Poop schedules are one of those very personal things we don’t exactly talk about. When things aren’t flowing as they should, it can get unpleasant. Too frequent, not enough, or weirdly unpredictable. You Google. You regret it. Now science is offering a slightly more comforting explanation, and it involves a simple vitamin.
According to new genetic research, vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, might play a bigger role in how often you poop than previously understood. Not metaphorically. Literally.
Researchers studying gut motility, the speed at which food moves through your digestive tract, found strong genetic links between stool frequency and how the body metabolizes vitamin B1. The study analyzed genetic data from more than 260,000 people across Europe and East Asia and wasn’t even looking for thiamine at first. But it was waving aggressively enough to warrant a deeper look.
“Gut motility problems sit at the heart of irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and other common gut-motility disorders,” said geneticist Mauro D’Amato of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. “But the underlying biology is very hard to pin down.” The results, he added, point to vitamin B1 metabolism as a promising lead for future research, including clinical trials.
Your Gut Relies on Vitamin B1 Pretty Heavily, It Seems
Vitamin B1 helps the body convert food into energy, which already makes it important. What’s newer is its apparent role in regulating how the gut moves. Researchers identified specific gene variants tied to how thiamine is activated and transported in the body. Those variants correlated with how frequently people went to the bathroom.
Cristian Diaz-Muñoz, another geneticist involved in the study, described the findings as unexpected but consistent. “We used genetics to build a roadmap of biological pathways that set the gut’s pace,” he said. “What stood out was how strongly the data pointed to vitamin B1 metabolism, alongside established mechanisms like bile acids and nerve signaling.”
A follow-up analysis of nearly 100,000 participants in the UK Biobank found that people who consumed more vitamin B1 tended to have different stool frequency patterns, depending on their genetic makeup. Which basically means that thiamine is important, but doesn’t necessarily work the same for each person.
This doesn’t mean you should sprint to the supplement aisle and start freebasing vitamin B1. Researchers are careful about that. They do note that thiamine-rich foods like whole grains, legumes, fish, and meat already support overall health, and previous studies suggest high-dose B1 could help reduce gut inflammation in some people with inflammatory bowel disease.
The study throws a wrench into the usual gut narrative. Fiber and hydration don’t explain everything. A single micronutrient appears to control far more than we previously thought.
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