Normally, stool color may vary fromyellow-brown to dark brown. The color is given to digested food particles and bile pigments released into the intestine from the bile ducts with bile.
The color of feces black is often a sign of a serious pathology of the digestive system, but it is often associated with the use of certain foods and medicines.
Food and Drug Administration
Black stool can appear afterconsumption of a number of food products. This is red table beet, prunes, red grapes, blueberries, black currants, pomegranate. The color change of the stool can be after consuming dishes such as blood-sausage, offal. Fecal staining can be observed for two to three days, and this symptom is not accompanied by any other changes in the general condition.
Black feces usually occur as a result of takingpharmaceutical preparations containing iron, which are widely used for the treatment of anemia, certain complex vitamins, preparations containing bismuth (used to treat chronic diseases of the stomach), as well as activated carbon. A number of other drugs can also stain feces black, which you can learn by carefully studying the instructions that accompany the drug.
When black feces appear, you need to carefullyto analyze the diet during the last few days. Black feces as a result of the intake of food and medicinal products does not present any health hazard and does not require the appointment of treatment. For two to three days after excluding the use of these products and pharmaceuticals, the normal color of the feces is restored.
Medicinal products, which includeacetylsalicylic acid, do not stain the feces, but with prolonged use they act on the circulatory system and can provoke black feces as a result of the development of internal bleeding.
Diseases accompanied by the appearance of black feces
Quite another matter, if the stool is blackappeared suddenly and seemed to have no reason. If black feces appear, the cause of this symptom should be sought in the gastrointestinal tract. This clinical symptom indicates gastrointestinal bleeding from the digestive tract, especially its upper sections. Black feces, called melena, are most often caused by peptic ulcers with ulceration in the stomach or duodenum, diseases of the intestine, varicose veins of the esophagus, and stomach tumors. With a bleeding pathological focus located in the intestine below the cecum, the blood is usually red. However, with mild peristalsis, black feces can even be in case of bleeding from the initial department of the colon.
Staining of stool in black is due to the fact that under the action of hydrochloric acid contained in gastric juice, red blood hemoglobin is converted to black hemin.
With internal bleeding, in addition to black feces,there are other typical symptoms. When the process is localized in the stomach, bloody vomiting often occurs. In this case, vomit under the influence of gastric juice change and take the form of coffee grounds. The patient has hypotension, dizziness, general weakness. When examined, tachycardia, paleness of the skin and mucous membranes are revealed. With severe bleeding, acute vascular insufficiency syndrome develops, requiring urgent care.
The appearance of black feces, which is accompanied by general weakness, abdominal pain of a different nature and intensity, nausea, vomiting and fever, requires urgent medical consultation.
