What Your Stools Say About Your Health?

It is essential to look for consistent changes and understand your digestive system.

- Boitumelo Ntsoane

TALKING about one’s stools may not be an ideal discussion, hardly anyone even has a look at what needs to be flushed away. Although this may be a silent topic to many people, it is important to know what is normal and not, as well as when to be concerned about your stools and why, as your stools say a lot about what’s happening in your gastrointestinal tract (digestive tract).

CHEMICAL CHANGES 

As we all would agree, stools are normally brown. The colour is a result of what we eat and the amount of bile we have in our stools. Bile is a fluid made by the liver which helps in the digestion of fats. It is yellow at first, but as it passes through the gut it turns to brown due to chemical changes.

CHANGE IN DIET 

Getting familiar with what’s normal for you can also make it easier to spot issues with your digestive system earlier, making it easier to treat.

It is better to look for consistent changes instead of going overboard with day-to-day changes, because sometimes temporary changes are bound to happen, depending on what you’ve been eating. If there has been a change in your stools for a week or longer, it would be advisable to contact your doctor. 

Here are some ways in which you can tell what your stools say:

CONSISTENTLY HARD 

Usually when your stools are hard, and are passed in pieces with strain, it probably means you are constipated.