# light colour stools



## TanaG (Jul 11, 2009)

Does anybody know the cause for which one gets light colour stools? It doesn't happen to me every day but every now and then some of my stool, not all of it, is really light colour, even if it's not loose, just normal consistency! I read around and it seems that only a liver or galbladder malfunction can give you such stools. I have to rule out the liver as I have no other associated symptoms...but what about the galbladder...I do have nausea sometimes. Do you think it's worth checking this out? Or do you think the light colour stool could be just because of what food I had eaten a day before? Or are there any other medical conditions that could give you such a stool? Again...it happens rarely, but only since this IBS started...I asked a doctor and he just dimissed me as if it was nothing to worry about...


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

light as in light brown/tan or yellow?Or light as in off-white/ecru/clay colored?Almost all of the colon in stool you make.The bile has yellow (or green) compounds in it.These compounds enter the colon the exact same light yellow color they leave the liver.If you have limited amounts you end up with an off-white/off-grey kind of stool (think old computer desktop type of color).If you have bile in the stool it will be from a fairly light tan/yellow to dark brown.How much the fairly light starting color turns to dark brown depends on two things.1. The percentage of your colon bacteria that happen to change the color from the light yellow to dark brown.2. How long the bacteria have to change the color.If the stool moves a little bit faster than the color changes it will be lighter in color.Minor nausea usually isn't the one and only sign of a gall bladder attack (when the duct is blocked with a stone). If you have 6-8 hours of severe pain with the nausea that may be bad enough to make you vomit and the pain is on the upper right part of the abdomen shooting through to the shoulder blade on that side...go get your gall bladder tested. Especially if your stools are also off white after these attacks.Now you do release more bile the more fat you eat, but how much that effects color, I don't know.


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## TanaG (Jul 11, 2009)

Hmmm...so I did have some galbladder attacks alright. And yes the stool is lighter after those.But for example today I had one normal stool...almost all brown coloured and the final bit was yellow to whitish...that's what scared me. It only happened once before. It looks like what you described. But if I don't have enough of those galbladder compounds...why was most of the stool of normal brown colour? I ate only macaroni and cheese all day yesterday







...could it be that?Either way, I will ask my doctor to test my galbladder. I've been taking BC pills and I know for sure they mess both your galbladder AND your liver....so I think I should get this checked!


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## Diana63 (Oct 20, 2009)

My BM can be very light in colour and also can look mustard as well.My doctor did take bloods and stool sample and everything came back normal,as well as an ultrasound scan of my abdomen,kidneys,liver,all normal as well.


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