Why black feces in humans: causes and remedies

Sometimes it happens that a person's feces are not colored in standard brown shades, but become deep black. This change may not be noticed by many people, but the most attentive people notice it and begin to worry. We hasten to note that there is a reason for concern, since sometimes black feces indicate the presence of various pathological processes in the body. However, this is not at all necessary, sometimes such a non-standard color to the defecated masses can be given by drugs previously taken by a person. In this material, we will take a closer look at why a person forms black feces, and what color of feces is normal.

What colors are normal for feces

Many people, when asked by a doctor about the color of their stool, are often embarrassed and answer that they do not consider their own stool. Society has established its own rules, making everything about human natural fluids and other masses obscene. However, experts do not ask the required question out of idle curiosity. In fact, using the characteristics of feces, many different conclusions can be drawn about the state of the human gastrointestinal tract, as well as other organs of the body.

Attention should be paid to the following parameters of bowel movements:

• Colour;
• shape;
• consistency.

Normally, all these three parameters can be very diverse, because they are influenced by a great many different factors.

The typical shade of stool in adulthood can range from tan to brown and almost brownish. However, the color of stool is also directly dependent on the food eaten by a person for several days preceding the moment of consideration of the masses.

In addition, it affects the shade and function of the gallbladder. So, if for any reason the constant outflow of bile is disturbed in the body, the stool will be several times lighter than usual.

As for the panic about black, I must say that many people sometimes invent unnecessary problems for themselves. In fact, sometimes the stool turns dark brown, and this is completely normal, however, due to poor lighting in the bathroom or especially the patient's violent imagination, it may appear black.

If you are not sure if the color of your stool is normal and you think it is black, use the following instructions for a more accurate check. Let us warn you right away that there is little pleasant in it, but remember that feces are a natural element produced by the human body, and there is nothing disgusting in their study. Particularly sensitive citizens can wear a mask or fill their nostrils with cotton so they don't smell. However, it is better to conduct research with gloves, so as not to accidentally get your hands and then the surrounding household items.

So, look at the instructions.

Step number 1 - preparing the inventory

To examine in detail the feces in order to find out their exact shade, prepare the following items:

• a sheet of white paper, best suited for printing, since notebook sheets or pages of notebooks most often do not fit in shade;
• gloves that you wear to maintain hygiene;
• a stick with a shovel-shaped end or an unnecessary spatula;
• if you wish, you can take an apron or other protective clothing so as not to get dirty.

Step number 2 - get the feces

Of course, it is best for the sake of research to defecate in a jar, however, this is hardly possible, therefore, it is necessary to get a small amount of feces excreted in the toilet. You don't need to get out large pieces, you really need a little material for this research.

Step number 3 - put feces on paper

Next, you need to apply the collected stool to a white sheet of paper. Using the scoop that removed the feces, spread the mass over the surface of the sheet, spreading it evenly. Now take a close look at your results. The color of the chair will be clearly visible on a white sheet.

Note! It is important to distribute the feces evenly over the sheet, so that in some places it does not stray into lumps and does not appear darker than it really is. If you have taken an excess of biological material, it is better to throw away the excess in order to maintain the purity of the experiment.

Now you can understand if the stool seemed black to you. Distributed on paper, it will not lose its color if indeed it was originally charcoal. If you find that you initially correctly noted the color of the chair, proceed to reading the next section of the article.

Reasons for staining human feces black

The reasons for the change in the shade of feces have a different etiology. If you find such a deviation from the norm in yourself, you need to think carefully about each of them in order to exclude pathological processes. If no clue is presented, you will have to undergo a medical examination.

Coloring Products

First, try to remember what food you have consumed in the last three days. There is a specific list of foods that can cause stools to turn black. This is a completely natural process, since the pigment was not formed as a reaction to some unfavorable process in the body, but simply excreted with the remnants of consumed products.

These foods include:

• prunes;
• beet;
• colored wine;
• blood sausage and other foods mixed with blood;
• liver;
• chokeberry;
• blueberry;
• black currant;
• red grapes.

In large quantities, these plant foods you eat can easily stain your bowel movements. If you eat a small amount of beets, the feces are more likely to turn out to be red or raspberry, which also sometimes scares people who think it is blood. However, a large amount of consumed vegetable turns the stool not into pink, but black mass.

The same goes for prunes. This very useful product not only cleanses the digestive tract, but also supplies the body with a large amount of useful vitamins. However, if you overeat it, you can get black stools.

