Healthy Bowel Movements – How to Simplify Your Life!

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

Confessions of a lazy information blogger who did not take her own advice. How a “makeshift squat step” changed MY life!

For those with a sit-on-toilet…….

the Squat Step Up – The #1 way to #2

in thIS post

Healthy Bowel Movements

Changed my life!

In 2018, I researched and wrote up a series of 7 posts on water-sanitation-toilets. This post, #3 is about the healthiest position for a human to empty out their Waste. BUT did I try it? NO!

Not until about 3+ weeks ago, after having some stomach troubles because I was not born yesterday. I had a lot of “age type surprises” this last winter of which my digestive system was one.

It involves this muscle we have in our bodies,“the puborectalis muscle“, that prevents our body-waste from just dropping out when ever it wants to. When we humans stand or sit upright on a chair this muscle prevents that from happening. The muscle dose not move to release stuff dropping out until we get in a “squat” position. I wrote about this (BELOW) and then ignored it.

Well, that is not totally true. I did try all sorts of positions sitting on the toilet and most likely reached that 35^o angle that they talk about, but apparently “gravity” has much to do with all of this. I did everything but use a step up to squat like you would from a standing position. Until 3 weeks ago, when I decided to try a squat step and see if it helped me to empty my bowels and my digestive system.

14 inches to 16 inches = 35.56 cm to 40.64 cm, needs a 7 inch rise
16.5 Inch to 18 inches = 41.91 cm to 45.72 cm, you need 9 Inch = 22.86 cm

My toilet has a height of 39 cm inches (15.35 inches) which based on the Squatty Potty website size guide (above) means that I need to put my feet up to 7 inches (17.78 cm) to reach the required squat. Well, I found a corrugated box at 6.5 inches (16.51 cm) which I fortified inside and sealed. I put it in front of my toilet and put my feet on it, and low and behold….my bowel movement dropped out!

What a difference in comfort and calm efficiency! What a difference between night and day! Quick, easy, no pressure from me. Nothing preventing the flow of the stuff. No coming out in small clumps requiring big wads of toilet paper. So much less mess!

NO Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS):

• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder*. Muscles in the intestines move food from the stomach to the rectum. Normally, they contract and relax in a gentle rhythm that moves the food along in a fairly predictable schedule. But sometimes, the muscles in the intestines spasm. The contractions may be longer and stronger than normal. Those spasms are painful. They disrupt the movement of food through the intestines. If they are slow, you become constipated. If they move too quickly, you get diarrhea. It’s not unusual for people to alternate between the two. *[You change the functioning. You may change the functional disorder!]
  

The muscle in your body that prevents bowels from slipping out randomly, “the puborectalis muscle“, is not going to go away!

It has been in your body all the time. And when you sit, it continues to prevent you from having efficient, easy, comfortable bowel movements. Raise your knees and release your body from unnecessary pain and exertion! I have learned my lesson!

Don’t get me wrong, it has not happened with comfort and calm every time after that first joy. I have been abusing my puborectalis muscle for more than 60 years! It is going to take time for things to be steady&good, but I can tell you that I feel it getting better every day. I feel my body teaching me what to do.

And Ladies, with our built-in PEE reservoirs, I find (at least for my body) the same goes for PEE. If I do not use the Squat Step Up, my pee does not empty out completely and I have to go again very soon. It appears that the Squat Step Up, also may help with “incontinence“. I sure found the Squat mentioned in a lot of resources!

Healthy Bowel Movements

Now, Let’s go to what I wrote back in 2018.

#3 Water-Sanitation-Toilets – The subject of this post

OK.  One of the most basic closed-loop systems on planet Earth is “animals eat plants…and…”. The animals process nutrients from what they eat. Then they discharge their waste. Their waste gives nutrients to plants and starts the circle all over again.  As we know this system never stops.  It goes on and on. On every level of flora and fauna, plants and animals, food and humans. The waste becomes food for microbes which then process what they eat into nutrients for plants, the animals eat the plants and so the circle goes on.

So, we humans are part of this cycle.
Did you forget that you are an animal?
How are we doing?

As populations grow, there is more and more of this specific closed-loop. It can be said, that humans have made it harder for nature to deal with it.  We return to:

“In nature there are neither rewards nor punishment; there are only consequences.”

– Robert B. Ingersoll

If we are making it harder for nature.  It means that we have to deal with the “consequences”.

