 “So putrescent, so feculent, so foul.” These words, borrowed from Colleen Paeff’s The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Solution Problem (2021) really get to the heart of the matter. What’s the first thing you think of when you think of poop? The smell, of course! Poop and stink go hand in hand. (See Rooty Toot Toots for remedies which may help for stinky gas.) Why are poops stinky? Referring back to the first article in this series, dead bacteria, which makes up 30% of poop, is the cause of the smell. Mental Floss, citing Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says, “that we think poop stinks for our good. Our disgust towards certain sights and smells is a ‘behavioral immune system’… that evolved to keep us from coming into contact with infection and disease (Soniak 2013). So, how does homeopathy fit into stinky stools? Well, if you are a regular reader of Ruminating on Remedies, I’m hoping you are now catching on to the idea that after the 220+ years that homeopathy has been around, homeopathy pretty much has a remedy to address pretty much everything… even stinky stools. Most stools stink and that’s normal. However, sometimes there may be a particular odor that is new to a person. In these instances, that new poop smell may help guide one to a helpful remedy. There are a few homeopathic remedies which keep popping up for specifically stinky stools. In particular, Dioscorea, Colocynthis and Sulphur. Generally speaking, I try to keep the remedies mentioned in this blog to those that are readily available. Dioscorea and Colocynthis aren’t unusual remedies, but unlike Sulphur, they are definitely not found in my local stores which sell homeopathic remedies, nor are they always included in remedy kits, but they are well worth seeking out to have in your homeopathic remedy stash. Interestingly, in terms of gastrointestinal disorders, Dioscorea and Colocynthis are opposite each other in regard to colicky pains. Dioscorea has a tendency to stretch backwards to relieve abdominal pains whereas Colocynthis would bend forward to relieve those pains. As for smelly stools, Colocynthis, according to Schroyens, has stools which smell like:
Dioscorea, on the other hand, is mentioned in Murphy’s Repertory in 86 rubrics relating to stools but it is the only remedy listed in the only rubric for those acutely sensitive to the odor of stools to the point of fainting. (Dioscorea is also mentioned in a number of other repertories for offensive stools in general.) Sulphur is another remedy to consider for those oversensitive to stool odors. A Synoptic Key (Boger 2015) is an excellent get-to-the-point materia medica (the book also includes “a brief repertory” which also gets right to the point). Dr. Boger lists Stool, bad odor, including 3 really good stool remedies: Arsenicum album, Carbo-veg and Podophyllum. (That’s a heck of a lot easier than parsing through the 297 remedies listed in Schroyens under offensive stools. See what I mean -- he gets right to the point, kind of like a "start here" sort of repertory.) However, if the stools are offensive only in the morning, consider Graphites. If the stools smell like rotten cheese, try Bryonia or Hepar sulph. If the stools have a penetrating odor: Sulphur or Podophyllum. If the odor cannot be removed, even with washing: Sulphur. Putrid (meaning decaying or rotting smell) stools: there are lots of well indicated remedies here, but start with Podophyllum or Arsenicum album. If these putrid stools are found in the elderly, try Baptisia. If they smell putrid only at night, try Sulphur. Back to Boger for stools that smell like carrion (decaying flesh of dead animals): Carbo veg. Like rotten eggs? Chamomilla. Like sour milk? Tabacum. Sour, in general? Calc carb, Hepar sulph, Mercurius or Sulphur. For an odorless stool, look to Veratrum album. If you would like to keep your bathroom smelling decent for those visitors who have not yet discovered the wonders of homeopathy, try some Poo-Pourri.* They make products to spray into the toilet “before-you-go” and claim it “trap[s] bathroom odor under the water’s surface, so it never enters the air.” It works and it also makes for a funny present with names like: “Trap-a-Crap” and “Royal Flush” and “Heavy Doody” and they even come in seasonal scents. Now, I must admit that I am pooped. I have crapped out on the Doo-Doo Documents for now but there is more to be said on this topic and perhaps one day we shall revisit this extraordinarily important topic. Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits * I have no affiliation with this company, I just like their products. RESOURCES
Boger, C. M., 2015. Synoptic key of the materia medica : a treatise for homeopathic students. New Delhi: B. Jain. Murphy, R., n.d. Homeopathic Remedy Guide. accessed through Radar Opus software. Paeff, C., Carpenter, N. and Mcelderry, M. K., 2021. The great stink : how Joseph Bazalgette solved London’s poop pollution problem. New York: Margaret K. Mcelderry Books. Schroyens, F., 2012. Synthesis : repertorium homeopathicum syntheticum. Accessed through Radar Opus software. London: Homeopathic Book Publishers. Soniak, M., 2013. Why Does Poop Stink? [online]. www.mentalfloss.com. Available from: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49033/why-does-poop-stink.