Red grapes are also able to affect non-unexpected coloration of feces, which many people do not know. Therefore, if you have not eaten beets or prunes, try to remember if you have eaten large quantities of red grapes.

As for berries, such as black chokeberry and blueberry, by their very name it is clear that they can darken your stools, at the same time staining your mouth, tongue and hands in wine colors. There is nothing wrong with trying these vegetable delicacies in large quantities one-time. If the faeces from them turn black, there will be nothing terrible.

Foods containing blood also color the stool in the tone of interest. In addition, the liver, which is high in iron, has a similar effect. Of course, having consumed meat products in small quantities, you are unlikely to notice significant changes in the color of feces, however, a large portion can have an effect that interests us.

As for wine, dyes are added to some of its varieties to improve color, which, like all substances not assimilated by the body, are removed from it through the intestines. In addition, some wines contain an increased concentration of the stone fruit component. As a result of the use of such a drink, the blackening of the stool is almost guaranteed.

The presented list of products is far from complete, however, it is the names listed in it that are most likely to cause you anxiety by painting the stool black.

However, a similar effect can be observed from other elements of the daily diet of a modern person, for example, from chocolates colored with black food pigment, coffee and other names.

If you nevertheless ate the previously named foods, and it has not been three days since they were eaten, most likely you have nothing to worry about. The plan of action in this situation is as follows:

• exclude the sought-after foods from the diet;
• wait about 5 days, during which you observe the color of the masses coming out during defecation.

If, after the specified period, the feces remain faithful to the acquired shade, it will be necessary to look for another reason for the disorder.

Medications

The second reason for the acquisition of black feces can be the drugs that a person takes.

First of all, we are talking about drugs that relieve anemia - anemia, as a result of which the number of red blood cells in the blood is seriously reduced. To fight this pathology, a person must take preparations containing iron, which the body can assimilate. Most often, domestic doctors recommend drugs such as:

• Sorbifer Durules;
• Ferrum-Lek;
• Aktiferrin;
• "Maltofer"
• other drugs of the same action.

Why does the feces turn black when taking iron? The thing is that when ingested iron in the body begins to undergo a series of biochemical transformations in order to be absorbed by the body as a result. As a result of these transformations, it is oxidized and becomes the so-called hemin - a substance that has a black color. The desired iron compound eventually settles inside the intestinal lumen, and when fecal masses are formed, during the act of defecation, the substance is mixed with the stool. This happens so actively that as a result, the whole feces are "soaked" with black color.

Not only do the drugs in question give the stool a black tint, they also affect the occurrence of a specific odor from stool. Nevertheless, there is nothing to be afraid of, since in this case all changes associated with feces are an absolutely normal physiological reaction of your body. Therefore, you should not stop taking medication, or start taking additional medications due to blackened stools in this case. As soon as you stop taking iron, the stool will clear up and return to its normal color after a while.

A similar effect on the color of stool can have ordinary activated carbon, which is completely harmless to our body. Usually its use is associated with poisoning, however, many today use it to cleanse the body of toxins. According to the instructions for the drug, it is supposed to be consumed in the following proportion: one tablet is drunk per ten kilograms of a person's body weight. In other words, if your weight is about 60 kilograms, therefore, you need to drink six tablets, if 65 - six and a half tablets.

It's no wonder that after consuming so much coal, you will see black stool in the toilet. This is also completely natural and normal, because coal is removed from your body, at the same time taking toxins and other harmful substances with it, getting into the feces.

Another category of drugs that provoke the appearance of black feces are drugs that contain bismuth - heavy metal, which is prescribed for people who have problems with the occurrence of various ulcerative formations and erosions inside the gastrointestinal path. In an oxidizing environment, it forms a protective film on the damaged tissue sheet, which helps in scarring ulcers, and at the same time protects the mucous membranes from aggressive fluids produced in Gastrointestinal tract.

Most often, patients who are shown to use bismuth take the following drugs:

• "De-nol";
• "Bismofalk".

As a result of the passage of a number of biochemical transformations inside the body, as in the case of iron-containing preparations, residual bismuth compounds are oxidized, acquiring a black tint. This mass is excreted in the same way with feces, therefore, in this case, there is no reason for panic.

If you suspect that there may be reasons not related to the intake of the listed drugs, thanks to which your stool has acquired a black tint, in no case do not stop taking medications yourself. Only a doctor who monitors the course of your illness from the very beginning can change the treatment regimen.

Self-made decisions can affect your life extremely negatively, while entailing consequences much more serious than black feces. So, for example, the cancellation of taking medications containing bismuth leads to the fact that ulcers again begin to hurt and bleed, but it will be rather difficult for the body to stop these consequences anew.

