Why does my poop smell like burnt hair? Have you ever noticed that your waste smells like smoke? People may find it strange or you may feel scared when you realize that your poop smells burnt. This is not how poop usually smells. It is important to figure out why your poop smells like it has been burned because that can tell you a lot about your health.
There are a lot of other things to think about besides the color and smell of your poop. But the simple fact is that your poop can also tell you a lot about your health as a whole and should not be overlooked. This post will explain why your poop smells like burnt hair, burned rubber, burned popcorn, and other bad smells.
The smell of poop comes from bacteria and the waste products that come from the bacteria’s metabolism. They might increase the amount of mercaptans, which are chemical substances, in your body. This material is what gives your stools their bad smell, which has been compared to the smell of burnt rubber.
Healthline says that the smell of your poop can be caused by a number of things, including the following:
A disease.Â
If your poop smells bad and burned, it could be because you have an illness that affects your bowels. This type of illness includes gastroenteritis, which happens when you eat food that has E. coli, Salmonella, or other bacteria, viruses, or parasites in it. Hepatitis is another type of this sickness. Some of the signs of this illness may include pain in the abdomen, diarrhea, and poop that smells bad.
Different kinds of food products and medicines.Â
Some drugs can make your stomach hurt or even make you have diarrhea in some people. If you are allergic to any of the ingredients in the vitamins or drugs you are taking, your poop may smell like smoke or putrefaction. Antibiotics aren’t the only drugs that can change the way a person’s poop smells until the normal bacteria in their body have returned.
When you take more than the daily suggested dose of a drug, you may have side effects like poop that smells burnt or otherwise bad.
Not absorbing.Â
Malabsorption is a condition that happens when the body can’t get the right amount of nutrients from the food it eats. Your intestines might not be able to take in nutrients from the food you eat if you have an illness or a condition that affects the intestines.
Here are some more common reasons why digestion doesn’t work right:
- Carbohydrate sensitivity is when the body can’t fully break down and absorb sugars and starches.
- Celiac disease is an intolerance to gluten that hurts the walls of the small intestine and makes it hard for food to be broken down and absorbed.
- Allergies to dairy products and other foods
- Inflammatory gut diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Why Does My Poop Smell Burnt Match
Your poop smells like burnt matches because it contains sulfur, which is a chemical element. This chemical element is found in the food we eat, and some foods with a high sulfate level help make sulfur gas. Foods with sulfur are important to our diet, but they have the bad side effect of making our poop smell like smoke and rotten eggs. Foods that are high in sulfur levels include kale, broccoli, cabbage, dairy products, beef, and eggs. The smell of sulfur is easy to spot.
Why Does My Poop Smell Burnt Popcorn
If your poop smells like burnt popcorn, at least it won’t smell like poop usually does, which isn’t very nice. Some people might want to have this trait. On the other hand, it could mean that your hormone levels have changed, that you have diabetes, or that you are eating a lot of high-protein foods. There are a few things that can cause your poop to smell like popcorn, such as:
Pregnancy.Â
The word “pregnancy” refers to a time in a woman’s life when she goes through a lot of big changes, including changes in her body size, face shape, and feelings. Especially in the first three months, your sense of smell will change. You might start to like smells you used to hate, and smells you used to like might start to turn you off. This is especially true for smells that you don’t like. It’s possible that your poop smells like popcorn because of the hormones that are going through your body when you’re pregnant. It could also be a sign that the person has diabetes.
If you notice that both your poop and your urine look like popcorn, you should make an appointment with a doctor right away. This could be a sign of preeclampsia, which is when a pregnant woman’s blood pressure goes up.
Diabetes.Â
When a person has diabetes, the amounts of ketones in their blood rise to dangerously high levels. You can get rid of these ketones when you pee or poop. This gives your pee or poops a smell like burnt popcorn. Ketones are made when your body doesn’t have enough glucose or sugar to use as fuel. This can happen when you’re fasting or when you don’t eat for a long time. From this process, ketones are made. Ketones are often found in the blood of people who work out hard or eat a lot of fat. They can also be found in small amounts in the blood of people who eat a lot of carbs.
