You might be pooping wrong! Moreover, Western civilization has been pooping wrong for generations. According to scientists at the Stanford University Pelvic Floor Clinic, our bodies are designed for squatting and not sitting. If you look at the history of bathroom habits, it all makes sense.
Did you know that appendicitis, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, hernias, diverticulosis, and hemorrhoids all may be caused by improper fecal elimination.
In a 2003 study, researches observed 28 people pooping in three positions: sitting on a lower one, sitting on a high toilet, and squatting. The researchers found that pooping took about a minute less when done squatting and it was much easier to do.
“There is definitely some physiologic sense to squatting,” says gastroenterologist Anish Sheth, MD, co-author of the books What’s Your Poo Telling You? and What’s My Pee Telling Me? “Simply put, it straightens out the colon.”
According to everydayhealth, “when we’re standing, the colon (where waste is stored) gets pushed up against the puborecatlis muscle, which keeps fecal continence until it’s time to hit the bathroom. Sitting down only partially relaxes that muscle. Squatting fully relaxes it, essentially straightening out the colon. That, in turn, eases the elimination pooping process.” According to Bockus’s Gastroenterology, a standard medical textfrom 1964, “the ideal posture for defecation is the squatting position, with the thighs fixed upon the abdomen.” And this is the way our ancestors eliminated daily until the middle of the 19th century.