My Sh*t Don't Stink: The Biology of a Bowel Movement

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Yesterday, my wife and I had a date night.  Actually, it was a "date afternoon."  We saw a movie---the first one in a long time and went out to dinner to the Lucky Monk.  I can't remember the last time we had seen a movie, probably last November when we went out for Cheryl's birthday.  This felt good to get out, especially since I have been feeling better.  I ordered BBQ salmon but had to forgo the micro brew due to my taking of Flagyl.  We talked about the movie, the menu selection at the Lucky Monk and, of course, my colon. 

"Your poops sure don't stink as much," my wife told me.

You know you're a Crohn's patient when the topic of dinner conversation turns to bowel movements.  At a restaurant, no less.

And so we spent some time discussing the odoriferous particularities of my daily habits.

As I mentioned before, unless you have small kids, we adults--for the most part--go through life pretending that we don't have rectums.  We don't talk about it unless it is giving us trouble.  And most people find such talk at dinner to be inappropriate, at best (I sure hope the two guys sitting next to us, stuffing their faces with large burgers, didn't mind).

The fact is, our "daily habits" can tell us a lot about our overall health.   And odor is a big part of it.

The main ingredient in a good, healthy shit is water, actually.  Undigested food comes next, mostly fiber and seed.  The rest of it is living and dead bacteria and the bile and other fluids that helped breakdown that food in the process.  The breaking down of the materials produces a little methane gas. ¹   That is the main source of the odor, plus the levels of bacteria in your colon.  Food choice can cause the levels of methane and bacteria to fluctuate, thus affecting the overall odor.  A healthy bowel movement does not stink as much as an "unhealthy movement."

According to a Patrick Donovan, a naturpath in Seattle,  "You're passing methane and bacterial, degraded foodstuffs, so there's always going to be an odor. But it shouldn't be a very strong, pungent odor." ²

And let me say: my movements the last couple of months have been horrendous in the odor department.  Usually, people tend to not notice as much their own particular odors; we're so used to it, I guess, that our brains no longer even recognize the extent to which we have stunk up the room.   But even I have noticed some of them.  From the second floor, no less.

Now that's some stinky feces.

Of course, that was when I had in infection.  Still, even before the infection, my Crohn's infused colon produced some mighty strong stink bombs.

But not as much anymore.

The question, yet again, is why?  It is well known that those people who consume milk tend to have stinkier poops.  In order to digest the lactose in milk, your body produces a protein called lactase. In fact, as we grow older we produce less lactase and therefore have a more difficult time digesting lactose.  Even if we are not "lactose intolerant,"  the more milk we drink, especially as we get older, tends to produce more mucous and foul-smelling movements.  Most of the world becomes lactose intolerant by the age of ten due to the ceasing of the body's ability to produce lactase, except those in the United States and of northern European extraction where milk products are a large part of the diet.  Over 90% of people in China cannot drink milk in adulthood. ³
 
I have given up milk completely, so this could be one of the reasons for the lessening of odor.

Bacteria is also an important component of digestive health. In fact, you can not survive without the billions of bacteria living in your gut.  Some of that bacteria is bad.  In fact, you have billions of e. coli bacteria throughout your system.  However, the good bacteria keeps that bad in check.  It's like an epic war of bacteria going on in your stomach and intestines.  When the bad bacteria wins some of those battles, so to speak, the odor level of the poop and gas goes up.

I have been taking some probiotics to help keep that balance.  Each day I take L. acidophilus (the good stuff in yogurt) and Align, a proprietary beneficial bacteria called bifidobacterium infantis created in a lab by Proctor and Gamble.  My GI doctor recommended this a couple of years ago.  So, I take it.  However, it is a little expensive for a 30 day supply.  L. acidophilus can be found at any drugstore.

And let's not forget the herbs Dr. X, my doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has given me.  What these have done...I have no idea.

The only thing my family has noticed, apparently, is that my shits are less stinky.

And less stinky is a good thing.


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1.  This is the main reason why farts can be lit on fire.  There was a guy I knew in college who relished every opportunity to turn his ass into a flamethrower with a Bic lighter.  On one trip to Madison, Wisconsin, for a theater festival I was involved in, he spent the night shooting flames out his butt and consequently lit his underwear on fire.
2.  Martiga Lohn, "The Bowel Truth." http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NAH/is_3_29/ai_54189553/ Accessed March 11, 2012.
3.   "Got Lactase?" Understanding Evolution. University of California Museum of Paleontology. August 2007 http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/070401_lactose
Accessed March 11, 2012