You get up and you poop. After doing the deed, you carry on with your day and the cycle repeats the next day. But have you ever noticed how often you go to the washroom to empty your bowels? Apparently, the number of times you poop could reveal a lot about your long-term health.
A new study has found that the frequency impacts your gut microbiome and risk of chronic disease. Let’s take a look. How was the study conducted? The study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine analysed health and lifestyle data of over 1,400 healthy American adults.
Researchers examined the bowel movements of participants and how the frequency could have a link to gut bacteria and chronic disease. Of the participants, 83 per cent were white aged between 19 to 89 years old. About 65 per cent of participants were female.
They self-reported their bowel movement and were divided into four groups – constipation (one or two bowel movements per week), low-normal (three to six bowel movements per week), high-normal (one to three daily) and diarrhoea (four or more times per day), reported CNN. Researchers collected participants’ stool and blood samples and surveyed their dietary habits, exercise and stress levels. What did the study find? The study found reduced organ function in those who had abnormal bowel movements.
It revealed there were health risks for those who had constipation and regular diarrhoea. While chronic constipation was associated with decreased kidney function, diarrhoea was linked to reduced liver function, as per NBC News. The authors also found that younger people, women and those with a lower body mass index (BMI) tended to poop less often.
As per the study, gut bacteria that digest fibre was present more in participants who pooped once or twice a day. Whereas, people who reported either constipation or diarrhoea had bacteria linked to protein fermentation. The study also found that people with depression or anxiety had higher chances of being constipated.
Dr Sean Gibbons, the corresponding author of the study, told TODAY.com that one to two bowel movements every day was the ideal number of poops one should have. When people are constipated, gut bacteria fermented proteins, producing toxins that enter the bloodstream.
Many of these toxins are associated with chronic disease and kidney dysfunction, he explained. Meanwhile, diarrhoea was linked to “higher levels of inflammation and blood markers of reduced liver function,” Gibbons added. ALSO READ : Watch and weight: Is scrolling through those food reels making you fat? What does it mean for your health? According to Gibbons, it is not clear why the study found constipation was linked to kidney dysfunction and diarrhoea with liver dysfunction.
But the reason might be that diarrhoea does not let the gut absorb bile acids, leaving more for the liver to process. Kidneys are more impacted by toxic metabolites produced by protein-eating gut microbes, as per the NBC News report. “However, if stool stays in the gut for too long (constipation), the microbes start to run low on fibre and they switch to fermenting protein (and eating our mucus layer, which is also protein rich).
Protein fermentation in the gut gives rise to these toxic compounds that are found in the blood,” Gibbons told CNN. Speaking to CNN , Dr Kyle Staller, director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said, “What’s exciting to me about this study is that we have long known about a connection between constipation and chronic kidney disease, but the potential mechanisms have never been well understood.” “This study provides one pathway by which future studies could investigate this connection over time .
.. to learn whether people with low bowel movement frequency produce more potentially toxic metabolites and subsequently develop kidney disease,” Staller added.
However, there are limitations to the study. It only shows a link between good bowel movement and healthy germs in the gut but does not show that a good bowel regimen triggers a change in germs in our gut. “So with this study, we’re able to say that constipation was associated with changes in the microbiome, but we’re not able to say that constipation is the cause of those changes in the microbiome,” Dr Will Bulsiewicz, US medical director of science and nutrition company ZOE, told TODAY.
com. What can you do? Experts suggest having a diet with fibre to keep the bowels moving. The study found that people who ate a fibre-rich diet, stayed hydrated and exercised regularly tended to have healthier bowel movement frequency.
“First and foremost, it’s important to eat a healthy diet, feed yourself with foods that fertilise and promote good bacteria growth,” Joseph Petrosino, chair of molecular virology and microbiology at the Baylor College of Medicine, told NBC News. Your diet should include a lot of fruits and vegetables. You should reduce the consumption of red meat and alcohol.
With inputs from agencies.
