Esophageal and gastric bleeding can be accompanied by black and foul-smelling stools. Gastrointestinal tumors can be the cause of blood in the stool and its black color, but blood alone does not cause black stools.
In this article, we will talk about what causes other than blood, which may darken the color of the stool.
Why is my poop black but no blood?
The answer to this question is provided by our doctors below
what you will read next :
Causes of dark stools
Many black stools can be caused by the foods you eat.
In other words, some substances and foods that enter our digestive system give dark colored stools. In these cases, your stool analysis test does not contain blood and compounds related to the presence of bleeding in the digestive system.
In these cases, where the stool is black but does not contain blood, what factors can cause the stool to darken?
There are foods, snacks, and medications that darken stools
These materials include:
Medicines:
Some types of oral medications make the stool black:
- Bismuth or pepto bismol
It is a drug that was used in ancient times in people with stomach ulcers.
It is available as bismuth salicylate or subcitrate, protects the gastric mucosa as a coating, neutralizes some stomach acid, and possibly acts directly on the gastric bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Bismuth is sometimes used for travel diarrhea. .
This drug darkens the stool. A few days after stopping the consumption of bismuth, the color of the stool will become normal
- Acetazolamide:
Today, it is mostly used in the treatment of glaucoma and reduction of intraocular pressure
- Stomach antacid syrup containing aluminum means aluminum hydroxide syrup
- Corticosteroids such as prednisolone, betamethasone, triamcinolone
- Antibiotics such as:
- Chloramphenicol
- Tetracycline
- Clindamycin
- Food
Thiophylline is a drug used to treat respiratory tuberculosis
Iron tablets and supplements can also cause black stools.
Bismuth, aluminum, and iron will all cause constipation in addition to black stools.
What foods darken stools?
- Black licorice
- Sausages made from blood. Blood sausages
- Blueberries
- Black grapes
- Black and dark jellies
- Spinach and vegetables with very dark colors
- Dark beans
- Dark food colors
When to see a doctor?
If you have black stools and have one or more of the following symptoms, you should see a doctor to find out the cause:
- If you have a lightheadedness
- If you have weakness and lethargy
- If you have a loss of appetite
- If you have lost weight
- If you have physical pain
- If you have nausea and vomiting
- If you have bloody vomit
- If you have hypotension and fainting