652: A guide to healthy pooping | Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH

652: A guide to healthy pooping | Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH

May 31, 2026 · 44 min · Episode 652

About this episode

Trisha Pasricha discusses healthy bowel movements and gut health.

"You shouldn't be spending more than five minutes in there at a time,” says Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH. A graduate of Harvard College, Pasricha earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her training includes an internal medicine residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and gastroenterology and motility fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital. Currently, Pasricha is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an NIH-funded research laboratory at the forefront of gut-brain science. Her book, You've Been Pooping All Wrong, is out now. 00:00 - What actually makes a bowel movement healthy 07:55 - The Bristol Stool Chart explained 10:50 - The case for bidets 14:49 - What hemorrhoids actually are 17:44 - The smartphone-hemorrhoid study 20:33 - Fiber timing & psyllium husk 24:03 - The rise in early-onset colorectal cancer 27:43 - Microbiome testing 30:03 - The future of gut health 32:33 - Why we can't poop when traveling 35:40 - How much gas is actually normal 38:01…

People in this episode

Guest: Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH

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Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard College, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, NIH

Products: You've Been Pooping All Wrong

Places: United States

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