Turns out we could all use a bit of remedial potty training! Or an anatomy lesson, at least!
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| Read on to find out why your toilet should look like this one! |
After Jimmy Carter came down with a severe and much-publicized case of hemorrhoids in 1978, Time magazine interviewed colorectal surgeon Michael Freilich to explain the President's condition: "We were not made to sit on toilets," the frustrated doctor fumed. "We were made to squat in the field!"
While I personally choose to elevate myself above the animal kingdom in terms of location, I believe Dr. Freilich was spot on about the squatting! In fact, if you search all of recorded human history, you'll find the idea of sitting above the ground to eliminate is fairly recent.
The overwhelmingly common setup has always been a hole. Somewhere. Away.
If you were poor it was just a hole. Middle class? A hole with a cover--wood maybe. Wealthy? A hole inside your castle with (luxury of luxuries) a stone cover!!
Interesting fact:
In
Medieval castles the toilet was called a garderobe and it was simply a
vertical shaft with a stone seat at the top. The shaft opened directly out and down the exterior wall of the castle, which is why that room did not usually face the front of the residence!! (Some garderobes emptied
into the moat.) People hung their robes in the garderobe because they
believed the smell would ward off moths and fleas. Over time the word garderobe
changed to . . . wardrobe!
For the most part, until the mid-1700's the toilet remained a simple idea of a hole in the ground, sometimes inside the main residence but mostly a distance from the home. A chamber pot or "bedpan" was used at night or in inclement weather and emptied into the ourdoor "plumbing" as soon as possible. Some pedestal toilets began appearing in the 1500's but were never mass produced or popular enough for widespread use. The first valve-type flush toilet was introduced in 1738 and although the design was "improved" many times after, the idea of sitting "chair-style" to evacuate the bowel became more accepted and popular.
It's easy for us today to look back at the evolution of the toilet and marvel that we are blessed to have been born in such "enlightened" or "civilized" times. Hovering our bodies over a hole in the ground sounds downright primitive or animalistic to our refined sensibilities. However, it's important to realize the modern-day toilet has been designed largely for asthetic---to please the eye---by architects not physicians or anatomists who might have understood the importance of posture for healthy elimination.
So here we are today, desperately needing to face the fact that our modern-day toilet is a horrible design, wrecking havoc on our bodies and contributing to untold amounts of discomfort and even disease! It's time to understand and accept the fact there is only one right and best position to assume for defecation: SQUATTING!!
We instinctively know this. Watch a toddler who hasn't yet earned the refined distinction of being "Potty Trained." He will go behind the sofa and squat! He does what helps get the job done in the most expedient fashion.We should take our cues from him instead of the other way around!!! Actually, we do! Even adults innately squat when there is no access to a bathroom facility!
Squatting during elimination is beneficial for the body in four ways:
- Increases intraabdominal pressure facilitating more complete elimination
- Protects the appendix and small intestine
- Releases the bend in the sigmoid colon
- Straightens the final pathway to the anus
Notice in the illustration above that the transverse colon dips medially. The added intraabdominal pressure produced by squatting lifts that dip, facilitating movement along toward the descending colon.
More importantly, notice that curve in the sigmoid colon? Guess what happens when you squat? It almost completely straightens!
Notice the puborectalis muscle in the above illustration. See how, when in a sitting (or standing) posture it "ropes" the lower anal sphincter, supporting and aiding continence of the rectum by maintaining the anorectal angle. Squatting allows the puborectalis to relax, resulting in an easier and more complete bowel movement.
There's more! Notice that little protrusion in the first illustration---the one right above the appendix? That's the ileocecal valve. It seperates the ileum (last portion of your small intestine) and the cecum (first portion of your large intestine). Its function is to allow digested food materials to pass from the small intestine into your large intestine. It is intended to be a one-way valve, only opening up to allow digested foods to pass through into the large intestine, while blocking waste materials from flowing back into your small intestine.
Modern toilet-sitting puts unnatural pressure on the ileocecal valve, leading to possible backflow of poisonous wastes into the small intestine. Squatting allows tension in the right thigh to produce the most complete sealing of the ileocecal valve and also applies needed upward pressure toward the ascending colon. Basically, squatting moves everything along the path in the right direction!!
Why is all this so important? Constipation is a horrible problem in our society---and a serious condition that can lead to very dangerous disease in the body. Yet many people would be surprised to learn they are constipated! I've heard some people say their doctors were okay with the fact they only have 1-2 bowel movements per week!!! Preposterous!!
You should be having 2-3 healthy bowel movements a day. If you eat 3 full meals a day and only eliminate once a day, once every other day, or twice a week, what happens to all the un-eliminated waste matter? Where are all the other meals hiding? All of that un-expelled toxic waste is sitting in your body affecting every cell and tissue. These toxic poisons rob your body of good health and energy, making you feel old, tired and sick. Much of this constipation can be greatly alleviated by making improvements in the diet, but using the squatting position to evacuate waste is also a natural constipation cure most doctors don't discuss with their patients.
We know all this and yet, guess what!?! Toilet design is not getting better. It's getting worse! As we get taller, fatter, less fit/flexible, and older, bathroom appliance designers are responding with higher and higher toilet bowls! Since President Carter's hemorrhoid experience 37 years ago, "standard" toilets (14" from floor to rim) have almost disappeared, having been largely replaced with "comfort height" models averaging 18 or more inches off the floor!
Let's educate ourselves about our own anatomy and return to a more beneficial "potty posture!"
Oh! And just so you don't think I'm advocating a "step-backwards," it's important to realize there are plenty of sophisticated, industrialized nations who never left the squat toilet--although they have, thankfully, dressed it up a bit:)
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| Public restroom in Japan |
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| A new model by London designer, Peter Codling |
But since most of us are not about to dig up our bathroom floor or buy a $2000.00 "back-to-basics' designer model, what can we do? The answer is simple. And inexpensive!!!
Introducing Squatty Potty!!
I bought a three pack and put one in each bathroom!! And far from being shy about this new appliance, I love answering curious questions if a visitor works up the courage to ask:))!!
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