{"id":122911,"date":"2025-09-05T23:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122911\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T23:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:05:11","slug":"scrolling-tiktok-on-the-toilet-is-giving-you-hemorrhoids-research-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122911\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrolling TikTok on the Toilet Is Giving You Hemorrhoids, Research Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filling the time you spend pooping by scanning your algo\u2019s latest or flipping through emails might seem like an ideal form of multitasking. But it turns out, your butt might not love it. A new study found that using your phone on the toilet can significantly increase your risk of hemorrhoids, or swollen blood vessels in and around your rectal area that can cause uncomfortable symptoms<\/a>, like itching, pain, and bloody poops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers surveyed 125 people undergoing a routine screening colonoscopy<\/a> (which is recommended starting at age 45) about their smartphone toilet habits, as well as other lifestyle behaviors related to pooping. What they found: People who reported enlisting their phone as a bathroom companion were at 46% greater risk of having hemorrhoids<\/a> show up on their colonoscopy. And that was true even after the researchers accounted for things like how much fiber people reported eating and whether they strained to poop<\/a> (less fiber intake and more pushing have been linked in the past with developing the angry blood vessels).<\/p>\n

Why using your phone on the toilet raises your hemorrhoid risk<\/p>\n

It likely has to do with how long you wind up hanging out on the toilet when your phone is in the picture. The researchers found that the phone-using participants were five times more likely than no-phone poopers to spend more than five minutes perched on the porcelain throne. And sitting on the toilet<\/a> for prolonged periods has long been known to raise your risk of hemorrhoids because of some basic physics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re on the toilet and your butt\u2019s not supported, everything\u2019s kind of hanging out there,\u201d David Westrich, MD, a gastroenterologist at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, previously told SELF. That position \u201cincreases pressure in the hemorrhoidal cushions,\u201d the study authors write. Cue: puffy blood vessels in your nether regions.<\/p>\n

You might be thinking, Okay, so what if I just use my phone on the toilet for a couple minutes? And theoretically, that would be fine. After all, people have been reading physical books or newspapers while on the toilet for as long as those things have existed.<\/p>\n

But what the study also found is that most smartphone poopers were not aware that their phone use was extending their toilet time\u2014as the study authors write, it was probably an \u201cinadvertent and unintended consequence.\u201d And that makes sense: Plenty of apps are literally designed to suck us in (against our will). So it\u2019s very likely that if you tote your phone to the toilet, you\u2019ll be there longer than the recommended five minutes, risking the development of hemorrhoids over time.<\/p>\n

How to lower your risk of hemorrhoids<\/p>\n

For starters, leave your phone out of the bathroom. Without the potential distraction, you\u2019re less likely to sit on the toilet longer than you need to. (Not to mention the ick factor of keeping something you readily touch and hold to your face in such close proximity to poop and pee particles<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filling the time you spend pooping by scanning your algo\u2019s latest or flipping through emails might seem like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,67303,44,68078,1124],"class_list":{"0":"post-122911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-hemorrhoids","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pooping","14":"tag-smartphones"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}