ok, this is a follow up to the post below about black stools ... my husband had a BM this morning, and it was normal brown color...i just had one, and it is still that black color, with a very slight hue of dark dark green. This is scaring me! He says to me that it may be taking longer for it to go through my system, than his, which I guess is a possibility. But then, I start thinking back to all the stomach and intestinal problems I had this last month, from about mid Jan. till a few days ago. I had MAINLY mid to lower abdominal churning, stabbing feelings, spasms, etc..basically, IBS (with BM consistency of anywhere from hard, to soft...I would also have lots of gas). But, NEVER ONCE during those last few weeks, did i have BLACK poop, NOT ONCE. So, then I tell myself, ok, it's not stomach cancer, it's got to be the spinach. But, again, I start to fear that all those symptoms in my stomach/intestines these last few weeks were really cancer of the stomach!

I slept "ok" sort of, last night. No real pain to speak of. But, this morning, a little while ago, when i woke up, i noticed i had these weird kind of tiny stabbing pains all over my abdomen, diff. places. Then, this feeling of kind of "cold" gas feeling in the stomach itself. I did have to pass some gas. I also feel a little queasy, maybe a little nauseas. The consistency of my BM right now, was slightly harder than yesterday, yest. it was really soft...but, yet, it's still black. Now, I ddint take any PEPTO BISMOL yesterday....it was the day before. The day before I also ate blueberries, which i know can do that too. But, why wouldn't that have happ. the day I ate them, (which was the day BEFORE yest.). Same with the PEPTO.? I guess the thing is, how long does it take for spinach to go through your system? Obviously it's diff. for each of us, but, I ate this at around 3pm yesterday afternoon, then, by about 6pm or so, i had that black BM, along with my husband. But, again, his is ok now, MINE ISN'T.

oh ladies, this makes me so frightened. Has anyone had this? and, how long does it take to go through your system? I know sometiems, things can take DAYS to do that, but this makes me so nervous, esp. since this morning I WAS feeling these little jabs in my abdomen and stomach, and a weird cold feeling in my stomach.

thank you for all your help girls.....sincerely, mydarling

Mydarling, stools change colour all of the time. If you eat a lot of red meat they will be dark, if you have a lot of dairy they will be pale. My son ate a candy dinosaur off a birthday cake once & his went green. I honestly wouldn't worry. Beetroot can turn them red! ...and vitamins can turn your urine bright orange.

Mydarling, I have seen many of your posts. I know you suffer from anxiety and worry about health issues so much. I am a health anxiety sufferer too so I can truly empathise. I do understand how the total fear can take over your rational thoughts and make you totally miserable. I wondered - have you thought of trying something like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). I ask because I had around 15 counselling sessions for health anxiety last year, using CBT. It hasn't cured me totally, but I am a lot, lot better. It has taught me techniques for coping and I am continuing to improve. I have also found acupuncture to help me with general anxiety.

{{{Hugs}}} squiggle

There is black and then there is black!
I think proper black stools can be old blood- hence the cancer fear.
I have to eat lots of dark foods for my weak blood and I can tell you that spinach sometimes gives me dreadful gas and black stools.
However I think if you were not eating dark foods and your stools were very black, plus if you had a lot of pain then maybe that could be a worry.
Everybody's digestive system is different so I wouldnt compare yours with your husbands.
Sounds like a case of Peri anxiety to me! Try not to worry
janet c

hi ladies, thank you for responding! listen, did you read my original post from yesterday? under the "black stools" thread, a little below this one? if not, maybe when you get the time, you can read it, it is a lot more descriptive..... we had eaten at Boston Market, and we've eaten there plenty of times before. We ordered their creamed spinach as the vegetable, as we've done many times before! But, neither of us have had this type of reaction to the spinach. My husband had said to me, that he usually gets lots of gas and indigestion from their food, which i never even knew. But, I have never had any problem with them, UNTIL now. Now, also, we brought home a chicken dinner for my 23 yr. old son, who lives upstairs from us. He said, even as he was eating it, he began to feel bad. He had to stop and put it in the fridge. He said that within about an hour, he had to have a BM, with lots of lower intestinal churning, and the BM came out soft and hot, he said it was awful. But his BM was normal color, whereas, both my husbands and myself, was that blackish/dark greenish. My son also said, he STILL doesn't feel well, and he ate this LAST NIGHT. So, i have to wonder if something is up at that restaurant. I'm not going to be eating there again. Now, i seem to be getting "pains" in the lower abdomen, and that "churning" feeling. My son has this also.
My stools however, are STILL that blackish/DARK green (almost like "earth" green, like a dark evergreen tree) color.

how long does it take for things to go through your system? I've looked this up, and almost all the sites disagree!

oh boy, this is far out! I have calmed down somewhat, I just spent the last two hours on the phone with my best friend, and she's reassured me it's the food, mainly, the spinach, especially since BOTH my husband and i have this, adn we both ate the spinach.


listen, thank you for the reassurance, i do need it! My mind, will tell me i'm dying! thank you guys!!!!!!!

