Light brown feces: causes, possible diseases, treatment method

Every person knows what color of stool is normal for him, and notices when the excrement takes on an unusual color.

The appearance of a light color in an adult is a symptom of insufficient production of digestive enzymes by the liver and pancreas.

The condition may develop due to a pathological process or be the result of taking certain foods or medications. Light-colored stool in an adult requires examination and search for the causes of clinical symptoms.

List of common reasons: why stool is light brown

To confirm with certainty the presence of a particular diagnosis, you should undergo a full examination (biochemical blood test, FGDS, ultrasound, and in some cases MRI). The causes described below are hypothetical, and even if the full range of symptoms listed is present, the actual diagnosis and causes of light brown stool may vary. You should not self-medicate - you cannot do without the help of an experienced gastroenterologist and the prescription of special medications.

• physiological reasons (changes in diet);
• taking certain medications (list provided below);
• liver diseases – toxic hepatitis, cirrhosis, viral hepatitis;
• chronic pancreatitis or pancreatic necrosis;
• chronic cholelithiasis or cholecystitis and other disorders of the outflow of bile;
• problems with the production of enzymes in sufficient quantities to digest food.

List of possible physiological causes

Light brown feces may appear if the patient has overeaten a particular product, or as a reaction of the digestive system to an unusual ingredient in a dish. Therefore, first of all, you need to remember what you ate last week and not panic.

Here is a list of foods that in some cases can cause light brown stool in an adult:

• white unpolished rice (and dishes made from it: rolls, sushi, pilaf, porridge);
• fermented milk products and milk more than a liter per day;
• baked goods made from white flour;
• boiled peas (more than a kilogram per day);
• barley and dishes made from it.

Foods that cause stool lightening

You can figure out what exactly caused the discoloration of stool - illness or dietary habits - by monitoring the frequency of acholic stools. If the case is isolated, then it is quite possible that a person’s diet contains many fatty foods. An excess of fat in food leads to decreased bile production. Following this, the color range of feces is reduced to pale yellow, beige and gray shades.

Foods that cause stool discoloration include:

• a number of dairy products: sour cream, cottage cheese, fermented baked milk, yogurt, kefir,
• fats of various kinds - vegetable oil, butter, mayonnaise, lard,
• banana, melon,
• alcohol,
• rice, oatmeal porridge,
• vegetable and fruit purees.

What to do in such a situation? It's very simple: you need to stop eating, or reduce the amount of the above foods in your diet. This will allow the stool to return to its normal color very quickly.

The main distinguishing feature of acholic stool caused by diet is the absence of any complaints about well-being and health. All people who encounter this problem, for example, due to an excess of milk in the diet or various fats, do not experience dangerous symptoms.

Therefore, if there is no diarrhea, fever, chills, abdominal pain, skin rashes and other warning signs with colorless stool, there is no need to sound the alarm.

Nutritional habits and stool color

As you can see, the list of products is not so long, and in order to eat such a large amount you will have to make some effort. Depending on the individual characteristics of the body, sometimes it is enough to drink just 500 ml of milk in one gulp to make the stool lighten.

In some cases, it becomes not just light brown, but literally milky. This comes as a shock to some patients - but it was just a matter of excessive milk consumption. The light brown color of a child's stool can be caused by a malabsorption of lactose - you should take the necessary tests to make sure that this substance is normally absorbed by the baby's body.

1.General information

It would seem that the color of feces is not a topic that needs to be popularized. In a decent society, this is not a topic for discussion at all, and most of us have medical knowledge in this area limited to the axiom “There is no blood - thank God.”

Meanwhile, in medicine there are no indecent topics. For a doctor, like for Sherlock Holmes, every little thing, every nuance or, as in this case, a shade of color matters, since these details can turn out to be diagnostically informative and critically important in solving the main task: having recognized the disease, cure the patient. In this sense, a change in the physicochemical properties of feces is by no means a trifle, but sometimes one of the early, first or even the only (up to a certain point) symptom of a formidable disease. It is necessary to pay attention to the appearance of mucus, plaque, unusual inclusions or clots in the stool, as well as a change in overall color. This does not mean, of course, that if a waste product one day acquires an unusual color, then you need to immediately call an ambulance, but frequent or progressive changes should definitely be a reason for a visit to the doctor.

