(Kristen Rogers/ CNN News) — Everyone poops, but it turns out we don’t all need to poop every day.
That’s a misconception, said gastroenterologist Dr. Folasade May, an associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“I even have people who try and make appointments, because they say, ‘Oh, I stopped having a bowel movement every single day a few years ago,’” May said. “And I have to remind people that there’s really not a fixed or normal number of bowel movements.”
That notion probably stems from a Victorian-era belief that having a bowel movement daily makes you healthier, said Dr. Michael Camilleri, a consultant and professor in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Not necessarily. “Most people will have anywhere between a bowel movement up to three times a day to three times per week,” May added. “Anywhere in that range, we consider normal.” (…)