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farmdoc's blog post number 146
Phuket is Thailand’s largest island. Its area is 570 square miles, and it’s connected to the mainland by bridge. Currently Darling Kate is holidaying there with her family, including Darling Jarrah. I last wrote about Jazzy on 20 May 2008 when I described her as ‘resolutely faecal in orientation’. Last Wednesday, I examined a lady who’d been in the Launceston General Hospital [LGH]. I was sent for perusal her LGH case file, and it contained a page headed The Bristol Stool Form Scale, which was an A4 version of the image above. Immediately I saw it, I thought of Jazzy. Developed at the University of Bristol, it was first published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology in 1997. Types 1 and 2 indicate constipation; 3 and 4 are the ideal, and 5-7 tend towards diarrhoea. The weight of a formed stool varies but on average is about 100 grams. The colour of normal stool is brown, but the nature of the brown pigments is unknown. The average stool is 75 per cent water, and of the remainder most is live or dead bacteria, and the rest is mainly undigested plant residue (i.e. dietary fibre). Overall the lack of basic scientific data in this field of human experience is extraordinary. I hope that during her Phuket holiday, my friend Jazzy doesn’t need The Bristol Stool Form Scale.
Phuket is Thailand’s largest island. Its area is 570 square miles, and it’s connected to the mainland by bridge. Currently Darling Kate is holidaying there with her family, including Darling Jarrah. I last wrote about Jazzy on 20 May 2008 when I described her as ‘resolutely faecal in orientation’. Last Wednesday, I examined a lady who’d been in the Launceston General Hospital [LGH]. I was sent for perusal her LGH case file, and it contained a page headed The Bristol Stool Form Scale, which was an A4 version of the image above. Immediately I saw it, I thought of Jazzy. Developed at the University of Bristol, it was first published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology in 1997. Types 1 and 2 indicate constipation; 3 and 4 are the ideal, and 5-7 tend towards diarrhoea. The weight of a formed stool varies but on average is about 100 grams. The colour of normal stool is brown, but the nature of the brown pigments is unknown. The average stool is 75 per cent water, and of the remainder most is live or dead bacteria, and the rest is mainly undigested plant residue (i.e. dietary fibre). Overall the lack of basic scientific data in this field of human experience is extraordinary. I hope that during her Phuket holiday, my friend Jazzy doesn’t need The Bristol Stool Form Scale.
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