What does blood in stool look like?

Blood in the stool can basically take on two different forms. In most cases, the color of the blood in the stool alone indicates the location of the bleeding. The lighter the blood is, the less it has been digested and the further it is towards the end of the gastrointestinal tract.

Thus, blood that has already reached the chyme in the esophagus or stomach is very dark to black. The dark color is caused by the digestion of the blood in the stomach. On the other hand, bleeding from the intestinal tract is noticeable in brownish colors.

The blood is not digested, but already clotted. Fresh light red blood deposits indicate bleeding from the anal region, as the blood has not yet had time to clot and must therefore be fresh. You can find all about blood in stool on our pages:

Blood in the stool – What are the causes?
Blood in stool with diarrhoea
Test for blood in stool

How does a liver disease discolor the bowel movement?

Liver diseases can affect the color of the bowel movements in different ways. The color is largely determined by the involvement of the bile in the liver disease. Since bile is produced in the liver and stored in the immediate vicinity of the liver (i.e. in the adjacent gallbladder), liver diseases have a major influence on the production of bile.

For example, liver diseases often lead to a yellowing of the bowel movements and skin by disturbing the breakdown of the dye by the bile. In contrast, in the case of bile stasis, not enough dye gets into the bowel movement with the bile acids, which leads to a decoloration of the bowel movement. This topic could also be of interest to you: Digestive problems

Influencing factor nutrition

Nutrition has an enormous influence on the color of the bowel movements. This is mainly due to the fact that the colorants absorbed with the food are often excreted again. If artificial colorants are taken in with food, they can be absorbed particularly poorly by the body.Therefore, they have a particularly large influence on the color of the stool in the first days after the absorption of the dye.