Light stools

[Austinhealthanxiety]

I’ve had health anxiety since I was in second grade. I’m a 23 year old male. Two days ago, I had one turd in my stool that looked light. I’ve had pancreatic cancer fears for a few months now at this point, and it’s been one of my worst fears. I was okay for a bit, but then this happened. Over the next 36 hours, I tried forcing myself to go to check on the color but I didn’t have to go, which is abnormal given that I go twice a day. I finally did go, and the stool was light again. This morning, I had to go and it was a pale color. I have no other symptoms, and have been checking my eyes for any jaundice like crazy. No pain, no weight loss, no anything. Could the stress be causing this?

 

[bigjetplane2]

definitely

 

[Phillies Phan]

Virtually impossible at age 23. The body does things; some we can draw a line between cause and effect, but sometimes we haven’t got a clue why our body does something. Generally speaking, diet affects stool color big time. Try eating blueberries, steak/hamburgers and wait for the results. Stress causes transit time thru the digestive system to speed up. That messes with our stool color and consistency.

Youre likely too young to have ever heard of the band The Eagles, but in their song Take it Easy there’s a line I think of regularly; “...don’t even try to understand”.

 

[Del1992]

I am suffering this at the moment today of all days when my cancer health anxiety has been dreadful the last week with brain tumour throat and mouth cancer, something below that never came to mind then I looked at my stool after and thought hmm I wonder why it’s a tanned light brown colour lets ask google! Now convinced I have pancreatic gallbladder or liver cancer!

 

[Phillies Phan]

Even Google says, on a reliable site that I unfortunately can’t recall, that all shades of brown are normal. Your anxiety causes waste to pass through quicker than usual and as such doesn’t have enough time to add in the normal amount of the bile salts it typically does. That’s what gives stools their color.

If that were sinister, you would have other signs, like jaundice; the whites of your eyes would be yellow and your urine would be cola color. Drink a few glasses of water and when your urine comes out clear or mainly clear then that also shows you don’t have jaundice.

 

[Del1992]

Even Google says, on a reliable site that I unfortunately can’t recall, that all shades of brown are normal. Your anxiety causes waste to pass through quicker than usual and as such doesn’t have enough time to add in the normal amount of the bile salts it typically does. That’s what gives stools their color.

If that were sinister, you would have other signs, like jaundice; the whites of your eyes would be yellow and your urine would be cola color. Drink a few glasses of water and when your urine comes out clear or mainly clear then that also shows you don’t have jaundice.

Thanks that is actually really reassuring! Thinking about it now of course anxiety is going to make food pass through us quicker thus making it not the “normal” colour!