Could your bathroom habits be harming your health? Doctors are warning about spending too much time sitting on the toilet—and if you take your phone in or are hiding from small children, chances are you’re sitting in there for way longer than you should be.
“When patients present to me with complaints, one of the main areas we have to delve deeply into is spending a lot of time on the toilet,” Dr. Lai Xue, a colorectal surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, tells CNN. “Nowadays, we’re seeing an increase in people passing more time on the toilet, and that is very much unhealthy for the anorectal organs and the pelvic floor.”
Here’s why doctors are sounding the alarm on toilet time.
RELATED: How to Stay Regular in the Bathroom.
Pressure on Your Bum
Shutterstock
Sitting too long on the toilet can put pressure on your rectum and anus. “This is a habit a lot of parents find themselves doing, because it’s their only time alone without a toddler pulling on their pants leg or asking a thousand questions,” says pelvic floor physical therapist Dr. Mae Hughes. “But once again, sitting on the toilet puts your pelvic floor in a vulnerable and relaxed state, which can cause dysfunction over time. Sitting too long on the toilet also causes increased pressure on your rectum and anus, which can contribute to hemorrhoids.”
Increased Risk of Hemorrhoids
Shutterstock
10 minutes is the most time you should spend in the bathroom on average, Dr. Farah Monzur, assistant professor of medicine and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Stony Brook Medicine on Long Island, New York, tells CNN. Why? Sitting on the toilet compresses the buttocks, with gravity pulling the lower half of your body down. “It becomes a one-way value where blood enters, but blood really can’t go back,” Dr. Lai Xue, a colorectal surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, tells CNN. This can increase the risk of hemorrhoids.
Rectal Prolapse
ShutterstockSitting too long on the toilet may also help cause rectal prolapse, where part of the rectum slips down and out of the anus. “If you sit down and can’t have a bowel movement, get up and try again later,” gastroenterologist David Westrich, MD, tells SELF. “Don’t strain to try to have one.”
4. Toilets Are Not Supportive
ShutterstockToilets were never designed to be sat on for long periods of time. “There’s a hole in the middle,” Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone, tells The Washington Post. “And so the actual anorectal area is hanging a little bit lower than the part that’s supported — your thighs. Just by that position, gravity is causing everything to hang a bit, and that is causing pressure on the veins. So even if you’re not straining, if you’re just sitting there thinking of something else, doing something else, there is some pressure being applied to those veins.”
Constipation Over Time
ShutterstockThere is a risk that your body will start to ignore its own signals for when it’s time to ‘go’. “If you’re sitting for too long and not going to the bathroom, that kind of process actually stops,” Dr. Raj says. “Your body can start to not recognize those signals as well, so it can lead to constipation if you’re sitting for prolonged periods of time on the toilet without actually having a bowel movement.”
Make It Boring
iStock
The more bored you are in the bathroom, the quicker you will be out of there. “You don’t want to go with the mindset that you will be there for a long time. Because then you’ll want to bring something to keep the mind occupied,” Dr. Monzur says. “Make sitting on the toilet bowl as uninteresting as possible.”
