Even if you feel a bit squeamish talking about it, your poop tells a story about what is going on with you internally, and is the gateway to understanding your digestive health.

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What Does a Healthy Poop Look Like?

An Ayurvedic practitioner assesses stools (mala pariksha) by color, shape, size, odor, consistency, and frequency. Each of these factors reveal integral information about your internal health.

Practitioners will also encourage you to become actively involved in your own wellbeing, and to learn how to recognize a healthy poop. By doing so, you can interpret what your poop is trying to tell you on a daily basis.

While digestive disruptions happen from time to time, consistently passing irregular or improperly formed stools can be a warning sign of more serious ailments in the future.

In this way, Ayurveda uses poop, not only as a piece of the diagnostic puzzle, but as a way to anticipate and prevent future imbalances.

How Your Body Forms Healthy Poop

After food goes through the digestive process in the mouth, stomach and small intestines, and most nutrients have been absorbed, the remaining food waste enters the colon (pakvashaya).

The colon separates all the parts of food the body can't utilize, and absorbs any remaining nutrients, particularly water. Once water is drawn out and absorbed in the colon, the remaining waste particles (mala) from the food become thicker and firmer and develop into a stool.

The stool moves into the rectum for storage before peristaltic contractions stimulate its evacuation (apana vayu. At that point it is roughly 75 percent water, with the rest being bacteria, fiber, and anything else the body couldn't digest.

At any stage of this process (from the initial digestion in the mouth to the storage of poop in the rectum) an imbalance can occur.

The whole digestive tract must be in sync to create and pass healthy poop each day.

What Causes a Poop Imbalance?

"What goes in, must come out," as they say. What goes into your body and digestive system are the foods you personally choose to eat. What comes out, in the form of poop, is frequently a direct result of these dietary choices.

For your poop to be healthy and well formed, your digestive health needs to be strong.

Any of the following causes of poor digestive health (low agni) causes a wide range of poop imbalances.

• Low Vitality - Your vitality and vigor overall (deha agni), and especially the vitality of vigor of the blood (rakta), has a strong effect on digestive health (jathara agni).
• Dehydration - Dehydration reduces digestive enzyme production. The GI tract produces 2/3 of a liter of fluids in the process of digestion. If you are dehydrated, your digestive tract will be dry and you won't have sufficient enzymes to break down your meal.
• Stress - Stress weakens digestive health. Stress constricts blood vessels to the digestive tract, which directly reduces circulation to the digestive organs.
• Parasites - Exposure to parasites can also weaken digestive health.
• Gas and bloating - Food that is inadequately digested can ferment and become rancid by the action and overgrowth of bacteria. As a byproduct, these bacteria release gas and toxins (ama).
• Aggravation of doshas - Eating a diet that is inappropriate for your body type or eating difficult to digest food combinations in your meals can aggravate constitutional tendencies to imbalance.
• Overeating - Overeating strains your digestive system.
• Poor motility - Hypothyroid, aging, and anorexia causes poor bowel tone leading to slowed motility in the bowels.
• Lack of exercise - Movement and regular exercise adds tone to digestive muscles, strengthening them and encouraging peristaltic contractions and regular elimination.
• Tension - Tension and constriction in the body, causing you to hold onto poop too long (constipation), which may be due to strong emotions like anxiety, fear or worry.
• Intense emotions - Mental health plays a significant factor in the health of your poop. Intense emotions such as anger, frustration or rage can cause you to eliminate poop before it has gone through the full digestive process (diarrhea).
• Untimely Meals - The digestive system works on a clock, and thrives when it follows a consistent schedule.

Common Elimination and Bowel Ailments

Constipation & Its Remedies

Constipation occurs when the stools are passed infrequently (sometimes as little as once per week), often with great difficulty and even pain in some cases. Most commonly, constipation is a result of dryness in the body due to Vata dosha.

The stools that eventually pass are dry, rough, hard and dark in color, resembling rabbit pellets. This type of constipation is often teamed with uncomfortable gas and bloating.

Constipation can also occur due to lack of mobility in the colon (frequently associated with Kapha). A diet high in difficult to digest foods, like fried food and beans, can cause constipation.

Ayurveda offers a number of remedies for constipation:

• The first and most simple remedy for dry-type constipation is to sip hot water throughout the day. This will rehydrate the digestive tract, stimulate agni and peristaltic contractions.
• A mug of warm milk with ghee in the evening is also effective to moisten a dry digestive tract, encouraging a bowel movement.
• Heavy and unctuous, psyllium husk in a cup of warm milk acts as a demulcent that coats the digestive tract, adds bulk and assists in passing a stool when constipated.
• Low motility Kapha constipation can benefit from more dietary fiber and bitters.
• Colon mucus buildup can be scraped by insoluble fiber and the cleansing and scraping properties of triphala.
• Constipation due to inflammation and fermentation of stools frequently requires cleansing with stronger purgatives. Cooling, anti-inflammatories such as amalaki may be beneficial.

