Most of the immediate physical burden of distance running lies on the muscles, tendons and joints of the legs and the cardiovascular system supplying oxygen to those tissues. However, the mechanical jostling inherent in running as well as changes...
Infant stool comes in an astonishing array of colors and textures, and it often serves as a helpful guidepost in assessing your baby's gastrointestinal health. Although mucus and blood may appear in a healthy infant's stool, they could also be a...
Bloody stools are usually a sign of an injury or other problem in some part of the digestive tract. If this condition worsens when you eat foods containing lactose such as dairy products, it may be caused or aggravated by lactose intolerance. Only...
Iron is an essential mineral that is important in the production of red blood cells. Lack of iron in the diet leads to iron deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency may also be caused by excess blood loss due to menstruation, burns, stomach ulcers,...
Blood in or on your stool can be startling and quite frightening. The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that bloody stools can indicate an injury or disorder in your digestive tract. Call your doctor right away so he can run tests and...
Finding blood in your child's stool or urine may indicate a number of issues. These include illness in your child's digestive tract or injury to the same. Getting to the root of the problem helps you determine whether the blood is a cause for...
Beets have been used for centuries in making a Russian soup called borscht. Today, beets are more mainstream, appearing on the menus of fine restaurants and in recipes on trendy food websites. Before you search for a recipe with red beets, be...
Blood in your toddler's stool may be the result of a few different problems, and it is often difficult to determine the cause yourself. Because of the potentially dangerous situations, it is best to seek prompt medical attention if you see blood...
Your child's digestive or gastrointestinal tract includes his esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and his anus. Bleeding can come from any of these areas, and it may even occur without you or your child noticing it, according to...
According to the Mayo Clinic, blood clots in the stool or fecal material are evidence of a bleed somewhere in the gastrointestinal system. Blood clots in the stool will often be accompanied by unclotted blood. If the unclotted blood is bright red,...
If you've been diagnosed with food intolerance and you've noticed blood in your stool, you should call your doctor. Food intolerances tend to cause digestive complications that could lead to diarrhea or constipation. Food intolerances are not the...
Not everyone needs iron supplements. A mineral necessary for red blood cell manufacture and oxygen transport, iron is found in all types of meat as heme iron and in plants as non-heme iron. Iron deficiency requiring supplementation occurs most...
The color of your stool helps you determine the cause of your problem. When your stools are maroon or bright red, it usually means you have a lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract problem, which includes the large bowel and rectum. Sometimes there...
Inside the walls of the colon, little pouches have a tendency to form as a person ages. These are called diverticula. When they first appear, the symptoms are generally mild and this is considered diverticulosis. When these diverticula become...
The presence of blood in an infant's stool is alarming for any parent. While there may be a number of causes, noting symptoms and important characteristics are key in helping a doctor properly diagnose and treat an infant. Pinpointing possible...
Bloody stool is an abnormal finding. Although on a microscopic scale our bodies discard spent and dead blood cells regularly, visible and/or testable blood in the stool reflects a problem. The presence of bright or dark "tarry" stools is very...
There are many reasons that blood can appear in urine and stools: disease, trauma, infection, tumors and anatomic abnormalities. Under normal circumstances, there should be no blood present in either system, so even the presence of a small amount...
Fresh blood in the stool is caused by bleeding in the digestive system. When the blood is fresh, it is generally caused by bleeding from the rectum or from the lower colon, because blood from higher in the gastrointestinal system (such as the...
Another cause of blood appearing in the stool can be hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids are made up of swollen veins that appear in the rectum and anus. These veins, when they get swollen, can become inflamed and swollen which can lead to rectal bleeding....
If you see blood in your child's diaper or in the toilet, it may cause panic and alarm. While blood in the stool can indicate a serious problem, the majority of the time it is caused by a minor condition that is easy to treat or to cure. Call your...
Although blood in a baby's stool is an alarming sight for parents, it's usually not an an emergency. More often it's an easily resolved problem. Whatever the cause, however, it's always a good idea to give your pediatrician a call.
A toddler with constipation may have a small amount of blood on the outside of his stool, from trauma to the delicate rectal tissue as the hardened or larger-than-normal stool passes. A toddler with fever along with bloody diarrhea, especially if...
Finding blood in an infant's stool can be frightening for parents, but most of the time the blood doesn't signal a major problem. Nonetheless, parents should always report any blood in a baby's feces or found in his diaper to a pediatrician. Since...
Blood and mucus in a child's stool can be alarming to parents. There are several causes of rectal bleeding, and doctors can determine the cause based on taking a careful history and an examination and through imaging and laboratory testing....
Traces of blood in your infant's stool can be an alarming discovery, and it might be difficult to determine what is causing the blood to appear and when you need to take your baby to the doctor. By observing other symptoms, you can understand what...
The appearance of blood and mucus in a baby's stool can be frightening for parents. Most cases of blood and mucus are harmless to the baby and either go away on their own or are easily corrected. However, parents should report any blood and mucus...
Blood in a 2-week-old baby's stool upsets parents, usually more than it upsets the baby. Virtually every baby passes blood in the stool at least once during their infancy, pediatrician and author William Sears, M.D. explains. While some causes of...
Vaccinations are a front-line defense against diseases that at one point in time were commonplace. Today, many of the illnesses that we currently vaccinate against are rarely seen. The schedule of vaccinations depends on your baby's age. Within...
Red mucus in the stools of children is generally caused by an anal fissure. More than 90 percent of children with blood-streaked stools have an anal fissure, according to Children’s Hospital Colorado. Anal fissures are so common that 80...