Bristol stool scale
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Search complete. 56 mentions across 15 episodes found for "Bristol stool scale".
Sep 23, 2026
Rachel FeltmanHOST
Absolutely.
Rachel FeltmanHOST
And speaking of, you know, those indicators of health, one of the things that has, uh, become very popular, uh, on social media that apparently other people didn't use to talk about all the time, it's definitely been a big part of, uh, my conversational toolkit for ages, but the Bristol Stool Chart.
Rachel FeltmanHOST
Many people are [laughs] encountering-
Wendi LeBrettGUEST
Mm-hmm
Rachel FeltmanHOST
Yeah.
Wendi LeBrettGUEST
So it's not a perfect measure.
Wendi LeBrettGUEST
There are other markers of your stool that are not captured in the Bristol Stool Chart, like color, frequency, how much you're straining, that aren't captured there.
Wendi LeBrettGUEST
So it's, it's not a perfect tool, but it's, it's a good reference and a good starting point.
Ashleigh VanHoutenHOST
So I mean, another- another we talked about, like, one of the kind of good biomarkers, biofeedback ways to tell, like, is your fiber working for you or against you is your digestion, your regularity, like, how, I don't know, how consistently you're pooping, how easily you're pooping.
Ashleigh VanHoutenHOST
I'm pretty sure everybody that, you know, health nerds who listen to this podcast have heard of the Bristol Stool Scale, right? So, like, being able to look at the different kinds of poop and, like, which one's ideal.
Ashleigh VanHoutenHOST
There are good poops and bad poops, right? And you want it to be d- uh, do we need to dive into this? I think people know what a good poop is versus a bad one.
Ashleigh VanHoutenHOST
But-
Krish AshokGUEST
We have this very simplistic view of the world, but we are basically containers for this bacterial colony, if you will.
Krish AshokGUEST
And the second interesting thing is obviously the fact that so the bristol stool scale which which is what i think you know your labs will not use um it kind of uh looks at seven types right uh from the scale of extreme constipation to like diarrhea seven types of poop right yeah seven types of poop right uh so and by the way the uh you know the also a fun story about why it's called stool right which is not called poop um so incidentally in like the middle ages The British kings used to have something called the groom of the stool, which is a person who used to carry a stool with a hole and like a pot underneath for the king to do his business.
Krish AshokGUEST
And that person was called, he was given the official title, the groom of the stool.
Krish AshokGUEST
God bless modernity, man.
Mimi DealHOST
So today we're going to talk about what normal bowel movements actually look like, what I personally consider an optimal goal for many of my patients, how clinicians can use the Bristol stool chart.
Mimi DealHOST
Yes, and even patients, you can use this tool too.
Mimi DealHOST
And then what constipation can tell us about your gut function? Let's answer the number one question everybody asks.
Mimi DealHOST
how often should I actually be pooping? Now, from a population standpoint, there's a pretty wide range and you'll hear different opinions from different clinicians and different providers who you might see.
Mimi DealHOST
Now, your poop might tell you more than just, okay, you go every day or every other day.
Mimi DealHOST
It's telling us a lot about how you absorb food and how it's moving.
Mimi DealHOST
And this is when this clinical tool comes into play.
Mimi DealHOST
It's called the Bristol Stool Form Scale, so BSFS.
Rhiannon LambertHOST
Heavy, good poos.
Rhiannon LambertHOST
Look at the Bristol Stool Chart.
Rhiannon LambertHOST
Do the sweet corn test.
Rhiannon LambertHOST
Um, everyone, we love your questions and your recommendations.
Scott HickleGUEST
But like how on earth am I supposed to tell you how my gut health has moved in the last six months since I was last in your office or since you put me on a new diet or a new supplement or new medication? And so what we do is we give you those functional patterns and show you how your stool frequency moves, how your stool regularity moves, like the time of day you're going is actually correlated to longevity and overall gut health.
Scott HickleGUEST
We look at the form of your stool, which is called the Bristol stool scale.
Scott HickleGUEST
And so it's like a seven point scale from hard to healthy to loose to liquid.
Scott HickleGUEST
And we're actually publishing our first abstract in October showing that our AI is as good at classifying Bristol stool scale as board certified gastroenterologists, which is very exciting
Eliisa TennantHOST
for us.
Scott HickleGUEST
And so we look at those properties, we look at volume, which actually isn't that clinically relevant, but it's one of those things like everybody wants to know, like how much, how big was it? We call it like jokingly a vanity metric.
Scott HickleGUEST
However, stool frequency does have huge bearings on your health.
Scott HickleGUEST
Regularity, the time of day does.
Kristin RowellHOST
But I say that, you guys, because so many people are having bowel movements in the bathroom.
Kristin RowellHOST
that literally are not excreting everything from them they may get a ton of loose stools they may have a ton of constipation if you want to really see and i'm going to pull this up on my computer which i have in front of me so if you want to do this i want you to just google what's called a bristol chart b-r-i-s-t-o-l so the bristol stool chart just simply gives you the images of the different stool types as defined in the medical community.
Kristin RowellHOST
So there's a type 1, type 2, type 3, type 4, type 5, type 6, type 7.
Kristin RowellHOST
There's all sorts of different stool.
Dana FryerHOST
But it really just depends what time of day your brain's most on, when are you taking the exam, like, and where, how close is it to your house, and then thirdly, what is going to be available.
Dana FryerHOST
Next up, I got a question of, "What should I know about the Bristol Stool Chart?" And so on the exam, especially in the nutrition care process section, there's lots of different screening tools and tests and measures that you want to have a vocabulary familiarity with.
Dana FryerHOST
Meaning that when you hear Bristol Stool Chart, I mean, luckily it has the word stool in it, right? But you should know this is to help evaluate if someone's having normal bowel movements, is constipated, or is having diarrhea.
Dana FryerHOST
Now, do I think they're going to ask you, like, "The Bristol Stool Chart, level three is what?" And you need to know that it's a sausage-shaped stool with cracks on the surface.
Dana FryerHOST
No.
Dana FryerHOST
But what I would know is knowing that seven is almost entirely liquid, and one is, like, pebble constipation, and that you would use this to ask a patient what their bowel movements look like.
Dana FryerHOST
Personally, I don't use the Bristol Stool Chart too much.
Dana FryerHOST
I like to ask my patients, like, if-- like, what their bowel movement look like, and if it would take the shape of a cup, that's how I kind of evaluate for diarrhea or, like, if it's, like, pebbly and hard.
Alecia MacrowHOST
Absolutely.
Alecia MacrowHOST
I would suggest jumping onto the internet and having a look at the Bristol stool chart.
Alecia MacrowHOST
I was just about to bring that up.
Alecia MacrowHOST
Were you? Yes.
Alecia MacrowHOST
Okay, good.
Alecia MacrowHOST
So Bristol stool chart is seven different types of poo from rabbit pellets all the way through to liquid.
Alecia MacrowHOST
We quite famously made a Bristol meat cart for one of our... professional development evenings where we had the local butcher do their version of a Bristol stool chart, starting from the meatballs all the way through to the
Cherie NobleHOST
gravy.
Liz RomanGUEST
Yes.
Liz RomanGUEST
It should be, if you're looking at a Bristol Stool Chart, number four is what you're going for.
Liz RomanGUEST
If you don't know what that is, just think smooth, sausage, easy to pass.
Liz RomanGUEST
It's brown, sinking like the Titanic.
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