0 Comments
 No matter what you want to call it … (if you’re squeamish, just know we’re talking about diarrhea and skip forward to the next paragraph). If toilet humor is your thing, here we go: Number 3, Chocolate Thunder, Poo Stew, Rectum Rapids, Turd Tea, Emergency Evacuation, The Squirts, Brown Bomb, Liquid Lunch, Poop Soup … I’ll stop now. (If you would like a few more unseemly names, see Travelers’ Diarrhea.) Don’t worry, I won’t continue with the graphic descriptions. What follows is a long list of situations where one might experience diarrhea and the most highly indicated remedies for each. Once again, if you are experiencing diarrhea beyond an acute bout, please seek professional medical advice. Before embarking on my long list of unfortunate bottom-related circumstances, let me share one of my first amazing homeopathic "wowee!" moments. We were traveling and my then young teenage son was very sick in the night with suspected food poisoning. I was hemming and hawing, trying to remember what I had learned about remedies. I went with Veratrum album and within minutes everything stopped. I mean, everything completely stopped. He slept the rest of the night and woke up fine and dandy. “Better out than in” is what we say around here! As a result of this experience, I keep a little vial of Veratrum album in my little travel kit that accompanies me every time I leave the house with my suitcase. Veratrum album is my go-to homeopathic remedy for if things are coming out of both ends. What else may point to the use of this remedy? The diarrhea (or vomiting) may be violent, voluminous and relentless. Collapse following diarrhea (not the only well indicated remedy in this rubric, but a good place to start). The person may be cold: cold limbs, generally chilly, and/or clammy. Diarrhea with perspiration. Diarrhea after eating fruit; diarrhea after eating cucumbers (technically a fruit, after all). Diarrhea during menses. Diarrhea which is made worse by movement/motion (Bryonia is another one to think of for this symptom). And, here’s one more unusual concomitant symptom for Veratrum album: hiccups during diarrhea. Isn’t that just what you need in that situation?! Children & Diarrhea: If you have an infant with diarrhea, administer Podophyllum on the way to see the doctor — dehydration can set in quickly. Diarrhea while cutting teeth: Chamomilla. Chamomilla is such an excellent remedy for children, in general, and it doesn’t let us down in this situation, either (but these symptoms are not confined to children. With everything homeopathy, if the symptoms match, the remedy would be effective for man, woman, child or animal.) Diarrhea with abdominal pain. Diarrhea: following anger; after taking a cold; after eating and, specifically after eating rhubarb. Emotional diarrhea or from excitement. During hot weather. Painless diarrhea. And, here is a rubric unique to Chamomilla (but hopefully you wouldn’t find this in a child!): diarrhea after smoking. The Elderly & Diarrhea: Like children, the elderly, too, have some remedies with great affinity to their age. In this particular situation, I would lean toward China officinalis. China is so good for enfeebled people, as can often be found in the later years. In particular, China is useful for weak digestion; dyspepsia/indigestion; flatulence; chronic belching. Dysentery, in simple terms, involves frequent bowel movements with blood and mucus in the stool, often accompanied by cramps and pain. Give some China while on the way to see a doctor. Please seek medical assistance if you are experiencing these symptoms. If diarrhea and constipation alternate in older individuals, consider Antimonium crud. On to the general list… If experiencing abdominal pain, and it feels like diarrhea is imminent, Aloe would be my first recommendation. There may be accompanying weakness. Diarrhea after eating and in particular, diarrhea following the slightest dietary indiscretion. Walking makes it worse. Lots of toots during the diarrhea. There are a few rubrics where Aloe and Sulphur “tie” when it comes to diarrhea: burning pain in the rectum; being driven out of bed in the morning, needing the toilet desperately (Sulphur has the specific times of 5-6 am); painless diarrhea; standing makes it worse. Where Sulphur “wins out” over Aloe: diarrhea after beer and nighttime diarrhea, especially after midnight. If the diarrhea alternates with another symptom, such as:
