Dementia and heart disease risk may be greater if you have one toilet habit – RSVP Live
2025-05-01T08:36:34Z
Your poo can tell you a lot about your health and signs to look out for include how frequently you go to the toilet and what your stool looks like when you do
A fresh study has uncovered that bowel movement frequency (BMF) “directly impacts” the gut microbiome and “is linked to diseases like chronic kidney disease or dementia”.
Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the research categorises “abnormally high” BMF as “more than three watery stools per day” and “abnormally low” BMF as “fewer than three hard, dry stools per week”.
The findings indicate that high BMF is connected with worse health outcomes, including “lower gut microbiome alpha-diversity, inflammation [and] increased susceptibility to enteric pathogens”, while a low BMF could lead to “increased risk for several chronic medical conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders and chronic kidney disease”.
The report’s senior author, Sean Gibbons from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, expressed his hopes to AFP: “I do hope that this work will kind of open clinicians’ minds a bit to the potential risks of not managing bowel movement frequencies,” noting that doctors often dismiss irregular movements as just a “nuisance”.
How often is it normal to poo?
While many might think that a daily bowel movement is standard, there’s actually quite a range in people’s toilet habits. The NHS points out that “how often people pass stool differs from one individual to another”, stating: “Most people will have a bowel movement between three times a day and three times a week.”, reports Surrey Live.
The guidance highlights that individuals should seek medical advice “if you notice any persistent change in your bowel habit, such as needing to go to the toilet more often, having looser stool, bleeding from your bottom or stomach pain”.
A 2018 study in the USA found that a whopping 95.9% of participants reported having between 3 and 21 bowel movements weekly, reinforcing the widely accepted ‘3 and 3′ rule (three times a day to three times a week) for normal frequency. The research also proposed different benchmarks for stool consistency based on gender.
Fast forward to 2023, and a new study from the USA indicates that the most typical bowel pattern is once daily. Interestingly, the study revealed that individuals who passed four soft stools weekly had a 1.78 times higher risk of dying within five years compared to those with a standard seven weekly bowel movements.
Moreover, less frequent bowel movements were linked to a 2.42 and 2.27 increased risk of death from cancer and cardiovascular diseases, respectively.
Sean Gibbons from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle refers to the optimal frequency of bowel movements for health as the “Goldilocks zone”: one to three times daily. Gibbons’ research further classified bathroom routines into distinct categories.
Individuals who made trips to the toilet one to three times daily were found to have a greater amount of beneficial gut bacteria and more microbes that produce short-chain fatty acids, which are known to reduce inflammation in the body. #
Chronic inflammation is now believed to be a key factor in diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s.
Those who had bowel movements less than three times a week seemed to have higher levels of toxins in their blood associated with chronic kidney disease and Alzheimer’s.
Gibbons explained to the BBC that constipated individuals may have increased harmful toxins in their bloodstream because, after consuming all available fibre, gut bacteria begin to ferment proteins, releasing damaging toxins into the blood that can harm organs like the kidneys and heart and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
“If you have chronically high levels of this metabolite in your circulation, it can promote atherosclerosis, a kind of hardening of the arteries and damage to the cardiovascular system,” Gibbons stated.
He added, “It’s hard to say definitively, because we don’t have causal data to know whether these people went on to get sick in the future, but it does seem to be the case that, based on what we were looking at, pooping every other day to a couple of times a day is probably a better window to be healthy.”
Interpreting health studies can often be complex, as it’s challenging to draw definitive conclusions about whether a specific habit or aspect of our health is the direct cause of an outcome until substantial evidence accumulates. Many health outcomes are correlative rather than causative—for instance, individuals who are generally unhealthy might also experience less frequent bowel movements.
Microbiome scientist Emily Leeming from King’s College London shared insights with the BBC following her research on gut transit times—the duration it takes for food to travel through the body and be excreted: “What we found was that people who had a longer transit time tended to have more ‘bad’ gut bacteria, so bacteria that have previously been linked to having worse heart health and metabolic health.”
What should poo look like?
Emily Leeming, a microbiome expert at King’s College London, explained to the BBC the importance of monitoring one’s stool: “We should all be looking at our poo, because it’s basically like a free gut health test. It’s not just how often you go, it’s also colour and the shape of your poo as well. What you’re really looking for is type 3 to type 4 [on the Bristol Stool Form Scale], which is basically a sausage with cracks in it, or a smooth sausage.”
How can I make my bowel movements more regular?
Gibbons explained the attributes of individuals who typically make it into the Goldilocks Zone: “In our study, the people in the Goldilocks zone ate more fruits and vegetables, were more hydrated, and were more physically active,” he said.
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