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.
With the appearance of black feces must be carefullyanalyze the diet in the last few days. Black feces as a result of ingestion of food products and medicines does not pose any health hazard and does not require treatment. Within two to three days after exclusion of the use of these products and pharmaceuticals, the normal color of feces is restored.
Drugs, which includeacetylsalicylic acid, do not stain feces, but with long-term use affect the circulatory system and can cause black feces as a result of the development of internal bleeding.
Diseases associated with the appearance of black feces
It is quite another thing if the feces are blackappeared suddenly and seemingly for no reason. If black feces appear, the causes 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, also called melena, most often occurs in peptic ulcer disease with localization of an ulcer in the stomach or duodenum, bowel disease, varicose veins of the esophagus, and tumors of the stomach. When bleeding pathological lesion, located in the intestine below the cecum, the blood is usually red. However, with weak peristalsis, black feces may even occur with bleeding from the initial section of the colon.
Black stool staining occurs as a result of red blood hemoglobin being converted into hemin black by the action of hydrochloric acid contained in gastric juice.
When internal bleeding, in addition to black feces,other typical symptoms appear. With the localization process in the stomach often appears bloody vomiting. In this case, vomit under the action of gastric juice change and take the form of coffee grounds. The patient has hypotension, dizziness, and general weakness. On examination, tachycardia, pallor of the skin and mucous membranes are detected. With severe bleeding, acute vascular insufficiency syndrome develops, requiring emergency care.
The appearance of black feces, which is accompanied by general weakness, abdominal pain of different nature and intensity, nausea, vomiting and fever, requires urgent medical advice.
