Although poop is a topic that is rarely brought up among conversation, I became interested in learning about it. Since it’s rarely discussed, I decided to look further into it. I knew that poop is the waste from our body but is that all it is?
The truth is, poop is actually really important. It shows exactly what’s going on in your body. A person eliminates waste by using nutrients to get rid of what your body no longer needs. Poop is especially important because it can show signs of bacterial infections, digestion complications, and even early signs of cancer but just its size and shape. People all have their own “normal” poop, so one persons poop size and color can be totally different then another person but they both can still be equally healthy. A person’s poop contains 75% water, fiber, bacteria, cells, and liquid. Three main things that doctors look for in a persons poop to see if their poop is healthy are: color, occurrence, and shape.
Frequency is very important. Most of the population poops at least once a day, which is normal. Other people go two to three times a day, which means that their metabolism is moving fast. Pooping more then three times a day means that a person has diarrhea or some type of infection. Form is also really important because it reveals how you digested what entered your body. When a person waste is watery it means that they could possibly have an infection, and should be seen by their doctor right away. Color is another important factor. Waste is colored by the liver, which produces bile (a liquid produced by the liver during digestion). The normal color is a brown. If ones waste is black and they are not on any medicine containing iron, it means that they are internally bleeding or have an ulcer or possibly even cancer.
There are many other signs of bowel trouble besides just color. For example, if ones waste is blood it means they could have hemorrhoids or anal fissures. This happens because ones anal is too tight to let anything pass through. The stools then get caught in the color or rectum, which leads to hemorrhoids or fissures. If someone has diarrhea constantly it could mean that they have Crohn’s disease. This is when the body thinks that bacteria in a persons intestines (which are good) which causes cells to leave the blood and move towards an intestine which leads to the inflammation. Constipation is also a sign of bowel trouble. It is caused by lack of hydration or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which is an inflammation of the colon.
Peoples waste habits vary from one another, but they also vary in different countries. Studies show that a less distinct bacterium consists in people in Western Countries compared to people in non-developed countries. In a recent study scientists took poop samples from the United States and Papua (a Nation in the South Pacific). The results showed that Papua had 50 more diverse bacteria than the United States. Scientists believe this is because what people in Western Countries eat causes a change in the guts bacteria. This could also be do to the different hygiene and antibiotics in countries which enters a person. A persons diet can also play a big role in this depending on the bacteria, which enters the gut. Drinking a lot of water (what most people in the US do) reduces the amount of bacteria in a person. In conclusion, people in Western Countries are the healthiest and scientists can tell by the bacteria in their waste.
A person’s waste is a very touchy subject, but one that I think should be focused on more. It can tell a lot more about a person’s health then most of us think.
Work Cited
http://www.webmd.com/ibs/what-is-ibs
http://www.webmd.com/women/features/digestive-problems
http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/health-answers/what-your-poop-telling-you/
http://thescienceofeating.com/food-combining-how-it-works/tips-tricks/what-your-poop-says-about-you/
http://www.livescience.com/50512-poop-bacteria-microbiome-lifestyle.html