Are you the type that escapes into the bathroom with your phone any time you’re pressed, thinking that the privacy is a guarantee of an opportunity to browse endlessly on your phone till you’re satisfied?
Well, experts are warning that spending too much time on the toilet bowl can impact your health!
When you scroll through your smartphone while on the toilet, you’re “sitting on the toilet for way longer than you should,” says Dr. Joyce Park, dermatologist at Skin Refinery.
“The shape of the toilet seat is sloped downwards, designed to increase pressure to assist with bowel movements,” she explains. But too much pressure isn’t a good thing, as it puts you at risk of developing hemorrhoids — the swollen and inflamed veins around the anus.
According to Dr. Harika Balagoni, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic, “We all have these veins in our lower rectal-anal area in the lower gastrointestinal tract. But when you sit on the toilet for too long, especially if you have obesity or are pregnant, then these veins start to bulge or get bigger, and that’s when you develop hemorrhoids.”
Nathan Price, the chief scientific officer of Thorne HealthTech, tells Yahoo Life that using your phone while on the toilet “often means leaning forward or looking down,” and that this posture can “affect the angle of the rectum, making it more challenging to pass stool and increasing the risk of incomplete evacuation.”
According to Balagoni, an “incomplete evacuation” occurs when “you have a bowel movement, but you don’t feel like you’ve emptied completely.” That can be a problem because it increases the amount of time you’re on the toilet, as well as may lead to chronic constipation.
The solution? Always resist the temptation to take your phone with you into the bathroom. And, equally important, don’t turn your time in the loo into an opportunity to read a newspaper!
Learn tnjoy your privacy in the bathroom while it lasts and exit immediately you finish the job that took you there — whether a simple peeing or the big job!
