This is the warning of a British doctor: not only is using your smartphone in the toilet unhygienic, but this annoying habit can also cause a hemorrhoidal attack.
To pass the time when you’re in the bathroom, have you got into the habit of taking your phone with you to check your emails, read the news or play Candy Crush?
According to Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical director of UK patient.info, this bad habit could be more harmful than you think. Asked by the site The Sun Onlineshe explains that sitting on the toilet for a long time in front of her phone can lead to the appearance of hemorrhoids.
The sitting position in the toilet in question
Very widespread affections, the hemorrhoids are networks of vessels present in the normal state in the wall of the rectum and the anus. A distinction must be made between “internal hemorrhoids” which line the inside of the anal canal, and “external hemorrhoids” which are only visible outside the anus during a hemorrhoidal attack. This is manifested by intense pain, a feeling of tension and burning, as well as bleeding.
The occurrence of hemorrhoids is favored by many factors: intestinal transit disorders (constipation or diarrhea), pregnancy, childbirth, periods before menstruation, certain physical efforts, consumption of alcohol and spicy dishes… and sitting in the toilet.
“As tempting as it may be to scroll through your apps on your smartphone while you’re on the toilet, we doctors wouldn’t recommend it,” Dr. Jarvis reminds us. “Instead, beef up your diet with lots of fiber, drink enough fluids, exercise regularly, and leave your cell phone behind (or at least locked) when visiting the loo.”
The smartphone, a nest of bacteria
The hemorrhoidal crisis is not the only risk we take when we take our smartphone to the toilet. “You risk covering it with germs,” warns Dr Lisa Ackerley, also interviewed by The Sun Online. “In the toilet, there are germs on the seat, on the handle or the flush button, on the roll holder, as well as the door of the toilets. These germs can include anything from salmonella norovirus.”
A study of the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine dating from 2011 attests to this. Taking 390 samples from the mobile phones and hands of passers-by in 12 UK towns, its authors found that 16% of phones harbored the bacteria. Escherichia coli (E.coli), of fecal origin, which can cause serious food poisoning if it passes into the digestive tract.
“So if your hands are dirty and contaminated with viruses or bacteria, and you pick up your phone after using the toilet, you’ll transfer your germs and whatever else your hands have picked up to the phone and then back to your hands, even if you wash them afterwards,” says Dr Ackerley. “The germs can then go directly into your mouth – from biting your nails or eating crisps – or from your hands to the food – like making a sandwich.”
To remedy this problem and avoid any illness, clean your phone regularly with a cotton ball or a handkerchief soaked in alcohol, especially during a flu or angina epidemic… and avoid taking it with you to the toilet.
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