"If you’ve had these symptoms of constipation or sitting on the toilet for a long time for more than three weeks, Monzur said it might be time to bring your concerns to your doctor."
I've never sat for more than three weeks on the toilet, so I'm good.
On the topic of toilets, is there an explanation for the continued lack of dual flush toilets in the US? It's been common in Europe for as long as I can remember and now Latin America seems to have lapped us.
Separately, but still related, I've been thrilled by the rapid adoption of bidets and rarely see a friend's bathroom that doesn't have one. What are the chances we start to get bidets in hotels and restaurants? What the hold up?
I live in a big city. But I've seen them at friend's houses in lots of places in the US. You can order one on Amazon for like $40 and install it in about 30 minutes.
1. they are increasingly seen in the US, i see them all the time
2. if where you live does not have a "water cycle shortage", it's really not necessary. North America is huge and nowhere near as densely populated as Europe or Japan.
when I visited Hong Kong a loooong time ago, we were told that the water system for the toilets used salt/ocean water. Hong Kong is a small island, that was driven by their need. if you don't need it, you don't need it.
rapid adoption of bidets might increase public health/comfort by some measures, but it actually also increases water use. I feel you are influenced as much by familiarity/fashion as by a coherent water usage strategy
Bidets can actually reduce water usage overall, depending on how much less toilet paper is used. Then of course there's the benefit of needing fewer materials to produce toilet paper.
It reduces by not needing you take a whole shower to have a less gross asscrack. Although most of the solutions proposed below make me wish I never see a bidet again, at least I should remember to avoid them when traveling to said country.
i always assumed you wiped first, then cleaned up with with the bidet. you're telling me you're spraying and rubbing with your fingers... i don't want to talk about it any more
hate to break it to you, but if you are spraying poop off, you are aerosolizing poop. full stop (except for the poop, which you have not stopped, you have sprayed). No shit? no, shit.
(and it would no longer be aerosol, it would be pooposol)
I have 4 dual flushes that get fully flushed each use. The low flow option doesn’t even move enough water to clear the bowl of a single bladder full of urine. That is to say, it doesn’t flush. So we don’t like them. I also heard women tend to really dislike them, something about the flush mechanism is gross. Pushing a button I suppose.
This must be part of the problem. People complain about them here (in the US) all the time. I'm wondering if we're not producing crappy dual flush toilets in this country compared to overseas where they've presumably be manufacturing them for a generation or so.
Leaving aside health issues to those involved, people who use smartphones whilst there pose health risks to others especially when preparing food.
These people are likely to wash their hands afterwards then think nothing of answering their smartphones when preparing food. I'm surprised that health officials don't make a much bigger deal of the fact.
I'm not following. You're saying people who spread fecal matter on their phones don't wash it off their phones? That seems hard to believe, if for no other reason that the smell would be repulsive.
"fecal matter" here is not nuggets of poop smeared on surfaces. It's germs. You generally don't see, smell, or taste them but they can definitely make you sick.
You just kicked at least one elephant in the room, smack in the nads. I sincerely think this is an underestimated issue. It reminds me of the Jewish family afflicted with neurocysticercosis - a disease normally precluded from those not partaking in infected porcine products, but rather normal if the folks handling the food do while neglecting hygiene. I presume grooming, particularly what remains under the fingernails, is the culprit. Tapeworms are quite adhesive.
I'm pretty sure its a joke. It's based on the thinking that "the government" is trying to remove all our pleasure of life, such as smoking, eating meat and drinking. The joke is to compare the pleasure of sitting on the toilet with these vices.
2.7 liters to 3.7 liters of water per day?? That's got to include the water we get from food, right? Is anyone here seriously drinking 128 ounces of water per day? I'd always heard 64 ounces as a guideline, but that's like half. How could the guidelines vary by that much?
From the linked article:
"This recommendation includes all fluids and water-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables and soups"
Most people get 20-30% of their water intake from food. But they never seem to explain this in articles. It's a great example of how health/science journalism has been failing us for generations.
I start my day by pounding a liter of water. Usually do a second within a couple of hours of starting work.
The initial bolos of water is effective at waking me up for the day. That it is not furthering my chemical dependence on caffeine is a double bonus to maintaining hydration.
