I’d imagine that going to the bog isn’t something many of us think about once we pass the toilet training stage in early childhood; you simply feel the urge, do your business, wash hands and go about the rest of your day.
But one proctology surgeon would like you to know that you’ve been doing it all wrong — and it could be having adverse health effects.
Count your days loo roll (Getty Stock Images)
Speaking on an episode of HuffPost’s podcast series Am I Doing It Wrong? Dr Evan Goldstein has spoken out about how traditional wiping methods with toilet paper could be causing damage to a very sensitive region of your body.
“When you’re looking at someone’s [anus], to the left and the right are these wrinkles ― it’s like an accordion. It opens. It closes,” he explained in the episode, providing us all with a pretty strange mental image.
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“The front and the back ― towards the vagina, towards the penis and testicle area, or the tailbone, the skin there is not wrinkled. It’s very thin,” he continued.
“When we wipe, where do we wipe? Usually front to back — thin skin! We all wipe so much, so what happens over time? People tear the skin. It gets irritated. It gets angry at us.”
“They are so terrible – not only for the environment, but for your hole,” he explained, adding that he’s now seeing several patients a week with wet wipe-induced issues. And it’s pretty gnarly issues such as haemorrhoids, fissures and bacterial infections
“Think about it – we have good bacteria, we have bad bacteria, but they are in homeostasis. They are in equilibrium. Wet wipes f**k that in a really bad way,” Dr Goldstein.
Okay, so you’ve just binned all the toilet roll and are wondering what to use instead — it’s time to install a bidet or jump in the shower after each bowel movement.
However, hoping in the shower after a number two isn’t always feasible (Getty Stock Images)
Now obviously a shower or a bidet isn’t going to be a practical option, as we can imagine having a quick shower after each toilet trip would certainly raise some eyebrows among colleagues, so what can we do when the above isn’t an option?
Well that would be a combination of blotting and wiping your backside in a ‘standing squat’ position in order to decrease pressure and blood flow to the area.
