Bathroom Doomscrolling May Increase Your Risk of Hemorrhoids (popsci.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Science: According to a new medical survey, scrolling on your smartphone while using the toilet may dramatically increase your risk of hemorrhoids. The evidence is laid out in a study published on September 3 in the journal PLOS One. [...] Over the past 20 years, one single device has unequivocally lengthened the amount of time most people spend sitting. "We're still uncovering the many ways smartphones and our modern way of life impact our health," Harvard Medical School gastroenterologist and study co-author Trisha Pasricha said in a statement. "It's possible that how and where we use them -- such as while in the bathroom -- can have unintended consequences."
To test this theory, Pasricha and colleagues oversaw a study of 125 adults who recently received a colonoscopy screening. The patients were surveyed on both their daily lifestyles and toilet traditions, while endoscopists subsequently evaluated them for hemorrhoids. Of those volunteers, 66 percent reported passing time in the bathroom while smartphone scrolling. After factoring in potential hemorrhoid influences like age, exercise habits, and fiber intake, the researchers determined that those who relied on this screentime had a 46 percent higher risk of hemorrhoid problems than non-users. "It's incredibly easy to lose track of time when we're scrolling on our smartphones -- popular apps are designed entirely for that purpose," added Pasricha.
The survey's results made this abundantly clear: 37 percent of smartphone users spent over five minutes at a time on the toilet, while barely seven percent of non-users reported the same. In general, people opted for reading the news and checking their social media while in the bathroom. [...] Pasricha cautioned against drawing any definitive conclusions just yet, noting the preliminary study's comparatively small sample size. The team intends to investigate the issue further, possibly by tracking patients over longer periods of time, while also experimenting with ways to limit smartphone use. "We need to study this further, but it's a safe suggestion to leave the smartphone outside the bathroom when you need to have a bowel movement," said Pasricha. "If it's taking longer, ask yourself why. Was it because having a bowel movement was really so difficult, or was it because my focus was elsewhere?"
To test this theory, Pasricha and colleagues oversaw a study of 125 adults who recently received a colonoscopy screening. The patients were surveyed on both their daily lifestyles and toilet traditions, while endoscopists subsequently evaluated them for hemorrhoids. Of those volunteers, 66 percent reported passing time in the bathroom while smartphone scrolling. After factoring in potential hemorrhoid influences like age, exercise habits, and fiber intake, the researchers determined that those who relied on this screentime had a 46 percent higher risk of hemorrhoid problems than non-users. "It's incredibly easy to lose track of time when we're scrolling on our smartphones -- popular apps are designed entirely for that purpose," added Pasricha.
The survey's results made this abundantly clear: 37 percent of smartphone users spent over five minutes at a time on the toilet, while barely seven percent of non-users reported the same. In general, people opted for reading the news and checking their social media while in the bathroom. [...] Pasricha cautioned against drawing any definitive conclusions just yet, noting the preliminary study's comparatively small sample size. The team intends to investigate the issue further, possibly by tracking patients over longer periods of time, while also experimenting with ways to limit smartphone use. "We need to study this further, but it's a safe suggestion to leave the smartphone outside the bathroom when you need to have a bowel movement," said Pasricha. "If it's taking longer, ask yourself why. Was it because having a bowel movement was really so difficult, or was it because my focus was elsewhere?"
Gross (Score:2, Insightful)
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Cool. She's my type then. /s
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... using your phone while on the toilet ewww ...
At least phones can be wiped down with disinfectant. In ye olde days we used to keep newspapers and magazines in the bathroom for reading material.
Re: Gross (Score:2)
Sears catalog was my favorite.
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Re: Gross (Score:2)
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Snowflake.
Some of us have had to literally shovel shit for a living. Complete with the wriggling maggots when you come back to work after a hot weekend and everything has got sweaty.
Almost normal (Score:2)
Where do you think most people read magazines anymore? There's a reason the toilet is called the "reading room" in many homes. I can't remember the number of Field and Stream, American Rifleman, or Golf Digest I have seen in bath rooms over the years. I would imagine a casual survey of Kindle owners would find the two most common locations where the device is used in on a bus and in the bathroom.
