The iron or metallic smell you perceive in your poop could indicate diet, excess iron/copper, and or supplement.
Common meals that cause iron or metallic smell include beef, pork, chicken, cabbage, broccoli, butter, EVOO, tallow, sometimes a little cheese, egg, and flaxseed.
If you observed that the aroma of your stool has changed to a metallic smell, it could indicate various pathologies that you need to be aware of.
First, the meals you consume are big players in what your stool will smell like. Fatty or greasy foods can make foul-smelling gas but what generally leads to a metallic smell could be from diet pills or supplements that you may be taking.
Due to the color dyes and preservatives found in lots of vitamin pills now made readily available, you could suffer metallic-smelling stool as a side effect.
In fact, garlic supplements and Vitamin B supplements are two known compounds that can lead to this side effect.
Why Does My Poop Smell Like Iron?
Excess iron in your stool is why your poop smells metallic. One of the most bothersome reasons that this could occur would be due to internal bleeding, likely from your intestines.
If you find that your stool is darker in color than usual, this could make this diagnosis even more true than you realize.
So, take a sample of your darkening stool to your doctor to check your stool for blood. The most worrisome conditions that could cause this would be colorectal cancer.
You will need to have a fecal occult blood test testing for trace amounts of blood in your stool and potentially also a colonoscopy looking for gross transformations.
The last possible reason your poop has a metallic smell again would be based on your diet. Studies have shown that people on a Paleo diet are more prone to find this occurring than people who are not.
The Paleo diet is a diet focused on having high levels of healthy fats while minimizing carbohydrates. As your body adjusts to this new diet, it is only natural for you to begin producing more ketone bodies as a by-product of your metabolism. Ketone bodies can create this metallic smell as well when you are passing gas.
All in all, it is important for you to go to a doctor to rule out long-term conditions that can be life-threatening. Once this has been ruled out, metallic-smelling stools will self-resolve on their own in most cases.
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If Feces Smell Slightly Metallic, Could There Be Blood in Them?
Yes, there’s a chance your bloody stool will smell metallic.
Melena usually represents blood from higher in the abdomen, like the stomach. By the time it makes it into the stool it mixes with stool and the stool becomes dark in color.
Bright blood in the bowl and stool means there is in metallic smell.
Bright blood in stool means the blood is coming from lower in the gi tract like the colon or rectum or anus. All these causes should be evaluated by a physician.
Why does Blood in My Poop Smell Like Copper?
The metallic smell of blood has nothing to do with metal, although we have an iron element in our blood.