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You can be your own gastroenterologist by looking at your stool type which can give an idea of the state of your health.

A seven-point visual indicator - the Bristol Stool Scale - can tell how long your stool has been in your colon, and what it can mean.

The seven types on the scale, named after Bristol University in UK that came up with it, are:

• Type 1 - Separate hard lumps, like nuts
• Type 2 - Sausage-shaped and lumpy
• Type 3 - Sausage-shaped with cracks
• Type 4 - Sausage-shaped, smooth and soft
• Type 5 - Soft blobs, passed out easily
• Type 6 - Fluffy pieces and mushy
• Type 7 - Watery with no solid pieces

Types 1 and 2 are considered constipated, while 6 and 7 are under the diarrhoea group; the normal stools are those that fall under types 3, 4 and 5.

The scale is useful in that it indicates stool 'transit time'. Transit time is the time stool stays in the colon before it is passed out. Type 1 stool has a transit time of over 72 hours or longer, while Type 4 - the ideal - is most easily expelled, with a transit time of 24 hours. A long transit time implies constipation and a short transit time, diarrhoea.

It is not precise though, as different people have different grades of stool for similar transit times.

Source: Stacey Chia, The Straits Times, Fri, Aug 01, 2008