Are Your Feces Healthy 2?

Image source

Simple observation on feces provide priceless information about your health as a whole. By carefully looking at the shape, color, texture and margin of the feces, you could diagnose your present health. The feces reflect the diet you took, your health status, and the age of your colon. Specifically, healthy feces reflect healthy colon which provide the foundation for a good health, a strong immune system and longevity.

Looking at what feces you created is just like looking at a picture that tells you thousand of words. Thinking this is degrading or embarrassing is like you are escaping yourself to face the reality. After examining your feces, ask yourself these questions as listed below:

1. Why do I have these feces discharged?
2. What have I eaten recently?
3. What medicines have I taken lately?
4. Am I stressed recently?

The healthy feces, in general, contain 80% of water, while the remaining are undigested foods and intestinal bacteria. 1g of feces contain nearly 1 trillion intestinal bacteria. For instance, in human large intestine, there are approximately 500 to 1000 different species of the intestinal bacteria. The total number of bacteria dwell in the mucous membrane of the colon together with the bacteria dwell in the feces are about 1.5kg. However, the compositions of the bacteria may vary from one individual to one another just like everyone has a different pattern of the footprint. Basically, human intestinal bacteria can be divided into 3 groups of good, bad and mild germs. When they are not in a balance ratio that they should be, our intestinal tract will age faster than our actual age. If left ignored, the colon will age to a stage that it will finally decay, and eventually it may be fatal and life-threatening. Read more details on an article entitiled “Are your feces healthy? to equip yourself with the knowledge of healthy, unhealthy feces and their related diseases.

Smelly Feces are Indicators of Diseases

The shape as well as the odor of the feces are closely linked to the presence of the number of bacteria in the intestine. Smelly feces signify the presence of the bad bacteria which are indicators of certain diseases. People who have relatively strong unbearable feces odor or those who are experiencing constipation must take note that this is an indication characterised by the presence of less good germs than bad germs in their intestinal tracts. Bad germs cause the decaying substances, in which these harmful toxins are then re-absorb by the intestine, and hence causing “explorable” diseases in humans. When the good germs are killed off, the potentially harmful germs will increase terribly. In a nutshel, good smell feces symbolize a healthy intestine, while bad smell feces are signs of an unhealthy intestine and other underlying diseases as well.

The bacteria found in the colon can be grouped into three categories based on their effect on humans as follows:

Good Germs

Good germs are living “friendly” bacteria (also known as probotics) that protect our gastrointestinal tract. Besides that, their presence are essential to inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, boost immune system, maintance a healthy intestinal tract, promote good digestion, alter the intestinal flora balance, and increase resistance to infection. People with healthy feces are blessed with these beneficial bacteria to help fight the growth of disease-causing bacteria.

Image source-Lactobacillus salivarius Image source- Bifidobacterium bifidum

Image source- Streptococcus thermophilus Image source- Lactobacillus casei

In average, there are several trillion beneficial bacteria comprising over 400 species in the human gastrointestinal tract. These figures may sound alarming to you, but these microorganisms are crucial to good health. Lactocillus acidophilus is the most well known species of them, others include Lactobacillus salivarius/casei/rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium bifidum/longum/lactis and Streptococcus thermophilus, to name a few here. In the healthy feces, the good bacteria should outnumber the bad bacteria. Our colon can only maintain its health with at least 85% good bacteria and 15% bad bacteria. Unfortunately, most people have this percentage reversed.

Bad Germs

Image source-Clostridium

Bad germs here are “unfriendly” bacteria that produce toxic by-products that contribute to long-term sickness and chronic degeneration of the body. They occupy 20 out of 100% of the germs that dwell in the gastrointestinal tract. They are always represented by microorganisms called Clostridium. These bad bacteria do not aid in digestion and absorption of food and nutrients. Instead, they stimulate the decaying process in human intestine. They emit relatively foul odor and thus giving an unbearable smell of your feces. They are more common among the carnivoles or people whose intake in meats are higher.

