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What Happens If You Don’t Poop for 47 Days?
You've heard of concealing the evidence, but a man in England took it a step further. Lamarr Chambers refused to poop out drugs he allegedly swallowed, in a bid to avoid prosecution. To accomplish this uncomfortable feat, the prosecutor said he significantly curbed his food intake and simply didn't "go" when the urge struck (Chambers' lawyer denied this, according to the BBC). After 47 days without a bowel action, police dropped the charges, and Chambers was taken to a hospital for treatment.
News of this "pooping strike" left us wondering how big of a deal this is, in terms of impact on the human body. Turns out, it's a crappy idea.
"I would not recommend that anyone willingly subject themselves to that," says Dr. Ellen Stein, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She would know – one of her main areas of study is intestinal motility, or how poop moves through the digestive tract.
The thing is, it is technically possible to refuse to defecate, "up to a certain point," she says, but the likely result would be development of a mass of solid, hard-packed stool in the colon, or a "stool ball." And although it could stay put, "Most people would start to leak around the stool ball," she says. Clearly, the guy in England has bigger problems, but in general, anal leakage is no one's friend.
Another potential complication of a stool ball is that it puts immense pressure on the area behind it, possibly causing a deep and very painful rectal ulcer. It can also injure the delicate tissue in the anal area, potentially resulting in cuts or tears in the lining, known as "fissures." This is exceptionally unpleasant — "like a paper cut, but in a very sensitive area" is how Dr. Stein describes it. Then, without proper blood supply, which the stool ball often prevents, the fissure won't heal, causing it to worsen over time.
You've heard of concealing the evidence, but a man in England took it a step further. Lamarr Chambers refused to poop out drugs he allegedly swallowed, in a bid to avoid prosecution. To accomplish this uncomfortable feat, the prosecutor said he significantly curbed his food intake and simply didn't "go" when the urge struck (Chambers' lawyer denied this, according to the BBC). After 47 days without a bowel action, police dropped the charges, and Chambers was taken to a hospital for treatment.
News of this "pooping strike" left us wondering how big of a deal this is, in terms of impact on the human body. Turns out, it's a crappy idea.
"I would not recommend that anyone willingly subject themselves to that," says Dr. Ellen Stein, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She would know – one of her main areas of study is intestinal motility, or how poop moves through the digestive tract.
The thing is, it is technically possible to refuse to defecate, "up to a certain point," she says, but the likely result would be development of a mass of solid, hard-packed stool in the colon, or a "stool ball." And although it could stay put, "Most people would start to leak around the stool ball," she says. Clearly, the guy in England has bigger problems, but in general, anal leakage is no one's friend.
Another potential complication of a stool ball is that it puts immense pressure on the area behind it, possibly causing a deep and very painful rectal ulcer. It can also injure the delicate tissue in the anal area, potentially resulting in cuts or tears in the lining, known as "fissures." This is exceptionally unpleasant — "like a paper cut, but in a very sensitive area" is how Dr. Stein describes it. Then, without proper blood supply, which the stool ball often prevents, the fissure won't heal, causing it to worsen over time.
HowiMetdaSlayer
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