WASHINGTON- How often should you defecate? study Released Tuesday in the Cell Reports Medicine publication, it reveals that once or twice a day improves health long-term.
Previous research has linked constipation and diarrhea with increased risks of infections and neurodegenerative conditions, respectively. But those results were seen in sick patients.
“I hope this work opens doctors’ minds a little to the potential risks of not monitoring bowel movement frequency,” said Sean Gibbons, lead author of the study, who says doctors often consider irregular bowel movements as a mere “nuisance.”
Gibbons and his team collected clinical, lifestyle and biological data — including blood chemistry, gut microbiome and genetics, among others — from more than 1,400 healthy adults with no signs of active disease.
Frequency
Self-reported defecation frequencies were classified into four groups: constipation (one to two bowel movements per week), low-normal (three to six per week), high-normal (one to three per day), and diarrhea.
When feces remain in the intestine for too long, bacteria, instead of engulfing the available fiber, ferment the proteins, producing toxins.
“What we found is that even in healthy people who are constipated, there is an increase in these toxins in the bloodstream” that are especially damaging to the kidneys, Gibbons explains.
In the diarrhea cases, the team found clinical chemistry analyses indicative of inflammation and liver damage.
Gibbons explained that during diarrhea, the body excretes excess bile acid, which the liver would recycle to dissolve and absorb dietary fats.
Gut bacteria known as “strict anaerobes” associated with good health thrive on one to two bowel movements a day, although further studies are needed to corroborate this.
According to Gibbons, to achieve this frequency you need to eat fruit and vegetables, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly and follow a diet that is predominantly plant-based.
Source: With information from AFP