Featured Image Credit: Reddit/u/Longjumping-Box5691
Topics: Health, World News
Liv Bridge
Apparently, there's a 'proper poop position' that most of us have been doing wrong.
You might think little of your bathroom habits, instead taking the chance to scroll on social media or read a good book when nature calls. However, experts warn there are dozens of ways we can end up injuring ourselves.
A pelvic floor physiotherapist has warned 'excessively wiping' our behinds after a number two could pave the way for haemorrhoids - and a gastroenterologist similarly warned the condition can crop up if you're sat on the toilet for a prolonged time. Throw in the disgusting flood of airborne bacteria that comes for our toothbrushes when we flush, and it's a surprise any of us are still standing.
Now, it has been revealed the typical Western toilet is bad for us in another way too, this time causing unnecessary kinks in the rectum, which does not sound pretty.
Advert
Lifting the lid (so to speak) on the risk is the latest design of one funky lookin' loo which, rather than sitting out straight, has a dip right in the middle where you sit.
While many have shared a giggle at its unusual look, with some men joking their balls would be 'drowned' in the toilet water, others have realized they have been 'pooping wrong this whole time.'
Indeed, according to Medical News Today, the best poop position of all time is the squat, as it allows the abdominal muscles to work properly and effectively empty the bowels.
Yet our bog-standard upright bogs encourage people to sit upright, which can also be difficult to promote a bowel movement, not to mention again the threat of rectum kinks.
As such, medics widely recommend switching up our position on the toilet with the help of a 'defecation posture modification device' (DPMD) or simply a footstool to imitate the squatting position.
This is because they lift the knees higher than the hips, straightening out any kinks while reducing straining and, as Medical News Today puts it, makes for a 'more satisfactory poop.'
With this in mind, the viral video of the toilet design stands as a revolution for the sake of our pooping posture.
Yet taking to Twitter, dozens pointed out similar designs already exist with many Asian countries having squat toilets and sitting toilets with a stool, and some pointed out their fear of touching the nasty toilet water.
"Um yeah but how high is that water?" said one on Reddit. "Some people have low-hanging fruit."
"I'm sure it's perfect... Perfectly awful, such that you're either (quite literally) teabagging the water or you'll get vomit-inducing splashback because the water is so low."...Nice.
However, another said the design would be perfect if it had a bidet, writing: "ooooo! add a bidet, and someone would have REALLY cooked here."
Another joked: "Sitting on a toilet with incorrect posture as I watch this."
Meanwhile another said he had been using a squat stool for a decade, adding: "Greatest invention of all time for a man. Control the percentages of getting prostate cancer."