yellow bowel movement Archives - Healthhype

Orange Bowel Movement and Orange Diarrhea

Jan Modric — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:39:24 +0000

There are various abnormal bowel movement colors that can occur with different conditions and foods. Green, black and even reddish stool may occur in some cases but orange is not a color typically associated with bowel movement or diarrhea. However, it can occur in some rare instances. It is important to understand what may be causing this change in stool color to determine whether it is a serious medical condition or not. Orange discoloration anywhere in the body is not common. For example, there may be a yellowish discoloration of the skin as in jaundice but most of the time we would not expect an orange hue to the skin. It can however occur like with tanning sprays and colorants (“fake tans”). In fact some of the causes of orange stool may also contribute to a yellow to orange hue of the skin. Normally stool is a brown color and varies from a tan hue to dark brown in color. This color is due to an accumulation of undigested food, wastes and other substances that are retained in the gut to be expelled with a bowel movement. One of the major contributors of the characteristic brown color of stool is [...]

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Yellow Bowel Movement and Causes of Yellow Diarrhea

Jan Modric — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:32:58 +0000

The color of the normal bowel movement is any shade of brown (ranging from a light bown or tan to darker brown hue). When stool appears a very light brown to yellow brown or even overtly yellow then it needs to be assessed further. Yellow stool does not always indicate a problem. Sometimes consuming foods and beverages with a strong yellow color/dye can taint the stool a yellow color if the dye is not digested or altered as it moves through the bowel. The characteristic brown color of stool is largely due to red blood cell breakdown in the body and the activity of the liver. When red blood cells are broken down, as part of the normal life cycle of these cells, the pigments within it are processed by the liver yielding a substance known as bilirubin. It has a characteristic yellow color but is converted to a brown color within the bowel. Without this contribution, stool may be a range of different colors depending on the food that was last consumed and may be significantly paler or even whitish in color without the contribution of the liver. The other contributor to this brown color is the bacteria that naturally reside [...]

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