Health - Wellness
Should You Be Worried About Stringy Poop?
By JENNIFER ANANDANAYAGAM
We've all probably come across stringy poop, those long, pencil-thin, straggly-looking stools that make you scrutinize your excrement, and there's a few different reasons for it.
While not having enough fiber in your diet can make your stool lose volume and appear thin and stringy, being constipated can cause whatever's inside to come out in wispy bits.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), intestinal infections like salmonella, gastroenteritis, shigellosis, and roundworms, and even anxiety can cause string-like poop.
If the stringy poop is due to an infection, you may have other symptoms like fever, nausea, vomiting, blood in your stool, shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing.
Straggly stools could also indicate more severe health conditions like colorectal and anal cancer, which may have other symptoms like bloody stools or unexplainable weight loss.
Usually, stringy stools mean something less scary, like a low-fiber diet or bad lifestyle choices. A diet change, exercising more, and lowering stress levels can make a difference.