Why did my stool turn green - and is this a cause for concern? This is the first thought that comes to mind when someone sees green stool in the toilet. Meanwhile, in most cases there is nothing to worry about, as the reasons why your stool turns green are often related to your diet. But there are times when this is worth exploring.
Stool is a mixture of undigested food remains, water, bacteria. The color of the stool (as well as its consistency) depends on what we eat, the medications taken, and sometimes it is also a symptom of the disease - so it is worth treating it as one of the indicators of he alth condition.
If everything is fine, the faeces are brown, banana-shaped, and pasty.
It happens, however, that despite the correct shape and consistency, the stool unexpectedly changes color - and instead of brown, green feces float in the toilet bowl.
This change is obviously worrying. Not always justified, as a change in the color of the stool to green may have various causes. You should only worry when this condition persists for several consecutive days and is accompanied by other symptoms, such as diarrhea or abdominal pain.
Causes of green stool
The color of your stool depends on several factors, including bile levels and how quickly food is digested.
Bile secreted in the liver, which is responsible for the brown color of stools, is either stored in the gallbladder or goes directly to the intestines, where it gradually changes color from greenish to yellow, and then to brown due to the action of bacteria.
However, if the food passes through the intestines faster than it should, the bile will not have time to change color and will turn the stool green - which is especially evident in diarrhea.
The color of the stool also depends on other factors, including on medications or dyes found in food. So, basically, the causes of green stool can be grouped into three main categories: food-related, supplemental, or disease-related.
What are the most common causes of green stool?
The most common causes of the change in stool color to green are:
- A diet rich in green vegetables, especially kale, spinach, broccoli and green peppers (withdue to high chlorophyll content)
- Food pigments (green, blue or yellow) contained in some products, e.g. sweets or ice cream
- Iron supplementation (stool color may then turn black or green)
- Treatment with antibiotics - they change the composition of the bacterial flora, and this sometimes causes the stool to turn green
- Diarrhea - especially in the course of salmonella or norovirus infection
- Food intolerances that cause diarrhea, e.g. lactose intolerance
- Food allergy
- Liver disease
- Problems with the gallbladder
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Malabsorption
- Celiac disease
- Parasitic infections
- Ulcerative colitis
- Crohn's disease
- SIBO team.
The rest of the article below.
What to do if your stool is green?
In the vast majority of cases, the occasional green stool is not a symptom of an illness. However, if it occurs for more than two days in a row, its cause is difficult to pinpoint (it is difficult to explain due to diet or an infection with diarrhea), and if you experience other bothersome symptoms, such as abdominal pain, consult your doctor.
Further treatment depends on the medical history. During the diagnosis, the doctor will probably order a fecal examination - general and bacteriological - with an examination for parasites and fungi.
You may also need tests for food intolerance or allergies, such as a lactose intolerance test, as well as testing the exocrine function of the pancreas, tests for anemia or vitamin deficiencies. If your doctor suspects that green stools are associated with malabsorption or a gastrointestinal disease, they will order the appropriate tests.
Green stool: how to treat?
In most cases, a slight modification of the diet is enough to restore the color of the stool to its normal brown color. When it is a symptom or a consequence of a disease or food intolerance or allergy, it is crucial to eliminate its root cause, i.e. treat the underlying disease or determine which nutrient may be harmful, and then eliminate it from the diet.
Probe