Colors feces green. What will the color of feces tell? What does green stool mean in adults

The color and texture of feces can tell a lot about a person's health. This is one of the original litmus tests of the body, letting you know about problems. If you are attentive to your condition and observe changes in excrement, you can recognize latent processes in time.

The causes of green stools are divided into physiological and pathological.

Normally, human stool is moderately soft, of a homogeneous consistency and has a color from light yellow to dark brown. However, there are natural factors that affect its coloring in a greenish tint, these include:

Physiological causes do not have any additional symptoms, the person feels good. However, if nausea, weakness or diarrhea appear, this is already a sign of the disease.

Pathological causes

Serious diseases or disorders in the body are always manifested by a number of pronounced symptoms. In addition to the color of feces in green, the following signs may be observed:

Important! If several symptoms appear at the same time, you should consult a doctor. Self-treatment with simple activated charcoal may not help if the disease is severe.

Diseases that cause green stools

Salmonellosis. A type of bacterial infection caused by salmonella. Infection occurs through unboiled water and thermally unprocessed products: animal meat, fish, milk, eggs. Cases of infection directly from animals are known. The disease is characterized by symptoms such as:

A chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, in which the mucous membrane is affected, and granulomas (nodular formations) appear on it. Factors provoking the development of pathology: weakened immunity, past infection, stress, allergies. Symptoms do not appear immediately, but gradually accumulate, they include:

general weakness;

significant weight loss;

elevated temperature;

pain in the joints and muscles;

conjunctivitis.

In the acute course of the disease, the following symptoms are connected:

An infection transmitted from person to person by airborne droplets or household contact. Another name for the disease is intestinal flu, since the virus affects the gastrointestinal tract to a greater extent. Typical symptoms:

Ulcerative colitis. The disease, as a result of which the mucous membrane of the colon suffers, it becomes inflamed, edema, and ulcerative elements are also formed.

The causes of colitis can be: infection, the body's immune response, a hereditary factor, even stress and bad habits. Symptoms of the disease:

weakness;

cramping pain in the abdomen;

temperature rise;

frequent greenish stools with blood impurities;

tachycardia;

pallor;

dizziness.

increased gas formation;

diarrhea with foamy stools from light yellow to yellow-green in color with a characteristic sour smell.

If greenish loose stools were observed once, perhaps we are talking about ordinary food poisoning. In this case, after the complete cleansing of the intestines from feces and toxins, relief comes, which is not characteristic of other diseases.

Treatment

With frequent diarrhea, accompanied by green feces, as well as infections, of course, the help of specialists is needed.

To begin with, on the basis of external symptoms, the doctor makes a preliminary diagnosis, and depending on it, the patient is placed either in the infectious diseases department, or, if his condition is critical, in the intensive care unit. In some cases, treatment is possible at home, for example, if the cause is dysbacteriosis or lactose intolerance.

To make a clear diagnosis, the following measures are prescribed:

After research, it becomes clear what kind of disease contributes to the release of green stools.

Depending on the type of pathology, certain measures may be prescribed.

In case of intestinal bleeding, an emergency operation is prescribed.

Important to remember! Folk remedies are not suitable for use in case of green stools. Due to the fact that the cause of the disease state is initially unknown, one can only harm one or another decoction or tincture.

Prevention

To prevent the appearance of liquid green feces, you must follow simple rules:

undergo an examination of the body at least once a year in order to detect the presence of hidden pathologies in time;

eat right: exclude fast food, alcohol and an abundance of fatty, fried foods;

Proper nutrition is the key to health

take medications only as prescribed by a doctor;

exercise moderate physical activity;

observe hygiene: wash hands thoroughly before eating and after visiting public places.

The health of every person is in his hands. The percentage of severe hereditary pathologies is extremely small, and if you maintain the condition of your intestines in the norm, then it will work like a clock, and the problem of diarrhea and green feces is unlikely to arise.

