Everybody poops, but not every day. New research by the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) suggests bowel movement frequency is linked to long-term health. An ISB-led research team examined the clinical, lifestyle, and multi-omic data of more than 1,400 healthy adults.
How often people poop, they found, can have a large influence on one's physiology and health. Their findings will be published in the Cell Reports Medicine on July 16. Researchers explored data from consenting participants of the consumer wellness company Arivale.
The team focused on generally healthy adults and excluded those with certain health conditions or medication use. The research team categorized self-reported bowel movement frequency into four groups: constipation (one or two bowel movements per week), low-normal (between three and six bowel movements per week), high-normal (between one and three bowel movements per day), and diarrhea. Once categorized, the team looked for associations between bowel movement frequency and factors including demographics, genetics, gut microbiome, blood metabolites, and plasma chemistries.
The study showed that age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) were significantly associated with bowel movement frequency. Specifically, younger people, women, and those with a lower BMI tended to have less frequent bowel movements. Prior research has shown how bowel movement frequency can have a big impact on gut ecosystem function.
Specifically, if stool sticks around too long in the g.