Research shows that how often you poop says a lot about your health.
Researchers in Washington state examined the lifestyle habits of more than 1,400 healthy adults and how often they went to the bathroom each week.
They found that the ‘perfect’ number was one to two movements per day. People who ate a lot of fiber, exercised regularly and were well hydrated were more likely to fall into this range.
However, people who suffered from constipation or had to defecate more than three times a day were more likely to have toxic gut bacteria that have been linked to organ damage and mental health conditions such as depression.
The researchers found that diarrhea and constipation may be linked to organ damage, as well as to psychological problems such as anxiety and depression.
Dr Sean Gibbons, study author and associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, said: ‘Overall, this study shows how bowel frequency can affect all body systems and how abnormal bowel frequency may be an important risk factor for the development of chronic diseases.’
‘These insights can be used to inform strategies to manage bowel frequency, even in healthy populations, to optimize health and well-being.’
The researchers looked at 1,425 adults who were customers of the now-defunct wellness startup Arivale.
About 83 percent of participants were white, while 8.5 percent were Asian. They ranged in age from 19 to 89, and 65 percent were women. The average BMI was 27, which qualifies as overweight.
Participants reported how often they had to go to the toilet on average and the team divided them into four groups: constipation (once or twice a week), low-normal (between three and six times a week), high-normal (between one and three times a day) and diarrhea (more than three times a day).
Researchers collected stool and blood samples and questioned participants about their exercise, lifestyle and eating habits, as well as their mental health and stress levels.
They found that age, gender and BMI were ‘significantly’ associated with bowel movement frequency.
Especially younger people, women and people with a lower BMI had fewer bowel movements.
In addition, people who reported eating a lot of fiber, drinking enough fluids, and exercising regularly were more likely to have healthier gut bacteria associated with the “Goldilocks Zone” of bowel movement frequency, or one to two toilet visits per day.
Participants with constipation and diarrhea were more likely to have protein fermentation in the gut, where toxic bacteria break down carbohydrates and sugars.
Physicians often use the Bristol Stool Chart in clinical practice to assess the health of a person’s bowel movements
Johannes Johnson-Martinez, lead author of the study and a PhD candidate at ISB, said: ‘Previous research has shown that bowel movement frequency can have a major impact on the functioning of the gut ecosystem.’
‘If feces are left in the gut for too long, microbes will use up all the available dietary fiber, fermenting it into useful short-chain fatty acids. The ecosystem then switches to fermenting proteins, which produces various toxins that can enter the bloodstream.’
According to the researchers, this process produces harmful byproducts that can cause liver and kidney damage and other chronic diseases.
“Chronic constipation is associated with neurodegenerative disorders and with the progression of chronic kidney disease in patients with active disease,” said Dr. Gibbons.
‘However, it is unclear whether bowel abnormalities are an early cause of chronic disease and organ damage, or whether these retrospective associations in sick patients are merely coincidental.’
‘Here we show that constipation in particular, in a generally healthy population, is associated with the amount of microbial toxins in the blood that are known to cause organ damage, even before the diagnosis of disease.’
In addition, the team found that participants with mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety were more likely to be classified as ‘high-normal’ or ‘diarrhea’.
The study had several limitations, including the fact that most participants were white and lived on the West Coast.
There was also “limited representation in the constipation and diarrhea categories, reflecting the ‘generally healthy’ nature of this group,” the researchers wrote.
The research was published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.