Study: Scrolling on the toilet may lead to hemorrhoids

As many people know, screen time can occur in the most unlikely places – including the bathroom. But a new study suggests that there is more risks involved in scrolling there than a simple dirty phone.

Research, published Wednesday in Plos One, found an association between the use of smartphones on the toilet and a higher risk of hemorrhoids. (If you are currently reading this while relieving yourself, we will not be offended if you put your device aside until you have finished.)

Before carrying out the study, the researchers had anecdotal observations according to which the scrolling of the toilets could contribute to hemorrhoids but no evidence connecting the two.

To answer the question, the researchers have designed a transversal survey of 125 adult colonoscopy patients aged 45 and over. More than 40% of these patients had hemorrhoids, according to imagery, examined as part of their colonoscopy results. Among all the respondents, more than two thirds used a smartphone during the toilet.

Unsurprisingly, the people who scrolled the bathroom declared spending much more there than those who did not do it – more than five minutes per visit.

When the researchers checked different factors that could affect the development of hemorrhoids, such as age, sex, exercise, fiber consumption and tension, they found that the use of smartphones on the toilet was associated with an increased risk of 46% to undergo the pain.

Although the study has not established direct and effect between the scrolling of the toilets and hemorrhoids, the co-author of Dr Trisha Pasricha told Mashable that it should draw more attention to a sub-studied possibility. According to Pasricha, who is a doctor and director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Institute for Gut-Brain Research, this study is the first to examine the question.

PasiCha noted that, just as experts say more and more people not to bring their smartphone to their bedside when they try to sleep because it can interfere with their well-being, the same goes for the toilet scrolling.

“I think we should start growing more strongly to say:” Leave your smartphone outside the bathroom. “”

Why people scroll through the toilet – and how to stop

More than half of the study participants said that their most common scrolling activity was to read the news. Forty-four percent said they were watching social media.

Pasricha, who treats patients with hemorrhoids, said that she understood why people pick up their phones on the toilet. The habit can relax certain individuals, which helps them to make a saddle.

Reading analog texts like newspapers and books has long been a bathroom hob, for example. But PasiCha said smartphones facilitate endless scrolling, which can cause problems.

“The smartphone is not the answer, because this is sort of designed to make you waste all traces of time and waste concentration,” said Pasricha.

She added that when the pelvic floor of the body is seated on a bowl, without support for a prolonged period, it could potentially speed up a weakening of the connective tissue around the veins of the rectum. When these veins swell, they can then become hemorrhoids.

If reading in the bathroom relaxes you enough to have a saddle, Pasricha recommends going “old school” with paper reading equipment, such as a newspaper, a magazine or a comic strip.

She also urges people who think they have hemorrhoids to see a health professional as soon as possible. The condition must be evaluated by a doctor to ensure that it is indeed a hemorrhoid, not a skin label or cancer growth.

“People suffer in silence, because it’s embarrassing, there is stigma,” said Pasricha. “I think it’s often a shame when it is something that we can treat so easily.”