Is Green Poop a Sign of Covid-19? 6 Essential Facts.

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Covid-19 can cause severe attacks of diarrhea that eventually lead to green poop. Consider green poop as a sign of covid 19 when other symptoms are fever, sore throat, body aches, etc.

1. Diarrhea (that leads to green poop) is common with Covid-19.

How can Covid cause green poop?

The standard stool color is brown. However, all shades of brown, such as dark brown or light brown poop, are considered normal variations.

The dark brown of the stool is due to the consistent breakdown of Hemoglobin inside RBCs to bilirubin. In the digestive system, bacteria further act on bilirubin products, giving rise to stercobilin. Stercobilin is the end product of bilirubin that gives the stool its brown color.

The stool becomes dark green by either:

Speeding up of intestinal contents {severe diarrhea}: extreme forms of diarrhea leads to the passage of dark green bile as it has no time to be processed to its standard brown color.
Dark green food.
Green food additives and stains.
Iron supplements {very dark green or black stool}.

The only link between covid-19 and green poop is diarrhea. Also, people with covid-19 may alter their diet and shift to green vegetables, another explanation.

The frequency diarrhea with covid.

As diarrhea is the biggest reason why you may have green poop with covid, we have to dig a little deeper about its frequency and severity with Covid-19.

Covid famously causes throat and chest symptoms. However, the digestive symptoms of covid-19 are more common than you think.

Approximately two-thirds (about 61.3%) of covid-19 patients have one or more digestive system symptoms.

The severity of diarrhea with covid.

Most cases of covid-induced diarrhea are mild to moderate. However, some covid patients rarely may suffer from extreme forms of watery diarrhea (reference).

The severity of diarrhea is also correlated with the severity of covid-19. The more severe diarrhea, The more likely Covid symptoms will be severe (reference).

Severe forms of diarrhea are also more likely to cause green poop with covid.

2. Green poop is not specific for covid-19.

Green poop is not a rare and non-specific sign of covid-19. It occurs only when there is severe diarrhea with Covid.

The green poop is related to the severity and frequency of diarrhea, not the covid itself. The more severe and frequent the attack, the more likely you will have greenish poop.

And this is true for any cause of severe diarrhea, such as norovirus, rotavirus, and bacterial diarrhea.

Green foods and food colorings may also play a role. If you have green poop without diarrhea, it will be primarily due to food causes (see later).

In conclusion, no specific poop colors are specific for Covid.

4. Covid-19 Symptoms with green poop.

Green poop alone is not indicative of covid-19 infection, mainly with no diarrhea.

The presence of diarrhea with green poop raises the probability of Covid-19 infection.

Moreover, the presence of other symptoms of Covid-19 together with diarrhea and green poop makes it a must to see a doctor and get tested for the virus.

You can suspect Covid-19 as the cause of green poop and diarrhea if you have the following symptoms (reference)

Symptoms of Covid-19:

Cough

Fever

Myalgias

Headache

Dyspnea (new or worsening over baseline)

Sore throat

Diarrhea

Nausea/vomiting

Anosmia or other smell abnormalities

Ageusia or other taste abnormalities

Rhinorrhea and/or nasal congestion

Chills/rigors

Fatigue

Confusion

Chest pain or pressure

5. Other Digestive symptoms with covid-19.

The table below shows the frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms with covid-19 (reference).

Symptoms	Percentage (%)
Any gastrointestinal symptoms	(61.3)
Loss of appetite	(34.8)
Diarrhea	(33.7)
Nausea	(26.4)
Vomiting	(15.4)
Abdominal pain	(14.5)
Weight loss	(9.4)
Constipation	(0.94)
Melena (Black stool)	(0.63)
Reflux (acid reflux)	(0.63)
Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing)	(0.31)
Odynophagia (Pain during swallowing)	(0.31)
Hematochezia (red blood in stool).	(0.31)

6. The list of general causes of green poop.

The following are all possible causes of green poop to consider:

Cause	Notes
1. Viral Gastroenteritis (stomach flu)	– Caused by stomach viruses such as norovirus and rotavirus. – severe diarrhea leads to the passage of unchanged greenish bile in poop.
2. Other Types of gastroenteritis	– Bacterial gastroenteritis such as E. Coli. – Protozoal infections such as Giardiasis amoebiasis. – Others.
3. Green leafy vegetables	– Contains chlorophyll green dye that gives poop a greenish color. – Examples are spinach, broccoli, Kale, Cabbage, Beet greens, Blueberries, etc.
4. Food colorings	– Colored ice pops. – Colored sodas and soft drinks. – Drink Mixes and colored AIchohoIic drinks. – Iron supplements.
5. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea.	– Often, patients will have a history of recent antibiotic use before greenish diarrhea.
6. Others.	– Recent gallbladder removal (post-cholecystectomy diarrhea). – Newborns (normal meconium color in the first few days after birth)and babies.