That toilet scroll could come with an unpleasant health consequence, according to new research
Taking advantage of doing a number two on the toilet to scroll through the internet on your phone may come with an unwelcome side effect, hemorrhoids.
You head off to the toilet, knowing it’s going to take a while or you just want to take advantage of the moment, so you grab your phone to scroll through the internet or social media. This habit, however, may come with an unpleasant consequence, hemorrhoids.
At least that is what a new study suggests that was published in PLOS One. The researchers examined the correlation between smartphone use on the toilet and prevalence of hemorrhoids and found a 46% greater risk of having hemorrhoids among those who regularly used their smartphone while sitting on the toilet.
The adverse effects of scrolling on your phone while taking a dump
The longer you spend on the toilet, the better your chances are of developing hemorrhoids. The common ailment is associated with prolonged sitting, but the chances increase with sitting on a toilet seat for an extended amount of time.
“When you’re sitting on an open toilet bowl, you have no pelvic floor support,” Dr. Trisha Pasricha, the study’s senior author, told CNN. This is because your bum is kept in a lower position than if you were sitting on a chair, compressing your rectal area. And over time, this can cause blood to pool in the rectum due to the increased pressure.
The gastroenterologist and director of the Gut-Brain Research Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said: “We’re just now understanding how much smartphones impact lots of other factors in our lives.”
In the study, the researchers invited 125 adults, 45 and older, who were undergoing a screening colonoscopy, to answer a survey about their toilet habits. They found that of those who took their smartphone with them into bathroom to do a number two, roughly 37% of them spent over five minutes on the pot compared with 7% of those who didn’t.
Additionally, people generally lean over to look down at their mobile, leading to poor posture for “evacuating” poo. Having the rectum and anus curved from the colon along with the extended amount of time on the toilet “are exacerbating factors for hemorrhoids,” explained Dr. Hima Ghanta, a colorectal surgeon at Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey.
So the next time you head off to the loo, before you grab your phone, you might want to think twice.
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