Black stools without abdominal pain may be normal (related to diet, medication) or abnormal (related to gastrointestinal bleeding), and need to be combined with the cause of specific judgment.
1. Dietary factors: Eating black foods, such as black sesame, black beans, fungus, etc., or foods with high iron content, such as animal liver, animal blood products, etc., causes black stools, no abdominal pain, no change in the number and character of bowel movements, which is normal and does not require treatment.
2. Drug factors: taking iron supplements, such as ferrous succinate, bismuth, such as colloidal bismuth pectin, etc., black stools can occur without abdominal pain, and can return to normal after stopping the medication.
3. Gastrointestinal bleeding: even if there is no abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding can not be excluded, some patients may not have obvious abdominal pain and bleeding as the first symptom, especially patients taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the elderly, because of the small amount of bleeding discharged into the intestine, the formation of black stools, gastroenteroscopy can be used to confirm the diagnosis.
It is recommended that the patient seek medical advice to clarify the cause of the disease, and follow the doctor’s instructions for treatment after ruling out dietary or medication factors causing black stools.