# Should stools float or sink? Also an osmotic laxative question.



## Matt b (Feb 27, 2011)

Last week I took Miralax for the first time in my life for six days.For my entire life I have always had floating stools. I never thought anything of It until a doctor asked me if my stools float or sink. He made it seem as though it could be a bad thing that they float.Well right after I started taking the Miralax for the first time I know of in my whole life my stools started sinking rapidly. I can barely see them they sink so quick!So what could this mean? It has to be because of the Miralax right? The only other thing I took that I have never took before was whole garlic cloves for a couple of days. A friend told me it could help my stomach problem. I didn't think it was doing anything so I stopped.After reading about it some places say our stool should sink and some places say it should float. So what should it do and what causes it to float or sink?Another question I have is why is it every time i take an osmotic laxative like Miralax or Milk of Magnesia they continue to work for sometimes up to a week after I stop taking them? I figured it's out of my system so it shouldn't be softening stool still right? It almost makes me think I have a problem with my kidneys filtering drugs out of my body and that's why they continue to work even after I have stopped taking them. I'm not complaining, I just don't understand it.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Well there is a medical thought that high fat stools will float and normal stools will sink.However the best data we have is that stools with gas trapped in them float and stools without much gas sink. When I take probiotics and reduce the amount of gas I make, my stools go from floating to sinking.People who think they should sink, are in the fat in stools is bad (and it is) camp.People who think they should float are usually in the you should eat lots of fiber and foods that tend to increase gas in the stools so they should be floating, and if they don't you need to change your diet to one that makes more gas. Not just to have gas, but those foods that are gassy tend to be healthy and a side effect of more gas is floating stools.Most of the time it really doesn't matter, but if you have a lot of diarrhea with floating stools and lose weight no matter how much you eat, get a fecal fat test (eat a high fat diet for several days and collect the stool).It usually takes up to 3 days for normal people to get from the mouth to the anus, so you could have residual effect for several days, and if you have your stool moving easier that may make it easier for new untreated stool to get out. Osmotic laxatives work in the stool, not by getting in blood stream and effecting the colon from the outside.Your kidneys don't filter them out of your blood because what makes them work is that they stay in the GI tract and pull water into the stool from the inside. They don't force water in from the outside.


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