The Truth About Poop: Understanding Stool Color, Shape, and Frequency

WebMD helps you answer the most common and sometimes sensitive questions about bowel movements.

We have a lot of silly names for it: BMs, caca, doo-doo, turds, and of course, poop.

We don't generally discuss it in our daily conversations.

But asking some important questions about your bowel movements might give you some insight into your gastrointestinal health. Here's the scoop on poop.

Bowel movements are the end result of your body taking the nutrients it needs from the food you eat and eliminating what's left. 

“Bowel movements are important for your health because they are the body’s natural way of excreting waste from the body,” says Eric Esrailian, MD, section head in general gastroenterology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

When it comes to frequency, color, shape, and size, a general rule of thumb is that normal bowel movements are defined as what’s comfortable for you. But being knowledgeable about your digestive process can help you identify when normal goes awry.

Frequency: “There is no normal when it comes to frequency of bowel movements, only averages” says Bernard Aserkoff, MD, a doctor in the GI Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

It’s average to go once or twice a day, he says, but many people go more, and some go less -- maybe every other day, and or as infrequently as once or twice a week.  As long as you feel comfortable, you don’t need to give your BMs much thought.

Color: “Bowel movements are generally brown in color because of bile, which is produced in the liver and important to the digestion process,” Aserkoff tells WebMD.

The food you eat typically takes three days from the time you eat it until it finishes its journey in your toilet, Aserkoff says. If it takes a shorter time, the result may be greener stool because green is one of the first colors in the rainbow of the digestive process.

Color can be a red flag when it’s a drastic change, Aserkoff says.

“If stool is black, it can mean that you are bleeding internally, possibly as a result of an ulcer or cancer,” he says.  Stool that is black due to bleeding is also "sticky" (tarry) and smells bad. However, black stools are common when taking a vitamin that contains iron or medications that contain bismuth subsalicylate.

Stool that is light in color -- like grey clay -- can also mean trouble if it’s a change from what you normally see. Although it doesn’t happen often, very light-colored stool can indicate a block in the flow of bile or liver disease.

Size and shape: “We used to believe that size was indicative of a problem if the stool was ‘pencil-thin,’” Aserkoff says. “But recent research indicates that this is actually not true.”

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The Truth About Facial Serums

By Shelley Levitt
WebMD Magazine - Feature

Faster and lighter are the qualities many of us look for in a car, a laptop, and our bodies when we're running a marathon. They're also the prized attributes of skin care serums -- light, fast-absorbing liquids used as an alternative or in addition to creams or lotions.

The biggest difference between a serum and a cream or lotion is what the formulation doesn't include. Serums leave out occlusive, or airtight, moisturizing ingredients such as petrolatum or mineral oil that keep water from evaporating. They also contain fewer lubricating and thickening agents, like nut or seed oils. Most serums are water-based, eliminating oils altogether.

Serums are a top pick of many skin care pros, including Ni'Kita Wilson, a cosmetic chemist and vice president of research and innovation at Englewood Lab. Wilson chooses a serum instead of a cream for her own at-home regimen: "It works better for my oily skin, and it has every ingredient I need."

Esthetician Veronica Barton-Schwartz, owner of Veronica Skin and Body Care Center in Malibu, Calif., who counts celebrities Olivia Newton-John, Suzanne Somers, and Cher among her clients, is also a fan. "I think everyone is doing their skin a disservice if they don't have a great serum."

"The beauty of a serum is that most of the fluid is eliminated," Wilson says, "so what you're left with is a high concentration of active ingredients." Serums contain the most potent dose of anti-aging ingredients -- antioxidants, peptides, and skin brighteners such as kojic acid -- you can find in nonprescription products. "They're the true workhorses of any product line," Wilson says.

Because active ingredients are more expensive than thickeners, serums are also the costliest product in many skin care lines. But when applied properly, a 1-ounce container of serum should last months. Many brands come in pump bottles or have medicine-dropper applicators to dispense just the tiny amount you need.

Those few concentrated drops are super-efficient. Serums are made of very small molecules, so the skin absorbs them quickly and deeply. "The thicker, heavier ingredients in creams form a barrier on your skin," Wilson says. "That's great for locking moisture in. But it can also lock active ingredients out. Without these hindrances, the active ingredients in a serum penetrate your skin faster and more effectively."

Jessica Wu, MD, a Santa Monica, Calif., dermatologist, and author of Feed Your Face: Younger, Smoother Skin and a Beautiful Body in 28 Delicious Days, recommends serums to many of her patients. "They're great for people with oily skin," she says, "or those who prefer a weightless feel to their skin care products. Serums have a non-greasy finish and they don't leave behind a sticky residue."

Still, serums aren't for everyone. Wu says the liquid or gel-like texture of a serum can be a poor match for people with chronic skin conditions like eczema or rosacea, which weaken the skin barrier. For these people, serums may penetrate too quickly, causing irritation. 

Others need the hydration that a rich day or night cream provides. "If you have mature or dry skin, you can't get away with using just a serum," says Wilson. Instead, she recommends a serum as an add-on to your skin care regimen, layered under your moisturizer. "There's a lot of benefit to serums, from smoothing fine lines to reducing age spots, that you can't reproduce in any other formulation," she says.

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Healthy Oils, Healthy Fats: The ‘New’ Truth

New research has overturned some long-held ideas about good fats and bad fats. It used to be gospel truth: Saturated fat is bad. New studies suggest that, while no one would call saturated fats "good," in moderation they may not be so hard on your heart after all. What's more, replacing saturated fats with the wrong kinds of foods -- such as the highly refined carbohydrates in white bread, white rice, pastries, and sugary candies or desserts -- may actually increase your heart disease danger.

How can the average person make sense of the new research? Rather than banish saturated fat, many experts say it's more important to eat plenty of vegetables, grains, and fish, as well as a variety of fats in moderate amounts. Here are 5 tips to remember when you're trying to fit fats and oils into your heart-healthy diet.

1. Don't Obsess Over Saturated Fat

Health experts began recommending cutting back on saturated fat when they discovered that it raises LDL, the "bad" cholesterol. That advice made perfect sense. High LDL is linked to heart disease.

The focus on slashing saturated fat may have been misguided. "Recommendations to focus on saturated fat were based on a single biomarker, LDL cholesterol," says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But we now know there are many other important biomarkers for heart disease risk."  

When you look at all of the biomarkers together, he says, the effects of saturated fat aren't as bad as once thought. Indeed, reviewing the evidence, Mozaffarian and his colleague Renata Micha found that levels of saturated fat have very little impact on cardiovascular risk.

Americans currently consume about 11.5% of calories from saturated fat. If we cut that roughly in half, to 6.5%, we might lower our risk of heart disease by only about 10%, says Mozaffarian.

Unfortunately, during the low-fat craze, many people replaced saturated fat with fat-free products made of highly-refined carbohydrates and often too much salt. Studies show that substituting refined carbohydrates for saturated fat may end up increasing our heart disease risk.

Does this mean you can eat as much butter and cheese as you like? No. The American Heart Association still recommends limiting saturated fat to no more than 7% of total calories. Fats of all kinds are high in calories, so it's wise not to overindulge. The new findings simply reinforce the idea that it's also important to be wary of buying foods that claim to be fat-free or low-fat. Check the label to see if they are high in salt and refined carbohydrates, such white flour and sugar.

2. Choose Heart Healthy Plant-Based Oils

Most experts still agree that it's smart to replace some saturated fats with unsaturated fats. Plant-based oils like olive oil or canola oil are a healthier choice than butter, for instance.

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