I do not know what will spark you to action.  I believe it helps to look at lots of angles of this water-sanitation-toilet issue to find the vision that will spark a big disruption in the way “industrial countries” have built this system that is slowly getting worse and worse.  So, I ask, what is there to consider about what we do with the toilet itself?

The Nutrients in Human Waste – Fertilizer

First, Let us look at what we are flushing down the toilet……….

On a yearly basis the average human produces about 500 liters of urine and 50 liters of feces.  These two waste by-products contain enough nutrients to grow enough plants to feed this same person.  But instead of utilizing these 550 liters as a “resource”, we mix it with roughly 15,000 liters of water, and all goes down the drain. Before it reaches the sewage plant (if there is one) this slurry gets mixed with hundreds of chemicals from other things that go down the drain – pollutants. 

Dry composting toilets that do not use water, do not mix our waste with pollutants. It is possible to have a dry toilet that has no strong smells and will produce usable fertilizer.  They work productively in many parts of the world.  But, that is another post: #5 Dry Toilet sanitation systems for our growing population

What’s the bottom line here?

The Toilet assists in the function of defecating, discharging feces, evacuating one’s bowels, relieving oneself, pooping and sending the stuff away.  Defecating is what is necessary.  How we do it is a matter of how we were trained, or convinced to do it.  And this basic need goes on for each of us every day, all the years of our life.

You may think you are very lucky to have a flush toilet to sit on.  And in many ways you are!  But, aside from keeping things sanitary, for humans there is a problem with toilets that you sit on – like you sit on a chair. Many people/doctors believe that sitting is not the best position for humans to empty their bowels. They believe it is Squating!

A well known proctologist, Dr. Michael Freilich, once said: “We were not meant to sit on a toilet, but to squat in a field.”  It is said that the human body structure is better suited to the squat.

Actually many doctors believe squatting is healthier.   There is evidence (quite a list) that squatting can prevent and treat some body ailments.  

Pictures of ancient public toilets tend to confuse westerners, who assume that they were used in the sitting position.  They are elevated, not for sitting, but because there is an open sewer underneath.

So, why is squatting easier for the human body structure?

Physical Therapists recommend squatting –  Brooke David, DPT:
“Many of my patients are surprised to learn, they have been going to the bathroom incorrectly for years.  They are shocked at the relief they find in a few corrections to their basic voiding habits.” 

7 Inch = 17.78 cm or 9 Inch = 22.86 cm, depending upon the height of your toilet.

Is this a preventative for osteoarthritic knees?  
THE FORGOTTEN ART OF SQUATTING IS A REVELATION FOR BODIES RUINED BY SITTING

It comes down to a simple matter of “use it or lose it,” says Dr. Bahram Jam, a physical therapist and founder of the Advanced Physical Therapy Education Institute (APTEI) in Ontario, Canada.
“Every joint in our body has synovial fluid in it. This is the oil in our body that provides nutrition to the cartilage,” Jam says. “Two things are required to produce that fluid: movement and compression. So if a joint doesn’t go through its full range—if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees—the body says ‘I’m not being used’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid.”

Healthy Bowel Movements

For sure, squatting makes a bowel movement easer to empty out, no matter what your age, even a soldier…..

That Afghan soldier introduced me to this ancient pooping custom, and I appropriated it. Squatting was mine to keep now.
  The technique caught on like wildfire among the guys in my platoon. Soon, we were crapping all over Kandahar — in pomegranate orchards, in grape fields, on the floors of abandoned compounds, into the cold, clear waters of streams.  >>>>”Open defecation”
In Afghanistan, I learned that the best way to take a dump is with your knees up and your back straight.  But, when I came home…………………..

There’s a big park down the street from my apartment here in New York City.  Maybe one day, I’ll muster up the courage to venture into the woods there and do an all-natural number-two. Or maybe I’ll just buy a Squatty Potty.

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Is it only those in the Gym who feel that Squatting is an important exercise?

How To Squat Properly
The Benefits Of Squatting

… Squats are generally considered the cornerstone of any muscle building gym programme. Not only will they help you accumulate muscle mass in your legs, but they will also help you make gains in the upper body department too. That’s how much of an impact they have on your bodies general muscle building capacity, providing the perfect anabolic environment through the release of testosterone and human growth hormone. …

… there are so many options for you to choose from, many of which you don’t even need a gym membership to perform. On holiday or traveling for work so you can’t make it to a gym? That doesn’t mean you can’t squat.  

