Is scrolling on the toilet bad for you? Here's what it does to your body

A study published in September surveyed 125 colonoscopy patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and found that those who used a smartphone on the toilet at least once a week had a 46 percent higher risk of haemorrhoids compared to those who did not.

The toilet seat offers no counter-pressure to the body, so extended sitting puts sustained strain on the rectal tissues and pelvic veins. Over time, the connective tissue supporting rectal blood vessels weakens and begins to swell. The researchers found that smartphone users were significantly more likely to spend more than five minutes in the bathroom — which is precisely how long it takes for the damage to begin accumulating.

Beyond haemorrhoids, prolonged and strained sitting raises the risk of rectal prolapse, a condition in which the rectum collapses and protrudes through the anus, affecting roughly one in 400 people and often requiring surgical correction.

Hunching over a screen also worsens matters by changing the anorectal angle, the angle at which the rectum meets the anus — narrowing the passage and making bowel movements harder to complete. Research has shown that squatting, by contrast, straightens the recto-anal canal, resulting in higher rectal pressure, lower anal pressure, and reduced strain during defecation.

More from Lifestyle

What your phone picks up in there

The hygiene implications are not reassuring either. Flushing with the lid open can spray aerosolised fecal matter onto nearby surfaces (including your phone screen) and even thorough handwashing offers limited protection once you pick the device up again.

A study from the University of Arizona found that the average mobile phone carries ten times more bacteria than a typical toilet seat, a situation researchers describe as the "clean hands, dirty phone" paradox: no matter how diligently people wash, they recontaminate themselves the moment they touch their devices.

Surface sampling of 50 smartphones found that over half showed measurable microbial contamination, with researchers noting that phones function as a common reservoir for potentially harmful pathogens

What to do instead

The researchers behind the Beth Israel study recommend what they call the five-minute rule: avoid sitting on an open toilet seat for more than five minutes at a stretch. If nothing has happened by then, get up and try again later. For those who find the bathroom genuinely useful thinking time, posture matters more than most people realise.

The conventional 90-degree sitting angle that Western toilets impose creates a restrictive kink in the colon, whereas raising the knees above the hips — as a toilet footstool allows — straightens the rectum and reduces the straining that leads to haemorrhoids and anal fissures. Sitting upright rather than crouching over a screen helps too. And if the scrolling must continue, the advice from gastroenterologists is consistent: finish your business, get dressed, close the lid, and then resume.