steatorrhea Archives - Healthhype

Floating Bowel Movement (Stool, Feces) Causes

Dr. Chris — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 00:22:50 +0000

Your stools can reveal a lot about your health, not only the health of your bowels but even of other systems in the body. The frequency, color, consistency and even smell can vary to indicate a number of health conditions. On a more detailed level, various tests can be performed on stool to identify health problems. However, most of us do not give much thought to whether stool floats or sinks but this fact can differentiate between normal and abnormal stools, which be a sign of disease. Should stool float or sink? Healthy stools (bowel movement or feces) usually sink. However, floating stools doe do not necessarily mean that there is a health problem. The reason why something floats or sinks in water is a result of its density. Oil floats on water and most people think that fat in the stool causes it to float. This is not true. The reason why stool floats in most instances is because of intestinal gas which is not passed out as a ‘fart’ (flatus) but rather in the stool. It is important to understand the composition of feces. Most of it, around 60 to 75%, is made up of water. The rest [...]

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White Gallbladder Diarrhea and Green Bile Salts Diarrhea

Jan Modric — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:08:02 +0000

Normally, bile that is produced in the liver, is temporarily stored in the gallbladder. From here the bile is secreted into the duodenum (small intestine) during digestion. It is mainly secreted when there are fats in the gut, like after a fatty meal. Bile emulsifies fat globules, which means that it breaks it down into smaller particles. This allows fat-digesting enzymes known as lipases to chemically break down the fat into smaller components. Bile also causes the stool to have its characteristic brown color. It is made up on many substances which are mainly waste substances that are processed and secreted by the liver into the gallbladder. One substance within bile, known as bilirubin, is converted to stercobilin in the gut and this gives the stool its brown color. Therefore without bile and bilirubin, stool will not be tan to dark brown. Instead it appears pale than normal and even whitish in color. White Diarrhea Due to Gallstones Gallbladder stones are the most common cause of obstruction of bile flow. These gallstones may press on the main bile duct and obstruct it from the outside. This prevents the flow of bile into the duodenum. Furthermore a small gallstone may move from [...]

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Steatorrhea (Fatty Stool) – Causes of Greasy, Oily Bowel Movements

Dr. Chris — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:49:30 +0000

What is Steatorrhea? Steatorrhea or steatorrhoea (UK) is the presence of fat in the stool. While small amounts of fat in the stool may go by unnoticed, larger quantities can change the color, consistency, buoyancy and even size of the stool. Steatorrhea may present as stool that floats (‘floater’), stool that is greasy or oily, gray to pale yellow in color and sometimes large. Often steatorrhea is seen with loose watery stool and diarrhea, although it may occur with normal bowel movements as well. Mucus in the stool is often mistaken for steatorrhea but it is a different condition, often associated with inflammatory bowel disease and other causes of colitis. Steatorrhea may arise due to the following causes : Inadequate fat digestion due to a deficiency, absence or defect in the fat-digesting enzymes or bile Rapid transit through the bowel which prevents proper digestion and absorption Defective absorption, often due to a disruption in the transport of fats through the lacteals to the blood stream Steatorrhea is often associated with malabsorption syndromes which may give rise to other nutrients deficiencies. These deficiencies may also contribute to the overall appearance of the stool. Digestion of Fat Triglycerides (neutral fats) are the [...]

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Pale, Clay, Gray Stool or White Bowel Movement and Diarrhea

Jan Modric — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:17:06 +0000

Normal bowel movement color can be any shade of brown, ranging from tan and yellowish-brown to darker shades of brown. There can be temporary changes in the stool color after consuming certain foods with strong pigments but it may only last for a day or two at most. When there is an abnormality in the stool color, especially if it persists or is accompanied by other symptoms like diarrhea or abdominal pain, then it needs to be investigated further. In order to understand why stool may appear pale to gray or even white in color, it is important to first understand why stool has a characteristic brown color. This is mainly due to a substance known as bilirubin. It is a substances that is constantly produced in the liver as a result of the breakdown of red blood cells. It is an ongoing cycle as red blood cells are constantly being removed from circulation and replaced by new red blood cells. This bilirubin is then passed out of the liver with bile. It is stored in the gallbladder and eventually released into the gut at the point of the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). The bilirubin is [...]

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