Pooping wrong? It’s probably never crossed your mind until now. But you’re probably going through your mind now thinking of your past bathroom experiences, wondering where you possibly went wrong. Well, it turns out, if you’re part of Western civilization, it’s most likely that you have been doing your business the wrong way all this time. Read on to see why, and what the correct way is?

The modern toilet has been sold to us as civilized but the straining that sitting causes is not healthy.

Scientists from the Pelvic Floor Clinic at Stanford University, are saying that our bodies are created in such way that makes it more natural for it to squat while we poop, rather than to sit. When you look at very old toilets, you start to see it making sense.

According to Daniel Lametti, who examined the best position for pooping in a piece for Slate in 2010, “Our bodies hold in feces with the help of a bend between our rectums and anuses. When we stand, the bend is at a 90-degree angle, which helps keep everything, um, inside. But when we squat, the bend straightens out, like a kink ringed out of a garden hose, and defecation becomes easier.”

To put it simply, “When we stand, the colon is strapped against the puborectalis muscles but squatting allows those muscles to fully relax, providing the most natural position for pooping.”

“Bathroom posture” can actually have a big effect on your health. Some studies suggest that incorrect pooping leads to colon cancer, hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, appendicitis, hernias and other intestinal issues because sitting on the toilet does not allow for the colon to be in the proper position.

In a 2003 study, a group of scientists divided random participants into three groups asked them to poop in 3 different positions and studied the outcomes of their bathroom experiences. The first group was sat on a lower toilet, the second group sat on a higher toilet, and the third group squatted, and results of their bathroom experiences were studied. They found that elimination was easier when the participants squatted. Indeed, the participants who pooped in a squatting position needed less time and less straining to achieve a “sensation of satisfactory bowel emptying” compared to their toilet-sitting counterparts.

Hence, the squatting position (with the thighs fixed upon your abdomen) is the perfect posture for defecation.

Now that you know what’s been wrong with your posture, you’d probably want to change your potty style, right? If so, you can buy squat-friendly toilet accessories, like the Squatty Potty, a stool that allows poopers to sit in a squatting position on a regular toilet.

Squatty Potty founder Robert Edwards got the idea for the invention when he heard his mother, who had hemorrhoids, was taking a step stool to the bathroom with her so she could put her feet up, NPR reported in 2012.

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Also Read: Ever Wondered Why Public Toilet Stall Doors Don’t Go All The Way Down To The Floor?