Pull your pants down to your knees; your knees are in front of you when squatting and your pelvis rotates, so the feces will land behind your heels. Maybe wearing very baggy pants there might be a problem, so don't do it if you're a teenager and the year is 1994?
Ah, these are sommon in parts of the middle east I've lived. I've always done a few minutes of slavic squatting a day just to make sure I'll never crap my pants if I find myself constrained to using one of these.
Yes, do it. It's doable if you're not a very large person. Just position yourself accurately so the output goes in the exit, not in front of it or behind it.
Or if you're in Asia, just get an Asian style squat toilet.
Western toilets seriously weaken the pelvic and hip muscles. Squat on them, either directly, or using a stand, or using an Asian style squat toilet instead. There is no other alternative. Weak pelvic and hip muscles can be painful.
In addition, there is also the issue of worsening constipation and making it needlessly harder to produce output.
Yes, this trend of tall toilets is at odds with human anatomy.
The full-on squat toilet may be excessive (and has its own problems), but at least the Western toilet should be low enough that the hips and knees are at acute angles. I keep seeing the opposite.
Where did you get that? It's not true at all. In fact, cleaning a squat toilet doesn't even require a flush, only a drain.
On the contrary, when using the Western toilet, the dick touches the toilet surface, and this chronically spreads urinary infections up the urinary tract, starting at the urethra, all the way to the kidneys. This is not just theoretical; it actually happens, and only with the Western toilet.
About 25 (maybe 30) years ago I had a family member who required hemorrhoid surgery because they used to read novels on the toilet. It was a long and painful road for them. Do not recommend.
When I was a kid, my dad had some Kurt Vonnegut book (I think Breakfast of Champions) in the bathroom. I sat on the toilet for a couple of hours while I read the entire book. And that is how I got introduced to Kurt Vonnegut.
If one were to sit on a toilet and read a book in its entirety, that would certainly be the book to read. Vonnegut includes a crude drawing of an asshole in it.
What would kegels do for hemorrhoids? Maybe would help with rectal prolapse somewhat but still sitting on the toilet for a long time regularly is probably bad for you. You could squat instead.
"If you’ve had these symptoms of constipation or sitting on the toilet for a long time for more than three weeks, Monzur said it might be time to bring your concerns to your doctor."
I've never sat for more than three weeks on the toilet, so I'm good.
It's not all it's cracked up to be.
On the topic of toilets, is there an explanation for the continued lack of dual flush toilets in the US? It's been common in Europe for as long as I can remember and now Latin America seems to have lapped us.
Separately, but still related, I've been thrilled by the rapid adoption of bidets and rarely see a friend's bathroom that doesn't have one. What are the chances we start to get bidets in hotels and restaurants? What the hold up?
> I've been thrilled by the rapid adoption of bidets and rarely see a friend's bathroom that doesn't have one
You are living in a bubble.
I live in a big city. But I've seen them at friend's houses in lots of places in the US. You can order one on Amazon for like $40 and install it in about 30 minutes.
There are clean and shiny bubbles, and there are dirty, stinking ones. They don't mix well, dirty always stains the shiny.
1. they are increasingly seen in the US, i see them all the time
2. if where you live does not have a "water cycle shortage", it's really not necessary. North America is huge and nowhere near as densely populated as Europe or Japan.
when I visited Hong Kong a loooong time ago, we were told that the water system for the toilets used salt/ocean water. Hong Kong is a small island, that was driven by their need. if you don't need it, you don't need it.
rapid adoption of bidets might increase public health/comfort by some measures, but it actually also increases water use. I feel you are influenced as much by familiarity/fashion as by a coherent water usage strategy
Bidets can actually reduce water usage overall, depending on how much less toilet paper is used. Then of course there's the benefit of needing fewer materials to produce toilet paper.
It reduces by not needing you take a whole shower to have a less gross asscrack. Although most of the solutions proposed below make me wish I never see a bidet again, at least I should remember to avoid them when traveling to said country.
i always assumed you wiped first, then cleaned up with with the bidet. you're telling me you're spraying and rubbing with your fingers... i don't want to talk about it any more
Rubbing with your fingers? Uh no. Finish your business, spray, wipe with TP. One additional step which makes the TP mostly perfunctory.
