You've Been Pooping All Wrong

A GI’s guide to the brain-gut-microbiome connection, including research on why people develop IBS and how anyone can achieve poophoria

Welcome to the easy-to-digest user’s manual for your body’s unsung hero: the gut. Leading Harvard gastroenterologist, Dr. Trisha Pasricha takes us on a riotous deep dive into our own bowels with new insight from neuroscience, enteric biology, and physiology for an actionable framework to make pooping a breeze.

No one would expect you to have stunning teeth if you were never shown a toothbrush. You would struggle to fall asleep if you never knew how to turn off the bedroom lights. But no one talks about the fundamentals of pooping, and so many—even the highest of achievers—spiral into a quagmire of poor habits and toilet-anxiety.

You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong will teach you:

• What is a “normal” bowel movement? What do different colors mean? Is there a wrong way to sit? Is there a better way to wipe?
• The intricate connection between your brain and your gut: Why do you suddenly need to find the restroom right before your turn at karaoke and why does stress make you constipated?
• How to harness your gut’s microbiome to boost your health: How does your lifestyle influence your microbiome and how can your microbiome, in turn, reshape you?
• The three P's of having a perfect poop: A simple framework to transform your bowel habits based on years of gastroenterological expertise.
• And much more…

Here, you’ll learn the tools to achieve bowel consistency, ease, and—yes—joy so that your gut flows on autopilot and you live your life without obsessing about the toilet: in short, poophoria.“Dr Pasricha has become one of the most important medical voices of our time, and her new book reminds us why. She took a particularly awkward topic in medicine and transformed it into something that is enlightening, engrossing, witty and impossible not to share.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, Chief Medical Correspondent at CNN

"Dr. Pasricha has achieved something glorious and unprecedented. She has turned a taboo topic into a science lesson, a self-care guide, and a cultural critique – all at once. Reading this book is like having a brilliant (and often hilarious) doctor friend whispering secrets you wish you had known years ago.” —Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drive

“Our health is influenced and reflected by our bowel habits, a taboo subject that is now comprehensively addressed—practically and scientifically—by Dr. Pasricha’s brilliant book, which takes us on the path to poophoria.” —Eric Topol, MD, NYT bestselling author of Super Agers

“Smart, funny, and deeply evidence-based, this book does for digestion what most doctors never had time to explain. If you want to understand your gut—and finally fix your bathroom struggles—this is the book to read.” —Will Bulsiewicz, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Plant Powered Plus

“Smart, compassionate and genuinely useful, this book gives readers language, tools and confidence to take ownership of a vital part of health — and to finally talk about it.” —Tara Parker-Pope, founder of NYT “Well”

“As entertaining and funny as it is informative, this book is a gift to anyone curious about gut health. Dr. Pasricha digests the topic with the clarity of a great teacher, the warmth of a trusted friend, and the authority of a scientist at the cutting edge of her field.” —Justin Sonnenburg, Stanford University professor and author of The Good Gut

“This should be on every family bookshelf! A joyous read.” —Ann Compton, Former Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News

“The poop book we didn't know we needed has finally arrived! As a pelvic floor physical therapist treating patients with bowel dysfunction, this book is the guide every person and parent needs. Dr. Pasricha demystifies all bathroom challenges and provides practical tips for everyone to have comfortable, easy-to-pass stools.” —Dr. Sara Reardon (aka The Vagina Whisperer), USA Today bestselling author of Floored

"A smart, essential guide to one of the body's most misunderstood functions. With scientific rigor, surprising insights and a dash of humor, Dr. Pasricha a brings a rare combination of clinical and research expertise and storytelling skill to a topic we all think we know… but don’t." —Dr. Leana Wen, TIME 100 Most Influential People, author of Lifelines

"Dr. Pasricha has written an entertaining and instructive book, in very plain language, about how our bodies turn inputs into outputs, along with tips on managing that. Along the way she writes equally clearly about the emerging, polysyllabic field of neurogastroenterology, which studies the lifelong, two-way conversation between brains and guts."—Alvin Roth, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics
Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the “Ask A Doctor” columnist for The Washington Post where she translates complex medical topics into must-read insights—with a touch of humor—for millions each week. A graduate of Harvard College, Dr. 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, Dr. Pasricha serves as director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leading an NIH-funded research laboratory at the forefront of gut-brain science. Her work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Network Open, and Nature Reviews.