What should you know about black mushy stool?

Mushy stool can happen when bowel contents move faster than usual, during a dietary change, or with a mild intestinal upset. A black colour may come from iron, bismuth, or dark foods. However, bleeding from the stomach or upper intestine may be digested before it leaves the body, producing dark stools that can look soft, tacky, or tar-like.

Gastritis and Peptic Ulcer can irritate or damage the stomach lining. Helicobacter Pylori Infection can contribute to stomach inflammation and ulcer disease. These are possibilities, not diagnoses: the appearance needs to be considered with your symptoms and medicines.

Review recent meals, iron products, and bismuth-containing medicines, and keep a note of when the change began. Contact a healthcare professional promptly if you have no clear explanation, if the stool is sticky, or if it appears on more than one bowel movement. Mention abdominal discomfort, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, and any use of aspirin or anti-inflammatory painkillers. Keep taking prescribed treatment unless a clinician tells you otherwise.

Go to emergency care for black stool with fainting, severe dizziness, clammy skin, confusion, breathlessness, rapid heartbeat, severe abdominal pain, or vomiting blood or coffee-ground material. These symptoms can signal substantial blood loss. If the stool is repeatedly black and mushy without emergency symptoms, arrange same-day medical advice rather than waiting for it to settle.

Could my medicines or supplements explain the appearance? How can altered blood be distinguished from food colouring? Should I be checked for stomach inflammation, Helicobacter Pylori Infection, or Peptic Ulcer? What changes mean I should go straight to emergency care?