Yes I saw your post yesterday.
Mydarling - did you read my post above?
Please do look into ways of possibly treating your health anxiety, I have been there too and I hate to see you suffering like this! The CBT is one treatment available and it honestly helped me so much
love squiggle

I agree with squiggle...while CBT won't completely get rid of al anxiety...some is there to warn us of danger, it does help us to function and think more rationally.

If you can't afford CBT therapy with a couselor (to be honest after my search I believe some therapists aren't really skilled at teaching it) I have a workbook caled Mastery over your panic and anxiety and it was recomended to me. It is very good and thorough. You have to be ready to change ...someone said once to stop playing with recovery and do it. Strong words, but true.


As to the dark stools....our sstools are products of what we eat. I know there are ailments that cause blood in the stool which is supposed to be black and tarry. You could go to the Dr. and as with me they could use what my DR. called the butt light....now there is a humbling experience I thought paps were bad. I went in because of hemeroids. my Vitamin is bright green...2 hr's later I pee this florescent yellow/green, my brother when he was young ate something called dayglo playdough....the next day he pooed this bright florescent green stuff.

I have been in your shoes watching my body for everything abnormal or more what I "thought" was alarming. No one could force me to get help until I began to look around and see all the people I was effecting and then I had to still make the choice to do something. What is it you are afraid of....if you don't mind me asking...is it sickness or death? or something else. I believe you said before you have an appt. is it Monday? When you go get every test you need to make yourself feel better after that try the CBT and be consistant with it even if it sems it is not working. HUGS MIkki

Hi MyDarling,

I am sure it is the iron in the spinach which is doing this. I had aneamia and had to take iron in big doses and had right black poo. It took about a week from not taking it to get back to normal. A was bit constipated during that time too. They were sort of solid if that makes sense.

I have had CBT for health anxiety and take Flupentixol an anxiety med. Since the CBT I am down to half dose on it and weaning myself off so can vouch for it as Squiggloe does. It really helped me.

Amanda Mx

Do you take magnesium supplements? They can cause this.

If you went to the Boston market website and saw how much fat, calories and sodium were in their food you would realize why you got sick. My sister went there a few weeks ago and said she couldn't believe they were cutting meat without gloves on also. She works in a kitchen, you just don't do that.

Mydarling,
I am sorry you having this problems, and I am not going to tell you to just ignore it. Been there, done this, worried about my poop color too, every day, when I had bouts of anxiety related IBS. Then I had colonoscopy and upper GI endoscopy and stopped worrying completely about my digestion.
But when I had digestion issues, I had darker stool too. I understand you worry about occult blood. So, if you have dark stool it can be just from gastritis onset and indigestion too, even mild gastritis can cause a little bit blood loss and this will result in dark ( tar like stool). Black stool if caused by blood, is from stomach, versus intestinal bleeding that will result in bright red blood.
There are test kits for occult blood and you can them in pharmacy, so go ahead and do it to ease your mind. or ask your dr for occult blood test just to stop worries.
Plain indigestion can cause darker stool. Green stool (unless it is explosive diarrhea) is mostly caused by spinach and leafy green vegetables, while blueberries cause black stool and beets cause red.

HTH,
I.

It is my understanding (and I am not a doctor) that the worrisome black stools are black, tar-like, and smelly very bad. Oreos also turns stools black, as does red wine and a bunch of other things (like spinach!).

Oh Laura, take a deep breath and try not to panic. Peri messes with the brain and one day a event or what ever will make you realize that you are not crazy or dying!
Peri has pretty much ruin my life!
Just remember your mind is thinking something serious when it may be something very simple and fixable!

I have had serious IBS, well it's not actually all IBS so let me share my story.

Few years back I started having major bright yellow diarrhea -bloating- abdomen pain. Little over a year ago I started to PANIC, I was also having many other symptoms and YES seeing a therapist! So I made a appointment with a gastronterologist. First he thought celiac disease. A upper GI and colonscopy rule this out, also had stool tests (very special ones) plus a abdomen ct scan, loads of labs. The CT scan is what did me in, it was such a nightmare right then and there I said that's it, if I live through this I am pretty done with doctor's and tests! But the good news was the 72 hour stool test showed I wasn't digesting fat. I was missing a digestive enzyme, I have fat malabsorption syndrome.
My doctor prescribe the enzymes to replace the missing enzymes my body is no longer making. You take it with food and for the most part I don't even have to take it all the time.