Diarrhea and emotions:
Feeling wiped out after all that wiping? China is a good place to start. If the weakness is particularly pronounced, also consider Phosphoric acid. If the act of wiping actually causes pain: Graphites. Diarrhea during pregnancy: Phosphorus Diarrhea during menopause: Lachesis Diarrhea following an injury: Arnica If it’s coming out as from a hydrant: Podophyllum If it has a really noxious smell: Baptisia Diarrhea following the consumption of:
If you find your appetite increases with diarrhea: Petroleum. Cold hands with diarrhea: Phosphorus Cold feet: Lycopodium Cold limbs: Arsenicum album, Camphora and Veratrum album Positionally speaking: If lying down make it worse: Dioscorea If lying down makes it better: Bryonia (though it may be worse lying on your side) Sitting upright makes it worse: Bryonia Time of day: If it starts after you have risen from bed and moving around: Bryonia or Nat sulph After midnight: Arsenicum album or Sulphur If the diarrhea causes sleeplessness: Phosphorus I changed my mind. I will use one more dysphemism: the sharts, also commonly referred to as “gambled and lost” (Flanagan 2010). If you are having diarrhea during rectal flatus, there are a number of well indicated remedies, but I would start with Aloe — the remedy for an insecure rectum (click that link to read the previous article with the same name.) What would cause an “insecure rectum?” Let’s go back to Giulia Enders’ Gut for this explanation. Apparently we have a pair of “sophisticated” sphincters which Enders takes a few pages to explain and I am going to try and shrink it down to the bare essentials using her words, (but the full explanation is certainly worth a read). “The outer muscle is a faithful servant of our consciousness. When our brain deems it an unsuitable time to go to the toilet, the external sphincter obeys and stays closed with all its might. … Our internal sphincter is a no-nonsense little guy. His motto is, ‘If it’s gotta come out, it’s gotta come out!’ … The external sphincter, on the other hand, has to deal with the vagaries of the outside world and its many options.” Suffice it to say, we need these two sphincters to communicate well. A few more remedies for involuntary stool (not necessarily diarrhea):
As you can see, homeopathy can be invaluable when it comes to diarrhea — there is a homeopathic remedy for almost any situation! Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits References:
Enders, G., 2015. Gut : the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. Greystone Books. Flanagan, D., 2010. Everybody poops 410 pounds a year : an illustrated bathroom companion for grown-ups. Berkeley, Ca: Ulysses Press. Murphy, R., n.d. Homeopathic Remedy Guide. accessed through Radar Opus software.  The Bristol stool scale was developed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in 1997 and is based on the poops of approximately 2,000 people. Developed by Dr. Ken Heaton, this scale makes it a little easier for people to discuss what comes out the other end. One way of looking at this scale is to think about how much water is in each type of poop. 1 & 2 are very dry and may be seen when one is constipated. 6 & 7 are considered diarrhea — plenty of water in these poops. #4 is Goldilocks (Goldilogs?!) and 3 & 5 are either side of “just right” and considered pretty good. NOTE: if you consistently pass either the hard poops or the mushy poops, OR, if you switch back and forth between the two, then you may want to speak with a physician.  Let’s talk about how these poops come about. For this information, I’m going to rely primarily on Gut: The Inside Story of our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders* (2015). (Sometimes word for word and sometimes paraphrased. Rest assured, all this technical info is coming from here, unless otherwise mentioned.) Poops are 3/4 water. 