What makes a good poop GOOD and a bad poop BAD? How can you make sense of it all when you’re tracking your bowel movements?
Doctors have developed an easy way for you to recognize the difference between an unhealthy poop and an unhealthy one: the Bristol Stool Scale.
What is the Bristol Stool Scale? The Bristol Stool Scale (abbreviated as BSS) is a way to categorize your poop. It was created in 1997 when researchers at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in the United Kingdom sought to create a standardized method for classifying stool consistency. Led by Dr. Ken Heaton , the team developed the scale based on observations of over 2,000 stool samples from healthy individuals and patients with various gastrointestinal disorders.
The scale was first introduced in a research paper published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology in 1997, where it categorized stool into seven distinct types based on their form and texture.
Since then, the Bristol Stool Scale has become widely recognized and adopted by doctors and healthcare professionals worldwide as a valuable tool for assessing bowel function and diagnosing gastrointestinal conditions — or to put it more simply, how “good” your poop is.
Using the Bristol Stool Scale:
Stool types 1-2 indicate constipationStool types 3-4 are healthy stoolsStool types 5-7 may indicate diarrhea and urgencyThe Bristol Stool Scale's straightforward yet comprehensive classification system has made it a cornerstone in clinical practice and research, helping to standardize communication about stool characteristics and improve the understanding and management of digestive health.
What is the Bristol Stool Scale used for? The Bristol Stool Scale is used by both doctors and patients to help make better decisions about gut health.
Doctors use the Bristol Stool Scale (BSS) to help standardize communication and patient records. The scale provides a common language for healthcare professionals to communicate about what your poop looks like, so there’s no confusion when one doctor talks to another, or when you talk to your doctor!
For patients, the Bristol Stool Scale serves as a simple and informative tool for self-assessment of bowel movements and overall gut health. By familiarizing yourself with the seven stool types described by the scale, you can gain insights into your digestive function and identify any potential issues or irregularities.
How can tracking your poop with the Bristol Stool Scale help you? You can use the Bristol Stool Scale to help monitor your gut health and better communicate with your doctor . It’s a way of talking about poop that everyone can understand, a shared language that allows you both to track changes in bowel habits over time and help manage gut health issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and constipation.track their progress when making dietary or lifestyle changes aimed at improving gastrointestinal symptoms . Understanding what good poop and bad poop looks like can help you understand if things are changing for the better or the worse — and when it’s time to seek medical attention if necessary.
Throne is the easiest way to track your poop according to the Bristol Stool Scale Throne is the simplest and easiest way to keep track of your poops. You don’t need to do anything other than what you normally do in the bathroom — the Throne in combination with a smartphone app takes care of everything for you. With Throne, you get all the benefits of developing a poop tracking habit—without any extra work.
