The popular toilet habit that could increase your risk of painful haemorrhoids by 46%, experts warn
Some people find it helps with the matter at hand by offering a gentle distraction and relaxation.
2
Scrolling on your phone while sitting on the toilet could raise your risk of haemorrhoids by as much as 46%, according to a new survey
Credit: Getty
But a new survey has found scrolling on your phone may have you sitting on the loo for an unhealthy amount of time, increasing the risk of haemorrhoids - swollen veins in your bottom.
The new survey, presented recently at the Digestive Diseases Week conference in San Diego, California, involved 125 participants who were receiving a colonoscopy.
It found 46 per cent had a haemorrhoid - and 93 per cent said they used their phone on the toilet at least once a week.
Participants' age, sex, body mass, exercise, and fibre intake didn't impact the results.
About half the group said they read news on the toilet, while 44 per cent said they scrolled social media.
Around 30 per cent were emailing or texting.
Some of the respondents revealed they spent more than six minutes on the toilet, per visit, and said they believed they were on the toilet longer because of their smartphones.
According to a study by eXroid, approximately five million people in the UK experience symptoms from haemorrhoids each year.
Also known as piles, haemorrhoids are lumps inside and around the bottom.
They're caused by increased pressure in the blood vessels around the anus and rectum, which then lead to swelling and inflammation.
Dr. Mike Coates explains what a urinary tract infection is and how you can prevent them
This increased pressure can be due to various factors, including straining during bowel movements, constipation, prolonged sitting, and pregnancy.
Some doctors advise spending no more than 10 minutes on the toilet.
While others suggest spending no more than three minutes.
The three minute recommendation is based on a study of 100 patients with haemorrhoids who spent time more time reading on the toilet than age and sex-matched counterparts who didn't have haemorrhoids.
2
Experts have recommended not spending more than three minutes reading on the toilet
Credit: Getty
Check if you have piles
According to the NHS, the symptoms of piles include:
Bright red blood after you poo
An itchy anus
Feeling like you still need to poo after going to the toilet
Mucus in your underwear or on toilet paper after wiping your bottom
Lumps around your anus
Pain around your anus
Piles often get better on their own after a few days, and there are things you can do to help, including drinking lots of fluid and eating plenty of fibre to keep your poo soft, wiping your bottom with damp toilet paper, taking a warm bath to ease itching and pain, and cutting down on alcohol and caffeine to avoid constipation.
The NHS also advises:
Not wiping your bottom too hard after you poo
Not ignoring the urge to poo
Not pushing too hard when pooing
Not taking painkillers that contain codeine, as they can cause constipation
Not taking ibuprofen if your piles are bleeding
Not spending more time than you need to on the toilet
A pharmacist may be able to help with symptoms, recommending creams to ease pain, treatment to help constipation, or cold packs to ease discomfort.
But if you have piles and your temperature is very high, or you feel hot and shivery and generally unwell, or you have pus leaking from your piles, ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Guardian
14 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
‘Groundbreaking' drug could slow down progression of type 1 diabetes
Teplizumab, which is already approved in the US, trains the immune system to stop attacking pancreatic cells, delaying the need for insulin by an average of three years. With type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, meaning blood sugar levels are no longer regulated by the body. If blood sugar is too high or low, it can cause serious health problems and even death. People with type 1 therefore need daily insulin. Dentist and mother-of-two, Hannah Robinson, from Devon, is the first adult in the UK to try the drug in the hope it can delay the condition. She is having treatment at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust after discovering during pregnancy she was in the early stages of developing type 1. A handful of people are being given the medicine on a case-by-case basis while it is reviewed for wider use on the NHS. The 36-year-old said: 'For me, this new drug offers more freedom and the chance to focus on my health before I have to start thinking differently and managing life as somebody needing daily insulin. 'This isn't just about what I eat or monitoring my glucose, it is also about having more control and not feeling defined by my condition. 'This treatment could potentially pave the way for a future cure for type 1 diabetes, which is incredible. I feel very lucky to be part of this.' The new drug teplizumab must be given at the earliest stage of the disease to be effective. Dr Nick Thomas, diabetes consultant and academic clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter, said: 'This new treatment represents a really exciting shift in how we manage type 1 diabetes. 'For the first time ever, we will be able to provide targeted treatment early enough in the process to alter the underlying immune process, aiming to slow down how quickly people need insulin. 'Approximately half of all type 1 diabetes cases develop in adulthood, and Hannah will be the first adult in the UK to receive this treatment. 'My hope is that in the future, we may be able to stop people with early type 1 diabetes from needing insulin at all.' Experts at the Royal Devon and the University of Exeter are using genetics and other testing to spot people at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes. The hope is more people could be offered the drug to delay type 1. Dr Lucy Chambers, head of research impact and communications at Diabetes UK, said: 'For people in the early stages of type 1 diabetes, teplizumab offers a groundbreaking opportunity to buy them precious extra years insulin-free. 