Crap! Alarming new study links excessive phone use on toilet to painful health problem

Well, this is crappy.

A new study published this week has linked excessive scrolling on the phone while sitting on the toilet with hemorrhoids.

Published Wednesday in PLOS One, the study surveyed 125 adults just before they were about to have a routine colonoscopy.

“A growing trend is the use of smartphones while sitting on the toilet to read news, to engage in social media, or simply to pass the time,” the study said. “This increasingly common behavior could have significant health implications, most of which have not been adequately studied.”

Eighty-three (66%) of the participants admitted to using their phones in the bathroom.

Furthermore, smartphone use on the toilet was associated with a 46% increased risk of hemorrhoids.

The most common activity performed while on the toilet was reading “news” (54.3%), followed by “social media” (44.4%).

Essentially, sitting over an open bowl for too long puts pressure on veins in the rectum, making them swollen and inflamed.

“The study suggests that prolonged engagement with smartphones while using the toilet may be associated with an increased prevalence of hemorrhoids,” the study said.

Smartphone users in the bathroom also leaned younger, with adults in their 40s and 50s doing so much more than people over 60, according to the study.

Hemorrhoids are the third most common outpatient gastrointestinal diagnosis with nearly 4 million office and emergency department visits annually and more than $800 million annually in healthcare spending.

More patients seek medical care for hemorrhoids than for colon cancer, diverticular disease, irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease.

“Despite this significant burden to our health systems, there is little consensus on identifiable risk factors for development of hemorrhoids,” the study said while noting that constipation, straining with defecation, prolonged sitting on the toilet, low intake of dietary fiber, pregnancy and sedentary behavior without physical activity are common risk factors associated with hemorrhoids.

Regardless, smartphones, which already impact sleep, mental health, cognitive ability, attention span and memory, don’t seem to be helping in the bathroom either.

Not to mention it’s gross since microscopic particles from urine and feces are sent flying through the air when a toilet is flushed.

Experts told NBC News that you should spend no longer than 5 minutes on the toilet.

“If the magic is not happening within five minutes, it’s not going to happen. Take a breather and try again later,” said Dr. Trisha Pasricha, director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Institute for Gut-Brain Research Institute in Boston.