We Haven’t Been Using The Bathroom As Nature Intended. Here is The Right Way

How would you feel if a scientist burst into your bathroom, a very private and personal space, and emphatically insisted that you were unloading your bowels the wrong way? Well that’s kind of what they’re doing…minus the massive and rude invasion of privacy part.

It turns out that squatting, a position where your knees are positioned closer to your torso, is the more natural position to take a poop in.

When we prop our tushes on the toilet seat, we’re actually constricting our colon at the most inconvenient time. We then try to squeeze waste through this constriction until everything comes out of our bottoms. Doesn’t sound very efficient when you think about it that way.

Trust Your Gut

Our gut comprises two-thirds of our immune system, so when something goes wrong with our gut, it’s a pretty big deal. It also contains two kilos of healthy bacteria. This bacteria helps to digest our food, determines our mood, and determines energy production.

So, if there is anything you can do to benefit your gut, you should take heed to such suggestions. The suggestion for today? Squat when you defecate.

Even infants instinctively squat to defecate before we guide them through the poor, western, potty training practices. Experts say that up until the middle of the 19th century, we were all squatting. Then, someone decided that this practice was “uncivilized” and we’ve been detrimentally squishing our colons ever since.

How Your Gut Works

Our guts have a handy closure mechanism (like a kinked a hose,) called a sphincter that doesn’t open completely when we sit down or stand up. Could you imagine if it did? We would be emptying our bowels uncontrollably!

When we sit on the toilet, we position our knees at a 90 degree angle to our abdomens. This leads our bowel movement to actually travel up against gravity. You end up fighting with your own body to get your bodily wastes out!

Put in the wonderful words of German microbiologist Giulia Enders, squatting “actually changes the spatial relationships of your intestinal organs and musculature, optimizing the forces involved in defecation.”

Basically, when we’re in a squatting position, our bodies are angled in such a way where the colon is not restricted, thus you are able to eliminate waste more easily and with less strain.

The Anal Sphincters

Sphincters are ringlike muscles found throughout the human body that contract or close a bodily opening. Each of us has an internal and external anal sphincter.

The external sphincter circulates the outside wall of the anal canal, and we have the power to expand and contract it at will. In the early years of life however, the external sphincter is not fully developed, and in our later years, it may weaken and not work as effectively. Sitting at a 90-degree angle can cause us to strain, potentially damaging this muscle.

The internal sphincter is controlled by nerve responses from the rectum. Heat, cold, and pain sensations, as well as emotions such as feelings of fear or comfort, can impact nerve responses.

The East Has The Least Bowel Diseases

When it comes to using the bathroom, eastern countries got it right. While researchers in the west were making the “squatting discovery,” 1.2 billion people were already squatting, even having public washrooms designed to cater to this practice.

Incidentally, hemorrhoids and painful bowel disease such as diverticulitis, (inflammation in the colon,) are more common in western countries than in Asia.

So how is this even done? Do we just prop our feet up on the toilet seat and struggle to maintain balance while emptying our bowels?

You might run into a problem in western countries where the toilet isn’t designed for “squatters.” In fact, many of the public bathroom stalls are designed in a way where it’s too small to even attempt this position.

Grab a stool the next time you drop a stool!

But in your own home, where many people feel most comfortable pooping anyways, this problem can be solved by sitting on the toilet as usual while propping your feet on a little stool and leaning forward. By doing this, you can still gain the benefits of squatting without having to perform the whole balancing act.

Additional Squatting Benefits

Squatting isn’t just easier on the bowels it also:

Prevents you from being in contact with someone else’s germs on a toilet seat

Gives your knees and muscles a good stretch if you can bend and flex them

Squatting to get a firmer behind or squatting to gain a free living space won’t help to relieve your constipation, but squatting as nature intended surely will. A diet high in fiber can do a world of good as well!