An interesting review of how useful our poop is, the current science of capturing that information, and what is going on on the inside to cause our stool to look the way it does.
The main takeaways are:
- If you’re constipated - you’re absorbing too much water, drink more.
- If you have diarrhea - you’re losing a lot of water, drink more.
- If your poop experience is poor, try…
- eating more fiber, but ramp up slowly as you might not have the right mix of microbes at the start.
- boosting the diversity of your microbiome by eating plain yogurt (daily), and fermented foods like kimchi or kombucha.
- When you travel, expect to have a bad time - best to prepare your microbiome beforehand with the above tips.
Some other notes I took:
Useful
- Overuse of laxatives in general can decrease absorption of nutrients and other medications, cause electrolyte imbalances, create dependency and actually worsen constipation by interfering with the colon’s natural contractions.
- Yellow and greasy suggest not digesting fat well; and that evaluation for celiac disease or another cause of malabsorption is warranted.
- Green stool could be food passing too quickly and not giving your bile a chance to break down into brown colour;
- Black could be bleeding in upper tract or black licorice
- Red could be beets or bleeding in lower tract - often hemorrhoids but sometimes more seriously colon cancer
- White or clay-coloured / devoid of colour from bile suggests a blockage in a duct that carries bile from liver to gallbladder -> in infants is life threatening if not corrected
- Constipation can tear the main intestinal lining and cause anal fissures. Intense pressure on the colon can cause diverticulitis (inflamed or infected pouches of gut tissue), hemorrhoids (akin to varicose veins; also can be from prolonged sitting on the pot), to more serious conditions like defecation syncope (fainting on the toilet), or even a stroke.
- Posture modification on the toilet can reduce strain and encourage a more complete evacuation.
- When ramping up on fiber, if you didn’t already eat a lot of fiber, you’ll need to ramp up slowly, to avoid stomach cramps (as it’s unlikely you have the right fiber-munching bacteria to begin with). Slow and steady can cultivate the microbiome you seek, and adding fermented foods / yogurt can do wonders too.
- The bacteria sometimes take time to ramp up the right metabolic pathways or fiber-processing genes. In artificial guts, you see bacteria don’t degrade the fiber as much on the first day compared to the next.
- Microbiome disruptions like: food poisoning, international travel, and dietary changes are all associated with shifts in gut flora.
- Sometimes, these changes can introduce totally new species that sometimes wipe out weaker competition. However, it is usually the case that the system as a whole preserves their functionality - like digesting carbohydrates.
- This is where food sensitivity tests, and microbiome lab tests (stool testing) fall short. It’s an expensive snapshot of your current system that will need to be done again in the near future.
- Eating a diet rich in fermented foods like: yogurt, kimchi, and kombucha tea for many weeks shows signs of improved gut microbiome diversity and reduced signs of inflammation compared to counterparts on a high-fiber diet.
- “The bacteria food alone isn’t enough; we need the bacteria that can eat it.”
- Caution: nothing is guaranteed. What works for others won’t necessarily work for you
Less useful, but noteworthy
- Constipation - colon absorbs too much water. 15 major classes of drugs can cause constipation, according to one tally, even tylenol can stop things up
- Many drugs cause diarrhea by increasing intestinal muscle movements that push everything onwards. Allergies, infections, contaminated or overly spicy food can trigger an immune response to flush out the system. Can be from IBS, lactose intolerance, diseases, drugs or damage can inflame or tear the intestinal lining, interfering with water absorption that makes matters worse.
- Some researchers claim timing transit is more important than Bristol stool scale.
- Median is 29 hours. Range is 4 hours - 10 days
- Longer transit time associated with greater gut diversity -> not sure how well studied this is
- And greater diversity isn’t always a good thing -> if that diversity includes an unfavourable mix.
- C-section + instant formula over vagina birth + breastfeeding alter microbiome in ways that increase the risk of asthma and allergies.
- Babies exposed to a broader diversity of microbes are more protected and have lower risk of bad lifelong health outcomes
- Think of your microbiome as your mini ecosystem for which you are the caretaker. * If you eat poorly, don’t prioritise sleep, exercise, and a balanced lifestyle, your microbiome is likely to get out of balance.
Not useful, but cool
- German made: Flachspuler - or flat-flush toilet, helps people examine their stool before being flushed
- People in the US eat about 30-35% of the fiber that they should - which makes the average deposit in western toilets a fraction of what they should be
- Lots of applications for measuring specific biomarkers like proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and smaller metabolites that your microbes create. These have been used to predict childhood obesity and even intelligence. However, this research is beyond the scope of Gut Hub - and the research is very new. It’s unclear in which direction the relationship is causal; does measurable intelligence modify your gut biome, or the other way around?
3/5.