Any adult understands that the color of feces can normally vary quite widely within the yellow-brown range. This color is explained by the complex biochemical transformations of hepatic bilirubin and, in part, by the composition of the food consumed. Very dark or black tarry stool in most cases is interpreted correctly even by non-specialists - as a possible sign of internal bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract; light or discolored more often only causes bewilderment, although in reality it may turn out to be no less an alarming signal.

A must read! Help with treatment and hospitalization!

What medications can cause discoloration?

In some cases, the cause of lightening lies in the regular use of certain pharmaceutical drugs. The dosage may need to be reduced. Or taking medications has a toxic effect on liver cells, resulting in toxic hepatitis.

List of medications, the use of which can cause light brown stool in an adult or child:

• calcium preparations – it doesn’t matter, single (“Calcium gluconate”) or any other multivitamin complexes in which the mineral is combined with other substances beneficial to the body;
• antacids, which are taken for certain diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, can also cause a change in the color of stool when taken regularly in high doses;
• fixative medications taken for diarrhea can cause a greenish or light brown tint;
• some anticonvulsants are quite toxic to the liver, so they inevitably lead to lightening of the stool;
• paracetamol in case of significant overdose causes the development of acute damage to liver tissue - accordingly, the stool becomes lighter;
• barium sulfate, which is used as a contrast agent when performing x-rays (for example, when diagnosing stomach diseases).

Liver diseases: causes, symptoms and treatments

It is not for nothing that liver diseases were repeated several times above: they are in most cases the cause of a change in the shade of stool to the light side. Why does toxic hepatitis develop? Here are the most common ways to acquire this chronic disease:

• regular abuse of drinks containing ethyl alcohol;
• regular consumption of fast food, fatty foods, simple carbohydrates in large quantities;
• overdose of certain medications (anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, paracetamol, antidepressants, sedatives);
• chemotherapy for oncology;
• exposure to radiation;
• other sources of radiation that have been consistently present in human life for many years.

Toxic hepatitis is accompanied not only by light brown stool. The photo of the affected organ is located just below: hepatitis inevitably leads to the development of cirrhosis, and then to death. The disease is accompanied by constant weakness, nagging pain in the right hypochondrium, yellow discoloration of the skin and sclera, indigestion, and nausea after eating.

After alcohol

What can be light in stool after alcohol abuse? Everything is connected with the fact that when drinking alcohol, the liver needs to cope with its functions - remove toxins from the body. If a person also abuses fatty foods, such a load on the organ is unbearable. A person may also notice the appearance of light-colored diarrhea.

In our body, the liver acts as a filter. Its main task is to pass all harmful substances through itself. If a person regularly drinks alcohol, the cells begin to break down. It takes time for the structure to recover. If it is not there, the process slows down each time, and hepatitis begins to develop. One of the symptoms of this serious disease is light-colored stool. Hepatitis can also be accompanied by darkening of the urine, yellowing of the sclera of the eyes, stabbing pain in the abdomen, etc.

Chronic pancreatitis, its manifestations and directions in therapy

Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas tissue. Rarely does anyone think about the health of this organ. Meanwhile, it is he who produces the enzymes necessary for the digestion process. It synthesizes the most important hormone in the human body - insulin. The pancreas determines how well the food will be digested, because if not enough enzymes are released, pieces of undigested food may remain in the stool and it will be light in color.

In order to diagnose pancreatitis, it is necessary to undergo an ultrasound. The organ will be enlarged, or the doctor will notice areas of inflammation in the tissues. Treatment methods involve taking enzymes from outside in order to neutralize their production by the gland. Reviews about this treatment are positive. It is especially effective if you adhere to a therapeutic diet: exclude fatty foods, heavy meat, fast food and alcoholic drinks. You should follow the drinking regime and drink as much clean liquid as possible.

Intestinal diseases and their effect on the color of stool

In the case of polyps, cysts, or erosions on the intestinal walls, the color of the stool may change. With dysentery it may become greenish, with various neoplasms streaks of blood may appear, with parasitic infestation it becomes pale, with polyps and erosions an admixture of blood may be observed.