1/3 of the solids are bacteria. Another 1/3 is indigestible vegetable fiber. (The more fruit and veg you eat, the more feces you excrete per bowel movement.) The last 1/3 is stuff your body wants out: remains of medicines, food coloring or cholesterol. Enders says the type of poop can indicate how long it takes for the indigestible particles to pass through one’s gut. With this in mind, she says Type 1, the rabbit pellets — the hard, little lumps — can take around 100 hours to pass through the system. On the other end, Type 7 — the diarrhea — can whiz through in 10 hours (or less!). Let me add here that Lewis and Heaton (1997) found the Bristol Stool Scale is a useful guide to intestinal transit time. If you are in the envied position of regularly doing 3s and 4s, Enders says to make sure to observe how quickly they sink. If they sink too quickly it may indicate they still contain nutrients that weren’t digested properly. Kate Deering, author of How to Heal Your Metabolism (2015) describes a healthy feces as "firm, about 6-8 inches in length and about an inch in diameter." She continues: "If you are having a hard time eliminating you may be dehydrated and need to add in more minerals (primarily salt), fruit and water-containing foods to your diet." How long should it take to poop? That’s a trickier question than it first appears to be. Soft Matter journal (Yang et al. 2017) says the average mammal — regardless of size — takes just 12 seconds to poop. According to Mayo Clinic (Rajan 2019), it takes about 6-8 hours for food to pass through the stomach and small intestine. Then it moves into the large intestine for further digestion, absorption of water … taking about 36 hours to get all the way through the system. Dr. Sonpal (Migala 2020) says it should take no more than 5-10 minutes to complete a poop with “minimal straining.” What’s the best way to get the poop out? Back to Gut again, an Israeli doctor, Dov Sikirov, had 28 test subjects poop in three different positions (normal toilet, half sit/half squat on a low toilet and squatting without a seat) and recorded how long they each took and recorded how much straining each position required: “The results were clear. In a squatting position, the subjects took an average of 50 seconds and reported a feeling of full, satisfaction bowel emptying. The average time when seated was 130 seconds and the resulting feeling was deemed to be not quite so satisfactory.” Japanese researchers wanted a bit more assurance and they actually fed their volunteers “luminous substances” and x-rayed them while pooping in various positions. Again from Gut, “squatting does indeed lead to a nice, straight intestinal tract, allowing for a direct, easy exit.” Long story short here: if you have problems getting the poop out, try a squatting stool* (Do a quick search for “squat” and “toilet” and see the options available.) OK, back to the Bristol Stool Scale… NOTE: If you experience the following symptoms during bowel movements (pain, blood, excessive mucus), especially if they are ongoing, or, if you have recently had a change in bowel habits, be sure to seek professional medical advice. Homeopathy is all about balancing the entire system. The best way to do this is with a full consultation with a professional homeopath who is taking all sorts of everything into consideration. With that in mind, a good stool remedy is a good stool remedy. Bryonia may be my go-to remedy to think about for constipation (a “3” in Murphy’s repertory), but it’s also listed under the opposite: forcible, sudden, gushing, but this time it is a “1”. I am putting out a few remedies to consider for various stool issues, but don’t lock yourself into a hard-line of thinking here — there is flexibility. Don’t get stuck into, “but Bryonia is a dry poop remedy” way of thinking — Bryonia can be a good remedy for stools, in general. Type 1: also known as rabbit droppings. I have known young mothers who didn’t mind when their little ones had these — they could skip the diaper change and literally just pull the little pellets out of the diaper and carry on with the day. Easy? I suppose so. But if your little one is popping out this kind of poop, there might be some dehydration issues going on. Seriously. Don’t take this as normal. Homeopathically, we could look at rubrics such as: Stool, Balls, Stools like; or, like small balls; or, like laurel berries. There