medical: time from eating to expelling

[thinksnow]

How long does it take for food to travel through your body, under normal conditions (no diarrhea, vomiting or whatnot)?

In a similar, but slightly different vein, how long does it take for drugs (or coffee) to have effect on ones bowels?

WRT the first question, I ask because I really like hot-spicy food and used some peppers a friend jarred for me the other night, only to have the screaming-burning-runs a few short hours later. I always though it took at least a day for food to make it’s way through your intestinal tract, but I swear I was burning within 4 or 5 hours of eating (and not a Tucs pad in sight! :eek: ) Last night I had corn, there it was bright and early this morning.

The second question has more to deal with my reaction after drinking a morning cup of coffee. A description of this is not really necessary, but let’s say I’m never constipated about an hour after a cappuccino.

[Mars Horizon]

This may be too much information, but I got violently ill on Christmas day (Monday), and, shall we say, cleaned out my system quite thouroughly.
I began eating solid food again Tuesday morning, but did not have my first, um, 'movement' until Thursday night. I was surprised it took so long, about 56 hours.

[GasDr]

Non-scientific study, of course, but my son ate corn for dinner and roughly 19 hrs later it was in his diaper (no runs...nml B.M.).

[barbitu8]

It depends on many factors. "At least a day" is not right. I excrete what I eat for dinner the next morning. I think the main factor is what condition your condition is in. If you work out, your peristalsis works fine, your abdominal muscles are strong, your intestines are A-1, food will be digested in a matter of hours.

It depends on the food too. Fats take longer to digest and, consequently, the waste takes longer to be eliminated.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

transit time varies tremendously. A healthy, active person consuming a high fiber diet could have a transit time as low as 12 hours. Transit time may be as low as 15 minutes or less in the so-called "lead pipe" syndrome, where the stomach and bowels stop all peristaltsis, allowing liquid materials to run thru the system as if running thru a lead pipe. This is most often caused by viral infections, but nerve diseases or poisons can do it also.

At the other end, transit times of two weeks or more are known in extremely obstipated, or anal-retentive individuals.

Meanwhile, things like caffiene can take effect inless than 15 minutes, and nicotine can affect the bowels in less than 15 seconds.

Qadgop, MD

[thinksnow]

Wow, thanks Qadgop. Good info all around.
I appreciate it. I wonder now, if perhaps my body interpreted the peppers as a poison of sorts...

[Ashtar]

I was always under the impression that it varied depending on how efficient your metabolism was in comparison to how much you ate.

I know some animals with more efficient metabolisms then our own (squirrels come to mind) have bowel movement -very- seldomly, if at all.

-Ashley