Minutes turn into many minutes: When you use your smartphone in the toilet, your sense of time disappears.Image: shutterstock/symbolimages
Many of us are familiar with the situation – and I'm pretty sure I'm not going too far – when going to the bathroom takes much longer than actually working because of smartphones. But these behaviors of using mobile phones to go to the toilet are definitely not healthy.
Sometimes, a quiet place really is the only place you can find complete peace and tranquility. How tempting it is to whip out your smartphone in this oasis of tranquility and intimacy—and get lost on Insta/Tiktok/Watson/whatever. Three minutes can turn into 15 minutes or more.
Not only does this sound common knowledge, but it's also harmless. But that's not the case. US health scientists are now warning against using your smartphone for too long a trip to the toilet: Sitting on an oval toilet seat for long periods of time could have unpleasant health consequences.
hemorrhoid
Sitting on the toilet for too long increases the risk of hemorrhoids, Xue Lai, a rectal surgeon at the University of Texas Medical School in Dallas, explained to CNN: “When patients develop symptoms, they often find that they spend too much time in the toilet. Spend a lot of time playing on my phone.”
There are physical reasons why sitting for long periods of time is harmful, among other factors. Open oval toilets increase the pressure on the pelvis and digestive organs due to gravity. This can have an impact on blood circulation. As surgeon Xue explains, these materials flow into the pelvic area due to gravity:
«It’s a one-way street. Blood flows in, but cannot flow back to the heart normally. “
This causes the veins and blood vessels around the anus to dilate and essentially “fill” with blood. This increases the risk of hemorrhoids. In simple terms, this means: The longer you sit on a bowl, the greater your chance of developing hemorrhoids.
rectal prolapse
In addition to other unhealthy things for the body, such as weakening the pelvic floor and anorectal (“affecting the anus and rectum”) organs, excessive toilet squatting has a second possible effect: You increase your risk of developing the disease. As Farah Monzur, professor of medicine and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center in New York, says, this is called rectal prolapse.
What is rectal prolapse? The University Hospital of Zurich describes it this way:
“In the case of rectal prolapse, an entire section of the rectum slips outward through the anus. If these areas cannot be pulled or pushed back on their own, surgery is required. Prolapse can be triggered by bowel movements, but it can also occur spontaneously in the rectum. The prolapse will usually slide back into place on its own, and in some cases it can be repositioned into place by hand. If this doesn't work, the event will continue.”
Doesn't sound good.
There's a simple way to avoid long bathroom breaks. However, this requires a bit of discipline: newspapers, books and especially smartphones should be removed from the bathroom. As Monzur said, you should go to the potty with the mindset that you want to spend as little time there as possible and have your mind occupied as little as possible. According to the professor, the longest time to go to the toilet should not exceed ten minutes, and five minutes is better. She said:
“Make sitting on the toilet as boring as possible.”
Good digestion also contributes to shorter toilet breaks: Those who “can” go to the toilet quickly while sitting on a bowl are less likely to be distracted by mental necessities. So: drink plenty of alcohol (2.5 to 3.5 liters a day is enough) and eat enough fiber (found in legumes, whole grain products, fruits and vegetables).
And: If you feel as uncomfortable after reading this article as I did when I wrote it, then you know what you have to do: ban the damn smartphones from the toilet immediately.
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