What Your Bowel Movements Reveal …

We often learn more about our health through bowel movements than one might assume. Occasionally take a peek in the toilet!

Okay, looking at your own bowel movements is definitely anything but appetizing, but occasionally you should really take a look in the toilet to spot illness.

Of course, this only works with flat flush toilets, so watch out …

Our bowel movements are a traitor

About the bowel movements , the doctor can, of course, in a stool sample certain conclusions draw on your health, but also you can add your view occasionally in the toilet hike can, to search for signs of disease.

Pay attention to the color, the consistency and also the smell. Of course, the sight is anything but pleasant and the smell can lead to gasping, but find out what a trained look at your body excretions reveals!

Look at it from three angles:

consistency

With the nature of the bowel movements you can already draw some conclusions about your diet and digestion.

As you have probably already noticed, the consistency is not always the same and sometimes extremely different from one another in terms of texture.

• Firm and lumpy, small globules:  You are probably drinking too little, and you have definitely eaten too little fiber, which ensures good stool volume and good digestion. Dietary fiber prevents colon cancer, lowers cholesterol and regulates digestion.
• Sausage-shaped and smooth or slightly cracked : this is the optimal consistency of a healthy bowel movement.

• Individual, normally soft chunks : If the chunks are not spherical and soft instead of hard, everything is fine here too.
• Unshaped, liquid or mushy : a clear case of diarrhea. Be sure to drink a lot and investigate the cause!

You have to see a doctor if your stool deviates from the norm for several days in a row, i.e. is too firm, too hard or much too soft and fluid.

Fragrance note

That is certainly the most unpleasant thing about examining your bowel movements: the smell.

But this also provides information about possible diseases and your diet. The healthier the diet, the less appetizing the smell. Basically. Because then you’ve eaten enough fiber.

But if the chair smells extremely bad, really putrid that it bites your nose sharply, then something is wrong. If this smell only comes up once, you don’t need to worry.

If it regularly stinks abnormally, please see a doctor, as this could indicate one of the following diseases:

• Inflammation of the pancreas,
• Gluten intolerance or
• Crohn’s disease.

Please keep in mind that if you have a washdown machine, so your bowel movements are submerged under water immediately after elimination, you cannot really judge the smell. Pay attention to this the next time you visit a flat flush toilet!

colour

Stool is only literally “shitty brown”? But you’re really wrong! Even if it is mostly brown in color, there are also many color gradations of “brown” and some other colors that you can discover in the toilet:

• Brown : As long as your excretion has a nice, typical brown, you don’t need to worry. The healthy color is created by bile.
• Black-brown : Even if that’s a pretty color, it’s a warning sign! Black-brown stools indicate bleeding in the stomach or upper intestines. Off to the doctor!
• Green-brown or green : Either you have an intestinal infection (this also changes the consistency and smell), or you have eaten a lot of green vegetables, for example kale. What did you have for dinner recently?
• Red-brown or red : now it depends on your memory and your powers of observation! Have you eaten red vegetables, such as beetroot? If not, it could be more “blood red” and a symptom of intestinal bleeding. You then have to see a doctor quickly.

• Orange-brown : There is only one thing that speaks for an orange-brown color: you have eaten orange-colored food. Was there pumpkin soup or a large portion of carrot salad?
• Yellow : If the stool is of normal consistency, the yellow color comes from yellow foods or because you are taking a certain antibiotic. If the stool is also shiny, greasy and smelly, it is a so-called “fatty stool”, for which you absolutely have to see a doctor!
• White : If your stool is anything but brown, the bile juices responsible for the brown color are missing. You have a problem, please consult a doctor!

As you have just read, it is worthwhile in many ways to let your gaze wander over the edge of the toilet seat and to take your fingers off your nose for a proper smell test …