Why Do I Have Mucus In My Stool?

People who see mucus in their stool are always scared and confused. They can understand diarrhea but mucus? It might sound surprising to know that this is happening for a good reason. It is trying to protect you.

This occurs in more advanced cases of inflammatory bowel conditions such as Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s. In these conditions, there is considerable damage to the intestinal wall as it is being assaulted by your digestive acids. As the damage gets deeper and close to making contact with nerve and blood tissue it attempts to protect you by releasing mucus into the bowel to stick to the wall to protect it from the acids. Because this is only a stop-gap measure the mucus eventually slides out along with the stool.

Do not ignore this, as it's a sign that you are losing control of the inflammation that is destroying your colon and are headed towards surgery.

Exploring the Train of Pain

You may not realize that the various inflammatory bowel conditions are actually related: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Colitis, Ulcerative Colitis, and Crohn’s. Let’s take a minute and look at these conditions. From the point of view of a naturopathic practitioner each of these issues is really just a progressively worse version of the previous one.

With each of these conditions as time goes by without the proper treatment there is more and more damage being done to the tissue of the GI tract. You can compare this damage to that of first, second, and third degree burns. As the level of a burn gets higher not only is it more painful but also more complicated to treat.

I call this progression ‘the train of pain.’ Each GI issue can be considered a stop along the way. The symptoms accumulate at each ‘stop.’

The 1st stop is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The symptoms here include some pain that is more like cramping, gas, bloating, and diarrhea. These symptoms are barely tolerable and as the train runs down the track do nothing but get worse.

The next stop is Colitis. Now the symptoms of IBS have gotten more pronounced, especially the diarrhea which by now has become urgent and intolerable.

As we keep rumbling down the line the next stop is Ulcerative Colitis. Nobody likes this stop especially those who can’t stand the sight of blood—in their toilet bowel!

Now we find ourselves getting to the end of the line. We are running out of tract—as in the gastrointestinal tract from our digestive acids eroding our colon. Imagine all of the above symptoms ramped up to another level with the addition of mucus in the stool. This is the last stop on the line - Crohn’s. You don’t want to go there.

All of this pain and suffering can be avoided if you jump off that train early by seeking an alternative means of getting where you really want to go—perfect colon health.