# tan coloured stools



## fedup (Oct 28, 2004)

are tan coloured stools cause for concern. I have this on and off.Anyone else?


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## BeeRitt (Jan 21, 2011)

fedup said:


> are tan coloured stools cause for concern. I have this on and off.Anyone else?


I have that pretty regularly. I read somewhere that it means a more quickly passed BM. Not sure if that's valid or not, but I dont think its cause for concern. But green, red, or black are cause for concern.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Tan, not a problem, stool starts off light and it takes time to get to be a dark brown.There are reasons for black, red and green that are not a concern, but there can be reasons why those may be an issue. http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/otherdiseases/a/stoolcolors.htmTan is not the same as clay/off-white stools. Tan still has bile in it, just not bile that has been darkened over time.


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## fedup (Oct 28, 2004)

thanks,Its not all the time. It was properly formed so don't think it went through my system too quickly. I did have a few alcoholic drinks last night, so maybe that has something to do with it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It just has to be a bit faster than the color change happens, so it can be with formed stools. How fast the color changes and if you can get the stool from liquid to solid are kind of related, but not a 1 to 1 corespondence.So you can have brown diarrhea and tan formed stools occuring in people. A lot depends on how many of the bacteria that change the yellow bile to dark brown that you have in there. Some people have a lot more than others.


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