Stool Gazing; A Cache of Digestive Matter

Stool gazing has history as far back as ancient Pharaonic medicine as well as India and China.

Faecal examination provided Hippocrates with clues as to the balance of the four humours:  blood, phlegm, black bile or yellow bile, a concept that held sway right up until the 18th century AD.  The humours were suggested to be synergetic to temperament and emotion. Holding true, I’ve often met with clients experiencing regular diarrhoea and loose stools who tend towards irritation, anger or anxiety. It’s wondrous that their chosen diets can be strikingly similar to clients enduring chronic constipation, who sit in a space of depression and opposition. They are literally stuck and the wisdom of their body is trying to bring this awareness out. It’s an opportunity to become unstuck! The most common is to fluctuate between alternating bowel habits regardless of diet, caught up between your intention and your wants’. Not having worked out ‘who you want to be, what matters and what is important.

Patterns between our ‘disposition’ and our ‘poop’ illuminate the impact of our thoughts and nervous system’s that can go beyond food choice, probiotics and supplements on our digestive health. So, bear this in mind when interpreting health messages from the bowls of our toilets.

If you are interested in connecting the dots between your mood, character, food choices and eating times, that will uncover your guide to individual health, a simple tool known as the Food/Mood/Poop Tracker is a masterly teacher.

Putting aside the interpretations of your foods and your moods, this blog concentrates on transforming you into a faecal matter sorcerer 💩

Caveat!! There’s always an admonition. Our human cognition works by patterning meaning into things. Albeit somewhat scientific the dominant world view on stool interpretation as related to health is just one pointer. I’ve included views through this lens but also given you a blend of anecdotal explanations, that keep us heading in the direction of reality itself.

Frequency:

• Pooping out unabsorbed food residues and bacteria propagated by contraction into the distal section of the colon commonly occurs first thing in the morning. Hinting towards acceptance that if you have eaten the day before we could expect that at least one stool excretion daily would be achievable. Such fulfilling mass movements often occur before breakfast or may be triggered by eating breakfast. If you have a more sensitive bowel, evacuation may occur at other times of the day also. Less than one movement a day can suggest slow bowel transit time and toxins will be in contact with your colon walls longer, reabsorbed and can overfeed certain microbes 🤢

• Stagnation in stool movement can occur as a result of excess body fat, higher serum cholesterol, and food intollerance.

Constipation, hard stools, difficult to pass or lumpy stools can suggest:

• Slow transit time

• Insufficient water intake or metaphorically, are you feeling dry? (bringing fun back and let go of the things controlling us, can improve bowel movements)

• A lack of the right fibre for you

• Protein intake too high

• Not enough movement in your day

• You are frequently ignoring the urge to go and holding out which can create a particularly bulky stool that is harder to pass

• Insufficient healthful fats OR too much fat in ratio to vegetarian matter can make stools smaller and harder

• Food allergies & sensitivities

• Magnesium deficiency

• Thyroid or other hormone imbalance (including pre-diabetes)

• Lactose intolerance

• A sluggish gallbladder

• Dysbiosis with an absence of sufficient lactobacilli & Bifidobacteria (microbes with a pro-motility effect)

• Your meals sizes are wrong for your bio-individuality - too much food at that sitting

• Too many cold foods

• Too many raw vegetables, fruit or seafood

• Prescription drug use

• Is it being driven by guilt or fear or resentment? Something for you to ponder 🤔

Diarrhoea, poorly formed mushy (soft blobs, no solid pieces):

• Food allergies or intolerances (esp: gluten, casein, lactose)

• Fibre too high

• Poor food combination for your digestion

• Insufficient carbohydrate digestion

• Insufficient fat digestion

• Parasites

• Immune evacuation

• Antibiotic use

• Excess magnesium or vitamin C

• Viral infection

• Leaky gut

• Sugar intolerance

• Food poisoning

• When your food moves through too quickly you won’t absorb it and you’ll feel unnourished. We don’t get a chance to process nutrients sufficiently. Could this be symbolic of not having processed emotions or avoidance of a difficult conversation?

• Are you flying through life, ticking boxes but never finding satisfaction as there’s no time to do things properly? Perhaps there’s an invitation in there somewhere to slow down.

• The type 5 poop on the Bristol Stool Chart (see below) signifies an anxious colon, creating the urge to pass small packages with regularity.

Thin or Ribbon Stools:

• Suggestive of increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system

• Structural issues causing spasms or obstructions

• Enlarge prostrate

Excess gas, bloating, pain, foul-smelling:

• Insufficient pancreatic enzymes

• Inability to process amount, type or frequency of protein intake

• Insufficient carbohydrate digestion

• Parasites

• Dysbiosis

• Gluten intolerance

Undigested food in stools:

• Insufficient HCL

• Eating too quickly

• Insufficient pancreatic enzymes

• Insufficient bacteria to break down undigested foods

• The thick waxy coats of peas and corn is recognisable in the stool but means nil.

• If food is moving through the body too quickly other components such as the skins of tomatoes, green leaves of some vegetables may be seen

• Some parasites present as "sesame shaped flecks in the stool

Mucous in stools:

• Poor dairy digestion

• Food allergy/sensitivity

• Dysbiosis

• Parasites

• Herbal laxative use

• Emotional stress or depression

• Inflammation

Pale stools:

• Insufficient bile secretion (If secretion of bile is blocked by stones the pigment will not enter the gut and the stool turns a very pale colour

• paler stools contained more water and can indicate rapid transit (investigate)

• Steatorrhoea stools are characteristically described as pale, bulky and offensive due to an excessive loss of fat in the stool (coeliac disease?/ Impaired absorption of fat?/antibiotics?/ low Bacteroides?)

Sinking stools:

• Too much decaying matter

• Non-utilised minerals eg: calcium

• Lack of fats in the diet

Floating stools:

• Carbohydrate malabsorption

• Fermentation of large amounts of undigested fruit and vegetables

• Insufficient fat digestion

The ways in which things connect are frequently more important than the things themselves. If you are in the early stages of your ‘gut & digestive journey’ the potential meanings behind your poop may be sufficient to begin. However, if you feel you have been doing everything ‘right’ and things still are not settled, it might be time to look outside the box and join “The Digestive Root” program. This is where we delve into the connections between your poop, moods and food. You can find details on my “Way to Work With Me” page 🌼