Video - What the color of the stool says

If your stool color suddenly changes, do not immediately panic - the reason may not be serious at all. Anxiety will be appropriate with a constant unusual shade of stool. Let's talk today about the causes of green feces in adults.

What can color feces

The green tint of feces can be the result of frequent and large amounts of cereal consumption. Even if you change the diet to other foods for several days, the feces will be green. This is explained by the presence in cultures of a reinforced protective shell, which causes the digestive tract to secrete more bile for processing. And as a result - the feces are stained in this color.

There are also foods that cause a green tint to bowel movements, for example, which have a lot of iron in their composition, as well as:

leaf crops;
caramel, marmalade and jelly with a high content of dyes;
red meats, sea fish and legumes (red).

All of the above, as a rule, passes without diarrhea and pain in the abdomen. 3-5 days after the last meal with the presence of the above products, the color of the feces will become normal.

Another cause of green stool in an adult, which does not indicate a serious illness, is diarrhea. This is due to the low speed of microorganisms in the intestines to act on feces with such a problem.

With impaired movement of digested food in the form of a coma through the large intestine, feces also acquire a green tint.

For information - before going out, the contents are in this section of the intestine for some time.

Now let's move on to more serious reasons for the appearance of green feces in an adult.

Causes of green stool in adults

The appearance of pathology in the body, including a change in the color of feces, will be accompanied by additional symptoms.

And depending on this, it will be possible to talk about the development of certain ailments:

Infections in the intestines lead to fever, nausea and vomiting, including pain in the abdomen.
With dysbacteriosis, the number of pathogenic bacteria increases, provoking decay and fermentation of food. As a result, there is bloating, cramps and a change in the color of feces.
An exacerbation of a stomach ulcer or oncology of the gastrointestinal tract leads, among other things, to a change in the color of feces to green. This is due to the incomplete process of iron oxidation.
Mass decomposition of red blood cells contributes to the development of liver pathologies - hepatitis. The diseased organ lacks hemoglobin, a derivative of bilirubin. As a result, the stool becomes green instead of brown.
Due to the intolerance of the body to any products, an allergic reaction appears, leading to inflammatory processes and digestive disorders. As a result, the feces become green.

The nature and color (gray, black-green, yellow, brown, liquid) of undigested food residues can tell a lot. These factors are used in medical practice to diagnose a patient along with special tests. What does green stool indicate in a person? Is this shade of stool dangerous? The color of feces is particularly affected by the human diet, as well as the state of the digestive tract, especially the gallbladder and liver. Any violations of the functionality of these organs, inflammatory processes are displayed by a change in the color and consistency of feces.

Causes of green stool in adults

When the color of feces changes, a person involuntarily pays attention to the state of his health. Greenish feces will be if food with the addition of green dyes has entered the esophagus, or a large amount of greens predominates in the adult's diet, for example, in summer. That is, the state and shade of feces is directly affected by the diet.

But in most cases, a change in stool is associated with serious pathologies of the body: diseases of the liver and biliary tract, dysbacteriosis, malfunction of the pancreas. The focus of infection is inhabited by leukocytes, and after their death, the stool becomes green. The inflammatory process is accompanied by characteristic symptoms: pain and cramps in the abdomen, intestines with an admixture of marsh, putrid odor of feces, anemia, diarrhea.

Why is my baby's stool green?

In newborns, an olive-black shade of feces is considered the norm at birth and in the first month of life. Meconium is a variant of the discharge of the original, like gruel, black feces. After three days, the baby's feces acquire a dark olive tone, and about 5-10 days after birth, the color of the feces is close to the natural light brown tint. Therefore, the parents of the crumbs should not have special reasons for concern, unless the baby's health has deteriorated sharply.

The reason for the greenish color of the stool in an infant is the immaturity of the liver, digestive organs, the release of liver enzymes (bilirubins), which are not involved in the digestion of food. This comes from malnutrition, when the baby does not completely empty the breast. After all, the most valuable is not the “front” (first) milk, but the “back”, enriched with nutrients. The timing of the "growing up" of the liver is affected by the presence of pathology of pregnancy, the method and term of childbirth, the beginning of breastfeeding.

