Experts have pointed out that the squatting position is more natural and can help avoid colon disease, constipation, hemorrhoids, pelvic floor issues and similar ailments. In fact in Ayurvedic traditions, elimination of poop is integral to one’s well-being and the squatting position is called as ‘malasana’ in yoga.
People can control their defecation, to some extent, by contracting or releasing the anal sphincter. But the muscle can’t maintain continence on its own. The body also relies on a bend between the rectum and the anus. When we’re standing up, the extent of this bend, called the anorectal angle, is about 90 degrees, which puts upward pressure on the rectum and keeps feces inside. In a squatting posture, the bend straightens out, like a kink ringed out of a garden hose, and defecation becomes easier.
Proponents of squatting argue that conventional toilets produce an anorectal angle that’s ill-suited for defecation. By squatting, they say, we can achieve ‘complete evacuation’ of the colon, ridding our bowels of disease-causing toxins. Squatting does provide health benefit in the form of hemorrhoid prevention.
Hemorrhoids may be brought on by pregnancy, obesity, and receiving anal sex. It affects as many as half of all Americans by age 50. But, the main cause of hemorrhoids is usually straining during bowel movement. Straining increases the pressure in your abdomen, causing the veins that line your anus to swell. In hemorrhoid patients, those veins stay swollen and sometimes bleed. In theory, squatting might stave off hemorrhoids by making defecation easier, reducing the need to strain and decreasing abdominal pressure.
