Bowel surgeon reveals if you’re sitting on the toilet for too long – and how it could be a sign of cancer
Sitting on the toilet for more than ten minutes can cause a range of intimate health problems – and could be a sign of bowel cancer, doctors suggest.
With smartphones constantly within reach, it’s no surprise that many of us can lose track of time when we’re on the toilet.
However, experts have warned that the habitual toilet habit could not only increase the risk of haemorrhoids and incontinence, but could also indicate something much more sinister.
Colorectal surgeon Dr. Lai Xue of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center warned that you should only sit on the toilet for as long as it takes to do your business.
The pressure of the toilet seat on the buttocks causes blood to flow to the blood vessels in the area, he explains. This increases blood pressure in the sensitive area around the anus, increasing the risk of hemorrhoids.
“It becomes a one-way valve where blood comes in, but blood really can’t go back,” he said CNN.
Sitting on the toilet for long periods of time can also be a sign of colon cancer, experts warn.
With smartphones constantly within reach, it’s no surprise that many of us can lose track of time when we’re on the toilet
Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poop, a change in bowel habits, or a lump in your intestine that can cause blockages. Some people also suffer from weight loss as a result of these symptoms
Sitting on the toilet for too long can also be a sign that you’re straining to poop – a habit that can lead to weakening of the pelvic floor muscles, which both aid with bowel movements in general and help retain urine.
It can also potentially lead to rectal prolapse, where too much strain causes the rectum to sag and bulge out of the anus.
Gastroenterologist Dr Lance Uradomo explained that having to spend longer on the toilet to complete a bowel movement could be an indicator of the disease – which is on the rise among Britons under the age of 50.
“If a growth in the colon becomes large enough, it can block the flow of your stool, causing constipation and bleeding,” he said.
He added that over the course of his career he has noticed an increase in young people seeking help for hemorrhoids and constipation – and many of these patients were later diagnosed with colon cancer.
Experts continued to express ongoing concerns about an ‘epidemic’ of bowel cancer. Data shows that the disease has increased by 50 percent in the last thirty years among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, with such cases in younger adults being medically defined as cases of early-onset cancer.
Oncologist Dr Shivan Sivakumar, from the University of Birmingham, previously described the situation as an ‘epidemic’.
He said: ‘There is an epidemic of young people getting cancer at the moment. The cause of this is unknown, but we see that more and more patients are developing abdominal cancer.’
Experts are baffled as to the cause of this phenomenon, with theories including our increasing taste for junk food and a simultaneous increase in obesity, which is affecting the health of our digestive system.
However, cancer specialists told MailOnline that this does not explain the increase in the disease in young people, a significant proportion of whom are otherwise perfectly fit and healthy.
Nearly 45,000 cases of colon cancer are diagnosed each year, making it the third most common form of cancer. It kills almost 17,000 Brits every year, with only half of those diagnosed expected to survive ten years after learning they have the disease.
