Stool weight and bowel cancer incidence in various populations

Range Table - link
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Cummings JH, Bingham SA, Heaton KW, Eastwood MA. Fecal weight, colon cancer risk, and dietary intake of nonstarch polysaccharides (dietary fiber) Gastroenterology. 1992 Dec103(6):1783-9. p.1786 table 2PubMed ID1333426
Primary Source See refs beneath table
Method P.1783 right column 2rd paragraph:"[Investigators] therefore obtained bowel habit data for normal individuals in the United Kingdom and present a population average for stool weight and transit time. These data, together with all reliable information that could be found on stool weight in other countries, have been compared with bowel cancer risk. Finally, a quantitative estimate of change in stool weight caused by fiber intake is made and discussed in the context of reducing bowel disease risk."
Comments P.1785 right column 3rd paragraph:"The population samples were not all randomly selected and neither were the countries chosen for study because they represented particular categories of bowel cancer risk. Some referral bias may therefore have been introduced. However, a wide range of average stool weights and bowel cancer risk are reported, covering the expected known distribution of both variables. The high average values for stool weight in several countries reported in Table 2 may call into question the health of these populations. Current textbooks state that daily stool weights of >200 g/day are characteristic of diarrhea [ref 37] However, it is clear both from the study of the distribution in Figure 1 of the normal U.K. population and from Table 2, in which large numbers of healthy people have stool weights of >2OO g/day, that diarrhea cannot be defined by this criterion. It must always be considered in the context of what is normal for the local population."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112360