I have diarrhea and I think there are pieces of skin in my poop. I don't eat skin so I don't know how or why it's there. PLEASE HELP!!

Dear Casey,

It is common to see the skin of certain foods like tomatoes, apples, and corn kernels in your poop because these things do not get digested due to the high fiber content.

But are you referring to... HUMAN skin? Since I have never personally consumed a person's skin, and Jeffrey Dahmer is not available for me to question about this, I have no idea what that would even look like in one's poop.

I don't really know this for sure, and I haven't been able to find any documentation on the subject to back up my theory, but I think that human skin, if eaten, would probably be digested like animal fats and proteins, and therefore not appear in the poop in its original form, unlike the skins of plant products.

So what you are seeing is probably just fatty deposits that are commonly seen in diarrhea. At least I hope that is all it is. Maybe you should be seen by a sleep disorder specialist to make sure that you are not "sleep eating" things or people you don't know about. (Has anyone that doesn't "agree" with you gone missing lately?)

Thanks for asking Motherload!

Motherload is Certified Nurse Assistant as well as an IBS sufferer, which means she knows a lot about poop. Got a question for her? Ask it here. [1]