If we’re being totally honest here, most people are a little obsessed with poop. It makes sense. While talking about poop is considered taboo in pop culture, it’s a consistent activity in your life—that no one wants to talk about. With that, it’s fair to have questions about what is and isn’t considered normal.
Sure, you can talk to a few close friends about how often they poop to try to get a sense of what’s considered healthy. But whether you feel shy about having that conversation or want to base things off of cold, hard data, it’s nice to know that scientists have just done the work for you.
A study published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine details how often people poop along with what your pooping frequency suggests about your overall health. The results are fascinating. Here’s what it uncovered, plus what gastroenterologists want you to keep in mind when it comes to how often you poop.
The ideal poop frequency might surprise you.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 1,425 people who participated in the Arivale Scientific Wellness program, a wellness company that delivered personalized health coaching based on data from genetic, blood, saliva, and microbiome testing. (The company closed in 2019.) That data included self reports on how often the participants pooped a day.
After crunching the data, the researchers discovered that the participants who were the healthiest said they pooped once or twice a day. But those who pooped more than that or who didn’t poop all that often had a higher risk of having several health issues.
Specifically, those who only pooped a few times a week had higher levels of uremic toxins in their blood (harmful metabolic waste products that build up in the blood when the kidneys don’t filter them out properly). Those were from protein fermenting in the participants’ guts, the researchers explained. That sounds dangerous, and it is: Those uremic toxins are linked to chronic kidney disease and other diseases, like neurodegeneration, the researchers pointed out.
Why is going once or twice a day ideal?
There are likely a few reasons behind this, Sean M. Gibbs, PhD, study co-author and associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology and affiliate faculty in the department of bioengineering at University of Washington, tells SELF. “We all have this gut microbiome, but it’s a bit of a game of hot potato with the microbes,” he says. The microbes can be helpful for your health or harmful, he points out.
“They normally like to eat dietary fiber and, when you eat it, they munch on that,” Dr. Gibbs says. But if you’re constipated, those microbes eat up all the dietary fiber and then switch to proteolytic metabolism, which means they start breaking down protein into amino acids or peptides. “That produces a bunch of toxic byproducts,” Dr. Gibbs says. As a result, keeping things moving in your gut should lower the risk of those toxins swirling around your body, he says.
Ashkan Farhadi, MD, a gastroenterologist at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, tells SELF that he’s heard patients say for years that they feel healthiest when they poop at least once a day. “We didn’t have any evidence to back it up,” he says. “This shows that at least one bowel movement a day will be helpful, not just for the health of the gut, but also for the chemicals being released that impact the health of the body.”
What does it mean if you poop less than that?
The less often you poop, the more waste is just sitting around in your colon, Dr. Gibbs points out. “The risk you’ll switch to that proteolytic metabolism starts to increase,” he says.
Then, your gut microbiome can start making toxins. “The toxin production that this leads to can increase your risk of various chronic health conditions, especially chronic kidney disease,” Aditya Sreenivasan, MD, gastroenterologist at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital, tells SELF.
It’s important to note this: The study didn’t find that people who pooped less than once or twice a day actually developed chronic kidney disease, but it did detect toxins that raised the risk of developing it.
What about more than that?
It might seem like in theory, pooping even more than once or twice a day would be best, but that’s not necessarily the case.
“More frequent bowel movements can deprive your but bacteria of the substances they need to thrive, leading to an imbalance or possible overgrowth of harmful gut bacteria,” Dr. Gibbs says. “This in turn could lead to general health issues.”
Pooping more than twice a day, especially significantly more than that and having watery poop, could suggest you’re dealing with an inflammatory bowel condition, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Doctors say the range of what is considered “normal” needs to change.
The current range of “normal” pooping frequency that many doctors cite is having no less than three poops a week to no more than three poops a day. But this is based off of an older scientific analysis that simply asked people often they pooped, Dr. Farhadi says.
“Currently, clinicians don’t give advice on what is considered ‘normal’ beyond very broad ranges, which I think are too broad,” Dr. Gibbs says. “We want to narrow that range.” There should also be sex-specific ranges, Dr. Gibbs says. “Women tend to poop less frequently than men, based on datasets,” he says.
When to talk to a doctor about your poop
The most concerning issue with pooping is a sudden and sustained change, Dr. Sreenivasan says. “If you have been having two to three bowel movements a day your whole life, and over the last month suddenly you’re only moving your bowels every two to three days, you should see a doctor to help figure out why that could be,” he says. “If your bowel movements—or lack thereof—are associated with abdominal discomfort or other symptoms, even if the frequency hasn’t changed, you should also see a gastroenterologist for evaluation.”
Having blood in your poop, unexplained weight loss, or stomach discomfort with pooping should also be evaluated by a doctor, Dr. Sreenivasan says.
If you’re simply not pooping as often as you’d like, Dr. Gibbs recommends drinking plenty of fluids, eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and getting in physical activity throughout your day. That should help to get things moving.
Related:
- Will Drinking Hot Water in the Morning Actually Make You Poop?
- How to Poop Better, According to GI Doctors
- This Vitamin Could Play a Major Role in How Well You Poop
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