Now I bet just the title of this post had you curious, didn’t it? That’s because poop is fascinating—take it from me! So before you start to chuckle about today’s Health Link, remember that investigating the look and consistency of your stool is one of the best ways to determine how healthy you are overall, so check out the Bristol Stool Chart and today and rate your poop!
Developed by experts at the University of Bristol in England, this helpful chart is an important tool for helping to study intestinal transit time (how long it takes your food to move through your digestive tract and out through your colon) and for learning more about how to keep your digestive system running smoothly.
Some quick tips—if your poop looks like a 3 or 4, you’re probably in good shape. But if you’re closer to a 1 or a 2, there’s a good chance you’re constipated, which means you need to get things moving! On the other hand, if your poops fall into the 5 to 7 range, things are moving too much!
It’s also important to consider how many bowel movements you have each day, and in case you haven’t heard me say it before, you ideally want to have 2 to 3 healthy bowel movements every day. And if you have accompanying symptoms like gas and bloating, or heartburn? There might be an underlying problem you really need to address—so take a little time to learn your poop score and give your digestive system the TLC it deserves!