Strange odors in poop may be due to any number of reasons, including changes in diet or medical conditions. Eating healthily and monitoring blood sugar levels regularly is one way to help avoid complications and maintain digestive wellness.
Diabetes may cause your stool to have an unpleasant fruity or sweet aroma due to high blood sugar levels, leading to diabetic ketoacidosis and potentially necessitating treatment with antibiotics.
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Fruity or Sweet Smell
Poop that smells fruity or sweet could be an indicator of high blood sugar levels. Uncontrolled diabetes prevents your body from properly processing glucose and burning fat for energy, so your body excretes excess sugar through urine and feces to release ketones into your system and give your poop its signature fruity or sweet aroma.
Diabetic ketoacidosis can be potentially deadly if untreated quickly. If this symptom arises for you, seek medical assistance immediately and contact a healthcare provider immediately.
Sweet-smelling poop could also be an indicator of Clostridium difficile (C. diff), an infection often found among diabetics who engage in poor hygiene practices like not washing their hands after using the toilet. To combat C. diff infections and prevent other complications associated with diabetes, it’s vitally important that individuals follow a healthy diet and regularly monitor their blood sugar.
Diet plays an integral part in altering the scent of your poop. Eating a diet rich in whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables and healthy fats is proven to lower blood sugar and promote digestive health; don’t forget to drink enough water too! Keeping track of your blood sugar and making small dietary adjustments regularly will also help decrease odorous waste produced from digestion.
Sour or Acetone Smell
High blood sugar levels can cause you to produce more urine and feces than usual, altering their smell significantly. Poop that smells of chemicals could be a telltale sign of diabetic ketoacidosis – an extremely life-threatening complication of diabetes in which your body cannot use sugar for energy and breaks down fat instead, producing acid called ketones which leave through breath, sweat or exhaled through feces, creating an unpleasant chemical-like or fruity aroma in its wake.
If you have diabetes, medication could also alter the smell of your stool or urine. Metformin, an anti-diabetic drug commonly prescribed, may lead to excess sugar being eliminated through stool rather than urine and producing an unpleasant sweet odor similar to burnt popcorn.
Food can also influence the scent of your poop. Certain items, including meats, eggs, cheese, dairy products, garlic and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli can have strong or unpleasant odors due to being harder for our bodies to digest than others and producing gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide or methane that combine with existing odors for an intense pungent smell.
If your poop has an unusual or offensive smell, reach out to your physician immediately. They can assist in managing diabetes symptoms as well as finding ways to lessen digestive tract odor.
Watery Smell
An unpleasant scent of diabetic poop is caused by too much sugar in your bloodstream, due to your body being unable to effectively metabolize glucose. When this happens, excess sugar ends up in your intestines and is expelled through stool. Therefore it’s essential that blood glucose levels remain under control through healthy lifestyle practices like keeping a diet journal.
Sweet-smelling poop may also be caused by certain medications used to manage diabetes, like metformin. While metformin may improve glucose control in diabetics, it may also increase fluorodeoxyglucose build-up in your intestinal tract and cause sweet-smelling poop. If this occurs in you, be sure to notify your physician. If the change persists or worsens, seek professional medical advice immediately.
People living with diabetes can develop diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious complication which occurs when their bodies don’t receive enough insulin to absorb the sugar into cells. To compensate, their liver starts burning fat as energy, creating acids known as ketones which have an unpleasant odor like nail polish remover and can be detected both in urine samples and breath samples from those suffering from this complication.
Maintaining stable blood sugar levels is key to managing diabetes successfully. Making minor dietary and lifestyle modifications may help decrease digestive tract odor, while it’s essential to undergo routine medical check-ups and screenings so you can monitor any changes in your health status.
Acidic Smell
No matter if you have diabetes or not, digestive symptoms such as gas and diarrhea may arise at any point in time. If this is the case for you, consult a medical provider immediately as diet and lifestyle modifications can greatly enhance digestion for anyone – not only those living with the disease.
Diabetes can cause blood sugar levels to fluctuate and ketones (a chemical produced from fat metabolism) to accumulate in your body, creating fruity or chemical breath odors and appearing in urine or stool samples. If this happens, diabetic ketoacidosis could occur as a potentially deadly side effect of diabetes.
Ketones are produced when the liver breaks down fat for energy instead of glucose, which can occur due to uncontrolled diabetes as insulin deficiency causes fat burning without being used as energy, producing ketones instead. High levels of these acids may result in various symptoms including irritability, stomach discomfort, frequent urination, dehydration and fatigue.
To prevent abnormally smelling poop, the best approach is to regularly monitor and manage your blood sugar. Eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly and get adequate rest; try to decrease stress as this may negatively impact digestion; consult a healthcare professional if any unusual or strong smells come into question;
