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What Do Blood-tinged Bowel Movements Indicate?
Question: my bowel movements produce stools with a light red color. urine is colored (concentrated), too
Brief Answer:
Different possible causes.
Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Red is usually indicative of the presence of blood. This means that the light red seen with bowel movements mean that there is blood in the stool.
There are different causes of blood in the stool, some are not serious or life-threatening.
Some of the causes are-- (1) hemorrhoids
(2) trauma
(3) diverticulitis - this refers to outpockets/outpouches in the colon, not cancerous,that can become inflamed
(4) benign growths (polyps)
(5) infection- most commonly associated with diarrhea
(6) cancerous growths
Concentration of the urine can usually be related to either not enough fluid intake or holding the urine for a long period of time.
It would be best to be seen regarding the possible presence of blood in the stool. Your doctor would need to examine your abdomen, possibly do a rectal examination and also send stool to the lab for analysis.
Urine testing can also be done in office.
If blood is confirmed then further testing would be needed, the treatment would depend on the cause found.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Dr. Michelle Gibson James, General & Family Physician
Different possible causes.
Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Red is usually indicative of the presence of blood. This means that the light red seen with bowel movements mean that there is blood in the stool.
There are different causes of blood in the stool, some are not serious or life-threatening.
Some of the causes are-- (1) hemorrhoids
(2) trauma
(3) diverticulitis - this refers to outpockets/outpouches in the colon, not cancerous,that can become inflamed
(4) benign growths (polyps)
(5) infection- most commonly associated with diarrhea
(6) cancerous growths
Concentration of the urine can usually be related to either not enough fluid intake or holding the urine for a long period of time.
It would be best to be seen regarding the possible presence of blood in the stool. Your doctor would need to examine your abdomen, possibly do a rectal examination and also send stool to the lab for analysis.
Urine testing can also be done in office.
If blood is confirmed then further testing would be needed, the treatment would depend on the cause found.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Dr. Michelle Gibson James, General & Family Physician
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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