You spray. Everything is removed, leaving just water. Then you wipe with toilet paper or a washable towel.
hate to break it to you, but if you are spraying poop off, you are aerosolizing poop. full stop (except for the poop, which you have not stopped, you have sprayed). No shit? no, shit.
(and it would no longer be aerosol, it would be pooposol)
Just spraying. Mine has a drier even. It's not so good I forgo a TP check, definitely drastically reduces use.
I have 4 dual flushes that get fully flushed each use. The low flow option doesn’t even move enough water to clear the bowl of a single bladder full of urine. That is to say, it doesn’t flush. So we don’t like them. I also heard women tend to really dislike them, something about the flush mechanism is gross. Pushing a button I suppose.
So you mean, US women rather won't flush? How's that less gross? Or I'm misreading you?
This must be part of the problem. People complain about them here (in the US) all the time. I'm wondering if we're not producing crappy dual flush toilets in this country compared to overseas where they've presumably be manufacturing them for a generation or so.
Dual flush doesnt work as well with US sized bowls. You need the entire toilet fitting to be designed for it, not just retrofit the cistern.
We installed several dual-flush, including an aftermarket kit, at our place. I haven’t seen them at the hardware stores yet.
IME the home ones can be finicky in terms of reliably resetting and fail more easily, but i still like the water savings.
Some four star hotels in Hawaii have bidets in their rooms, possibly for the Japanese tourists. I can't find a word of it on the US website though.
I have never seen a public bidet anywhere in America, and I've traveled quite a bit. Are they more popular in certain areas?
It’s strange. I’ve only seen one restaurant in the US that had a bidet.
Same. In San Francisco. Make of that what you will.
San Diego for me.
Leaving aside health issues to those involved, people who use smartphones whilst there pose health risks to others especially when preparing food.
These people are likely to wash their hands afterwards then think nothing of answering their smartphones when preparing food. I'm surprised that health officials don't make a much bigger deal of the fact.
I'm not following. You're saying people who spread fecal matter on their phones don't wash it off their phones? That seems hard to believe, if for no other reason that the smell would be repulsive.
Do you believe that people should only wash their hands after using the bathroom if there are visibly feces on the hands?
"fecal matter" here is not nuggets of poop smeared on surfaces. It's germs. You generally don't see, smell, or taste them but they can definitely make you sick.
You just kicked at least one elephant in the room, smack in the nads. I sincerely think this is an underestimated issue. It reminds me of the Jewish family afflicted with neurocysticercosis - a disease normally precluded from those not partaking in infected porcine products, but rather normal if the folks handling the food do while neglecting hygiene. I presume grooming, particularly what remains under the fingernails, is the culprit. Tapeworms are quite adhesive.
Anyway, if you wish to inflame your cellphone hygiene nightmare, look no further and behold: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199209033271004
They won’t be satisfied until they have taken everything away.
Who is "they"?
I'm pretty sure its a joke. It's based on the thinking that "the government" is trying to remove all our pleasure of life, such as smoking, eating meat and drinking. The joke is to compare the pleasure of sitting on the toilet with these vices.
In this case, doctors. In a more general sense, those people who feel they are smarter than you and should control your life.
Big Bidet
A mechanical shepherd, and one herd.
Barring some existing condition, it feels to me that _needing_ to spend that long on the toilet is a major diet and exercise red flag already.
Most toilets are too high. I'm almost 6' but would rather put more pressure on my feet than my arse. Not squatting but in that direction.
2.7 liters to 3.7 liters of water per day?? That's got to include the water we get from food, right? Is anyone here seriously drinking 128 ounces of water per day? I'd always heard 64 ounces as a guideline, but that's like half. How could the guidelines vary by that much?
From the linked article: "This recommendation includes all fluids and water-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables and soups"
Most people get 20-30% of their water intake from food. But they never seem to explain this in articles. It's a great example of how health/science journalism has been failing us for generations.
I start my day by pounding a liter of water. Usually do a second within a couple of hours of starting work.
The initial bolos of water is effective at waking me up for the day. That it is not furthering my chemical dependence on caffeine is a double bonus to maintaining hydration.
No concern of hyponatremia? Go, kidneys!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-...
I typically drink 2.3-3.4 liters of water a day, in addition to the water in food I eat.
