Everything you ever wanted to know about poo

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Dr. Anish Sheth -- otherwise known as Dr. Stool -- and Josh Richman outline all the things you can learn from examining your feces in "What's Your Poo Telling You-", a book that uses jokes and trivia as a way to get people comfortable with talking about gastrointestinal health.

"Of course there's a humorous side to the subject of poo," said Sheth, a gastroenterology fellow at Yale University. "But what isn't as well known is that you can learn about your health by looking in the bowl."

The book comes with a serious message about the importance of preventing colon cancer, the second deadliest cancer in the United States, Sheth said. People may have some embarrassment when they first pick up the book, he said, but making health the focus of taboo topics makes it easier to discuss them. "I think that's a safe place."

The increasing availability of information online is breaking down taboos about previously undiscussed personal health topics, Sheth said. "Patients are coming to the table with a lot more information about particular conditions or concerns they may have."

Discussions of bowel health in popular culture also help open up discourse, he said. Oprah Winfrey recently devoted an episode of her talk show to discussing gastrointestinal health with Dr. Mehmet Oz. "The Fiber 35 Diet" -- a book advocating a high-fiber diet, along with cleansing and detox, for weight loss -- hit the New York Times bestsellers list, and a new book called "The 'Regular' Gourmet Everyday: Sumptuous Recipes for the Gastro-intestinally Challenged", by author Danielle Svetcov, will soon be released. And last year, the hospital sitcom Scrubs devoted a song to bowel movements -- "Everything Comes Down to Poo" -- in a musical episode.

So what can your bowel movements reveal-

A Floater is usually the result of too many burritos, but if it comes accompanied by a particularly bad smell and the presence of grease -- an indication of fat in the stool -- that can be a sign of underlying GI problems, usually related to the liver or pancreas and the body's ability to digest fat.

Thin stools -- The Snake -- are probably just a sign that you're straining too hard and causing your sphincter to contract, but when seen progressively over a longer period of time they might indicate a colonic blockage due to rectal cancer.

Variations in stool color are expected, but persistent changes can be an indication of a health problem: green stools can indicate a gastrointestinal infection, while white or grey stools may be the result of a bile duct blockage or liver disease.

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