What is the true meaning of sweet-smelling poop? Is this a result of the food that is eaten. That said, a person’s excrement is formed from what is eaten.
Musty or sweet odors, such as onions and garlic, which contain sulfates. This causes impurities such as sulfur. If the intestine does not absorb nutrients from food properly, then it can also cause feces to smell bad.
If you smell the sweet smell of your poop, what happens? This sweet smell is not always human feces, although there are bacteria that cause it. Here we see an explanation of sweet-smelling feces.
What does sweet-smelling poop mean?
It could be, feces that smell sweet is an indication of diabetes. If someone has diabetes and is not controlled, it could be that the glucose level in their blood is very high. The body gets rid of excess glucose in the urine, and this can cause sweet-smelling urine. Smelly urine in diabetics can also cause other indications including depletion.
The sweet smell that occurs in the stool can also be a Clostridioides difficile infection.
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Bacterial infection
This bacterial infection occurs sometimes when someone is prescribed an antibiotic drug, at which time the intestinal ecosystem changes or is disrupted. Well, these changes in the atmosphere in the intestine cause bacterial infections and cause chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
Among these bacterial infections can come from Clostridioides bacteria, this bacterium is also known as “C. difficile”, anaerobic bacteria produce toxins and cause colitis associated with antibiotics. Among the bacterial infections C. difficile infection (CDI) are:
- Cramps occur
- Fever
- Nausea, and
- The occurrence of diarrhea, and
- Leukocytosis (too many white blood cells or above normal levels in the blood).
Apart from the several problems above, there are other clinical features which are the effects of CDI, this is feces that smell sweet or are often compared to horse manure.
Risk from C. Difficile infection
Various antibiotics have the potential to cause C. difficile infection, but among the types of antibiotics that are highly susceptible to CDI are: cephalosporins, clindamycin, fluoroquinolones, penicillins.
Other risk factors include:
- Age over 65 years
- Just had hospitalization
- Proton pump inhibitor use
- Smell identification
In 2013 there was a study conducted to train a beagle to be able to identify the smell of different C. difficile bacteria. The dog was able to correctly identify 25 cases out of a total of 30 cases of CDI. The dog also identified 265 of the 270 groups as infected.
Can you identify the smell of C. diff?
It has long been a myth that nurses can identify a patient with C. diff just by the smell of their stool. A study conducted in 2007 concluded that based on a survey of 138 nursing staff. 555 nurses were sensitive and 83% specific in diagnosing C. diff by stool odor alone.
A 2013 study in a laboratory concluded that nurses cannot identify a stool sample with C. diff just by the smell.
The results of the study concluded that they could not identify C. diff patients by stool odor, so the urban myth was debunked.
Why do I have foul smelling poop?
Foul-smelling stools can be caused by the food you eat. The University of California states that meat and spicy foods often give off a very strong odor.
Other foods that are likely to cause foul-smelling stools are fatty foods, rich in sugar and eggs and foods from cruciferous vegetables.
However, if the stool smells foul for a long time, there may be a health problem, there could be a medical condition behind it, such as:
- infection
- celiac disease
- pancreatitis
- Crohn’s disease
- malabsorption
- lactose intolerance
- ulcerative colitis
If you notice that your stool smells consistently unpleasant, like a foul odor, then you should consult a doctor to find out the background that causes it, because the smell of feces is normally not bothersome.
