The functioning of your kidneys and your liver is crucial to your overall health. Both vital organs perform a number of essential functions for your body, including filtering out waste. Eating a balanced diet, exercising, and limiting alcohol are a few of the ways you can keep these organs healthy. However, new research is shining a light on one factor that could actually be hurting your kidneys and your liver: how often you poop.
RELATED: Doctors Share 9 Signs You Have "Healthy Poop"—And What to Do If You Don't.
Researchers from the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) recently set out to learn what someone's bowel movement frequency may be able to tell them about their long-term health. Their study, which was published July 16 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, looked at the clinical, lifestyle, and multi-omic data of more than 1,400 healthy adults.
With this data, the research team categorized self-reported bowel movement frequencies into four different groups: constipation (which was one to two bowel movements per week); low-normal (which was between three and six bowel movements per week); high-normal (which was between one and three bowel movements per day); and diarrhea.
According to the study, the healthiest bowel movement frequency was seen among the high-normal group—with people who pooped between 1 to 2 times per day being more likely to have a higher number of fiber-fermenting gut bacteria that are often associated with good health.
On the other hand, both ends of the spectrum—constipation and diarrhea—were found to have links to possible health risks. Those who pooped less often and were in the constipated group had signs of decreased kidney function.
"Prior research has shown how bowel movement frequency can have a big impact on gut ecosystem function,” Johannes Johnson-Martinez, a PhD candidate at ISB and the lead author of the study, said in the press release.
"Specifically, if stool sticks around too long in the gut, microbes use up all of the available dietary fiber, which they ferment into beneficial short-chain fatty acids," Johnson-Martinez explained. "After that, the ecosystem switches to fermentation of proteins, which produces several toxins that can make their way into the bloodstream."
RELATED: 5 Habits That Could Be Damaging Your Kidneys, According to Doctors.
For this study, researchers found that microbially derived protein fermentation byproducts known to damage the kidneys, like p-cresol-sulfate and indoxyl-sulfate, thrived in the blood of constipated individuals.
"Here, in a generally healthy population, we show that constipation, in particular, is associated with blood levels of microbially derived toxins known to cause organ damage, prior to any disease diagnosis," Sean Gibbons, PhD, ISB associate professor and corresponding author of the paper, said in the press release.
Meanwhile, the study found that diarrhea was associated with "higher levels of inflammation and blood markers of reduced liver function," Gibbons told Today.
"Overall, this study shows how bowel movement frequency can influence all body systems, and how aberrant bowel movement frequency may be an important risk factor in the development of chronic diseases," Gibbons noted in his statement. "These insights could inform strategies for managing bowel movement frequency, even in healthy populations, to optimize health and wellness."
To improve your pooping habits, gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD MSCI, who was not involved in the study, told Today that people should work on increasing their fiber intake.
"95 percent of Americans are deficient in fiber,” Bulsiewicz said. "Fiber helps to normalize our bowel movements and get us into that sweet spot where the gut microbiome is optimally healthy and our bowels are moving at just the right pace, without diarrhea or constipation."
