Q 01/05

About three-quarters of fresh human faeces is made of what?

A) Fibre

B) Water

C) Fat

D) Mucus

Answer · why

B) Water

Water: fresh stool is about 75% water, and the longer it sits in the colon, the more of that water the body draws back out, which is why a stool that ...

Q 02/05

Up to what share of the solid matter in faeces is bacterial biomass?

A) 25 to 54%

B) 5 to 10%

C) 10 to 20%

D) 60 to 80%

Answer · why

A) 25 to 54%

The rest is undigested plant matter, protein, fat and salts.

Q 03/05

What gives faeces its usual brown colour?

A) Dead cells from the gut lining

B) Iron from red meat

C) Bile pigments from the liver

D) Gut bacteria themselves

Answer · why

C) Bile pigments from the liver

Bile pigments from the liver: bilirubin, a leftover of worn-out red blood cells that the liver sends out in bile, is converted in the gut into the bro...

Q 04/05

What is the medical chart that sorts human faeces into seven types by shape called?

A) The Glasgow gut chart

B) The Oxford bowel index

C) The Rome criteria

D) The Bristol stool scale

Answer · why

D) The Bristol stool scale

The Bristol stool scale was devised at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in 1997, and it works because the shape tracks how long the waste has spent in the ...

Q 05/05

On the seven-type stool chart doctors use, types 1 and 2 point to what?

A) Diarrhoea

B) Constipation

C) Internal bleeding

D) A gut infection

Answer · why

B) Constipation

Constipation: types 1 and 2 are hard lumps that have sat longest in the colon, while types 6 and 7, at the other end of the chart, are diarrhoea.