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 NHS Choices, but ultimately it is always best to check with a health professional.
hi im sick of my bowls i have problem where my anus sweats all the time and i bath 3 times a day and it feels like wind coming out all the time im sick help me please
Please go and have colonic hydrotherapy, it works!! Make sure the therapist is ARCH registered,they have been trained fully,Good luck!
i have a tag? near my anus.after the loo it sometimed itches and feels moist? i have to re wipe myself which is usually almost clear.sometimrs if i walk a lot i get pink? past couple days i have had deep red in my poo but not constant? i sometimes runny usually normal?is this the tag?it gets me down so much but embarrassed to see doctor? scared it cancer what can i do ? i dont want the tag it is so uncomfortable
I think i have worms. I have this tiny whit things that move everytime i poo. Also get this sticky mucus and my anus itches. I can't talk to anyone about it because i am soo embarrased, and my parents see worms as a sign of being dirty.
Gp can prescribe drugs or do it the natural way with garlic, cloves, wormwood...speak to a herbalist shop...you do have worms!
every time i go to toilet to poo i have blood down toilet and quit a lot its fresh blood and im very concerned could you please give me some advice on what might be wrong with me please.
Go see your GP. is it painless? Prob haemorroids or tear,if pain could be a fissure.
I had a neurological disorder but prior to diagnosis I was told over a period of 30 years that I had irritable bowel syndrome. My stools ran the gamut of types of stools that are mentioned in this article. Since commencing antispasmodics for my other disorder, I have been much more regular. But this last week, well 10 days or so, I have had severe peristalsis, lots of pain with the feeling of great need to pass a stool but have not been able to. Then 4 days into this, I had very bad watery diarrhoea for one day. I wondered then whether I had an impacted bowel. However in desperation, as I was working out of the country, I took Imodium, and then had three days without passing anything. Then yesterday and today I've had to go to the toilet several times, again with bad cramps, but only passed one small school each day. These stools have been as if several rabbit pellets compacted together but absolutely full of mucuos today's was extremely white mucuos. After passing today's stool I also passed an awful lot of separate mucuos which had unprocessed food inside it. My wife is a wonderful and extremely knowledgeable cook, she wrote most of our summer fruit and vegetables on our allotment, she also stores a lot through fast freezing for the winter, and she shops well and ensures we all eat extremely nutritious food -and you can tell from our children who were all extremely fit, happy, healthy, and really great people. So what goes wrong for me, why am I the only one to suffer in this way. I feel as if my body is poisoned, my skin is terrible, have lichen plainness not only in the mucosal areas but on my skin as well. I would just like to feel well occasionally.
Fastest , safest way,colonic hydrotherapy with fully qualified therapist, search ARCH for nearest to you.
hi ive had a problem where i get a like mucusy sticky substance on my poo, i have recently had worms and i have also noticed small cuts around my anus. What is wrong with me? help please?
This is realy embarassing but I am having trouble with my bowels. I am unable to go to the toilet normally and I am embarassed to say I have to put on a glove and get it out myself.It is not because it is too hard but it is a large mass of sticky almost putty consistency. I have many symptoms of IBS and have had for years and this is what my doctor puts it down too but it is affecting my life seriously now and I don't know where to turn.
For a long time I have noticed mucus on my stools and they seem quite sticky. I eat healthy and drink lots of water. What could this be?
I seem to do HUGE poos, that take a couple of flushes to go down, bit i can nevder seem to get any avdice for this, as they do not hurt at all. the consistency is fine but the size is starting to worry me. I will also be living in a shared flat in a couple of months, so this will be both embarassing for me and discgusting for the other person. I eat plenty of fibre, fruit an d veg could it be that im eating too much? i dont eat an excessive amount but i guess ill have to stick to 3 meals and nothing else from now on. thanks
Hello. I have been experiencing my problems for a long time now. I have this discomfort in the sternum area, beneath my bust, and I also have problems doing a poo, firstly I am very constipated and I pass "pebbles", then afterwards it is normal and soft-like, but I need to have my bowels open at least 8 times each day. I have had an endiscopy and also a barium enema, but all I was informed my the doctor that it was divericula disease and discharged me. Do I have a serious problem please? Oh! One thing I forgot to mention was that the shape changes often fron very thin to normal thickness and when I have to go many times, sometimes it is so "minute", it was hardly worth it, but I just felt I had to go.