Image source- C. botulinum Image source- C.tetani

Image source- C.difficile Image source- C.perfringens

These spore-forming rod microorganisms are anaerobic (some species are microaerophilic), and Gram-positive. C.tetani, C.difficile, C.perfringens, and C.botulinum are four of their clinically known species. Under the microscope, they appear as long drumsticks with a bulge located at their terminal ends. When the environment becomes extreme and stressed, these bacteria produce spores that tolerate with the extreme environments that the active bacteria cannot. They secrete powerful exotoxins that are responsible for diseases such as botulism (a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by toxins), tetanus (neurological disease or lockjaw in human) and gas gangrene (the decay of body tissues) in their active form. The released potent toxins from Clostridium could block the release of neurotransmitters from the presynaptic membrane of inhibitory interneurons of spinal cord and brainstem of mammals that regulate muscle contraction. This in turns lead to continuous muscle contraction primarily in the neck and jaw muscles (lockjaw), which if left untreated could eventually lead to respiratory failure and death. Their toxins may also attck cell membranes, causing extensive tissue damage and necrosis, which later reduces the blood supply to the afected area and thus stimulating the spread of the disease.

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The picture (the right one) shows Clostridium difficile attach to the microvilli of the gut. They are bacterium commonly found in the intestinal tract, but they may also exist under the circumstances such as after or during antibiotic therapy or can be the cause of enterocolitis. When this situation occurs, C.difficile proliferates and infects the large intestine. They release two enterotoxins that may destroy the intestinal lining and thus causing diarrhea.

Mild Germs

Image source- E.Coli Image source- streptococcus

Image source- Bacteroides

These mild germs occupy 70 out of 100% of the germs that dwell in the gastrointestinal tract. E.Coli, streptococcus, and Bacteroides are some of their examples. They are commonly found in the human intestine where they have a symbiotic host-bacterial relationship with humans. They help in breaking down food and producing essential nutrients and energy that the body requires. As long as our colon is healthy, they do not pose any health impacts. Nevertheless, when our colon is in an unhealthy condition, they may cause or exacerbate abscesses and other infections in the gut, the bladder, the blood and even the brain.

How Old is Your Colon?

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As you have read in my article entitled Are your feces healthy?, you understand that our health is closely associated with the feces. As the feces can clearly show you the actual age and health conditions of your colon, and thus you can obtain many details on the present status of your colon health. Now, let’s do a set of self-test questionnaire (this questionnaire is divided into three parts) to examine the age of your colon before we shift to the next section. If you’ve the conditions stated, please tick behind each condition that applies to you otherwise just ignores it.

Self-Diagnose of Your Colon Health’s Questionnaire

Part A- The Feces Problem

• After defecation, you still feel like you want to poop. That means you never have your feces clearly thoroughly.
• Your feces are extremely hard and thus you’ve to push hard on your feces
• You poop hard, uncomfortably and irritably on your feces to get them out
• Your feces appear in an irregular coarse solid form
• Your feces appear to be too watery
• Your feces are in black color
• Your feces sink to the bottom of the water or toilet ball
• Your feces emit strong bad smell or someone complains your feces are too smelly
• You are always having a problem with your bowel action and diarrhea. You might have a difficulty to defecate.

Part B- Living Habits

• You always smoke
• Your face looks pale and unhealthy
• Your appearance looks older than your actual age
• You have rough skins, acne and other skin disorders
• You seldom exercise
• You could hardly sleep during the bedtime hour. You may have suffered from insomnia.
• You are always stressed
• You pass out very smelly gas
• You’ve an infrequent defecation habit. You might have defecated within a different time frame and you might have times not defecated at all and vice versa.

Part C- Eating Habits

• You always skip breakfast
• You’ve your breakfast too quick and too rush swallowed without chewing properly
• Your mealtimes (breakfast, lunch and dinner) are infrequent and not in its appropriate sequence. That means sometimes you have breakfast and dinner, and skip lunch and not necessarily in this order.
• You take too much meat or any meat-based products
• You take less vegetables, fibers and essential trace elements
• You rarely have milk based products like yogurt, milk and etc
• You eat out more than 4 times a week

Next, add up all the ticks in accordance to the guildelines provided below:

More than 15 ticks: actual age + 30 yrs. (Oops, your colon looks like a 90-year-old person!)

10 to 14 ticks: actual age + 20 yrs. (Your colon is experiencing an aging process.)

5 to 9 ticks: actual age + 10yrs. (The referee will give you a red card. It’s an alarming signal!)

