What your poo tells you
Most serious of all is what Sheth and Richman term Rambo Poo. The appearance of blood in the stool is often an indication of gastrointestinal bleeding, Sheth said. Blood can be the result of something relatively minor, like hemorrhoids or diverticulosis. But it could also be the result of colon cancer, and the book advises anyone who sees blood in their stool to visit a doctor.
A daily peek in the toilet bowl is probably not anyone's favourite thing. But one gastroenterologist says that your bowel movements can be an important clue to the state of your digestive health.
Dr Anish Sheth - otherwise known as Dr Stool - and Josh Richman outline all the things you can learn from examining your faeces in What's Your Poo Telling You?, a book that uses jokes and trivia as a way to get people comfortable with talking about gastrointestinal health.
"Of course there's a humorous side to the subject of poo," said Sheth, a gastroenterology fellow at Yale University. "But what isn't as well known is that you can learn about your health by looking in the bowl."
