Why does drinking coffee make you need to go to the bathroom?
Everyone loves talking about how tasty coffee is, their favorite coffee flavors, and how caffeine perks up their mornings. But there’s one less glamorous question many coffee drinkers wonder about: Why does drinking coffee make you need to poop?
It might not be the most charming topic, but if you’re a coffee drinker, you know it’s true! So let’s dive into it.
It Stimulates Your Colon
Your colon is the last part of your digestive system—the section right before digested food exits your body. The colon plays a crucial role in regulating bowel movement frequency and timing by pushing feces out through contractions.
A study published on PubMed found that caffeine can stimulate your colon and trigger muscle contractions that move feces along your digestive tract. This results in increased pressure on the anal sphincter, giving you that urge to poop.
It Affects Digestive Hormone Levels
In addition to stimulating colon contractions, caffeine also affects the levels of gastrin in your body, a hormone directly related to digestion. Gastrin moves food through the digestive tract, thus stimulating digestion. This study asserts that caffeine can more than double the production of gastrin.
Since gastrin is usually triggered when you eat because your body needs to speed up the digestion of previously ingested food to start digesting any new food entering the system, when your body senses elevated levels of gastrin in the blood due to coffee, it speeds up the digestion of previously consumed food.
Some people believe that this increase in digestive activity leads to the urge to defecate, as bowel movements are the body’s natural way of clearing out digested food.
Coffee Additives Could Be the Culprit
Now you know that caffeine alone can cause the urge to poop, but what you add to your coffee can also have different effects. Many people add milk, cream, or half-and-half to their coffee, and dairy products like these can also lead to a need for bowel movements.
Research shows that over 60% of people are lactose intolerant to some degree, and lactose in dairy products can cause bloating and diarrhea shortly after consumption. These symptoms indicate that consuming milk or cream naturally triggers the urge to poop, and adding them to coffee creates a compounded effect.
It Could Just Be Coincidence
That’s right! While most studies indicate that coffee does lead to an urge for bowel movements, other research suggests your gut is simply more active in the morning. This could mean needing to poop soon after drinking your morning cup might just be coincidental.
Many people aren’t even aware their bodies follow a regular pattern and tend to feel the need to poop around the same time each day. If you have a daily habit of drinking your first cup of coffee at roughly the same time every day, then any link between drinking coffee and needing to poop might just be chance.
What About Decaf Coffee?
Many believe caffeine is what triggers bowel movements after drinking coffee, and research partially supports this. However, it’s clear other components in coffee also play a role.
For example, one study found that any liquid can stimulate the colon but noted decaf drinkers were more likely to feel an urge than those who drank plain water. Caffeinated coffee tends to cause this urge more strongly for most people, suggesting there are other natural substances in coffee stimulating your gut.
Does It Affect Everyone Equally?
Regardless of who you are, coffee naturally stimulates your digestive system similarly. However, not everyone experiences such a strong link between drinking coffee and needing to poop. In fact, one study showed only about 50% of regular coffee drinkers noticed this connection—half is significant but not universal.
Some might not feel this urge because they’ve already relaxed before their first cup or their digestive systems aren’t as easily stimulated. Either way, needing to poop shortly after your morning brew isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Summary
It’s evident that coffee prompts many people to feel the need to poop, but the exact reasons can be quite intricate. It might be due to caffeine stimulating your colon, coffee speeding up digestion by influencing your hormones, or perhaps it’s the additives in your coffee causing this effect. Whatever the reason in your case, rest assured you’re not alone, and having regular bowel movements linked to your coffee consumption is entirely normal and healthy.
