NBC News
In all the horrible ways in which smartphones have affected our health, this is a real kick in the back.
A pioneering study relates excessive use of the phone while sitting in the toilet with hemorrhoids.
Sitting in an open toilet does not offer support for the pelvic floor. That exerts pressure on the veins of the rectum, causing swelling and inflammation.
“The more time you spend sitting in the toilet, the worst for one,” said Dr. Trisha Pasricha, director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Beth Medical Center in Boston. Pasricha is also the author of the study, published on Wednesday in Plos One.
And smartphones are designed to keep people absorbed as long as possible. “They completely absorb us in ways that did not happen to the occasional reader of the bathroom in the 80s,” said Pasricha. “Those could leave the newspaper, get up and leave much more easily.”
Pasricha and his colleagues surveyed 125 adults just before they underwent a routine colonoscopy to detect colorectal cancer.
Eighty -three (66%) of the participants admitted to use their phones in the bathroom, mainly to catch up with the news of the day and navigate through social networks.
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The gastroenterologists who performed colonoscopies sought evidence of inflamed or hemorrhoid veins. The people who said they had taken their phone to the bathroom had 46% more likely to have hemorrhoids compared to the rest.
The risk was maintained even when the researchers considered other factors associated with hemorrhoids, such as dietary fiber, exercise and constipation or effort to go to the bathroom.
Hemorrhoids are not necessarily dangerous, but they can be annoying, causing itching and even pain. Sometimes they also bleed, which, understandably, causes concern and causes almost 4 million annual visits to the medical office and emergency service.
Over time, “pelvic soil dysfunction can also cause incontinence, worsen constipation and be associated with rectal pain,” said Dr. Rezwana Chowdhury, a specialist in inflammatory intestinal disorders of the Johns Hopkins University Faculty of Medicine. Chowdhury did not participate in the new research.
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In addition, microscopic particles of urine and feces fly through the air when pulling the toilet chain. Taking the phone to the bathroom, said Chowdhury, “is quite unpleasant.”
Younger patients
In the recent study, smartphone users in the bathroom tended to be younger, that is, adults between 40 and 50 years old, compared to people over 60.
Dr. Robert Cima, colorectal surgeon of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, commented that it has noticed an increase in recent years in the number of people who come with hemorrhoids.
“I see that younger, early and medium age people have more hemorrhoid problems, but I can’t relate it to smartphones,” said Cima, who did not participate in the new study. “Perhaps it is because they use smartphones, to which they have better access to medical care or that do not feed properly.”
The 5 minutes rule
The experts agreed that going to the bathroom should not last more than 5 minutes.
More than 37 % of the study participants who used a smartphone in the bathroom remained longer, compared to 7 % of the people who kept their phones outside the bathroom.
Pasricha and other experts do not recommend taking the phone to the bathroom. If absolutely necessary, program a timer.
“If the magic does not happen in five minutes, it will not happen,” said Pasricha. “Take a break and try again later.”
