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Comment by wawhal | Hacker News Reader

Yes there is a significant advantage in bowel movement if you use squatty potty.

Moving to a normal chair toilet from a squat toilet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet) was a hell for me. Chair toilets just don't feel right and comfortable to poop from if one has used a squat toilet all their life. Squatty potty hits a nice middle ground because:

1. It is better than the chair toilet in terms of comfort of bowel movement.

2. It is better than the squat toilet in terms of the extreme stress on the knees

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> 2. It is better than the squat toilet in terms of the extreme stress on the knees"

Yeah, the first thing that worry me, when I read about squat toilets, is accessibility. Basically, if I were to get a house and install one of those, how much would 80 year old me (presuming I live that long, hah?) hate the 37 year old me every time they had to poop?

Apparently people often don't really consider that, say, building houses with stairs that are nice when you're 20, but become hard to navigate later on, and if you end up becoming a wheelchair user, may be impossible to retrofit with a lift.

Much of the developing world still squats, not just over their toilet, but also for sitting/resting in open spaces. I'd bet excessive knee stress is a "Western" thing, caused by poor joint flexibility and poor core strength.

A lot of the difference is ankle mobility, westerners don’t sit in the resting squat position often and their ankle joints have less range of motion as a result.

Many westerner’s heel will lift off the ground attempting an Asian/Slavic squat.

Which puts a lot more stress on the knee joint. It's also hip mobility that causes this, people and unwilling or unable to press there abdomen against there thigh, which is much more supportive and helps get into a proper squat.

Hmm.. I played as a catcher in baseball for 4 years in high school and my knees still hate me. Maybe it was the break after until now but...

You would assume wrongly: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Seat_for...

Also, as a person who grew up in "developing world" (though by now thoroughly "developed," i.e. become a part of EU), how are you imagining the world? That people don't have chairs? Just because I might squat while eating on a camping trip to a forest doesn't mean I don't know what a table looks like. Most of that legendary squatting happens in situations a westerner would just either stand or sit on the ground.

Where did I say any of that? Of course people sit in chairs, when they're available. But, when they aren't, people in many parts of the world will squat (vs Westerners who remain standing, or sit on the ground).

That amount of squatting will help you about as much as walking to your nearest bus stop every day. It's really not that much. The image westerners have comes from a shock of seeing anyone squatting ever, not from how much the "slavs" actually squat.

> That amount of squatting will help you about as much as walking to your nearest bus stop every day

With general fitness, sure.

With squatting form, though, that kind of low-volume but regular practice once the movement is established will do quite well at maintaining it.

Squatting doesn't hurt Western ones because of poor general fitness, but bad form.

It's not that squatting, in general, is helpful. It's that if you don't squat, you lose the ability to squat comfortably. I was initially responding to a comment about squatting blowing out knees, which doesn't seem to be a problem in regions where adults continue to squat some of the time.

If you’ve never done it, you might be relieved to hear how easy it is to replace a toilet.

Toilets are heavy, but two people can easily lift one. There are two bolts to remove and one water connection to unscrew; the actual drainpipe seal is made by an easy-to-replace wax ring.

I just helped a friend replace two toilets in a house he bought, and each job took less than two hours (to remove the old toilet and install the new).

> Yes there is a significant advantage in bowel movement if you use squatty potty.

[citation needed] (and squatty potty marketing material doesn't count)

It's easy to do your own research. Pop a bunch of Vicodin, about the amount you'd take after, say, surgery. (Percocet will do in a pinch; DO NOT use heroin for this experiment.) Once your fecal matter has hardened to the consistency of a masonry block, go poop regular style. After straining for about 20 minutes in an ill-fated attempt to pass your feces brick, if an aneurysm hasn't killed you[0], give up and go get a little stool. Place feet upon stool, ass upon toilet seat. Post your results.

(My results: with a little grunting, feces boulder slides out like a greased pig.)

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/brain-bleed-8-things-that-t...

[http://www.naturesplatform.com/health_benefits.html]

You can go through this book that references several research papers.

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