'Squatty Potty'

Would this help YOU go to the loo? 'Squatty Potty' footstool puts legs into natural squatting position making bowel movements easier to pass

• By Madlen Davies For Mailonline,www.dailymail.co.uk
• July 12th, 201
  
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Many of us shudder at the thought of discussing our bowel habits – suffering constipation, piles or bloating in silence.

Now, soaring numbers of people claim using a footstool has revolutionised how they go to the loo.

Squatty Potty, dubbed the 'stool for better stools', is a device designed to improve people’s posture while on the toilet, to make the experience is as smooth as it can be.

The company’s Facebook page has more than 130,500 likes, and stories of the footstool's benefits are sweeping through New York and London.

Soaring numbers of people claim using a footstool has revolutionised the way they go to the toilet. The Squatty Potty was created because our current way of sitting at a toilet is not the best way of passing bowel movements easily, its makers claim. Sitting with the body at a 90 degree angle to the leg means a muscle in the colon – called the puborectalis - remains taut. This keeps the bowel kinked, means it is difficult for faeces to pass through. Resting one's feet on a stool bring the legs up to a squatting position the puborectalis loosens, making the colon straight. Therefore, the manufacturers claim, faeces can pass easily from the colon and out of the rectum

The device, dubbed the 'stool for better stools', is available in the US for $29 and in the UK for £27, as well as Canada and Australia

The device, dubbed the 'stool for better stools', is available in the US for $29 and in the UK for £27, as well as Canada and Australia

Squatty Potty's Facebook page has more than 130,500 likes, with customers posting rave reviews about how the product has changed their bowel habits for the better

Based in Utah and launched in 2011, the product is by no means the only bathroom stool on the market.

But it shot to fame last year after its television advert – featuring a wide-eyed unicorn who squats over a series of wafer cones and fills them up with rainbow-coloured 'ice-cream' – went viral.

The device was created as our current way of sitting at a toilet is not the best way of passing bowel movements easily, its makers claim.

Sitting with the body at a 90 degree angle to the leg means a muscle in the colon – called the puborectalis - remains taut.

This keeps the bowel kinked, means it is difficult for faeces to pass through.

Resting one's feet on a stool bring the legs up to a squatting position the puborectalis loosens, making the colon straight.

Therefore, the manufacturers claim, faeces can pass easily from the colon and out of the rectum.

'Our ancestors squatted for centuries before the invention of the modern toilet. In fact, the majority of the world's population still squats today,' it says on the Squatty Potty website.

The product is available in the US for £29 and the UK for £27, as well as in Canada and Australia.

Customers regularly post comments about how the device has changed their bathroom habits for the better on the company’s social media.

For example, Facebook user Karen Calhoun said: ‘Love my squatty potty! Helped to make a huge difference with potty problems I was experiencing earlier in my pregnancy… Thank you for such a simple, fantastic product.’

Based in Utah and launched in 2011, Squatty Potty shot to fame last year after its television advert – featuring a wide-eyed unicorn who squats over a series of wafer cones and fills them up with rainbow-coloured 'ice-cream' – went viral

Another, Ben Rockwell, said: ‘Squatty Potty has given me back my life when I had to have my toilet raised and additional 4 inches so I could get off the seat.

‘Squatty Potty has given me back my legs so they are not dangling.

‘I have multiple disabilities and "Squatty Potty" has given me back my independence. Thank you "Squatty Potty!"

Courtenay Van Doren said: ‘I work in a hospital and I wish squatty potties were part of our supplies! I can't begin to count how many constipated old folks we get in who are constantly toddling back and forth to the bathroom with no results.

‘I'll admit, I've improvised squatty potties before by flipping to little bins upside down and putting them under their feet. One lady who was at the end of her rope asked me once, "What's this supposed to do?" *plop!* and I said, "That!"’

One even penned a poem celebrating the Squatty Potty.

Brian Jacobs wrote: ‘Day in and day out, effortless it will seem, my colon will remain healthy, we are such a good team.’