On the other hand, if you have diabetes and can’t control or handle it, you might start to build up a very high amount of ketones in your blood. Medical News Today (2020) says that the more ketones your body makes, the more likely it is that you will go into a state called ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis is a very hard-to-treat disease that can last for a long time. It needs to be treated right away by a doctor. People with this illness almost always say that both their poop and pee smell like burnt popcorn, which is both strong and sickly sweet.
Get a lot of energy from the food you eat.Â
When you eat things with a lot of protein, your body can go into a state called ketosis. When you eat more protein than carbs, your body turns the protein into energy and stores the carbs as fat instead of using them as it would normally. Because you are in a state of ketosis, your blood will have a high amount of ketones. Ketones are pushed out of the body through pee and stool. Because of this, either of these physical processes will smell like burnt popcorn.
Why Does My Poop Smell Burnt Hair
This happens a lot with babies, and it may be the first thing you notice when you look at your kid’s poop. Most of the time, this might not be something to worry or stress about. Some of the most common reasons why your poop or your baby’s poop might smell like burned hair are:
A willingness to try a new meal.Â
When a poop eats a new food, its digestive system may have a bad response. This can be seen in the color and smell of the poop. This happens a lot to babies. If the problem keeps happening, you should see a doctor.
Food allergy.Â
Food allergies can happen to both babies and adults. People often have allergic responses or intolerances to foods like dairy and lactose, which are found in products like cheese and milk. If you notice this, you might want to stop eating the food in question because it might make you feel worse.
A disease.
 When a virus or bacteria infects your digestive system, it can make your poop smell like burnt hair. If illness is the cause of the change in smell, you won’t be able to ignore it for at least a few days. If the smell lasts for more than a week, you should see a doctor. Wherever it’s been more than a day or two since the smell went away, you should also see a doctor.
Moderate thirst.Â
Dehydration can cause a lot of different problems. It’s possible that it will make your mouth smell bad, and it’s also possible that it will make your feces or urine smell like burned hair. To make sure your body is always well hydrated. It’s important to drink enough water or give your child water often. Some of the more common reasons, like trying a new food for the first time, might go away on their own or change into something else.
Keep an eye out for other signs of a bacterial or viral sickness, like your child throwing up or having black or green stools, as well as blood in the stools. All of these could be signs that your child is sick.
Why Does My Poop Smell Burn Hair Coffee
If your poop smells like old coffee, it could be because of a few different things. The most likely reason why your poop smells like burned coffee is that the coffee bean that was used to make the product had certain parts. So, the smell of burnt coffee is caused by the digestion of these coffee beans. This releases the smelly chemicals that give poop its smell. Coffee changes how your body breaks down and absorbs other things. It has been shown that coffee speeds up digestion, which means that food and other things spend less time in the bowels.
So, as soon as you drink coffee, your body starts getting rid of it, which means that some of the coffee will end up in your poop. On the other hand, if the smell turns sickly sweet all of a sudden, this could be caused by a bacterial disease called Clostridioides.
FAQ | Why does my poop smell like burnt hair?
Why does my poop smell like burned tar?
“If a person’s stool smells like tar or very bad. It could be a sign of an infection or that there is bleeding in the digestive tract,” says Dr. Islam. “There are also conditions that cause feces that smell a certain way.
Why does my poop smell like burned metal?
Dr. Pichetshote says that poop that smells like metal is usually caused by blood in the stool. He also says that the smell is often followed by black poop or what looks like blood. She says that if your poop is black, you probably have a problem in your upper digestive system.
Is it bad to smell like poop?
The smell of poop is usually not nice. Stools that smell bad smell very strong and nasty. Most of the time, people have smelly stools because of the foods they eat and the germs in their stomachs. But stools that smell bad can also be a sign of a major health problem.