Here is What Your Stool Is Saying About Health

Believe it or not, your stool says a lot about what your health.

Its shape and color can sometimes indicate diseases. And knowing more about it can help your doctor determine if there is something wrong with your gastrointestinal tract. We’ve written down different recurring shapes and colors of stools and have decided to tell you what it means and if you should be worried or not.

Shape First (Stool Says About Health):

image credits: Wikipedia

Researchers at the Bristol Royal Infirmary have developed a sort of chart that maps out the various shapes of stools. It’s called the BSF, short for Bristol Royal Infirmary. It helps doctors distinguish between normal and abnormal stools and all the patient has to do is to point at the picture that resembles their stool the most. Easy right? No need for embarrassing details anymore! So, we’ve listed out the shapes in Bristol Royal Infirmary and their effects too.

Note: You’re probably wondering, is this even scientifically backed. Or who cares what stool says about health? However, we can assure you that our poop chart is totally legit. Yellow poop, dark green poop, clay-colored stool, bright green poop, dark brown poop all have meanings in the poop color chart. This can even help you diagnose problems.

1. Separate lumps that are hard (Stool Says About Health):

If your stool is difficult to pas and is coming out lumpy and hardened it is most likely that you are dealing with acute dysbacteriosis (impaired microbial activity) and the stool is lacking water and is hard because there isn’t any bacteria to hold on to it. Sometimes such a problem can lead to anal bleeding and can be caused by excessive antibiotic use.

2. Sausage-like lumpy stool (Stool Says About Health):

This kind of stool is common in constipation, it’s hard to pass and has the separated lumps are mushed together from the first category. Such a stool is likely to have remained inside the body for over 72 hours and a person who is suffering from something of the sort is likely to start feeling the pressure of the stools against his or her intestinal walls. A doctor should immediately be consulted.

3. Like the second category but with cracks (Stool Says About Health):

Can be caused by latent constipation and has all the same characteristics as the second, but it simply has cracks on it unlike the category mentioned above. As mentioned above, a doctor should be immediately contacted.

4 and 5. Like a sausage with a crack or like a sausage with cut edges (Stool Says About Health):

This kind of stool is ideal and is common for a person who passes stools once or twice a day and indicates that the person is healthy.

6. Watery Stool (Stool Says About Health):

This is commonly caused by diarrhea and it can accompany the first category of stool because the fluid in the intestine has no place to go but down because of the accumulated stools. Again a doctor should be consulted.

Note: You’re probably wondering, is this even scientifically backed. Or who cares what stool says about health? However, we can assure you that our poop chart is totally legit. Yellow poop, dark green poop, clay-colored stool, bright green poop, dark brown poop all have meanings in the poop color chart. This can even help you diagnose problems.

The color of Stool (Stool Says About Health):

image credits: iStock

Usually the color of the stool you pass is associated with the food you’ve eaten, for example, if you are eating a lot of green vegetables its likely that your stool will be green but sometimes an odd color can arise and it might be time to contact your doctor about it. Here are some likely colors you might see and their causes.

Brown Stool:

A brown stool is normal and indicates that everything is in order. The fat digesting bile from your gal bladder has converted the food you’ve had to brown.

Green Stool:

Your stool may be appearing green because of the food you’ve had (an example is having Kale in your meal) but sometimes the food you’ve consumed is not the cause of your stools color, it can because you have green diarrhea. In any case, contacted a doctor is better.

Yellow Stool:

If your stool is yellow and extremely smelly and greasy it can be because your body hasn’t been able to digest your food properly. This usually happens to people suffering from celiac disease after consuming different kinds of bread or food items that contain rye, wheat etc.

Clay Stool:

A few types of medications can cause white or clay-colored stool but a more serious issue is that it clay-colored stool can be caused by lack of bile. Talk to your doctor.

Red Stool:

If you see red in the toilet you don’t have to be immediately alarmed, it can be that you had something red in your meal and that’s causing the color. But if you believe that it isn’t because of your meal, it may be that t red color is because of blood. You should contact a doctor because having blood in your stool is serious and maybe because of some serious complications.

Note: You’re probably wondering, is this even scientifically backed. Or who cares what stool says about health? However, we can assure you that our poop chart is totally legit. Yellow poop, dark green poop, clay-colored stool, bright green poop, dark brown poop all have meanings in the poop color chart. This can even help you diagnose problems.

Article by Born Realist