What does dark green feces mean in a baby?

When a child is artificially fed, the cause of the appearance of greenish feces is considered to be an unsuitable nutrient mixture for the body or its change. If a change in the color of the feces does not lead to other symptoms (fever, lack of appetite, a strong smell during bowel movements, the presence of mucus, traces of blood among the feces), this indicates the occurrence of a serious infectious disease, which should be diagnosed by a pediatrician without wasting time. In older children, greenish stool indicates lactose deficiency or dysbacteriosis.

Green feces: a sign of what disease?

Taking antibiotics inside for a long time, some products (a large amount of greenery, green apples) contribute to the staining of feces in a greenish tint. But after a few days, the color of the feces normalizes to the usual. Otherwise, the green tint of the stool indicates the presence of certain diseases associated with disruption of the digestive system and intestines.

You need to know that bile itself is a bright green color, and as it passes through the small intestine, it gradually loses saturation and acquires a yellow-brown hue. If the function of the splash of bile is impaired and the latter enters the intestine long before the digestion of food, then the stool masses indicate this as “green”. Also, the green tint of bowel movements is due to the influence of the following factors:

food poisoning;
salmonellosis;
lamblia;
rotavirus infection;
individual intolerance to lactose, fructose;
food allergies;
celiac disease;
malabsorption syndrome;
Crohn's disease;
ulcerative colitis;
thyrotoxicosis (increased level of thyroxine in the blood plasma due to impaired thyroid function)
gastroesophageal reflux disease;
disorders of intestinal innervation in diabetes;
impaired absorption of bile acids in the small intestine;
inflammation of the small intestine;
surgical removal of the ileum.

What to do or what treatment to take?

Let's see, when do you need a doctor? The feces "turned green" from eating foods that would give such a color, then there should be no alarm - the color change will occur to the usual shade in a day or two, if nothing else bothers you. The same is noted from prolonged use of antibiotics. If the state of health has deteriorated sharply, colic, spasmodic pains in the abdomen, intestines, there is vomiting, diarrhea, greenish feces for more than 5 days, the temperature rises, qualified medical assistance is needed immediately.

Before the doctor arrives, use the following tips:

Probiotics will help restore the intestinal microflora: Lactobacterin, Bifikol, Bifidumbacterin (tablets, rectal suppositories, capsules, powder).
If the appearance of a green stool was preceded by poisoning, then the best helper is activated charcoal. The drug is washed down with a large amount of liquid.
For diarrhea and severe vomiting, take Regidron.

Video: Causes and treatments for green, loose stools

The first reaction to the appearance of green stools should not be panic, first you need to determine the possible cause of the appearance of an uncharacteristically colored stool. You can find out what to do first of all, how to help a patient with greenish loose stools, by watching an informative video by Elena Malysheva:

Often, adults do not pay attention to the color of the stool, because they eat various food products that can color feces.

Liquid green stools are a manifestation of improper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract due to various intoxications, viral or bacterial infections.

Causes of green loose stools in adults

When green loose stools appear in an adult along with nausea, a gag reflex, a fetid odor, fever, or turn black, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Fecal masses during diarrhea become liquid, shapeless secretions. They have such a consistency due to the fact that food products pass through the gastrointestinal tract with increased motility.

The provoking factor will be a disorder in the absorption of water in the colon, the release of an inflammatory secret by the walls of the intestine.

Often, loose stools occur during a chronic or acute inflammatory process in the small or large intestine.

Kinds

There are several varieties of this pathological process in adults. Each of them is characterized by its own characteristics and manifestation.

Dark green diarrhea in an adult

A similar kind of diarrhea can be formed due to dysbacteriosis. This difficulty is often observed in childhood, but it is not uncommon in adults.

Provocative factors of microflora imbalance are: prolonged or improper use of antibiotic drugs, unbalanced diet, poor quality food products, allergic reaction, infectious diseases, weakened immune system.