There is even a Squat University website! Take a look at the Squat University YouTube Channel.

Healthy Bowel Movements

Squatting is increasing and there are lots of Squat Step-up devices on the market.

These are just a few:
*https://www.lillipad.co.nz/
*https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/reinvented-futuristic-toilet-extolls-the-health-benefits-of-squatting-180948272/
*https://stuul.com/
and Amazon has almost all of them……
*https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stuul+toilet+stool&crid=1SUP162VVXRY9&sprefix=%2Caps%2C534&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_6_0_recent

Finally make it really Easy to also be “eco-friendly”

The Squatty Potty has turned into a big business. 

Healthy Bowel Movements

All of the people who are squatting outside, are in the right position to empty their bowels, but may be in the wrong place for hygiene.

Lack of Hygiene can cause disease when untreated human feces are  scattered around.  It is a major cause of Diarrhea.  “Open defecation” continues for a number of reasons.  There is no toilet.  The toilets are dirty, uncomfortable (elderly), or unsafe.  Maybe it is hard to break a habit, an ancient cultural or religious practice.

There are flush and latrine toilets that are designed for squatting.

Even in the bathroom that Keshav built in the movie “Toilet: A Love Story” there was such a squat toilet design, to sit and then raise your feet. 

The world’s biggest business opportunities come from solving its biggest challenges.

Toilet Designs for various situations……………..

Looking at ways humans defecate in different situations and what, if anything, is being done to redesign toilets for the REAL WAY HUMANS ARE SUPPOSED TO EMPTY OUT THEIR WASTE.

 In OUTERSPACE – stuck with a chair toilet?

A history of garbage in space (2018), suggests that the current Waste scene on the International Space Station (ISS) is that about 80% of the water collected from the toilets, showers, and water vapor from the air is recycled. All the other Waste is exposed to the outer space in the airlock to kill microbial growth. Of this airlock exposed garbage, the toxic part is brought back to earth while the rest is burned up in the atmosphere. 

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Bernelle Verster  “This compendium of “toilets” that are not just aimed at ‘giving poor people toilets’ is a nice recent find:  https://wedc-knowledge.lboro.ac.uk/resources/books/Contemporary_Toilet_Designs.pdf  ” (https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/wedc/)

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Train toilets. 
Just chair toilets, but did Nasa take the suction idea from here?

The bowl flushes with considerable power. So forceful in fact that rumour has it Nasa was inspired by bullet train toilet design for the International Space Station.
Toilet waste goes into a tank under the train. Like many others around the world, some older trains in the UK still dump waste directly onto the tracks.

“Do not flush in the train station” signs are, apparently, largely ignored.”
>>>  This is like “Open Defecation” in the middle of the city!

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The Gates foundation – a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.
The 2018 Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing saw a number of exciting product announcements and funding commitments, including an additional US$200 million pledge by The Gates foundation to support continued research and bolster market development for reinvented toilets. This incuded newly published international standards, known as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 30500, created to define operational requirements for reinvented toilets and other existing and future stand-alone, non-sewered sanitation technologies.

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But who is going to convince all the humans on planet Earth that, new toilets or NO, they are not using their bodies the way they were designed.
>>We are punishing ourselves.<<

Is There a Cure for I.B.S.? irritable bowel syndrome The New York Times published an article in April 2023. Squatting is NOT MENTIONED. Maybe what I was dealing with was not IBS, but I bet that if more people who have been diagnosed with IBS tried the Squat Step Up, more people would start to use their bodies correctly and the pain might go away!

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So many people working on all this water – sanitation – toilets……

Healthy Bowel Movements

All the posts on the subject of water-sanitation-toilets

7 posts on the subject of water-sanitation-toilets, covering the following issues:
#1 Leaky toilets are everyone’s business!
#2 The beginning of Wasted Water.   
#3 The natural way to empty our Bowels?   
#4 We have 12 years to cool off planet Earth!  
#5 Dry Toilet sanitation systems for our growing population 
#6 Online Tools to Re-Invent with the Have-Nots.  
#7 What is wrong with the Have’s?   Plenty!   

and two on a water Super Plant – Vetiver
Termite Eradication Naturally? …Ask WasteRush To Search
Vetiver System Proven I Say, “Heal The Land With Vetiver”