohydrate diet like keto.

blue

Again, this will be what you ate. Blueberries are the main culprit for dark blue poop that can appear almost black. It can also appear with a product that contains a blue dye. It is very common to see these colors when eating colored candy, ice cream, chewing gum, or soft drinks.

If this happens from time to time, we need not worry. However, if this is a common practice, it is recommended to reduce the consumption of dyes to make sure that everything goes well in our intestines.

Red

This is where things get tricky. The culprit can be completely harmless, such as beets, red jelly, or red sports drinks. Blood from hemorrhoids or a cut in your anus if you’ve had constipation, for example, are also possible culprits.

However, red stools can also have more worrying causes, such as bleeding in the lower colon. blood in feces is also an alarming symptom of colorectal cancer; Additional symptoms include a change in bowel habits (such as diarrhea or constipation) that lasts more than a few days, abdominal cramps or pain, and unintentional weight loss.

If you think you’re too young for this cancer, think again: According to 50 year statistics published in ACS CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates are slowly rising among younger people. 2020 years.

Garnet or dark red

A darker red color can also be caused by bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, especially where the large intestine meets the small intestine. Colon cancer, diverticulosis, colitis, and inflammation of the colon can all contribute to this maroon hue. Call your doctor if you see this tone in the toilet.

Orange

Eating many orange-colored foods that are high in a pigment called beta-carotene causes orange-colored stools. Carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash are among the many foods that contain this pigment.

However, blocked bile ducts or some medications, including some antacids and the antibiotic rifampicin, can cause orange stools.

black

This is another color you don’t usually want to see. Black stool can sometimes be benign: taking Pepto-Bismol can make your stool very dark, as can taking iron supplements or eating too many blueberries. These are things that you should tell your doctor so that you can be properly assessed.

Black stools can also indicate bleeding from the esophagus, stomach, or small intestine. It can be caused by a stomach ulcer or (more rarely) by a tumor in the upper gastrointestinal tract. The stool turns black because the blood passes through the gastrointestinal tract and is broken down by digestive enzymes. Medical conditions that can cause dark, tarry stools include duodenal or stomach ulcers, esophageal varices, Mallory-Weiss rupture, and gastritis.

Stool may also appear darker with constipation. Dark green stools due to bile that has not had time to disintegrate may appear black in certain lighting conditions.

Pale or white clay

Antidiarrheals may clear stools. At the same time, clay-colored stools can also indicate blockage of the liver or bile ducts. If we notice that the color of the feces is white, clay-colored or chalky gray, we should see a doctor, especially if the color persists for more than a few days. If steatorrhea is present, pale or light-colored stools may also be shiny or greasy, buoyant, and foul-smelling.

Gallstones or a tumor in the pancreas can block these ducts. Call your doctor right away if you have unusually light-colored stools, especially if you have pain that could indicate a bile duct blockage.

When should I go to the doctor?

Red, black or clay/white stool is an alarm to call a doctor. And if you’re concerned about any other shade of poop, a phone call would be a good idea. Experts recommend asking yourself these three questions before you jump on your guard:

• Have you added anything new to your diet? Did you eat spinach or beets? Have you eaten something heavy on food coloring?
• Have you taken any new prescription, over-the-counter or supplemental drugs?
• Do you have other physical symptoms? Serious bowel changes, unintentional weight loss, localized pain, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue are symptoms you should report to your doctor.

Green liquid stool in a child – causes and treatment

org/BreadcrumbList”>

• Children’s Medical Center “Pediatrician and Me”

• Articles

• Green stool in a child up to a year old, or how the color of feces changes from nutrition

The digestive system of babies in the first year of life reacts sharply to any intervention: changing the mixture, introducing complementary foods, taking medications, etc. In this case, the baby may experience colic, bloating, but most often parents pay attention to a change in stool. Often a situation arises when the baby’s feces become green. Let’s talk about the causes of this condition and whether it is dangerous for the child.

Causes of green stool

Sometimes there are situations when the child’s stool turns green. The stool acquires this color due to the presence of a special pigment in them – biliverdin, contained in bile. Biliverdin is formed as a result of the breakdown of red blood cells and contains oxidized iron.

The presence of biliverdin in the intestine can lead to a rather bright coloration of the infant’s stool. This condition is an indirect sign of pathology, but can be observed even in perfectly healthy babies. If you are faced with a similar phenomenon, show the child to a pediatrician or pediatric gastroenterologist.