Do I still worry about my health, yes almost daily, I try and not it ran my life. I really like my family doctor and he knows I worry, hey I figure people like myself is what keeps him in bussiness. He never makes me feel stupid no matter what silly questions I can ask.

Oh when I was having the bright glow in the dark yellow stool I google color of stool and found a great web site. Will try and find it for you!
My advice> see a gastronterologist! Best thing I did!
But you have to draw a line how many tests are you going to have, I've had so many even you would be shock!

There is only one way to stop worrying about this. There is a very simple solution. Ask your doctor for a fecal occult blood test to check your stools for blood. The test takes samples for several days. If there's blood, get a good follow up examination. It's not always serious, as the women above have already said. Mostly, it's your diet. Iron is usually the culprit, from foods or in multivitamins. Do you take Pepto-Bismol? That can make your stools black. So can many other medications, both over the counter and prescription.

Stop the worry. Get tested now. Keep us updated with the results. Good luck to you.

I just went to the Boston Market website, to check the nutrient breakdown of all their foods.

Do you know that 1 serving of their creamed spinach is 280 calories and contains 27 grams of fat?
And yes, there is a whopping load of fat and sodium in all their food, much more than a person should consume at any given time! Especially at our age, because we just can't metabolize fat as efficiently as younger people, especially all that saturated fat that is in all their foods.

Eat heart healthy fats. Look for the monounsaturated fats like nuts including peanuts, walnuts, almonds and pistachios, avocado, canola and olive oil are high in MUFAs. Look for polyunsaturated fats, also lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Seafood like salmon and fish oil, as well as corn, soy, safflower and sunflower oils are high in polyunsaturated fats. Omega 3 fatty acids belong to this group.

A healthy diet makes a world of difference to your overall health.

I believe there are home fecal occult blood tests you can buy over the counter at the drug store. Perhaps doing your own test in the privacy of your own home--and seeing the results with your own eyes would help ease your mind.

Miss Tibbs

I agree 110% we should eat healthy and cook our own food. As for saturated fat, I don't think it is much harder to metabolize it compare to mono unsaturated or PUFAs, but it depends what source it is coming from too: organic meat, fish, even good quality butter in moderation contain certain amount of saturated fat, but our body needs this one too, it makes up for good cholesterol and make cells membranes less prone to damage.
I also agree that Fast food places of any kind and even BM should be avoided at any cost, home cooked fresh is always better, this way you control what goes into your body.
BTW, nuts and seeds are hard on digestion. Canola oil is not good idea either, 100% PUFA and never been used before for human consumption, mostly for technical use; corn, safflower oils are too high in Omega-6, easily oxidized and go rancid because of their nature, so I would stick to EVOO, may be some coconut oil, extra virgin, and some natural animal fat l from clean organic sources.
JMO

I keep forgetting this. You see, I am blessed with wonderful physical health, (but I make up for it in my insanity) good digestion, and I'm able to eat nuts and seeds of all kinds, and I do love them so. But I do my high heat stir-fry with peanut and canola oils, because the EVOO is not suited for that, it smokes and burns. I do use it for other lower heat recipies, but mostly, I like EVOO for bread dipping and drizzling over food for a finishing touch of flavor. To me a good EVOO is like a good wine. Life is too short. Get the good stuff! The difference in taste is amazing!

I had and still have iron clad digestion with exception of 2 years after onset of meno, but now it is all gone and I can eat yummy walnuts and other nuts too, as well as all yummy and healthy food again . Nuts for someone with digestive issues should be avoided, at least, until the issue has been resolved.
I do stir-fry with peanut oil too, high smoking point, and I like neutral flavor. Otherwise, I use EVOO for pan sauteing, salads, bread dipping, and drizzle over my food as finishing touch too, LOL. I see similarities in the way we cook and eat.
Life is too short to eat NON FAT EVERYTHING, and it is not necessary for good health, we need healthy fats to feel good and look good too
I too try to get the best for my buck and it makes difference, so quality versus quantity. Hence I eat some divine French and Irish butter for BF on weekend, life is too short to avoid good stuff, moderation is the key.
Cheers.
I.
P.S. I believe everyone has a touch of insanity these days, let; define "normal" to begin with.
May be I should make into a bumper sticker, LOL

I hope so, Iradan. I am about to be released from the hospital next week, and I will be in good company, then. It IS a crazy world, after all!