'Right now, it's only available in research settings – and while the excitement is real, urgent work is still needed to ensure it reaches everyone who could benefit. 'That means securing a UK licence for teplizumab, establishing national screening programmes to identify people with early-stage type 1 diabetes before symptoms appear, and preparing the NHS to deliver this treatment at scale. 'Diabetes UK is proud to be at the forefront of these efforts – funding pioneering research and working closely with the NHS towards a future where immunotherapies become the first-line treatment for tackling the autoimmune attack at the root of type 1 diabetes.' Professor Richard Oram, consultant physician at the Royal Devon and professor at the University of Exeter, said: 'Excitingly, teplizumab is the first drug with the potential to delay type 1 diabetes, but needs to be given before clinical diagnosis due to high blood glucose. 'It is really important to find new and improved approaches for identifying individuals at elevated risk.'
South Wales Guardian
14 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Medicine shortages put patients at risk, MPs and peers warn
A new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on pharmacy called for urgent action to ensure shortages do not become the 'new normal'. It also highlights the impact that shortages are having on patients with the likes of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), menopause and diabetes. Writing in the report, Steve Race, chairman of the APPG on pharmacy, said many MPs 'have received a growing volume of correspondence from constituents who are understandably anxious about the availability of their medicines'. 'Whether it is a parent unable to access antibiotics for a sick child, an elderly patient facing delays in obtaining life-sustaining medication, or a pharmacist overwhelmed by the need to source alternatives, the human impact is both visible and deeply troubling,' he wrote. The report said that while medicine shortages are 'not a new phenomenon', they have 'become increasingly severe, persistent, and disruptive' in recent years – leading to consequences for patients, staff and the wider health service. Mr Race said: 'Medicines shortages have moved from isolated incidents to a chronic structural challenge for both the NHS and pharmacy sector. 'As Government continues to recognise and invest in the expanded clinical role of community pharmacy, we must ensure the medicines supply chain underpinning that care is equally robust, resilient and patient-focused. 'Pharmacy is central to NHS recovery and transformation, but frontline teams cannot safely expand clinical services while daily supply disruptions continue to impact the health of patients.' The findings also highlight how shortages severely impact patients with conditions like ADHD, menopause and diabetes. More than nine in 10 pharmacists, GPs and prescribers told an APPG survey ADHD medicines had been affected by shortages. Around three quarters (76%) said HRT and diabetes drugs had been affected, while 44% said antibiotics. One patient with ADHD told the inquiry they had been self-medicating with cannabis due to an ongoing shortage of methylphenidate. The report said: 'These shortages are having a significant impact on patients' ability to access treatments and in some cases are having serious impact on patients' health and well-being.' Mr Race added: 'Medicines security must be treated as a core component of NHS planning, alongside funding, workforce and digital infrastructure. 'Failure to act risks further undermining patient care and destabilising a community pharmacy sector that millions depend upon.' The APPG has laid out a number of recommendations, which includes a number of measures to better support patients. People impacted by shortages, particularly those with chronic conditions, struggle to find information on out of stock drugs, leading to 'frustration, dangerous delays in care, and unnecessary anxiety and harm', it said. It also welcomed work being carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care to potentially change pharmacist prescribing protocols to allow pharmacists to make dose and formulation changes during shortages. Elsewhere, the inquiry found more than eight in 10 pharmacists face daily shortages, with many spending hours every day finding alternative treatment and communicating with distressed patients. One told the APPG they are 'constantly firefighting'. Reacting to the report, Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said: 'Pharmacy teams are under enormous pressure but are forced to spend hours hunting down stock for distressed and frustrated patients. 'It is particularly frustrating for pharmacists to be unable to meet a clear need when they have a perfectly safe and effective solution in their pharmacy already. 'MPs are right that it is madness to send someone back to their GP to get a prescription changed, and it risks a patient either delaying taking vital medication or forgoing it altogether, which poses a clear risk to patient safety. 'As the APPG says, the Government must allow pharmacists – who are highly trained health care practitioners – to use their professional judgment to supply an appropriate alternative medication when the prescribed version is unavailable.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'This government inherited ongoing global supply problems, but we have robust measures in place to mitigate disruption for patients. 'We are working to build the resilience of medicine supply chains and prevent future disruption as we get the NHS back on its feet. 'We have recently agreed an extra £617 million of funding over two years with Community Pharmacy England to support the sector and provide patients with more services closer to home as part of our 10 Year Health Plan.'