If there was actually a correlation between reading on the toilet and hemorrhoids it would have been found dec
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there seems to be, in that sitting posture affects blood flow by putting pressure on veins, and the toilet's shape could make this pressure distribution specially relevant.
one factor why reading material might be needed for distraction in the first place is because people need to stay there for very long ... which points to constipation, which is linked to low fiber intake, which is also linked to hemorroids.
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I hear a lot of one-sided conversations from the stalls... either lots of people are using the phone in there, or else there's been an major increase in schizophrenia during the past decade...
Re: Gross (Score:3)
Do you wipe your ass with your phone?
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Do you wipe your ass with your phone?
Well there's a reason I won't touch other people's phones. Some people are not concerned about actual shit on things. https://www.scienceabc.com/eye... [scienceabc.com].
At work, I was occasionally called in to do something on their computers. Sometimes I had to clean off their keyboards. I didn't want to embarrass them, but sweet jeebuz on a pogo stick, you could hardly see the letters, they were that filthy. So it is not beyond the pale to figure out that handwashing and hygiene was not high on their priorities list.
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Yes, I wipe my donkey with my phone. ;)
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I couldn't poop without my phone in my hand.
Before smart phones it was magazines.
(For the younger folks, back in the day that was like a website but on paper.)
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I have also seen a wired wireless reciever in the bathroom.
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Consider it a physical security. /s
How Many Times . . . (Score:3)
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Uh oh or Thank God (Score:3, Funny)
Bathroom Doomscrolling May Increase Your Risk of Hemorrhoids
This may put a damper on some President's late-night social-media routine ...
Re: Uh oh or Thank God (Score:1)
Trump *is* a hemorrhoid, that's redundant.
On a less political note, sitting on the john by itself doesn't aggrevate hemorrhoids. May have something to do with stress, including forcing stuff out quicker, which is not recommended.
Re: Seriously? (Score:2)
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The number of people who have been on their phone while I'm in the bathroom is not a small number. Including ones who are having a conversation.
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I mean who wants faecal matter on the phone?
Do you have so little control over your bowel movement? I can see if you are experiencing explosive diarrhea you might want to put the phone down, but under normal circumstances how do you end up with feces on the phone? What do you do to scroll?
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I mean who wants faecal matter on the phone?
Do you have so little control over your bowel movement? I can see if you are experiencing explosive diarrhea you might want to put the phone down, but under normal circumstances how do you end up with feces on the phone? What do you do to scroll?
Some people do not wash their hands after pinching a loaf. And there is the infamous "breakthrough" moments when wiping your ass. So they put their phone down to wipe, and grab it when they leave, any fecal matter they have on their hands gets transferred to their phone.
A fair number of people really don't care about shit, if they get it on themselves - no problem. Some even find it, ummmm arousing. I find it gross.
Hopefully that crappy explanation clears things up for ya! ;^)
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Even without watching youtube in the bathroom, my phone is probably the filthiest item I own.
Correlation is not causation (Score:2)
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Slow your roll there boy. The title says "may increase your risk" meaning it's not conclusive but may be worth further investigation. Also, gross, who does this?
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It's likely just because spending long times sitting on the toilet causes hemorrhoids. It's just that doom scrolling is what people are doing now on the toilet, rather than reading.
There were previous studies saying spending more than 15 minutes or so per movement increased your chances.
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That is something a first year student and any journalist should know.
I always love the "Correlation is not causation" meme.
When you are researching a problem, do you randomly look at an infinite number of possibilities, or do you look at things that appear to be correlated?
Because while the correlation might not be the cause, it very will might be.
Now I find it a bit odd that smartphones are somehow causing hemorrhoids, so I share your skepticism. Then again, I don't use my phone on the toilet (gross and disgusting) and long ago found out that lots of fluid intake goe
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Is this due to a correlation or a causation ?!?
Does the study mention stinky screen? (Score:1)
Does the study say anything about increasing your risk of having a stinky phone screen?
This is why you don't (Score:2)
Squat toilets (Score:2)
Aren't arse-doctors agreed that using sit-on toilets is just all-round worse for arse-health then squatting onto your own ankles like most of the world today - and everyone in the first million years of genus Homo did.
