10 Reasons Why Your Stool Is Yellow

Each morning you may visit the restroom to get rid of the unwanted substances in your body. Yes, these unwanted substances are your stools and the color of your stool may tell a lot about your health.

If your stools are brown then you have a healthy bowel movement, black stool may be signs of an internal bleeding, red stools indicate bleeding in the digestive tract while a yellow stool may be because of a problem in the gallbladder.¹

Your yellow stool may also be due to infections in the intestinal tract and mild jaundice. Generally, yellow stool indicates some illness but at times your stools could be yellow because of food high in fats and color.²

Here are 10 reasons why your stool color may be yellow:

1. Pancreatic Diseases

Pancreatic diseases like pancreatic cancer, cystic fibrosis, and blockages in the pancreas can make your stools yellow.³ It happens because the pancreas is unable to provide enough enzymes needed to digest the food.

2. Gallbladder Diseases

Gallbladder is a small organ located under the liver. Bile, a liquid required to digest the fat is stored in the gallbladder.⁴ Diseases like cholelithiasis, choledocholithiasis and acalculous gallbladder disease affects the normal functioning of the gallbladder.⁵ These gallbladder diseases may be the reason behind yellow stools.

3. Crohn’s Disease

The Crohn’s disease affects the lining of your digestive tract. When suffering from Crohn’s disease you may experience inflammation in any part of the digestive system.⁶ This disease affects the ileum, jejunum, duodenum, colon, and stomach, all these can affect your digestive capability, thus, making the stools yellow.⁷

4. Diverticular Disease

Diverticular disease commonly occurs due to the aging of muscles in the walls of the large bowel. This digestive condition can make you feel bloated and also cause lower abdominal pain.⁸ This disease may the reason behind those yellow stools, consult a doctor for diagnosis and seek appropriate medical help.

5. Ulcerative Colitis

It’s a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects the colon. In this disease, the colon may experience inflammation and develop ulcers too. This disease severely affects your digestive system which may be the reason behind yellow stools. Ulcerative colitis may also cause abdominal pain.⁹

6. Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are also called as piles, these affect your rectum and anus. It may even cause bleeding. When suffering from this disease you may experience pain during bowel movements, lumps, and itching near the anus.¹⁰ Hemorrhoids are usually caused due to straining during a bowel movement and this may be another reason for that yellow stool.

7. Diarrhea

Diarrhea, though not a serious disease can be very distressing as you need to visit the restroom frequently. Diarrhea can occur due to the presence of parasites, virus, or bacteria.¹¹ Long-term presence of diarrhea can be due to serious disease such as bowel cancer. This disease affects body’s ability to digest which can make the stools yellow.

8. Medications

Your yellow stools could also be because of the medicines like antibiotics, birth control pills, anti-inflammatory drugs, and anabolic steroids.

9. Diet

Diet plays a very important role in determining the color of your stool. If you eat food that has lots of color and fat content, then you may end up getting yellow stool.

10. Stress

Stress can adversely affect your digestion. When you are under stress your digestion may slow down which limits the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food.¹² So, start living a stress-free life and say goodbye to the yellow stools.

Caution:

• Yellow stools are not life-threatening, however, it may be signs and symptoms of an underlying disease. Always consult your doctor if you are getting yellow stools.