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How Many Times A Day You Poop Can Tell You A Lot About Your Long-term Health, Study Finds
You may be able to tell a lot about your health from how often you poop.
"In the scientific literature, we see strong associations between bowel movement frequency abnormalities (constipation, in particular) and chronic diseases, like neurodegeneration and chronic kidney disease," Dr. Sean Gibbons, associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, tells TODAY.Com in an email.
Many health conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and celiac disease, generally manifest with changes to our poop habits, adds Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, gastroenterologist, bestselling author, and U.S. Medical director of science and nutrition company ZOE.
But what comes first: chronic disease or gut problems?
It's unclear if people with chronic disease simply have bowel movement abnormalities, or if constipation and diarrhea are risk factors for later developing chronic disease.
A new study aim to help better understand this association.
What did the study find?The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, examined how often about 1,400 healthy American adults had bowel movements and how the frequency may be related to gut bacteria and chronic disease.
Of the participants, 83% were white with ages ranging from 19 to 89 years old; 65% were female, and the average body mass index was in the overweight range at 27.
The researchers analyzed the participant's stool, collected blood samples and surveyed the participants on their dietary habits, exercise and stress levels.
They found markers of reduced organ function in those who had abnormal bowel movement frequencies, suggesting that when we have difficult time in maintaining a normal bowel movement frequency, this may be a risk factor for the development of chronic disease.
The study found the "Goldilocks zone" of bowel movements for a healthy lifestyle and possibly reducing risk of chronic disease was one to two bowel movements every day, Gibbons, the corresponding author of the study, says.
Researchers found possible health risks from both constipation and regular diarrhea.
When people were constipated, bacteria in the gut fermented proteins, creating toxins that made their way into the bloodstream. Several of these toxins have been associated with chronic disease and kidney dysfunction, says Gibbons.
On the other hand, diarrhea was associated with "higher levels of inflammation and blood markers of reduced liver function," he adds.
The team also found participants who reported depression or anxiety were more likely to be constipated.
One of the main limitations of the study is that it only shows an association with a good bowel regimen and healthy germs in the gut; it does not prove a good bowel regimen actually causes a change in germs in our gut.
"So with this study, we're able to say that constipation was associated with changes in the microbiome, but we're not able to say that constipation is the cause of those changes in the microbiome," says Bulsiewicz, who was not part of the study.
How to improve your poop habitsThe most actionable takeaway from the study is to increase your fiber intake, Bulsiewicz says.
"95% of Americans are deficient in fiber," he continues. "Fiber helps to normalize our bowel movements and get us into that sweet spot where the gut microbiome is optimally healthy and our bowels are moving at just the right pace, without diarrhea or constipation."
Increasing your water intake and exercising regularly can also improve your bowel frequency, the study found.
Mild constipation can often be treated with the simple lifestyle measures of consuming more fiber, drinking water and getting more exercise, Bulsiewicz notes.
Another takeaway is to keep track of how often you go to the bathroom. The study supports previous research that shows there are consequences when your poop frequency is abnormal, according to Bulsiewicz.
The study provides preliminary evidence that maintaining a "normal" bowel movement frequency, such as between three times a week and three times a day, is important to reducing the risk of chronic disease, Gibbons says.
Gibbons also recommends optimizing your bowel regimen with:
"If you see blood in your stool, that's a reason to seek immediate care," Bulsiewicz says.
Blood in the stool can look red, maroon or black, depending on where the blood is coming from and how much a person is bleeding. Any color of blood in your stool is reason to see a doctor.
Experts also recommend seeing a doctor if you encounter any of these symptoms:
How To Deal If You're Trapped In An Agonizing Constipation-Diarrhea Cycle
If you haven't pooped in days, you might find yourself praying for any sort of bowel movement—well, except diarrhea. And if you're dealing with a seemingly unending flow of shitty lava, you're probably wishing you could just stop pooping. So it's easy to see why getting stuck in a cycle of constipation and diarrhea is a special kind of hell.
Experiencing such a worst-of-both-worlds poop scenario is a classic marker of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a commonly diagnosed GI condition that can be pretty unpredictable, says Mark Pimentel, MD, a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and the director of the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) program, which focuses on IBS. There's a constipation-predominant (IBS-C), diarrhea-predominant (IBS-D), and mixed version (IBS-M) of the condition, and all of these types can come with some degree of both bowel extremes, which can be tough to manage, Dr. Pimentel tells SELF.