Gastrointestinal bleeding

The next category of reasons for staining feces in a black shade refers to pathological processes. If you have not eaten the foods that stain your stool or taken any of the medications listed above, it is possible that bleeding has opened up inside your gastrointestinal tract.

There is also a special name "melena", referring to black stools formed as a result of bleeding that has opened from:

• stomach;
• esophagus.

In the first case, it can be provoked by such pathological processes in the body as:

• open, bleeding ulcer;
• cancerous processes inside the organ.

The esophagus can also bleed for a variety of reasons, for example:

• blood may come from dilated varicose veins inside the esophagus;
• due to the banal injury of this organ;
• after the formation of a longitudinal rupture of the mucous organ, which occurred as a result of the urge to vomit or in the process of regurgitation of stomach contents, the so-called Melori-Weiss syndrome.

Usually, the occurrence of melena is accompanied by other symptoms, with the help of which it becomes possible to determine whether your guess is correct at the expense of the etiology of the coal coloration of feces. These include manifestations such as:

• painful sensations in the epigastric region, located directly under the xiphoid process;
• constant weakness and apathy of the patient is also an important signal;
• also accompanied by melena nausea, turning into vomiting.

The vomit coming out of the patient also turns dark, coffee rather than black, and often their consistency also corresponds to the thicker one left after drinking coffee.

However, when bleeding inside the stomach or intestines is small, it can be determined by the black tint of the stool coming out.

Sometimes the feces acquire the desired shade due to the intake of medications, which by themselves do not in the color of interest to us. stain, however, have an effect on the opening or intensification of bleeding in the elements of the system that serves for digestion food.

These drugs are called antiplatelet agents. They are designed to prevent the formation of blood clots, preventing blood coagulation, as a result of which these deadly elements are formed. This group includes such well-known medicines as:

• "Aspirin";
• "Cardiomagnet".

In addition, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can have the same effect, for example:

• Ibuprofen;
• Diclofenac
• other medicines of a similar effect.

Most often, the listed medications provoke bleeding of ulcers formed on the walls:

• inside the stomach;
• or 12 duodenal ulcer.

In the case of a possible thought that the stool has changed its own shade afterwards, that bleeding has opened, it is necessary to immediately go to an appointment with the attending physician. It is possible that the pathological process is progressing, and it will be possible to cope with it only in a situation when you had time to catch yourself in time.

Table 1. Causes of the manifestation of black stool

Eating a lot of coloring foods	Taking specific medications	Causes associated with gastrointestinal diseases
prunes; beet; colored wine; blood sausage and other foods mixed with blood; liver; chokeberry; blueberry; black currant; red grapes.	Taking iron supplements: Sorbifer Durules; Ferrum-Lek; Aktiferrin; and a similar action of the drug. Reception of bismuth-containing funds: "De-nol"; "Bismofalk"; similar drugs. Taking adsorbent drugs: "Activated carbon".	Bleeding that opens in the esophagus: longitudinal rupture; varicose veins; injury. Bleeding inside the stomach: cancer; ulcer. Bleeding in the intestines: erosion; ulcers; other pathological processes.

Video - Black feces in an adult: causes

How to determine the nature of staining stool in a dark color

To understand what is the reason for the change in the color of the chair, you need to track some of the most important aspects of your own condition. This should be done calmly, best of all alone. Remember the most important thing: do not invent additional symptoms for yourself. If you find any manifestation from the list below, do not rush to panic, pull yourself together, analyze your own condition and go to the doctor.

First of all, it is necessary to track the general condition. In the case when the cause of the manifestation of the coal shade of the stool was bleeding inside the gastrointestinal path, you must certainly show symptoms associated with the loss of some amount of blood, such how:

• weakness;
• pale skin tone;
• lethargy;
• drowsiness;
• cool clammy sweat;
• discomfort in the epigastric region.

When the basis for the development of a black tint was the use of specific dye batteries or ingestion of medications, your general health will remain the same as usual for you level. If this is your case, try to study the composition and purpose of the medications you are taking. Having found iron, bismuth, coal absorbing toxins in them, calm down and stop panicking: the bases of stool staining are absolutely natural, no harm has been done to the body. As for food, if it became the reason for the blackening of the excreted masses, exclude coloring elements from your own menu and wait 4-5 days. Stool color will return to normal soon.

