Stool colour

Victor

Originally posted by Dathai
The darker the colour the more fiber you've

Not quite. If I'm right the brown colour is large down to the by-products of blood.

Remind me of my 6th year biology - what exactly causes the colour - is it Bilirubin?

Capt'n Midnight

[must resist - can't hold out longer - no no no - sorry]

What's brown and sits in front of a piano ?
Bathoveen's piano stool..

What's brown and sits in front of a piano ?
Bathoveen's stool..

[/]

When you have a major iron defficiency you won't get this colouring..

GuanYin

Generally the ones you'd most associate with diet are very dark (blackish), very light (pale/clay) or green coloured faeces.

Blackish stools can be caused by high iron content (lots of green veg like spinich), medicines with bismuth, aspirin and foods with certain colourings like bourbon biscuits, licorice, and dark berries.

Occasionally blood from the digestive tract can cause this but this would be worrying as it would need to be in high quantities (as most of it would be denatured through digestion).

Clay/pale-ish stools are due to a lack of bile salts (which naturally colour faeces), some antacid treatments or as a medical condition it may be a sign of hepatitus.

Green stools can be due to a leafy diet, high iron, food colourings or medically a decreased transit time for food through the gut.

Victor

But what causes the usual "consistent" brown colour?

GuanYin

Originally posted by Victor
But what causes the usual "consistent" brown colour?

Erm...bile salts.....

bile salts (which naturally colour faeces),

BioHazRd

Originally posted by syke
Clay/pale-ish stools are due to a lack of bile salts (which naturally colour faeces), some antacid treatments or as a medical condition it may be a sign of hepatitus.

Or more specifically, bile is broken down by digestion to form urobilinogen which gives faeces its brown colour. If this is missing, the stool will be pale, and waxy in appearance. The main cause of this is obstructive jaundice.

Gallstones would be the main reason for obstructive jaundice (and are also associated with attacks of severe abdominal pain)

Interestingly, gallstones are actually made from solidified cholesterol - and no - reducing the cholesterol in your diet has no effect on the cholesterol secreted in bile.

Bio

Nala

What a lovely thread! Even nicer than the "Anal sex without a condom" and all it's vulgarities over in Personal Issues...

Victor

Originally posted by neev
What a lovely thread! Even nicer than the "Anal sex without a condom" and all it's vulgarities over in Personal Issues...

Guess which board this is though?

DriftingRain

Lovely...

I had a positive Occult blood on a 9 year old girl today....And she was soooo Cute!



~DR~

/me wipes tear!

simu

Originally posted by DriftingRain
Lovely...

I had a positive Occult blood on a 9 year old girl today....And she was soooo Cute!



~DR~

/me wipes tear!

What on earth does that mean?

GuanYin

Originally posted by simu


What on earth does that mean?

Occult blood tests are tests for blood in stool samples where the blood isn't readily visible. Usually it inidcates colon cancer but in a 9 year old, unless they were diagnosed in a high risk group I'd be surprised if it was cancer.

More likely is a gut parasite or bacterial infection, which can also cause positive occult bloods. Ulcers and weak/leaky blood vessels also do the job.

simu

Thanks! I didn't know that.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by syke
Occult blood tests are .....
...
Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

Gordon

I thought poop was brown because of the large amount of red blood cells being ejected.

Victor

Well as explained above, it's broken down and part-digested blood cells, not the cells themselves.