Let's face it: Digestion happens. Few of us, however, can talk about the end result with out embarrassment. It's too bad; our stools, which yield clues about diet, gastrointestinal health, and stress, anger, and anxiety levels, may be as useful a diagnostic tool as our temperature or blood preasure. "People can tell a measure of their health by their bowel movements," says Dr. Ted Loftness, an internist in Litchfield, Minnesota. "Nothing is so overrated as sex and so underrated as a good bowel movement."
From the moment food enters your mouth, your body embarks on a campaign to turn it into a soupy mush called chyme. Chewing, saliva, peristalsis (involuntary contractions of gastrointestinal muscles), bacteria, hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes, bile, and other secretions work to give each meal the consistency of split pea soup. While your digestive cells absorb sugars, starches, fats, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, waste productstravel down the line. In the colon, the left overs are combined, packed together, and partially dehydrated. What remains--our feces--consists of water, indigestible fiber, undigested food (corn, small seeds), sloughed-off dead cells, living and dead bacteria, intestinal secreations, and bile. (Worn-out red clood cells in bile give excreatment it's destinctive color).
If all goes well, you'll have a healthy bowel movement. Although digestive idiosyncrasies, variations in intestinal bacteria, and other variables can produce different standards for a healthy stool, it generally should be brown to light brown; formed but not hard; cylindrical, not flattened; fairly bulky and full-bodied, not compacted; somewhat textured but not too messy; and very easy to pass. And it shouldn't smell--much. "You're passing methane and bacterial, degraded foodstuffs, so there's always going to be an odor," says Patrick Donovan, a Seattle naturopath. "But it shouldn't be a strong, pungent odor."
Experts disagree on two other characteristics: number of pieces and buoyancy. Each bowel movement should be in one piece, about the shape and size of a banana and tapered at the end, according to Melanie Ferreira, a nutritionist and instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health in New York City. Donovan disagrees: "Stools don't have to be well-formed logs. They can disperse in the toilet water; they can break down."
Some experts argue that stools should float; Ferreira says buoyancy is a sign that the body has absorbed the minerals in the food. Others believe healthy bowel movements should touch the bottom of the bowl beacause of their bulk and fiber content. "Most stools will sink," says Loftness, who doesn't buy either argument. "Whether it floats or sinks really doesn't seem to make any difference."
One of the most common gastrointestinal complaints is hard feces and infrequent, difficult elimination--better known as constipation. Chronic constipation may contribute to autoimmune diseases and colon or breast cancer. "The longer stool stays in the colon, the more one reabsorbs the metabolic products (such as estrogen) that have been excreted in the bile," says Donovan, who treats people with cancer in his naturopathic clinic. "We can see increased risk of breast cancer in women with a history of constipation."
Experts agree that regularity is important but disagree sharply about frequency. The National Institute for Diabetes, Kidney, and Digestive Diseases says that three times a week is normal and health for some people. Acording to Ayureda, the Indian healing system, one a day provides an ideal, complete evacuation, says Virender Sodhi, M.D., an Ayurvedic doctor and naturopath in Bellevue, Washington. Donovan says a person should have a bowel movement within two to three hours of a major meal--or two to three times a day.
Ferreira thinks once or twice a day is best. She also looks beyond physical health: "The act of digestion and elimination can been seen as a metaphor for our ability to absorb what is useful from our experiances and eliminate what is unnecessary or harmful, or what holds us back. If you have a healthy bowel movement each day, you're letting go of the past and bringing in the new."
The three basics required for healthy bowel movements are fiber, fluids, and exercise. To improve your digestive system health, try these steps:
~~From Utne Reader, July - August 1999
Kinda of makes you think twice about your shit eh? Also makes you reconsider using the word shit meaning something unimportant and annoying. It's very important and useful! 8-)
Hey, shit happens.
And shit happens here at home too.