Below 4 ticks: actual age + 5yrs. (If you don’t improve your unhealthy colon condition, the referee will soon give you a yellow card.)

0 tick: actual age + 0yr. (Excellent! Your colon is strong and energetic. Congratulation!)

What are Ideal Feces vs Unideal Feces?

When your colon is healthy, you’ll have healthy feces generated. Now, let’s understand what ideal feces are. Ideal feces must have characteristics listed below:

1. Color: yellow, golden yellow, brown yellow or nearly yellowish
2. Volume: some banana-shaped feces with each weighs 100g. 2 to 3 pieces of

feces for each bowel action.

1. Odor: a slight odor, but not too smelly
2. Hardness: as hard as bananas, but as soft as toothpaste
3. Water content: 80%
4. pH: slightly acidic and so they float on the surface of water breaking up soon afterwards.
5. The feces are long, round, and smooth with a texture similar to creamy peanut butter.

You feel relaxing for each bowel action. Your feces came out smoothly. That means you poop easily without pushing too hard on the feces. The feces float on top of the water or in the toilet ball instead of sinking. The floating feces mean that the content of water and air is in an equilibrium (balance) state.

Here are ten common characteristics of unideal feces.

1. Feces too sticky
2. Feces too slimy (may contain excess mucus caused by bacteria, Candida, tumor, or other problems in the colon).
3. Feces too watery
4. Feces too rough and coarse in their textures
5. Feces too smelly (You might be suffocated with their smells)
6. Feces mix with blood which is not caused by menses (See the doctor at once)
7. Feces with many colors: black, yellow, brown, and etc. (Be careful, it might be an indication of the intestinal inflammation, hemorrhoids or any related disease).
8. Feces with foreign substances
9. Feces with bad joining part. That means one piece of feces is being cut into many small portions while eliminating from the bowel.
10. One piece of feces is shorter than 2cm to be considered as healthy feces

How to Produce 1kg Feces

Some of the Japanese who dwell in the outskirst have more than 1kg feces defecate everyday. You may wonder how could they produce so much feces in a day? Well, that’s because their primary diet is high-fiber foodstuffs. Do you know what they eat? They’ve more than 1kg of potatoes or sweet potatoes as their main daily diets. So, when they’ve potatoes together with yogurt, they’ve an enjoyable time to poop: the feces appeared in a good color, margin and texture came out so smoothly, and the feces dropped into the water with a ryhtm of “pootong, pootong, pootong”…hmm, only three gentle sounds were heard. And their bowel and abdomen feel relatively relaxing but less contraction after the defecation. Isn’t it sound good to you?

Now, let me introduce you a method proposed by Japanese feces experts. This method is called “Quick 1kg feces method.” This method is particularly suitable for those who have a busy schedule during the weekdays as they can employ this method during days other than their working days. It is also known as “weekend 1kg feces defecation method”. Have a look at its menu as listed below:

• Friday’s night: 500g boiled sweet potatoes (or potatoes) + 1 to 2 red apples + 250g yogurt
• Saturday’s morning: 500g boiled sweet potatoes (or potatoes) + 1 to 2 red apples + 250g yogurt
• Sunday’s morning: 500g boiled sweet potatoes (or potatoes) + 250g yogurt

Note: Preferably the homemade yogurt for a better result.

When you implement this “Quick 1kg feces method” for three consecutive days as suggested, you’ll immediately see its result as you’ll see 1kg feces as soon as you’ve the third meal on Sunday’s morning.

As for your information, 100g of potatoes contain 132 calories, in which its calorific value is higher than the plain rice. Besides its carorific value, pototoes are found to be packed with lots of fibers. Remember to use small fire to boil the potatoes to retain its vitamin C. You’re recommended to eat potatoes together with their skins as antioxidant compound called polyphenol is found abundant in their skins. The potatoes are so good that they are rich in potassium which helps eliminating excessive sodium. This in turns helps regulating and improving the blood sugar in the blood vessels and thereby it is particularly good for diabetes, and hypertensive sufferers.

How to Change the Color of Your Feces

In general, the color will tell you how well your digestion is and other changes concerning your health. The lighter color may alert you a blockage in the bile duct or a deficiency in producing bile. The other color of the feces have been described in details in Are your feces healthy?