In the process of influence of various negative factors, external or internal, there is an imbalance in the intestinal microflora, this is expressed in the death of positive bacteria and increased reproduction of pathogenic microorganisms.

Symptoms of dysbacteriosis will be: pain in the abdominal cavity, nausea, flatulence and bloating, stool disorders, manifested in diarrhea and a change in the color of feces to green.

Yellow-green diarrhea in an adult

The causes of this type of diarrhea are different. A similar response of the body is provoked by a variety of intestinal infections, including rotaviruses.

Such diseases are characterized by: yellow or green-yellow loose stools, fever, lethargy, nausea, loss of appetite, muscle pain, dehydration.

Similar symptoms are characteristic of dysentery, one of the manifestations of which is considered to be severe diarrhea with water of a yellow-green hue with mucus.

A similar stool appears during various diseases of the digestive organs (pancreatitis, ulcer, hepatitis).

Diarrhea with green water in an adult

Green watery diarrhea in adults is often considered a manifestation of intestinal infections.

Infection is mainly carried out through the use of food products of inadequate quality, dirty water, due to unwashed hands, or in the process of contact with an infected person.

Other symptoms of the pathological process are: nausea, acute pain near the abdominal cavity, loss of appetite, lethargy, fever.

The most popular viral intestinal infections are enterovirus and rotavirus.

The pathological processes that are caused by them are associated with a change in the shade of feces, which suggests the presence of a significant amount of leukocytes in them.

Green diarrhea with blood

One of the provoking factors of green diarrhea is bleeding inside the gastrointestinal tract. In such a situation, the feces may change in color to green, dark or black.

The shade varies from the course of the process of iron oxidation, which is contained in the bloodstream. Green diarrhea with blood impurities appears during certain blood diseases or in the process of malfunctioning of the digestive organs.

Such symptoms are characteristic of pathological processes in the liver, during which there is an increase in the breakdown of red blood cells and an increase in the production of bilirubin.

The reasons

The following reasons for the formation of green stool are known:

The presence of a significant amount of dyes in food products leads to a change in the color of the stool.
Therapy with antibiotic drugs negatively affects the intestinal microflora. Prolonged use of medications destroys white blood cells. As a result, the patient has feces of a similar shade.
Loose green stools appear in people after eating a significant amount of vegetables. They stimulate the functioning of the digestive tract and lead to the appearance of this chair.
Green diarrhea in an adult occurs after intestinal infection. In the patient's stool, blood impurities and a significant amount of mucus are observed.
After ingestion of food products of inadequate quality, toxic substances penetrate into the intestines, changing the shade of the stool.
A special color of green diarrhea in an adult appears in connection with bleeding inside the digestive organs. Blood penetrates into the feces, which is not oxidized during metabolic disorders. The chair of such a patient will become a characteristic shade.
A change in the color of diarrhea indicates liver damage. Inside the patient's body is the breakdown of red blood cells. The liver, in an attempt to purify the blood, produces bilirubin. This substance is able to color feces in a green hue.

To get rid of the pathology, it is necessary to eliminate its causes.

Prohibited Products

Prohibited foods for green diarrhea in adults are:

fatty foods that make it difficult to process food masses;
fermented milk products, promotes increased fermentation in the digestive tract;
taking salty foods and marinade can irritate the intestinal walls;
exclusion of acute for the duration of therapy;
exclusion of legumes, cabbage, radish and onions;
highly carbonated water makes it difficult to treat the patient;
with diarrhea, it is forbidden to drink alcohol.

Permitted Products

Products that promote patient recovery are:

crackers and biscuits;
yesterday's black bread;
jelly with blueberries;
strong tea or a decoction of bird cherry;
baked apples and bananas.

If improvements are noted, it is permissible to diversify the menu with low-fat varieties of meat products.