Sometimes it happens that the reasons for the manifestation of a coal shade of feces are mixed with each other. For example, you have a slight bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, and at the same time you are taking drugs for an ulcer in the duodenum. If the course of the drug is over, and the feces have not changed the shade, you will have to seek help from a doctor, as this means that you may need an additional stage of treatment.

What manifestations are accompanied by black stools

Sometimes black feces are accompanied by some other manifestations and features, which people also often pay attention to and begin to panic.

For example, many doctors receive the following complaint: "Doctor, I have black feces with large blotches." Subsequently, a medical interview revealed that the patient consumed a large amount of red grapes right with seeds, which, in fact, turned out to be the desired inclusions. Such lumps can appear without black feces, for example, after eating other berries with small bones. The same can be said for grains, such as flax, which many people eat raw with spoons for the sake of health. However, they forget an important fact: if the grains are not ground, chewed or soaked beforehand, our digestive system may not cope with their digestion, and they will come out through the anus in a completely natural way, scaring people who have found this impurity in their own kale.

Sometimes small dark worms appear in the feces, which people take for parasites that have settled inside the body, which have captured their insides. However, in reality, black worms turn out to be particles of a banana, which the patient ate the other day in substantial quantities. With helminthic invasion, on the contrary, you will see white blotches, which may well turn out to be parasites.

Bleeding that opens inside any component of the gastrointestinal tract is most often accompanied by the release of feces of a coal shade, but not dense, but liquid consistency. Gastric juice, other digestive fluids secreted by our organs, turn the red color of the blood in the feces to black, contributing to the staining of feces in this unusual shade. If bleeding opens in the colon, the feces will not be black, but pink-red, jelly-like.

Coal stools, interspersed with blood secretions, can occur in various pathological processes that occur inside the colon. Seeing such a picture in the toilet, immediately seek qualified help from a doctor.

After the operation, the stool may also acquire the shade of interest to us, however, this will still be a negative symptom. It usually manifests itself after the operation on:

• stomach;
• esophagus;
• upper intestines.

Bowel movements that are dark green in color are often accompanied by fever. Both of these symptoms indicate the course of various processes of infectious etiology inside the intestine, which must be treated in a hospital setting.

Why pregnant feces turn black

Very often, pregnant women observe an unusual color change in their stools and begin to panic. It should be noted that this panic is generally quite justified, since, despite the fact that an interesting situation and subsequent childbirth has some effect on the peristalsis of the intestinal system, however, it does not affect the shade in any way bowel movements.

For women in position, all the same reasons are relevant as for other adults. However, most often fears turn out to be unfounded, since modern women very often suffer from anemia, therefore, during pregnancy they constantly use iron supplements. Hence the unusual color of the feces.

Black feces in children

Babies can also defecate in masses of black, and this event potentially occurs already within the first days after birth.

The fact is that after birth, the child defecates with the so-called meconium - a mass that has a very different color: both yellow and green, and even so dark that it may seem black. However, by the third day of the baby's existence, after the acts of defecation, masses of standard colors are observed. Depending on which nutrient will become the basis of the child's diet, a specific shade is formed. Typically, the gamut starts from a light yellow shade and ends in darkened green, mustard colors. The consistency is usually liquid.

As children get a little older, their bowel movements may darken due to:

• food with mixtures;
• eating cow's milk (not allowed immediately before reaching two years of age);
• when using drugs with colibacterin.

However, in these situations, the stool becomes not coal, but brown, and it can only seem darker than it really is.

To determine the exact color of your child's bowel movements, you will need to do the test described earlier in this resource. To carry it out, you need to prepare:

• paper;
• gloves;
• stick;
• protective clothing.

Apply the mixture evenly on the sheet and see what color it has. If you find black, remember if the child has any of the following symptoms:

• anxiety;
• poor appetite.

If the answer is yes, you should immediately go to the hospital, because at an early age, children also have various pathological processes inside the gastrointestinal tract.

Blood oozing from damaged mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract in the early stages may not lead to dangerous consequences, however, as a result, this process provokes anemia and progresses.

Let's summarize

Black feces have always frightened people, since such a shade is a deviation from the norm. This is true, however, the deviation is not always caused by any pathological processes. Perhaps you just overeating food coloring or taking medicine for staining stool as directed by your doctor.

A visit to the hospital should be carried out immediately if no favorable cause for the discoloration of the stool has been found. You should be especially careful if defecation with substantia nigra is accompanied by symptoms such as vomiting, weakness, dizziness, or fever.

If your relatives have a history of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, serious or not, if detected this formidable symptom, it is better to immediately consult a specialist to find out the reasons and determine a further plan action.