For those suffering from a severe case of "Hangin' down Like Grapevines" (a parody of "Heard it on the Grapevine" by the excellent "Fartin' Martin", a Hash House Harrier party group), remember that you largely brought it on yourself (aided by almost every bathroom supply company you dealt with
Meh (Score:3)
Whats the difference between "Doomscrolling" and reading a book. The bathroom has been called "the Library" for century's - so has this newly discovered problem lasted for century's? Seems like anything and everything causes some problem these days - especially if there's grant funding to be had.
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Century's what?
Pedantry aside, the point of TFA is that apps are designed to be very addictive and make you lose track of time. So once people start they stay for much longer.
Also just fuck off about grant funding, seriously. You aren't smart for your mealy mouthed shitting on research when you didn't even bother to read the article. Yeah stuff causes problems often unforeseen Libra as well as benefits.
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S/Libra/problems
Autocorrect y u
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so has this newly discovered problem lasted for century's?
Err yes, heck my grandmother used to tell me to not spend so long on the toilet (reading Asterix and Obelix comics) threatening me that I'd get haemorrhoids.
Seems like anything and everything causes some problem these days
I mean we could remain blissfully ignorant about how our bodies and the world around us works, but other than giving you a warm fuzzy feeling inside what does that achieve?
especially if there's grant funding to be had.
In other news people come and collect my garbage when they get paid to do so, what is your point? It sounds like you distrust science because it is a paid job. I suspect maybe you sho
Get a bidet (Score:2)
Uh oh... (Score:2)
... I do bathrooming a lot due 2 my prediabete pees & IBS. :(
What difference does it make? (Score:3)
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You don't need to strain at all to get haemorrhoids, though you do need to if you want to prolapse one. The shape of the toilet seat places extra strain on the veins in your anus, but even normally excessive sitting can cause this.
This isn't news, though. (Score:3)
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Doctors have been telling people that staying on the toilet "too long" increases the risk of hemorrhoids, for years. This isn't a doomscrolling issue. [snip] It's a time issue, not a smartphone issue.
And yet in the study people who reported using their phone also spent longer in the toilet. I agree phones aren't the root cause here, but this study isn't about what causes haemorrhoids, it was about how smartphones change our lifestyle for better or worse, and they determined people who specifically use phones take longer than those who don't.
Now if want another study on what happens to those same people if you take their phones away; do they take a book and take just as long, or shorten their poops? Then
More stupid bullshit (Score:1)
Sitting on the toilet doesn't give you hemorrhoids. Straining, having a poor diet, and trying to "hurry it up" gives you hemorrhoids.
If you're on the toilet for a long time because you have a low fiber diet and have to strain to eliminate, you're probably going to have hemorrhoids. The phone you're using to pass the time more pleasantly is not what's causing them.
I swear to God, when did so-called "smart people" get so stupid?
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Sitting actually is a significant contributor. It's much easier when you squat. Hemorrhoid issues barely happen in countries that don't have sitting toilets everywhere.
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Sitting on the toilet doesn't give you hemorrhoids. Straining, having a poor diet, and trying to "hurry it up" gives you hemorrhoids.
If you're on the toilet for a long time because you have a low fiber diet and have to strain to eliminate, you're probably going to have hemorrhoids. The phone you're using to pass the time more pleasantly is not what's causing them.
I swear to God, when did so-called "smart people" get so stupid?
Exactly! The secret sauce to avoiding hemis is drink plenty of fluid, and get enough roughage. I really do not recommend using the phone on the toilet for hygiene issues. But hey, I'm one of those people who wash their hands before and after using the porcelain throne. 8^)
Whew, I don't doomscroll on your smartphone (Score:2)
It's the straining, stupid (Score:2)
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Toilet time doesn't matter. Extra activities (phone scrolling) don't matter. Fiber doesn't necessarily matter. "Piles" occur from force higher than the DNA's specifications. I have long studied this area of physiology and have had personal experiences for confirmation. Many things affect fecal attributes which mostly determine ease of expulsion (assuming no prior rectal malfunction).
Rectum? Darn near killed him!
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"Is it because you're not focusing?" (Score:2)
If you have to focus on a bowel movement, you're constipated.
IBS irritates my hemorrhoids. My phone gives me something to take my mind off that happening.
the SubGenius are immune (Score:2)
The author probably meant... (Score:2)
Over the past 20 years, one single device has unequivocally lengthened the amount of time most people spend shitting
Crosswords, cross butt (Score:2)