Folk methods

To prepare the remedy, oak bark is used. A pinch of crushed bark is poured into 0.3 liters of water. The mixture is boiled over low heat for 10 minutes. The tincture is especially effective during the treatment of chronic diarrhea.
It is possible to eliminate green diarrhea in an adult through a tincture of walnut kernels. The inner part is crushed in a mortar. The mass is poured with 2 cups of boiling water and simmered over low heat for about 20 minutes. The cooled mixture is filtered through gauze. Tincture is taken 100 g once a day.
Bitter wormwood helps patients with any form of diarrhea. When there is no ready-made tincture, it is permissible to prepare a decoction. For these purposes, 1 tbsp is added to boiling water. l. wormwood leaves and boil for 5 minutes. The decoction is best used warm without sugar.
It is possible to eliminate green diarrhea by using a decoction of St. John's wort. It is taken 100 g three times a day before meals.
Blueberries are considered a versatile berry containing elements that can stop intense diarrhea. With the constant use of blueberry jelly, the patient's well-being improves.

Kissel helps protect the intestinal walls from pathogenic microorganisms.

A sudden change in the consistency and shade of feces in adults to green is a pathological process that indicates malfunctions in the functioning of the digestive system.

Such a disease often acts as a symptom of an ailment. To eliminate diarrhea, you must first establish its causes.

This can be done through a comprehensive diagnosis, which is carried out by a specialist.

Useful video

The black color of feces is due to compounds of iron or bismuth. At the same time, bismuth compounds can enter the body exclusively from the outside - as part of drugs. And iron can be endogenous or exogenous. Exogenous iron also enters the digestive tract as part of drugs or vitamins. And endogenous iron in the lumen of the digestive tract appears when it is released from erythrocytes, which occurs with internal bleeding.

The green color of feces is given by bilirubin compounds that enter the intestines as part of bile. When the food content moves through the intestines at a normal rate, bilirubin compounds are oxidized to brown pigments, which color the feces in the usual color. And if digestion is defective or the food bolus moves through the intestines very quickly, then bilirubin does not have time to turn into brown compounds and is excreted unchanged. This unoxidized bilirubin gives the feces a dark green color.

Black-green feces always indicate trouble in the human body. So, black-green liquid stool (diarrhea) most often indicates an intestinal infection or other infectious disease. Very often dysentery begins with black-green diarrhea.

Such black-green diarrhea at the very beginning of the development of the disease may not be combined with a rise in temperature, abdominal pain, nausea, and other symptoms of infection. But gradually, the listed clinical symptoms of infection will join the liquid stool, painted black and green. Therefore, as soon as a person noted the release of black-green loose stools, it is necessary to urgently seek medical help and not wait for the temperature to appear, since the condition will worsen in the future, and the infectious disease will still require treatment.

A black-green color to a normal, formed stool can also be given by chronic mild bleeding, which is a complication of gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer. Also, this type of bleeding can be observed in malignant neoplasms of the stomach, esophagus or duodenum. In such a situation, iron compounds enter the intestines from the stomach constantly, since slight blood loss occurs every minute. In the intestine, part of the iron compounds is completely oxidized and stains the stool black. And the other part of the iron compounds is not completely oxidized and gives the stool a green tint. It is in this way that black-green feces are obtained as a result.

Also, the black-green color of feces of normal consistency can be detected in various liver diseases with phenomena of a decrease in the functional activity of the organ, for example, in fibrosis, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, hepatosis, etc. This is due to the fact that hemoglobin decays in the liver, which is normal used to form new red blood cells. When the liver is not able to utilize all the released hemoglobin for the formation of new red blood cells, it breaks down and releases iron compounds into the duodenum. As a result, these iron compounds are partially oxidized completely and partially incompletely. Fully oxidized iron compounds are black, and incompletely oxidized are green. As a result, a black-green feces is excreted in a person, stained in such a specific way with iron compounds of various degrees of oxidation.

In addition, black-green feces can be excreted when there is a combination of bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract (from the esophagus, stomach or duodenum) and severe dysbacteriosis, which leads to incomplete digestion of food, as well as fermentation and putrefaction processes in the intestines.

In infants, black-green feces do not occur. Babies may have green, black, or green-yellow stools.