Taboo to Trending: Let’s talk about poop

Growing up you probably had a family member that would tell you not to mention poop, gas, or anything related to your gastrointestinal habits. It’s gross and improper to speak of. But in recent years we are seeing more and more people across social media talking out in the open about their bathroom habits. So let’s talk about poop!

Why was it seen as wrong to talk about poop?

If we look into the history of bathrooms, we know that the Renaissance period of time is a good place to start. We went from being cave people who would squat with the animals in the woods to having public bathroom areas. The Renaissance time period was when people started to remove their excrement into the woods so it appeared they weren’t as dirty, stinky, or essentially lowly as the commoners. 

At some point, poop was a sign of impurity and dirty. So women, being the shiny, pretty, pure humans, were especially not supposed to talk about poop. This is silly because everyone needs to poop and rid the waste products. 

But this was what happened. Women needed to be perfect and that meant they cannot poop, fart, or talk about any of it. 

In recent years, we’ve seen more people talking about poop — and we think that is GREAT!

Why do doctors want people to talk about poop?

When you go to the doctor, they often ask you routine questions. One (or a few) of them is about your bathroom habits. 

It’s really important to talk to your doctor about what goes on behind closed bathroom doors. And some doctors have noted that some people don’t even look after they go. They poop, wipe, flush, wash their hands, and leave. 

This is problematic when it comes to doctor’s appointments because our poop is a huge indicator of how healthy our digestive system is. And we all know that our digestive health has a large hand in our overall health. 

Many problems and health conditions start in the gut. If you are uncomfortable bringing up your bathroom habits to your doctor, you could be leaving out vital information for future testing and diagnosis options. Many conditions have a gastrointestinal aspect to them, and without this key information, you may not be getting all of the help you need. 

So doctors have been trying to encourage people to talk truthfully about their poop: consistency, frequency, difficulties, and abnormalities.

Why are IBS and poop trending?

There have been a lot of things to start trending, but poop was absolutely not one we expected. Talking to your family, friends, or doctor about poop and what happens in the bathroom is one thing, but telling it to strangers across the internet seems to be much easier. 

Not to mention, they’ve come up with some fun challenges for people to do like the ‘blue poop challenge’ — where people consume a muffin with a certain amount of blue dye in it and log the time they ate it and the time their poop comes out blue. It was created to help people understand their transit time, but it was so fun how could you pass it up?

Little things like this are helping people get into the habit of not only looking after they poop but also teaching them there are things to look out for in their poop. It also helps them become mindful of how what they eat goes through their system and comes out in a certain way. While these may not be the case at face value and for some it’s just for fun, it really is helping people understand the importance of their digestive health. 

There has also been an uptick in people experiencing mental health problems since the COVID lockdowns. This also means that people experiencing gastrointestinal distress has seen a comparable uptick considering the gut-brain axis is highly sensitive to these changes. Plus COVID itself had shelves running out of toilet paper, so we have a lot of stomach issues going on since then.

TikTok was really big and gaining traction during this time period and has a whole trending area dedicated to poop and IBS. 

Irritable bowel syndrome, commonly called IBS, is a group of gastrointestinal issues that fluctuate because of food and/or stress triggers. Many people took to the platform to share their symptoms and it helped to share the true symptoms of IBS. 

It went from just bloating and abdominal pain to people understanding that there are 3 subtypes of IBS: diarrhea-predominant (IBS-D), constipation-predominant (IBS-C), and mixed (IBS-M). And that it can affect people from every walk of life, gender, tax bracket, and more. 

Awareness is huge for getting a true understanding of how diseases, syndromes, disorders, and other conditions affect everyone. The more we understand the reason for onset, symptoms, and how the problem is affecting people, the quicker doctors and researchers find trends and solutions to help.

We’ve seen a lot of doctors come forth on social media not only sharing tips for these conditions but also their own diagnoses and journeys with different conditions. This is helpful for people to realize that doctors are human and experience the same problems they do. 

This poop talk in addition to all of the other awareness trends is really important for the progress of understanding disease and different avenues of treatment. It helps to truly advance medicine in all forms and offers people alternatives they might not have thought to try if they were only getting advice from their primary care doctor. 

Should we continue talking about poop?

YES! We absolutely should continue talking about poop. Maybe not in the way a 12-year-old boy does, but in a way that is transparent. 

Some things you should bring up to your doctor, or track if you have an upcoming appointment:

• Frequency of bowel movements (how many times daily or weekly)
• How long are you in the bathroom when you are pooping?
• Do you struggle to complete a bowel movement or does it come out quickly and easily?
• What is the consistency like? (small balls like a bunny rabbit, diarrhea, or like soft serve)
• What color is it?
• Is it oily?
• Is there blood?
• Is it a strong odor?

All of these symptoms can help a doctor rule out certain diagnoses or point them in a direction to others. Keeping logs of food and bathroom habits can make finding you relief an easier process. 

So yes, let’s keep talking about poop, especially with our doctors. Let’s keep raising awareness for conditions so people can better understand what you’re going through. Let’s keep the conversation going!!

What are some things you’ve learned about gut health that you wouldn’t know without social media? Let us know in the comments and give this article a share to keep the poop conversation going!