Video
Body Check: Stools
Despite not being very pleasant, your poo is important as not only does it remove waste from your body, it can also tell you a lot about your state of health. In this video, Dr Christian tells you what changes to look out for in your poo.
Keep an eye out for changes in shape and width, as a prolonged change could be a sign of an underlying condition. What you’ve eaten can also have an effect on your poo, causing changes in form and consistency. Colour changes can also come from food, but red, black, or white stools could also indicate more serious conditions like digested blood or liver disease, so do get it checked out.
How often you go isn’t a cause for concern, but if your regularity changes or you constantly swap between constipation and diarrhoea, it could be a possible sign of bowel cancer and it would be advisable to discuss with a GP.
We want to hear about your findings, so please click the link below and add your results to our national survey.
+++UPDATE+++
From the 29th April – 5th May 2009 we conducted a National Health Survey to find out what the state of the nation’s stools was.
Over 15,000 of you responded and once again it was women that were more willing to share their findings, with 76% of respondents being female.
In total, 47% of people who took part reported Type 3 or Type 4 stools – which are normal, and sausage like in appearance – not too hard or soft. However, 22% of people reported Type 1 or Type 2 stools, which are much looser than is ideally the case. If this persists then it can be a sign of an infection, or more serious bowel conditions, such as IBS and Crohn’s.
Around 17% of respondents said that they had hard, pellety stools, and these can be a sign of constipation, so it might be worth looking at your diet if this persists for long periods of time.
Constipation can result in small amount of blood entering the stool (as can hemorrhoids or small tears to the anus) which will probably account for the 356 or so respondents that reported red blood in their poo. If this persists, it would be worth getting checked out by your GP.
A more serious concern was that around 7% of our respondents reported that they had black stools, and as this can be a sign of digested blood, it should always be checked out by your doctor, as it can be a sign of intestinal problems, and in rare cases serious conditions such as Bowel Cancer.
Yellowish stools have also caused concern for around 5% of you and the most common cause of this is a lack of bile caused by your poo moving too quickly through the digestive tract. Again if this is a persistent problem, then it should be checked by your doctor.
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Please note: Unfortunately Channel 4 cannot respond to individual inquiries. If you have any concerns, you can check out the Channel 4 Health site or NHS Choices, but ultimately it is always best to check with a health professional.
hi for the past 2 weeks i have been experiancing orange coloured diarrea. i have been racking my brain but i cant work out what it could be. i have quiet a healthy diet now so i dont think it is that.
Hi, sorry to trouble you. I am 48 year old man, non smoker non drinker. Just lost wife and children. I have not been eating hot meals for the last 7 months , I used live on biscuits and only go to the toliet for number 2 , once a week and it is small black ball shape. I am weeing a very lot eventhough I only have 3/4 cups of coffee aday.
I don't drink water on its own, never have .
I am feeling very tired all the time and keep falling a sleep. I keep seeing black things in my eyes . I am too embarsest to see my own doctor, what do you suggest please.
hi could you tell me why there are large white bits in my stools this only happens every now and again also i seem to go to the toilet alot for a wee and this happens at night im aged 46 if that helps
hello. im 14. i have been having orange poo smelly for atleast a week and stabbing pains in my right side sometimes. can i have this because i am doing less sports at the moment ? im also getting out of breath when running up a flight of stairs and getting tired half way through the day, even when i havnt been doing anything. is this normal ?
Hello I have been on anti-depressants for the past year and since being on them have become very constipated. I have been eating a high fibre diet, drink 2 litres of water a day and lots of herbal teas. I also make up my own veg juice and fruit juices. However I am still very constipated. The GP has prescribed laxatives that do not always work and I found that I need to increase them in order to get them to work. I have now put on lots of weight, get acid reflux and heartburn all the time as well as pain under my right breast. Is there anything else that I could try (I've also been drinking hot water and lemon first thing in the morning and that's not helping either).
hi can you help?
my stomach is always rumbling i mean all the time i get bloated aswell its like ive got fireworks going off in my belly all the time but its really embarrasing as my belly gets noisy i eat a balanced diet ive tried many things but it dosent help whats the cause?
Hi, my boyfried and I returned from egypt 2 weeks ago from a week holiday and since then we have both had very loose stools. I at one point a couple of days ago had a real urgency to go for 2 days and it was just water gushing out! I didn't get any tummy upsets in egypt but my boyfriend did on the 6th day but only for one day. If this carries on any longer is there anything we both need to do?
Hi. I'm having loose poo most of the time and when I have been to the toilet I feel as if I haven't finished, I do get slight tummy ache some times and sometimes have normal poo but musles have problem passing them I have been tested for IBS and all is ok there.
My 7 year old son has had loose stools since birth. I have taken him to the doctors and they have taken stool samples and blood tests but can not find anything wrong with him. At times he has accidents and can not get to the toilet in time. They can be quite explosive and his tummy is often distended. We tried a lactose free diet but did not have any improvements. The doctor has put it down to him having a fast digestive system and put him on daily imodium tablets. Do you have any other ideas to try?
Since I had my gall bladder removed two years ago I have had itermittent but frequent bouts of diahorrea. It is usually yellow brown in colour and disappears after three visits to the toilet. Is this related to the gall bladder removal – the surgeon said that it was a side effect but said for up to 12 months not 2 years.