In order to accurately diagnose the reason why stool is light brown in color in an adult, you should undergo an examination of the intestines - a colonoscopy. In some cases, even a simple ultrasound is enough, but most often it does not allow you to examine every bend of the intestine. Therefore, when examining this organ, ultrasound is not always effective. Depending on the area of ​​the intestine and the degree of damage, treatment methods will vary.

4.Treatment

Of course, no one will “treat” colorless stool, for example, by prescribing oral brown primer three times a day. First of all, it is necessary to establish the cause: study the history, track the dynamics (if episodes of discolored bowel movements are repeated or become more frequent), identify or exclude a possible connection with external factors, analyze accompanying symptoms, examine and palpate the patient. Laboratory tests (clinical and blood biochemistry, culture, etc.) and instrumental research methods (primarily ultrasound and/or radiography of the abdominal organs) will be prescribed. Colorless feces are always a consequence, and modern medicine, based on the principles of etiopathogenetic therapy, searches for and eliminates the cause.

Chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis

It usually occurs after the formation of sediment or stones in the gall bladder. In some cases, the disease can be triggered by an abnormal physiological shape of the organ - if there are bends on it, then cholecystitis is regarded as a normal condition. To avoid pain and problems with digestion, you need to take a course of choleretic drugs from time to time.

“Urossan” has proven itself to be excellent in this situation - it has a mild choleretic effect, and the hepatoprotective effect supports the functioning of the body. Already in the second week of taking the capsules, the color of the stool will normalize and the patient will feel more alert and efficient.

Symptoms

In the case when light-colored stool is accompanied by additional clinical signs, it is necessary to visit your doctor.

You need to pay attention to symptoms such as:

• attacks of nausea and vomiting;
• darkening of urine;
• pain in the abdominal area;
• decreased appetite;
• flatulence;
• mucous impurities in feces;
• yellowing of the skin and eye sclera;
• rapid loss of body weight;
• heat.

If there are at least two additional signs with light-colored stool, it is necessary to undergo a medical examination to determine the diagnosis. With some problems, for example, with advanced pancreatitis, the count is not days, but hours. Be attentive to symptoms and do not ignore serious ailments.

If the stool is red in color

Some foods can give stool a red tint: red beets, tomatoes, tomato sauce in large quantities, fruit juices.

The presence of a red tint in the stool may indicate bleeding in the lower intestines, in which case the blood does not darken to black. If, in addition to this symptom, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, loss of appetite appear, you must urgently seek medical help.

The presence of blood in human feces may indicate anal fissures, hemorrhoids, and bleeding in the rectum.

Changes in the color of stool can be caused by a variety of reasons. If light-colored stool appears, analyze your diet the day before. If your condition worsens, your temperature rises, and other symptoms of gastrointestinal distress occur, do not hesitate to seek medical help.

Enzymopathy as a cause of light-colored stool

If the amount of enzymes produced by the pancreas is insufficient, pancreatitis does not always develop. Sometimes gastroenterologists diagnose so-called fermentopathy, the symptoms of which resemble a state of severe intoxication. Only in parallel with weakness, indigestion and light brown feces are also observed.

For fermentopathy, tableted enzymes and a special therapeutic diet are prescribed. “Festal”, “Pancreatin”, “Creon” are affordable and effective drugs, the use of which will restore normal digestion in the second week of use. A prerequisite is normalization of nutrition and complete abstinence from alcohol consumption. If you continue to lead an incorrect lifestyle, the condition will worsen and pancreatitis will be diagnosed. This, in turn, can progress to pancreatic necrosis, which is a fatal, incurable disease.

Prevention measures: advice from gastroenterologists

In order to avoid problems with digestion and stool color, you should follow simple rules:

• always wash your hands before eating;
• observe moderation in food;
• take medications only when absolutely necessary;
• Avoid taking vitamins with calcium unless you are sure you need them;
• undergo a routine examination of the gastrointestinal tract once a year;
• do not abuse alcoholic beverages;
• reduce your intake of fast food and fatty foods to a minimum;
• quit smoking.

If the patient notices that the stool has become lighter in color and does not restore its normal color, this is a serious reason to contact a gastroenterologist. It is not advisable to self-medicate at home, especially when there are accompanying symptoms. Timely examination in some cases can save the patient's life.