What are the causes of blood in the stool?

With the improvement of modern living standards, people's eating habits and daily routines are becoming more and more irregular. Over time, the body also sends out a warning - blood in the stool. For most people, they don’t care about a little bit of blood in their stool at the beginning, thinking it is just a minor problem that will get better naturally in a few days. It is this kind of mental attitude that will turn minor ailments into diseases. So the question is, what causes blood in the stool? Let’s take a look together!

1. Hemorrhoids cause blood in the stool.

One of the most common causes of blood in the stool is hemorrhoids, which can be divided into internal and external types. Especially because of internal hemorrhoids. Internal hemorrhoids are painless and cause bright red spurt-like bleeding when going to the toilet. Sometimes it may drip out or there may be blood on the outside of the stool. When going to the toilet too quickly, the intravascular pressure increases, causing the venous blood vessels to rupture and cause internal hemorrhoid bleeding.

Infected and bleeding external hemorrhoids, rupture of inflammatory external hemorrhoids or thrombosed external hemorrhoids will cause bloody stools, characterized by blood-stained toilet paper, accompanied by swelling and pain in the anus.

2. Anal fissure causes blood in the stool.

Anal fissure is also one of the main causes of blood in the stool. However, after anal fissure, pain will occur at the hepatic portal during and after defecation. The pain will take several minutes to hours to ease, and the blood will be bright red. Tumors in the rectum and anus can also cause blood in the stool. These two manifestations are more complicated, and dark red and purple are more common.

3. Blood in the stool caused by rectal cancer.

Rectal cancer: The blood is bright red or dark red and is in the form of drops attached to the surface of the stool; in the late stage, there is often blood and pus in the stool accompanied by symptoms such as anorectal prolapse, weight loss, and changes in bowel habits.

4Other bleeding.

①. Ischemic enteritis, heavy blood in the stool.

②. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding and tarry stools.

③ Rectal and colon polyps: bright red blood, slight pain, blood and stool are not mixed.

④. Ulcerative colitis: bleeding mixed with mucus or bloody stools, accompanied by abdominal pain, fever, frequent bowel movements, etc.

Don’t panic when you have blood in your stool. If it is early bleeding, we can take the simplest method, which is diet therapy. During the bleeding period, eat more fruits, vegetables and other foods to help soften the stool. Do not eat spicy foods such as seafood, which will aggravate the severity of the bleeding.