are lots of good remedies listed for this, but I would start with Alumina, Bryonia, Nat mur or Plumbum. (Can I just say how much I love the name Plumbum? It’s Latin for lead and I think it’s just perfect — it’s helpful for plumbing the bum and getting the lead out when one is all bunged up 🤣.) Dry stool is an even bigger rubric with a lot of the above-repeating rubrics. However, I would start with Bryonia or Nux vomica. If it’s a dry and crumbling stool, Alumina. If it’s a dry stool which kind of starts and stops and then recedes, start with Silica. Type 2: still dry, but this time the pebbles have been fused together. For this one, all of the above dry stool remedies are worth considering, but I would probably start with Nux vomica. If it’s a lumpy stool covered with mucus**, start with Alumina. A dry and crumbling stool, Alumina or Nat mur. A lovely rubric: Stool, Sheep, dung, like - agglutinated, masses of: Plumbum. Type 3: is a little tougher to distinguish, homeopathically speaking. 3 is moving toward the “Goldilog” so perhaps just a little more fluid in your diet should do the trick? Type 4: smooth sailing — keep up the good work! Type 5: the pediatric Bristol Stool Form Scale describes this as “chicken nuggets” — soft blobs with clear-cut edges (passed easily). Like Type 3, I think we’re hovering around “good to go” — there may not be an issue here that needs to be addressed. Type 6: A mushy stool — not formed. If it looks like corn meal: Bryonia. Other remedies to consider: Rhus tox and Podophyllum. If it’s an involuntary soft stool, start with Aloe. Type 7: entirely liquid — now we’re moving into total diarrhea territory and there are many, many remedies to address this. I will be writing more in-depth about diarrhea shortly, but for today, let’s just start with Arsenicum album, China officinalis or Phosphoric acid. Once again, if your regular stool is not hovering around 3, 4, and 5, please seek a professional medical opinion. Don’t forget to check out the deposits you make into the porcelain bank! Any regular stools on either end of this scale should be evaluated by a medical professional. Julia Coyte, CHom Classically Practical homeopath #wellnessawaits * I have no affiliation with this book, I just really like it — very fun and highly readable! ** (Note: A small amount of mucus on the stool is usually not a cause for concern. Mucus lines your intestines to keep your colon running smoothly, among other tasks. However, if there is excessive mucus in or on the stool it may be a sign of an underlying condition such as: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, food poisoning, bowel obstruction or blockage, cancer of the rectum or colon. If you have excessive mucus or even a small amount of mucus which is on-going, seek professional medical advice, especially if it is accompanied by abdominal pain, bloody stools, fever or weight loss (Mayo Clinic). Check out this article for more information.) REFERENCES:
Deering, K., 2015. How to heal your metabolism : stop blaming aging for your slowing metabolism! : learn how the right foods, sleep, the right amount of exercise, and happiness can increase your metabolic rate and help heal your broken metabolism. United States: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. Enders, G., 2015. Gut : the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. Greystone Books. Lewis, S. J. and Heaton, K. W. (1997) ‘Stool Form Scale as a Useful Guide to Intestinal Transit Time’, Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 32(9), pp. 920–924. Migala, J., 2020. How Long It Should Take to Have a Healthy Poop, According to Gastroenterologists [online]. Livestrong.com. Yang, P. J., LaMarca, M., Kaminski, C., Chu, D. I. and Hu, D. L., 2017. Hydrodynamics of defecation. Soft Matter, 13 (29), 4960–4970.
|
Julia Coyte, CHomI am passionate about homeopathy and I love sharing this passion. Having a working knowledge of homeopathy shouldn't be kept a secret. If people have the ability to help themselves, their children and their friends when they have minor ailments, life just gets better for everyone. That is the purpose behind Ruminating on Remedies. Archives
October 2026
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed