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.
The liver releases bile salts into the stool, giving it a normal brown color. You may have clay-colored stools if you have a liver infection that reduces bile production, or if the flow of bile out of the liver is blocked. Yellow skin (jaundice) often occurs with clay-colored stools.
The color of stools varies, but typically falls within the spectrum of brown color, depending on the foods you eat. You should be concerned if your stools are deep red, maroon, black, or "tarry," especially if they have a noticeable odor. This may mean that there is blood in the stool.
Scan for Color Changes
Colon cancer can cause bleeding in the digestive tract and make your stool a dark brown, maroon, or black.
Abnormal poop
excessive straining when pooping. poop that is red, black, green, yellow, or white. greasy, fatty stools.
Bile salts are released into your stools by your liver, giving the stools a brown color. If your liver is not producing enough bile, or if the flow of the bile is blocked and not draining from your liver, your stools may become pale or clay-colored. Having pale stools once in a while may not be a cause for concern.
Stools should be brown, have a peanut-butter texture, and look like a sausage. If your stool has an abnormal color or consistency, it may be due to something you ate or an underlying medical condition in need of investigation by a healthcare provider.
An occasional clay-colored stool isn't usually a concern. However, if pale stools persist, it can point to a problem with bile ducts or another underlying medical condition. It's essential to see a healthcare provider, especially if you have any other concerning symptoms, like jaundice or pain.
Pale Poop Color
If your poop color is light (either pale, white, grey, or clay-colored), there could be a lack of bile in the stool. A blockage of the bile ducts from gallstones, or a condition affecting your gallbladder, liver, or pancreas, can cause decreased bile output.
Ideally, your stool should be somewhere between firm and soft. Thankfully you can figure this out just by looking at it – there's no need to do a touch test. If your poop is a well-formed log and it wasn't too hard to squeeze out, it's probably the right consistency.
Knowing When You Have an Intestinal Problem
Constipation. Bloating. Blood in the stool. Cramping.
Your bowel habits are a strong indicator of your digestive health. Changes in the color, shape and texture of your stool can reveal signs of infection, digestive issues or more serious health problems, such as cancer.
Stool DNA testing is used to screen for colon cancer in people with no symptoms. It also screens for growths of cells, called polyps, that could one day become cancer. The stool DNA test looks for DNA changes and small amounts of blood shed into the stool. These might come from colon cancer or colon polyps.
Rectal bleeding. Change in bowel habits including loose stools (diarrhoea) constipation or narrower than normal stools. Abdominal pain. Feeling like your bowel isn't emptying completely.
Stringy poop may also be referred to as stools that are pencil-thin, ribbon-like, thin, or narrow. Normal stool is about 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Stringy poop is narrow and, in some cases, almost flat, giving it a stringy appearance. It may be solid or loose.
Common examples of structural GI diseases include strictures, stenosis, hemorrhoids, diverticular disease, colon polyps, colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.
If you have a gastrointestinal or bowel perforation, you may experience: Abdominal pain or cramping, which is usually severe. Bloating or a swollen abdomen. Fever or chills.
Viral gastroenteritis is an intestinal infection that includes signs and symptoms such as watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea or vomiting, and sometimes fever.
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.
Doctors generally consider it healthy if you poop anywhere between three times a day and three times a week. Many factors can influence how often you poop, including your diet, how much water you drink, and your stress levels, among others.
As stated at the outset, as we age things change, and this includes bowel habits. The most common thing to happen with age is that constipation is more frequent.
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.