Why is my poop green

Quite suggestively, green poop is a condition of the body in which the excreta has a noticeable green color to it. Understandably, many people will take it as a bad sign if their poop turns a different color to what it normally is. If you have passed green stools and are wondering what it means, there are many reasons why this may have happened and, fortunately, not many of them are bad.

Green poop can be considered a normal occurrence with infants, especially those who are fed from the mother’s breast. However, the sudden appearance of a green tinge to stool can hardly be considered a normal phenomenon, and in all likelihood there would be some medical reasons behind that. A very broad explanation to the color of your stool being green is the malfunctioning of the digestive tract. Generally, the color of the human feces is brown or a tinge of brown. Stool gets this color from a yellow green fluid called bile which is produced in the liver and contributes to the digestion of the food. During the time that food travels across the digestive tract, bile is acted upon by several digestive enzymes. These reactions lead to the brown color of feces in a normal condition. However, in a diseased condition like diarrhea, it is quite likely that the digestive tract does not work normally and food travels way too fast for the digestive enzymes to act upon it through the tract. In such a scenario, one can expect a green shade of stool.

What causes poop to turn green?

As part of normal, everyday living, many people will experience green poop simply due to their diet. Generally, people who take in a huge amount of leafy green vegetables like broccoli, lettuce and spinach observe a distinct shade of tinge in their poop. Obviously, the overdose of chlorophyll reflects in the color of the poop. Another solid reason behind green stool can be the regular intake of food items with synthetic dyes added to them, with the major addition being the green color. For instance, eating candies and jellies with green dyes regularly can result in green poop, as can the overdose of cookies and frozen foods with green-colored dyes added to them. In most cases, talking to a nutritionist about your diet will help to find the correct balance for you and will probably rectify the problem.

Eating too much of iron rich food can lead to green feces. Food supplements with lots of iron contents cause undesirable changes to digestion patterns as the body has a limited ion absorbing capacity and acts erratically when faced with more iron than it can possibly chew. Excess iron means that body will excrete compensatory iron salts which are surely going to lend a green shade to your stool. Even otherwise, you would want to keep your iron consumption under check as too much iron accumulation in the body will lead to iron toxicity, a life threatening condition.

A rather uncommon cause of green poop is related with the intake of unprocessed or stale dairy products. These foods are infected with a bacterium called salmonella and can lead to salmonella poisoning, a condition in which a person experiences erratic digestion phenomenon, including green poop. Inadequately cooked meat products and contaminated water also sources of bacteria that can lead to this undesirable condition of green poop.

Body’s intolerance to severe gluten leading to a damaged small intestine is known as celiac disease, and qualifies as a cause of green poop. Intake of abusive laxatives is also likely to exhibit green poop as a result. Cancers of the intestine can also lead to green poop, and so can the overgrowth of c. difficile bacteria in pseudomembranous colitis disease.

green poop

Digestive problems and green poop

Most of the causes are harmless and will not last very long, but if your poop turning green is also accompanied by pain or discomfort of any kind, whether it be cramps in the stomach, diarrhea or constipation, a bloated stomach, losing or gaining an abnormal amount of weight, smaller than usual stools or any other digestive problems, it may be something that needs sorting out.

In some cases, a change of color found in the feces will be indicative of fecal matter or undigested food building up inside the colon and this can usually be fixed with a colonic irrigation, otherwise known as an enema. Although many people believe that this will be an uncomfortable or even painful experience, this is not at all the case and you may well find that you feel a thousand times better afterwards! An enema is a simple operation where water is passed into the anal passage and the colon and small intestine via a tube inserted into the anus. The water gently massages these areas to free up dried, solid matter that is stuck there and thoroughly cleanse the system. This can actually help to cure many problems with the digestive system including constipation and can even help with painful periods. For men especially, a regular colon cleanse can help to greatly reduce the risk of developing prostate problems, as the tissue protecting the prostate is in fact very thin, and the bacteria and even parasites found in poop, if left to build up in the anal passage, can “seep” through and infect the prostate. If a colon cleanse doesn’t fix the problem and your poop remains green then you really should consult your doctor. Intestinal problems can have severe repercussions for your body and can even lead to other, incurable conditions!

Green stool can also be accompanied by a very foul smell of feces. There could also be a distinct presence of mucus or undigested food particles in the excreta. If green poop is also accompanied by a feeling of nausea and vomiting, it is strictly recommended to consult a doctor as you might need some medication to get over the situation. People generally lose appetite in times when they experience this and some even complain of weight loss in such situations. One should also watch out for a feeling of rectal pain along with it. Although the intelligent thing to do in all these cases is to get advice from a doctor, one must understand that these are pretty common symptoms of an indigestion problem. However, there are some symptoms which, if experienced together with green poop, warrant a careful approach as these might be the beginning of bigger troubles which could even pose a threat to life. If you feel a sense of dizziness and lack of consciousness in a period where you are also experiencing green stool, or observe symptoms such as rapid loss of breath and severely high fever, you can ill afford to ignore the condition and must book an appointment with your physicist. Babies and infants who do not seem to be getting the right amount of urine out of their body but getting green poop also need a check up.

As with anything else health related, if you are unsure then it is much better to be safe than sorry, consult your GP about what the cause may be and catch the problem before it becomes serious. Before you actually book an appointment with your doctor to get your diagnosis, you are advised to find the answers to some questions that the doctor is likely to ask you. You must note the frequency of your bowel movements apart from telling the doctor about the period for which you have been experiencing green poop. Take a list of the medicines, vitamin supplements and other stuff you have been taking regularly. It would also serve you well to enlist all symptoms you have been observing off lately. Ready answers to all these issues will enable your doctor to come up with a quick diagnosis.