I imagine that recommendation does take into account water content in food, though.
I drink at least 3 liters of water daily
I've heard 8 ounces each hour, which gets close to 128
Can't prolonged sitting and coding cause these issues?
Some of them!
The ones related to your butthole being out and lower than your spread cheeks, probably not.
Unless you know some wild programming tricks that I don't.
get plenty of exercise when you push to prod often.
You don't know me
EDIT: sigh, in a chair
Don't sit on the toilet. Period.
Resting squats fixed my knees.
What type of toilet allows this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet
that looks like a recipe for crapping in your pants... like seriously how would you not?? Do you need to depants before, uh, engaging??
Pull your pants down to your knees; your knees are in front of you when squatting and your pelvis rotates, so the feces will land behind your heels. Maybe wearing very baggy pants there might be a problem, so don't do it if you're a teenager and the year is 1994?
Ah, these are sommon in parts of the middle east I've lived. I've always done a few minutes of slavic squatting a day just to make sure I'll never crap my pants if I find myself constrained to using one of these.
something like half the world successfully defecates this way. The linked wikipedia article explains it in detail.
Downvoted to oblivion. That went over about as well as the time I tried to use one myself. Once again it seems I didn't know what I was stepping in...
I asked my kid to bring the litter box home from the school bathroom.
You climb up on it or what?
Yes, do it. It's doable if you're not a very large person. Just position yourself accurately so the output goes in the exit, not in front of it or behind it.
Or if you're in Asia, just get an Asian style squat toilet.
Western toilets seriously weaken the pelvic and hip muscles. Squat on them, either directly, or using a stand, or using an Asian style squat toilet instead. There is no other alternative. Weak pelvic and hip muscles can be painful.
In addition, there is also the issue of worsening constipation and making it needlessly harder to produce output.
Yes, this trend of tall toilets is at odds with human anatomy.
The full-on squat toilet may be excessive (and has its own problems), but at least the Western toilet should be low enough that the hips and knees are at acute angles. I keep seeing the opposite.
Squat toilets are disgusting and spread disease
> spread disease
Where did you get that? It's not true at all. In fact, cleaning a squat toilet doesn't even require a flush, only a drain.
On the contrary, when using the Western toilet, the dick touches the toilet surface, and this chronically spreads urinary infections up the urinary tract, starting at the urethra, all the way to the kidneys. This is not just theoretical; it actually happens, and only with the Western toilet.
Worth it. That's sacred ritual time right there.
About 25 (maybe 30) years ago I had a family member who required hemorrhoid surgery because they used to read novels on the toilet. It was a long and painful road for them. Do not recommend.
When I was a kid, my dad had some Kurt Vonnegut book (I think Breakfast of Champions) in the bathroom. I sat on the toilet for a couple of hours while I read the entire book. And that is how I got introduced to Kurt Vonnegut.
*
This guy Vonneguts
If one were to sit on a toilet and read a book in its entirety, that would certainly be the book to read. Vonnegut includes a crude drawing of an asshole in it.
In my family, we read novels on the toilet. It’s worked out well for 60 years or so with nary a hemorrhoid. Maybe lucky genetics or something.
So what ARE we supposed to do for the recommended 5 to 10 minutes on the toilet? Focus on the... miracle of life?
Books?
I fondly remember the tradition of a stack of books on the back of the toilet.
Sort of the same issue with phones, but every book or magazine has a distinct end.
That's a great way to spend even more time on the porcelain throne.
Books are an excellent way to spread fecal matter. Same with newspapers. I prefer everyone keeping to their own shit on phones.
My current bathroom read is "Ayoade on Ayoade: a cinematic Odyssey"
Bet the danger isn't present in low gravity like the ISS or planets with lower gravity.
It is exactly why most people should never go to outer space in the absence of artificial gravity and shielding.
How convenient this research for employers...
Me reading this while on the toilet.
Would kegels reverse any damage?
What would kegels do for hemorrhoids? Maybe would help with rectal prolapse somewhat but still sitting on the toilet for a long time regularly is probably bad for you. You could squat instead.
When is Apple going to unveil the new automatic shit timer for our Apple Watch?
Sitting for less time is also not good :S
Yes, rather we should relieve ourselves on the street like our ancestors. Very powerfully written article.