By John Salak –
Frequent poopers rejoice. Those who enjoy regular bowel movements are probably doing themselves a whole lot of good. The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), in fact, reports that bowel movement frequency is linked to long-term health.
The ISB-led research team delivered the news after studying various aspects of 1,400 healthy adults. The group discovered that how often people poop can have a large influence on a person’s physiology and health.
The ISB ultimately determined that a super duper pooper is an individual who hits the bowl one to two times a day. Conversely, those who are constipated, have generally infrequent bowel movements or maybe go too often may face kidney issues, anxiety and depression.
“Prior research has shown how bowel movement frequency can have a big impact on gut ecosystem function,” reported Johannes Johnson-Martinez, the lead author of the study. “Specifically, if stool sticks around too long in the gut, microbes use up all of the available dietary fiber, which they ferment into beneficial short-chain fatty acids. After that, the ecosystem switches to fermentation of proteins, which produces several toxins that can make their way into the bloodstream.”
If anything, only a small portion of adults—less than five percent—suffer from constipation. About 12 percent have three to six bowel movements a week, while about 50 percent of adults report going about once a day, according to another study.
The IBS research team categorized the self-reported bowel movement frequency of the 1,400 individuals in the study into four groups: constipation (one or two bowel movements per week), low-normal (between three and six bowel movements per week), high-normal (between one and three bowel movements per day) and diarrhea.
The team looked for associations between bowel movement frequency and factors including demographics, genetics, gut microbiome, blood metabolites and plasma chemistries. The results showed that age, sex and body mass index (BMI) were significantly associated with bowel movement frequency. Specifically, younger people, women and those with a lower BMI tended to have less frequent bowel movements.
The researchers also showed that the microbial composition of study participants’ gut microbiomes was a telltale sign of bowel movement frequency. Fiber-fermenting gut bacteria, often associated with health, appeared to thrive in a “Goldilocks zone” of bowel movement frequency, where people pooped between 1-2 times per day. However, bacteria associated with protein fermentation or the upper gastrointestinal tract tended to be enriched in those with constipation or diarrhea, respectively.
Similarly, several blood metabolites and plasma chemistries showed significant associations with bowel movement frequency, suggesting potential links between bowel health and chronic disease risk. Specifically, microbially derived protein fermentation byproducts known to cause damage to the kidneys, like p-cresol-sulfate and indoxyl-sulfate, were enriched in the blood of individuals reporting constipation, while clinical chemistries associated with liver damage were elevated in individuals reporting diarrhea.
Blood levels of indoxyl-sulfate, in particular, were significantly associated with reduced kidney function, providing preliminary support for a causal link between bowel movement frequency, gut microbial metabolism, and organ damage in this healthy cohort.
Unsurprisingly, those who reported eating a fiber-rich diet, better hydration and regular exercise tended to find themselves in the bowel movement Goldilocks zone.
“Chronic constipation has been associated with neurodegenerative disorders and with chronic kidney disease progression in patients with active disease,” noted Dr. Sean Gibbons, the corresponding author of the paper. “However, it has been unclear whether or not bowel movement abnormalities are early drivers of chronic disease and organ damage, or whether these retrospective associations in sick patients are merely a coincidence.
“Here, in a generally healthy population, we show that constipation, in particular, is associated with blood levels of microbially derived toxins known to cause organ damage, prior to any disease diagnosis,” he noted.
The study also explored associations between bowel movement frequency and anxiety and depression, indicating that mental health history is connected to how often one poops.
“Overall, this study shows how bowel movement frequency can influence all body systems, and how aberrant bowel movement frequency may be an important risk factor in the development of chronic diseases,” Gibbons said. “These insights could inform strategies for managing bowel movement frequency, even in healthy populations, to optimize health and wellness.”
