What Your Poo Can Tell You About Your Health
Looking at stool as a marker of health is far from a modern trend. For thousands of years,
practitioners of traditional medicine observed bowel habits to gain insight into digestion,
overall wellbeing, and disease. From Ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates to
practitioners of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, stool was recognised as an
important reflection of internal health.
Today, nutritional therapy and functional medicine continue this principle, combining
traditional observation with modern science. While it may not be the most glamorous topic,
bowel movements can offer valuable clues about how well the digestive system is
functioning.
The digestive tract is central to nutrient absorption, detoxification, hormone balance, and
immune health. Changes in stool colour, consistency, frequency, or smell may indicate that
the body needs support. Constipation, loose stools, hard stools that are difficult to pass,
undigested food, mucus, excessive bloating, or floating stools can all point towards issues
such as poor digestion, imbalance within the gut microbiome, dehydration, low stomach acid,
food sensitivities, stress, or inflammation.
If you have a change in bowel movements and/or you notice blood in your stool, you must
get this checked out by the doctor. If they give you the all clear, but you know something is
not quite right, then that’s where I come in!
In functional medicine, we look beyond simply managing symptoms we are looking for the
root cause. Understanding gut health is key to improving your overall health, not just
digestion, but allergies, autoimmune disease, brain health, anxiety, depression, hormone
health and more. Stool patterns are considered alongside diet, lifestyle, stress, sleep, and
health history to understand possible root causes. Modern stool testing can provide insight
into digestive function, inflammation, bacterial balance, and pathogenic bacteria load.
Around 80% of your immune system cells are based in your gut and their work is reliant on a
healthy microbiome and gut.
Your bowel habits are one of the body’s everyday feedback systems — and paying attention
to them can be an important step towards better health.
If you think you might benefit from a stool test or if you would like to chat more about
optimising your health, book a free chat here.