Diarrhea & Its Remedies

In some cases, diarrhea is a defense mechanism the body utilizes to expel harmful invaders such as bacteria from food contamination, intestinal infection, or parasites.

Diarrhea can also occur if you are highly stressed, have weak digestion, are taking certain medications, or eating the wrong foods for your body type. Diarrhea is most often due to inflammation and irritation in the intestines.

To reduce inflammation and diarrhea:

• Avoid irritants, especially coffee, alcohol, spicy food, and nicotine. Avoiding the causes is often the first and most important step to health.
• Add cooling and astringent elixirs such as pomegranate juice, or hibiscus tea to soothe the intestines and encourage the absorption of water in the colon.
• Or take anti-inflammatories like aloe vera and coconut oil to help cool and calm aggravations of the intestinal linings, and benefit from their antimicrobial properties..
• As you are at great risk of electrolyte depletion when experiencing diarrhea, be sure to stock up on fresh coconut water as it will help rebalance your levels.
• Rebuild digestive strength with cooling digestives that won't overheat Pitta, like cilantro and fennel. These will balance the hot, sharp, liquid qualities of diarrhea.

Undigested Food in Stools

However, if you regularly eliminate stools with undigested food, it may be a symptom of weak digestive strength (low agni). In this case you may not be breaking down food, or getting enough nutrients from the food you are eating.

Often this is a result of a dry digestive tract. When the digestive tract is dry, you lack digestive enzymes and food passes through your body without being adequately broken down.

Eating food in a hurry, eating on the run, stress, and poor routine can lead to weak digestion. Instead, relax during meals and take time to chew your food.

The first steps to improve digestion and reduce undigested food in your poop is to:

• Eat warm, well cooked foods that are easy to digest. Foods like applesauce and kitchari are very easy on your tummy and can help rebuild your digestive strength.
• About 20 minutes before meals, make a mug of warm water with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and a pinch of mineral rock salt to moisten the digestive tract and stimulate the release of digestive enzymes.
• Chewing a piece of Ginger, Salt, Lime Appetizer will have a similar effect stimulating digestive enzymes and hydrating your digestive tract. It will bring a healthy supply of blood to digestive organs so they have adequate fuel to create healthy poop.

Poop & Elimination by Dosha

Vata Dosha

To promote regular, well formed poop, Vatas should:

• Follow a Vata pacifying diet and incorporate simple techniques to balance Vata digestion.
• Stay hydrated.
• Add Hingvastak Churna to meals to relieve gas, bloating, and constipation. Vata types are most prone to dryness and toxic accumulation in the colon, which can result in poop sitting in the colon for long periods of time.
• Haritaki and dashamoola are both effective Ayurvedic herbs that pacify Vata and rejuvenate the colon. Haritaki alleviates constipation and helps clear accumulated digestive toxins, resulting in better poop production, while dashamoola is a nourishing muscle tonic that tones the colon and redirects Vata downwards.

Pitta Dosha

This yellow coloration occurs when bilirubin, the pigment found in bile, is inadequately digested by bacteria due to this faster transit time. When broken down properly, bilirubin gives poop its normal, cinnamon brown color.

To encourage elimination of a healthy, well formed poop, balance Pitta digestion by following a Pitta pacifying diet.

A Pitta's digestive tract can easily become irritated and inflamed, leading to poorly formed poop.

Avipattikar churna, Guduchi, and Amalaki are good choices for reducing inflammation, especially in a sensitive digestive tract. Small doses can help bind the stools for those Pitta types experiencing looser movements. It is also one of the best rejuvenatives for Pittas and their intestines.

Kapha Dosha

Kaphas often need a little assistance with motility in the bowels. Ayurveda classifies bibhitaki as one of the best herbs to assist Kapha poops. Its drying and astringent nature dries excess mucus, but still has a mild laxative effect to help increase peristalsis and pass stools.

Digestive Bitters help clear stagnation that may slow down poop production in Kapha types.

Get to Know Your Poop

Once you learn how to read your poop, it can answer many of the questions you have about your health. It can even show some possible warning signs for future imbalances, allowing you to work preventatively.

To get used to analyzing your poop, keep a poop journal and note your findings for a few weeks. This alone may reveal something significant, or you can take this information to an Ayurvedic consultation for a full assessment.

While there are a number of reasons the production of poop can become imbalanced, diet is usually the biggest culprit. The best ways to ensure you enjoy healthy and regular elimination is to:

• Follow a diet that is right for your body type
• Stay hydrated,
• Strengthen your agni
• Introduce regularity and routine to your daily life.

Herbal Actions Affecting Poop