In order to change the color of the feces, below are things you’ve to bear in mind:

Yellow brown color: When there is an increase of good germs (as mentioned earlier) in your feces, the color will directly change to yellow or nearly yellowish. The more good germs are found in your feces, the more perfect yellow colored feces will be generated. If you aim to change your abnormal feces color to yellow, remember to take more than 250g naturally or organically made yogurt everyday plus essential high-fiber rich foods. You’ll gradually have yellow feces expelled from your digestive system.

Yellow slim-sized feces: Increase the intake of potatoes or sweet potatoes, high-fiber rich foodstuffs in your daily diet.

Warning: The excessive intake of meats, meat-based products or any cholesterol rich animal-based foods will stimulate the release of large volume of bile to aid in the process of digestion of lipids. The secretion of bile is a result of dark brown colored feces. When this occurs, the bacteria can easily breed within the feces. At this moment, you should pay attention to your feces. You can easily detect it when you breath in a relatively bad smell emitting from your feces.

How to Check the Defecation Volume of Your Feces

In order to check the defecation volume of your feces, below are things that you’ve to consider:

How heavy are your feces? To know the answer, you observe the body weight before and after each bowel action. It’s always better to place a body weight scale next to your toilet. When you get up in the early morning after your breakfast, record your initial body weight. Again, you weight your body weight after the defecation. Next, you subtract it from the initial body weight to get its difference. Remember the formula as follow:

Defecation Volume of the feces: Initial body weight – Final body weight

If you’ve more than one bowel action, in a day, then you should add up all the body weight for each bowel action before averaging. Next, you deduct the average body weight from the initial body weight. By doing this, you’re actually pay more attention to your body weight changes, which are good for your health as a whole.

Tips: The standard defecation volume for a male is 300g, while for a female is 200g. (One piece of feces should have a banana shape and weights in 100g each.)

What to know about the Water Content of Your Feces

Let’s compare the water content for your feces as listed below:

Water-form: more than 90% water content, accompanied with a diarrhea

Mud-form: about 90% water content, accompanied with a diarrhea. (Warning: If your feces are not yellow like a soil color or brown color like tea, they require your immediate attention. If the feces appear in red color, see the doctor at once).

Concentrated and sticky form: water occupies about 80%.

Banana form: about 70% water content, signifies healthy feces. (Warning: If the color and odor of these feces are abnormal, consult your doctor for further advice or treatment).

Coarse solid form: below 60% water content, accompanied by a constipation. (Warning: If the color and odor of these feces are abnormal, consult your doctor for further advice or treatment).

Be Careful With Extremely Hard Feces!

If your feces are hard and small in sizes, then you should aware that this is an indication of lack of water (less than 60% water content) in your body. Less water does not promote the movement in the intestinal tracts and thus your feces are retained from being expelled from the digestive system. When this occurs, you should aware of the possibility of getting a slight constipation. At this stage, you should take note that the harder feces may hurt the anal mucosa while moving along its surface due to a friction when the harder feces came in contact with the surface of the anal mucosa are being pushed too harsh, and eventually leads to bleeding. If you’re facing this situation, please do not hesitate to see your doctor.

How to Deal with Extremely Hard Feces

1. Reduce the retention time of your feces for staying too long within the intestinal tract
2. Do not suppress the bowel action
3. Increase the intake of fiber-rich foods to promote the movement of your colon
4. Increase the intake of foods that can increase the volume of your feces like potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, and etc
5. Reduce the intake of desserts, snacks, candies, chocolates, cakes or any other sweetened foods
6. Increase the intake of cooked green leafy vegetables and seaweeds
7. Replenish your body with more alkaline water than usual
8. If your feces are results of a travelling or the change of environmental condition, then you should replenish your body with more water. Avoid drinking any caffeine, alcoholic or soft drinks.

Your Child’s feces: healthy or unhealthy? (part three of this article)

Remark:

This article is written based upon various multilingual clinical and scientific resources. I hope you’ll benefit from this article. Also read:

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• The secrets of youth,health and longevity:how to live to 100 or beyond
• Is your urine healthy?

Now, you can gain more health knowledge by visiting my health blog entitled HealthAssist. More upcoming updates and latest health information are right on the way! Make sure that you visit this blog constantly.

Take care, stay well and good luck!