North Wales Chronicle
21 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Medicine shortages put patients at risk, MPs and peers warn
A new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on pharmacy called for urgent action to ensure shortages do not become the 'new normal'. It also highlights the impact that shortages are having on patients with the likes of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), menopause and diabetes. Writing in the report, Steve Race, chairman of the APPG on pharmacy, said many MPs 'have received a growing volume of correspondence from constituents who are understandably anxious about the availability of their medicines'. 'Whether it is a parent unable to access antibiotics for a sick child, an elderly patient facing delays in obtaining life-sustaining medication, or a pharmacist overwhelmed by the need to source alternatives, the human impact is both visible and deeply troubling,' he wrote. The report said that while medicine shortages are 'not a new phenomenon', they have 'become increasingly severe, persistent, and disruptive' in recent years – leading to consequences for patients, staff and the wider health service. Mr Race said: 'Medicines shortages have moved from isolated incidents to a chronic structural challenge for both the NHS and pharmacy sector. 'As Government continues to recognise and invest in the expanded clinical role of community pharmacy, we must ensure the medicines supply chain underpinning that care is equally robust, resilient and patient-focused. 'Pharmacy is central to NHS recovery and transformation, but frontline teams cannot safely expand clinical services while daily supply disruptions continue to impact the health of patients.' The findings also highlight how shortages severely impact patients with conditions like ADHD, menopause and diabetes. More than nine in 10 pharmacists, GPs and prescribers told an APPG survey ADHD medicines had been affected by shortages. Around three quarters (76%) said HRT and diabetes drugs had been affected, while 44% said antibiotics. One patient with ADHD told the inquiry they had been self-medicating with cannabis due to an ongoing shortage of methylphenidate. The report said: 'These shortages are having a significant impact on patients' ability to access treatments and in some cases are having serious impact on patients' health and well-being.' Mr Race added: 'Medicines security must be treated as a core component of NHS planning, alongside funding, workforce and digital infrastructure. 'Failure to act risks further undermining patient care and destabilising a community pharmacy sector that millions depend upon.' The APPG has laid out a number of recommendations, which includes a number of measures to better support patients. People impacted by shortages, particularly those with chronic conditions, struggle to find information on out of stock drugs, leading to 'frustration, dangerous delays in care, and unnecessary anxiety and harm', it said. It also welcomed work being carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care to potentially change pharmacist prescribing protocols to allow pharmacists to make dose and formulation changes during shortages. Elsewhere, the inquiry found more than eight in 10 pharmacists face daily shortages, with many spending hours every day finding alternative treatment and communicating with distressed patients. One told the APPG they are 'constantly firefighting'. Reacting to the report, Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said: 'Pharmacy teams are under enormous pressure but are forced to spend hours hunting down stock for distressed and frustrated patients. 'It is particularly frustrating for pharmacists to be unable to meet a clear need when they have a perfectly safe and effective solution in their pharmacy already. 'MPs are right that it is madness to send someone back to their GP to get a prescription changed, and it risks a patient either delaying taking vital medication or forgoing it altogether, which poses a clear risk to patient safety. 'As the APPG says, the Government must allow pharmacists – who are highly trained health care practitioners – to use their professional judgment to supply an appropriate alternative medication when the prescribed version is unavailable.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'This government inherited ongoing global supply problems, but we have robust measures in place to mitigate disruption for patients. 'We are working to build the resilience of medicine supply chains and prevent future disruption as we get the NHS back on its feet. 'We have recently agreed an extra £617 million of funding over two years with Community Pharmacy England to support the sector and provide patients with more services closer to home as part of our 10 Year Health Plan.'
