How often you poop can affect your health well beyond the gut, study suggests
Everybody poops, but how often people go could reveal a lot about their long-term health, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
Everybody poops, but how often people go could reveal a lot about their long-term health, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.
The study of more than 1,400 healthy adults found that people who pooped less frequently also had signs of decreased kidney function. People on the other end of the spectrum, who went far more than normal, showed signs of impaired liver function.
“It’s well-known that things like constipation are associated with chronic disease,” said study co-author Sean Gibbons, an associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.
What is less apparent is which comes first — the constipation or the chronic disease? Does constipation early in life cause chronic illness in otherwise healthy people, or is constipation a result of chronic disease?
Gibbons and his team used data from a now-defunct wellness company called Arivale to try to answer that question. The study participants were healthy, mostly white adults living in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers analyzed blood and stool samples and body mass index measurements, as well as responses to questionnaires about diet and exercise habits and mental health.
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