[nrep]

i suffer from IBS-D and my stool generally has an orange tint to it. it's night bright orange.I don't eat foods which would cause this, nor do I eat foods which are orange itself.I'm wondering if this is usual for IBS-Ders.

 

[BQ]

Loads of things can cause orange looking stool. Read more about it here:http://www.puristat.com/constipation/bowelcolor.aspx

 

[Kathleen M.]

There is no specific color that IBS-D causes that nothing else will cause.http://ibdcrohns.about.com/cs/otherdisease...stoolcolors.htm has the usual causes for most of the odd stool colors.

 

[faze action]

I had this exact same thing (orange stool) a few years ago when I was in a period of acute (2-3 months) of severe stress. When the stressors (external events mostly) subsided my stool returned to its "normal" color. I notice that the above link refers to transit time being a factor and that's most likely what caused mine, so maybe that's what's doing it for you. if the food is moving through you quickly enough it won't come into contact with bile salts for very long and will look orange. I'm pretty sure this is what happened to me because I also dropped 20 pounds in about 3 months when I was stressed.The only other time I've had orange stool was when I was taking Cirtrucel last year, but that is orange in color.

 

[nrep]

Thanks for your replies. I had already read up a bunch on the possible causes of this coloring, but just wanted to know if anyone else on here had the same thing.

 

[Kathleen M.]

It is something that can happen, but probably isn't the most common thing people see with IBS. However, every weird stool that can happen to people usually eventually does if you have IBS long enough. It seems logical that this stool variation should tell you something about what is going on in there, but it just reinforces you have IBS, and every weird stool can sometimes happen to healthy normal people.I will say sometimes you have to be careful with the "I didn't eat that color" as some colors are secondary (like there can be a lot of orange in dark green foods that you just can't see) and other colors will change when they go through the high acid and then being adjusted back to a neutral pH. Those color changes with pH are sometimes used to measure pH and it is a fairly common thing so sometimes food dyes do some pretty interesting things in there that you wouldn't expect.