Does your poo have an ammonia smell

There are many benign and not benign causes. Dehydration is a huge factor which I bet many of us suffer from and it does cause bubbles.. not from the protein but the urea. Urea breaking down releases ammonia. Ive tested many a woman's urine in my journey to become a midwife and we have to eval protein in that test. Ive seen many a bubble in urine from a mom who wasnt drinking enough water. and there will not be even a trace of protein. There wont be any leukocytes either..

www.renalandurologynews.com/a-rising-epidemic-of-foamy-urine/article/261213/#

anyway, I just didnt want anyone freaking out about seeing bubbles and thinking they had kidney issues. It should be explored if it is a constant occurrence but there are many causes..

Katarzyana, sorry I was just responding to Mike'e emphaticness that it meant protein. I didnt even see your post down there at the bottom of page one cause I was in a hurry:) I probably wasnt clear. I get frustrated with misinformation.

I was in my last year of clinicals when the UC hit hardcore. Its very hard to stay with a woman for labor when you are flaring. I hope some day I am well enough to go back to it.. I miss it so so much. My desire was to be a homebirth midwife and it was just so amazing to be with women in that space. Now, I dont know that I would do homebirths.. knowing how sick I was without even realizing it makes me think back to so many clients where even though they were low risk on paper, were not. Id definitely be very very selective and Id run very different test panels then the ones they taught us.. LOL

Google Dr gets ya every time. ;)

OM,

Yes, I have noticed the ammonia-like smell (near but not *exactly* like ammonia) when my flares are at their worst.

These docs give an array of not very convincing answers - https://www.healthtap.com/topics/ammonia-odor-in-stool.

Personally, I wonder if the chemical odor is related to a caustic digestive enzyme incompletely/improper neutralized as it passes through the digestive tract (proteases?) or a byproduct of said enzymes as they eat away at the protein *making up* the digestive tract (that is, you, me, us).

Considering that the human digestive tract is capable of liquefying a steak, it amazes me that more medical research into UC doesn't focus on possible enzymatic dysfunction as being a possible cause of what to all the world looks like internal chemical burns in UC.

I had long wondered about this and now even more so that I've had some marked success with melatonin (of all things) - which amps up intestinal bicarbonate production (bicarbonate being known for its ability to *neutralize* both acids and bases.

If intestinal bicarbonate enhancement proves to be a real UC treatment for a large number of UC sufferers...I think a *lot* of medical ass needs to be kicked for decades of pointlessly, impotently esoteric UC research.

OM,

Right now, I am only taking 4x1mg (all at once, at night) of the Walmart brand of melatonin (which comes with some B6 - might make a difference...other melatonins don't seem to do as much for me).

I discovered the UC-beneficial effects by accident and then was able to find a handful of papers on Pubmed indicating the intestinal bicarbonate connection. (I can cite if you'd like).

My UC might be more mild than some (sigmoid and down, tolerable for 12 years on only 2x400mg mesalamine, 2 tablespoons of psyllium, and 4 fish oil capsules a day) since I was able to stop mesalamine completely after 4 months on melatonin.

This *is* a bit on accomplishment since I required the mesalamine for over 12 years - and my "point pain" has greatly diminished post-mesalamine.

I'm not sure that oral baking soda will work (I tried it about 10 years ago to no effect). I think the problem is that the *"normal" pH changes up and down along the digestive tract.*

So oral baking soda probably neutralizes *stomach* acid but may have little/no impact on the acidic/alkaline pH environments further down the tract (where the enzymes get to work).

Apparently, melatonin chemically triggers the increased release of *naturally occurring* bicarbonate "further down the line" as it were - where the digestive enzymes are (and after the stomach acid).

As for the soybean juice, the same "too early" neutralization process may apply (although I think I recall reading that soy what was supposed to biochemically (vs. on contact) normalize protease activity.

Again, I think the key to fighting dysfunctional proteases (other than addressing their root cause - which might be genetic - I have a history of pancreatic cancer in my family and I think I've seen an article or two finding a PC/UC link...darn it) might be to chemically neutralize the proteases *in the right place* - which is tricky because pH goes up and down along the way.

