Did you know? Smart phone use can cause hemorrhoids

Nowadays it seems everyone is on their smartphone most of the time. In fact, 2/3 of people in a recent survey use their smartphones while sitting on the toilet. Toilet-seated smartphone users were on average younger than non-smartphone users. While seated in the bathroom, half of smartphone users were reading “news,” and 4 out of ten were following “social media.”

 (Does that make you wonder what the tenth person was looking at?)

The September 2025 study of 125 adults undergoing endoscopic colonoscopy diagnosed 43% with hemorrhoids. The hemorrhoid and non-hemorrhoid groups were compared on a number of variables. 

Smartphone users in this study spent much longer on the toilet than did non-users. Almost 40% of those looking at their phones spent over 5 minutes in a seated position, whereas only 7% of non-users spent that long on the porcelain throne.  

After adjusting for other variables such as age, gender, BMI, level of exercising, fiber intake and straining to have a bowel movement, researchers found that smartphone users had a 46% higher risk of having hemorrhoids than did non-users.

If you routinely take your smartphone into the bathroom with you, you’ve been warned!

 

Read the research report here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329983