Dr. Trisha Pasricha

Like a change in bowel habits could mean, is it suddenly softer than it should be?

Is it suddenly pencil thin and it wasn't like that before?

These are things you're not going to really pick up on unless you're paying real close attention.

And again, you know, my goal here is not to scare anybody, but it's really just to say that sometimes there's a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Like oftentimes someone's stool consistency changes and we'll say, okay, you know what?

It turns out you started using this artificial sweetener and we'll pinpoint that.

Or you're still recovering from your jet lag.

That's probably it.

But if we don't have a good explanation and it persists, we have to investigate it.

And we're not going to investigate it unless you bring it to your doctor's attention.

And I actually should mention one more color, which is clay colored, like this pale white.

That's also an emergency.

You should also talk to your doctor about that.

That color can indicate that bilirubin is not making it into your stool.

The reason we have brown stool is not because brown is like the magical color of all our food mashed together.

Bilirubin comes from bile, and that's something you're producing.

It's this digestive juice, and that makes your stool brown.

When there's a blockage somewhere, like a stone, or more worrisomely, like a cancer,

then your natural color is going to be this really pale, weird clay color.

And people, it's striking when you see it.