Effect of nutrition on baby’s stool

The stool of a breastfed baby can be very different from the “artificial” stool. The feces of a baby receiving mother’s milk are yellowish in color. This color is due to the presence of the bile pigment stercobilin, which is a breakdown product of bilirubin. The stool itself has a mushy texture and may contain small lumps. The smell is sour milk. A breastfed infant can empty the bowels up to 4-5 times a day. However, for this, the mother of the baby must eat right, and the child himself should not have health problems.

Formula-fed babies have thicker, more formed stools. The color of the feces varies from light brown to darker. There is a characteristic fecal odor. Bowel movements occur less frequently, about 2-3 times a day.

Most often, green stools are observed in babies who are bottle-fed. Much depends on the type of mixture chosen. If a child has health problems, such as milk protein intolerance, special nutrition is prescribed for him. Mixtures based on hydrolyzed protein or amino acids most often cause green stools.

The introduction of vegetable complementary foods

Green stools in children older than six months can be observed against the background of the introduction of complementary foods. Most often, such a reaction occurs on vegetables, such as broccoli, zucchini, green peas, etc. In addition to the uncharacteristic color, a large number of semi-digested lumps are found in the feces. This happens due to the peculiarities of the work of the children’s intestines, which cannot fully digest coarse food. As a result, dietary fiber comes out with the stool. In the presence of this problem, it is worth reducing the amount of complementary foods and give the body time to get used to it. The help of a pediatrician in this situation is not required.

Switching from breastfeeding to formula

The baby’s digestive system is adjusting to a new product that is very different from mother’s milk. In the first few days of the transition, there may be a change in the color of the stool to greenish. However, this condition quickly returns to normal.

Pathological causes of green feces

Dysbacteriosis

The predominance of pathogenic microflora in the intestine can be one of the reasons for staining feces in an uncharacteristic color. In the process of decay and fermentation, specific protein compounds are formed that give the feces a greenish color and an unpleasant odor. In the presence of dysbacteriosis, the baby’s feces become liquid, mucus impurities may be present in the masses. In addition, the baby may experience symptoms such as bloating, increased gas formation, and pain.

Bacterial and viral infections

Infants are very vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. Some pathologies can provoke disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. In this case, the baby’s stool becomes green. In addition, the child also has other symptoms: fever, anxiety, diarrhea, etc. The consistency of the feces is liquid, foamy. If you have these symptoms, seek urgent medical attention.

Allergy

Sometimes green stool indicates the presence of allergens in the body. This may be a reaction to a specific product: complementary foods, vitamin supplements, new mixtures, etc. Also, allergens can be found in breast milk. With allergies on the baby’s body, a rash, lacrimation, etc. may form. In rare cases, the temperature rises. The child’s condition returns to normal immediately after the allergen is removed from the diet. Sometimes the help of an allergist and the introduction of special mixtures are required to detect a problem.

Lactose deficiency

Occurs in children of the first year of life, but may also appear at a later age. With this disease, the child’s body does not absorb milk sugar (lactose), which leads to quite serious complications. In addition to green stools, the baby has colic, grumbling in the stomach, frequent regurgitation, and poor weight gain. A comprehensive examination is required to make an accurate diagnosis.

Green stool is not a direct sign of pathology. This is a fairly common occurrence for babies. If, in addition to this symptom, the child is not worried about anything, do not worry about this. However, you can always seek the advice of a pediatrician.

When to see a doctor

There are a number of situations where the presence of green stool requires close attention from parents. It is necessary to seek help if the phenomenon is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• Changes in the child’s mood: lethargy, capriciousness, refusal to play and eat;
• Fever;
• Foamy and offensive stools;
• Diarrhea;
• Presence of blood or mucus in secretions;
• Deterioration of general well-being;
• Pain and bloating;
• Constipation.

Green stools are normal if they occur intermittently and the shape and smell of the stool do not change. In formula-fed babies, a change in stool color most often occurs during the transition to new formulas. If green feces bother the baby regularly, consult a pediatrician.

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The article was written under the editorship of an expert, pediatrician, doctor of the highest category Storcheus Natalia Yurievna. To undergo the treatment mentioned in the article materials, you need to contact a specialist. The information in the article is not a call for self-treatment!

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