Does your poop float?
Every day I ask patients detailed questions about their poop, and mostly people have answers, except when I ask them if their stool floats. That question seems to stump most people, but it matters, and here’s why:
If we’re not fully digesting and absorbing the fat in our food it can be passed in our stool (termed “steatorrhea”). This is bad for a few reasons:
1) What a waste! Dietary fat is really important for energy, our nervous system, our hormonal system, etc. Eating it just to have it pass into the toilet bowl is a sad inefficiency 🙁
2) It can cause uncomfortable symptoms like bloating, gas and urgency.
3) It can be reflective of an issue with your gallbladder (a muscular bag located in upper right side of your abdomen – an organ particularly sensitive to stress), your pancreas, or it can be a sign of celiac disease.
So if your poop floats, or if you have “sticky stool” meaning it stains the toilet bowl, then consider taking steps to improve your digestion of fats like mindful eating, acupuncture, castor oil abdominal massage, or even considering a digestive enzyme containing bile, and my all-time favourite digestive bitters – some examples via Roish Apothecary.