In fact, yo-yoing between constipation and diarrhea can actually be the result of treating either symptom, whether or not you've been formally diagnosed with IBS. Read on to learn how the vicious constipation-diarrhea cycle typically starts and how to get yourself off the GI seesaw.
Technically speaking, you're constipated if you're pooping fewer than three times a week, whereas diarrhea means you're letting out loose or watery poops three or more times a day. Simply dealing with a combination of the above on a regular basis and experiencing discomfort with either may be enough for a doctor to diagnose you with IBS. (After all, the condition is technically defined by a set of GI-related symptoms, like abdominal pain and changes in poop frequency and consistency, that have gone on consistently for at least three months.)
The problem is, experts don't fully understand what leads to these symptoms in the first place. One of the primary theories is that there's a breakdown in communication between your gut and your brain, leading the former to become hypersensitive to nerve signals from the latter—but again, we don't know why that might happen to certain people (factors like genetics, a mental health issue, or a bacterial imbalance are all potential culprits). As a result, the drugs we have for IBS just treat individual symptoms, Dr. Pimentel says, which, in itself, can cause a flip-flopping effect between bowel problems.
Take constipation: A doctor will typically recommend trying a stool softener or a laxative, which either makes your poop wetter or bulkier, or stimulates the nerves in your gut to push things along—and all of this can inadvertently cause loose poops. And for diarrhea, you'd likely take loperamide (a.K.A. Imodium), which slows the movement of your intestines, potentially triggering constipation. So in either case, you might knock out one symptom only to end up with the opposite one—cue the GI whack-a-mole!
But you could certainly get milder versions of constipation and diarrhea—say, struggling to poop for a couple days or getting the runs every so often—or some occasional switching between the two for a few one-off reasons as well.
New Study Links Chronic Constipation, Diarrhea To Organ Dysfunction
Constipation and diarrhea are problems enough on their own.
However, a new study links chronic versions of those ailments to organ dysfunction.
Dr. Dutch Vanderveldt, a gastroenterologist with Texas Health Dallas and Texas Health Frisco explains what can make this happen.
The authors make the point that bowel functions in general are associated with a lot of health outcomes.
Direct association would be somebody with severe constipation, or the long term can be and develop things like diverticulosis or direct colon disease.
Indirect would be the effect that the microbes in the bowel have on the person in general. And there's a lot of study going on about that.
In this particular article, the authors make the point that in constipated patients, there is a higher prevalence of a particular blood metabolite called 3-IS associated with kidney dysfunction or chronic renal disease.
How is that possible? Bowel microbes are producing a metabolite and digesting proteins, and that metabolite then goes into the blood. And that blood level is a toxic level and can create issues with the kidney.
This gives us another look at what we might call the gut-brain-body connection?
I think the real message from this is it adds to the overall literature and research out there demonstrating gut health is incredibly important to the overall body health.
Well, this article simply points out an association, not a causal or not a causative issue. The importance is that it's adding to this body of work that's saying when gut health is not good - as demonstrated by either constipation or diarrhea - this can have ramifications on the person as a whole.
When these kinds of problems happen, what's the best way to treat them?
I think that when people have alterations of their bowel habits, either diarrhea or constipation, the first step is always lifestyle:
We're talking about medications from there. And then, we're talking about more, unique treatments.
For instance, in very specific instances, there are treatments called fecal transplantation where fecal microbiota from another person are injected into a person to help them rid themselves of specific bacteria.
There's work being done on probiotics, symbiotics, and prebiotics, specifically in people with certain disease states or immune problems or young people.
And then there's research now going on as to looking at the microbiota of a person and trying to tailor make, probiotics, prebiotics for that person to encourage good bacteria.
So the simpler thing is to try to take care of yourself?
I know this comes off as almost cliche at this point, right? Because it's the first thing we always hear: diet and exercise, taking care of yourself, getting a good diet, making sure you're hydrated. But it's so important. And it's the very basis for the treatment of many G-I disorders. It's the first thing we start talking about when we talk to our patients.
RESOURCES:
STUDY: Aberrant bowel movement frequencies coincide with increased microbe-derived blood metabolites associated with reduced organ function
Constipation: Symptoms and Causes Diarrhea: Symptoms, Causes and Treatments
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