I haven't decided whether the Monte Python theme or the Twilight Zone theme would be better accompaniment to this post.
I just ran across a most unusual article entitled "Crohn's Disease: How You Can Prevent Or Treat It"
The writer's hypothesis is that since Crohn's is prevalent in parts of the world where people sit on toilets, but not in parts of the world where people squat to move their bowels, sitting instead of squatting is the root cause of Crohn's disease. Seriously!
They begin their explanation with a citation from The Lancet, proceed through a discusion of the mechanics of bowel movements (using detailed diagrams of the colon, all the way from the ileocecal valve through the anus), then claim that sitting rather than squatting (presumably before one has contracted the disease) alters the natural mechanics of BM's, which should result in a "sense of complete evacuation of normal stool" but instead results in "mechanical forces that not only stress the internal organs and nerves, but could also overwhelm the ileocecal valve". Finally they conclude with a quote from a gastroenterology journal "Historical Origins of Current IBD Concepts" which they use to demonstrate that the rate of increase in Crohn's cases parallels the introduction of the "Sitting Toilet".
For treatment, they recommend (re)learning to squat when moving one's bowels.
One of the first reader comments on the page states "I really doubt this since the first symptom of a Crohn's flare for me is multiple mouth canker sores... nothing to do as I know with toilet posture... …"
While this article seems to reek of quackery, there might be something here that is not what the author expected.
The author's discussion of a mechanism behind tenesmus had me recall that my very first bowel symptom (before having other symptoms that could be considered part of crohn's) occurred one day when I was a seven year old chil , when I experienced a sense of incomplete evacuation for the first time. I said to my father "It won't all come out", to which he responded "it never all comes out" (I didn't know how to explain that as far as what I experienced, it previously always had seemed "to all come out", and now it was no longer able to do so. It was not long afterward that I started having intense abdominal pain, so much so that I could not walk standing up straight, but had to bend at a 15 degree offset from straight, beginning at the abdomen, as a way of reducing the pain.
If I could have stopped 49 years of pain, hemorrhaging, accidents, abscesses, prednisone side effects, and so on and so forth, just by squatting to take a dump, that would have been a miracle.
While I'm skeptical, I think I'm going to try placing a chair in front of the toilet to support my feet while squatting on the toilet, and see if doing so could possibly have any benefit over time. It doesn't cost anything to do so, and I doubt it can have any negative effects other than making me feeling silly for trying it.
Of course, they have something to sell, but could there actually be something to the mechanical aspects they write of?
Any thoughts?
I just ran across a most unusual article entitled "Crohn's Disease: How You Can Prevent Or Treat It"
The writer's hypothesis is that since Crohn's is prevalent in parts of the world where people sit on toilets, but not in parts of the world where people squat to move their bowels, sitting instead of squatting is the root cause of Crohn's disease. Seriously!
They begin their explanation with a citation from The Lancet, proceed through a discusion of the mechanics of bowel movements (using detailed diagrams of the colon, all the way from the ileocecal valve through the anus), then claim that sitting rather than squatting (presumably before one has contracted the disease) alters the natural mechanics of BM's, which should result in a "sense of complete evacuation of normal stool" but instead results in "mechanical forces that not only stress the internal organs and nerves, but could also overwhelm the ileocecal valve". Finally they conclude with a quote from a gastroenterology journal "Historical Origins of Current IBD Concepts" which they use to demonstrate that the rate of increase in Crohn's cases parallels the introduction of the "Sitting Toilet".
For treatment, they recommend (re)learning to squat when moving one's bowels.
One of the first reader comments on the page states "I really doubt this since the first symptom of a Crohn's flare for me is multiple mouth canker sores... nothing to do as I know with toilet posture... …"
While this article seems to reek of quackery, there might be something here that is not what the author expected.
The author's discussion of a mechanism behind tenesmus had me recall that my very first bowel symptom (before having other symptoms that could be considered part of crohn's) occurred one day when I was a seven year old chil , when I experienced a sense of incomplete evacuation for the first time. I said to my father "It won't all come out", to which he responded "it never all comes out" (I didn't know how to explain that as far as what I experienced, it previously always had seemed "to all come out", and now it was no longer able to do so. It was not long afterward that I started having intense abdominal pain, so much so that I could not walk standing up straight, but had to bend at a 15 degree offset from straight, beginning at the abdomen, as a way of reducing the pain.
If I could have stopped 49 years of pain, hemorrhaging, accidents, abscesses, prednisone side effects, and so on and so forth, just by squatting to take a dump, that would have been a miracle.
While I'm skeptical, I think I'm going to try placing a chair in front of the toilet to support my feet while squatting on the toilet, and see if doing so could possibly have any benefit over time. It doesn't cost anything to do so, and I doubt it can have any negative effects other than making me feeling silly for trying it.
Of course, they have something to sell, but could there actually be something to the mechanical aspects they write of?
Any thoughts?