So, the bicarbonate needs to be released at the right place at the right time (and right pH).

Could see bicarbonate encapsulated in an Asacol-like shell working (not that Pharma would ever develop a bicarbonate-based drug - not patentable...).

There *is* OTC enteric-coated fish oil (not much value add for me), so maybe there is some obscure enteric-coated bicarbonate pill out there (try Europe OTC maybe? Their socialized cost-control systems tend to focus more on cheaper, simpler solutions...haven't seen any references in Pubmed though...).

Overall, I do think there definitely is something to the "protease dysfunction" hypothesis - I'll wander over to the other thread to see the latest.

Sgarlata: I also believe I have a thread on melatonin with links.
I might even have one on bicarbonate,it is reduced in the colon if you have UC.
Believe oral bicarb,will act to raise overall bicarb levels,I use it mostly to protect kidneys,urine ph goes way up.
If taken with no food in stomach,then there is a lot less HCL around.
I may increase melatonin again,I did ok up to 5 mg then when increased got worse.
Old Mike

Another semi-random thought...I read on other threads that you tried some sort of soy drink (protease inhibitor?) and had what might be labelled, "The Great Poop Pause of 2013".

Sounds like it might be possible to *excessively* reduce protease function, to the point where protein foods don't really digest well anymore - causing significant constipation as what should be liquid in the small intestine remains solid/semi-solid.

I should preface I have no condition nor am I on medication from Dr. I have been reading that probiotics are helpful for weight loss, colon health and immune system health. So, I bought a super probiotic from a health food store, it was refrigerated and has a vast variety of different probiotics on the label.
I have been taking one a day for 5 days now. It was day 4 or so I noticed a smell before flushing the toilet that reminded me of getting a perm. I called out the bathroom door to my hubby, "Hey hun? Is ammonia the chemical that people associate with a perm?" He said it was.
Honestly, I believe this is what caused the smell for me. I will take a day or two rest from the probiotics.

I've been doing way too much reading lately, I've had IBS for 32 years, and have had a monster flare up recently that had left me with pancreatitis, ulcerative colitis, and an duodenitis. I get that weird burnt/ammonia smell during really bad flare ups or after a round of the stomach flu. There is a condition, SIBO that is basically an imbalance of your internal bacteria/flora and you have too much of a "bad" one in your small intestines. I feel better when I eat the "poo" yogurt, and drink small doses of unpasteurized raw Apple cider vinegar. No vinegar for a few weeks, and then a sinus infection with a pretty beastly antibiotic had caused a hardcore flare. I'm going back to the vinegar and live culture while milk yogurt. I was in remission for years, with mild flare ups like the occasional not of diarrhea or constipation, nothing like this last year. I'm on amitriptyline 10mg to combat the crazy pain and muscle spasms. It's sort of working. I can eat food now without feeling like I'm dying or going to die. It still hurts, and I'm still bouncing between constipation, with twisty poo like cork screws which apparently indicate crazy muscle spasms , and diarrhea with alternating smells of burning chemical vs undigested food. It would be interesting to see if there are any surveys out there so newbies can feel less alone. When i was diagnosed with IBS, so many years ago, it was attributed to type-a personality and food allergies. I am SO not a type-a. Ulcerative colitis in my youth was definitely food-allergy related, and this was before people really understood how dangerous food allergies are, or that stress is not the sole cause of IBS. I hate to say it, but it's nice to no longer feel so all alone with this. I'm glad I found you all, and I'm not new to IBS, just new to this website. Geez, when I was 11 there was no source of information like the internet, because the Encyclopedia Britannica wasn't so easy to access, and no one takes about IBS.

For me the most interesting smell is always just after I start high dose steroids and symptoms improve. The first few days of that, it smells really weird for some reason. The Salofalk enemas seem to make it smell strange too, in a different way. And of course there are all kinds of other smells, the range is pretty big. I really wouldn't worry about it.