Health Experts Warn: Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Phone in the Toilet

Medical experts advise people not to use their phones while going to the toilet, as this habit can negatively affect your health. Here are the specific reasons they highlight:

1. Increases Risk of Blood and Digestive Diseases

Using your phone in the bathroom makes it easy for harmful bacteria to stick to your device and travel with you everywhere. Common harmful bacteria include:

• Salmonella – can cause diarrhea, typhoid, and intestinal inflammation. If it spreads from the intestines into the bloodstream and other organs, it may lead to dangerous complications.

• E. coli – may cause blood infections, bloody diarrhea, kidney failure, meningitis, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and even death.

• C. difficile – causes diarrhea, intestinal inflammation, and can be fatal. Its virulence is also increasing over time.

2. Damages the Eyes

Toilet lighting is usually dim and not suitable for viewing electronic devices. This is particularly harmful to children, increasing the risk of nearsightedness. For adults, long-term phone use in the bathroom can lead to dry eye syndrome.

3. Harms the Brain

Using your phone in the toilet often keeps you sitting for long periods in a posture without proper support. Excessive focus restricts blood circulation, leading to pooling of blood. When you stand up, you may feel dizzy or lightheaded.
Over time, this behavior can cause reduced blood flow to the brain, memory loss, cognitive decline, and faster brain degeneration.

4. Increases Risk of Hemorrhoids

Studies show that even in healthy people, prolonged sitting on the toilet — whether browsing the phone or reading newspapers — can lead to longer bowel movements, increasing the risk of developing or worsening hemorrhoids.

5. Damages Knee Joints

While sitting on the toilet, the knees bear significant pressure. In squatting positions, the pressure on the knees can be up to eight times greater than when lying down.
This increases strain on the posterior cruciate ligament and tibia, and poor circulation worsens the stress on ligaments and joints. Over time, this can lead to knee joint problems.

6. Contributes to Cervical Spine Degeneration

The posture of leaning forward while using the toilet, combined with prolonged phone use, places extra strain on the cervical spine. This changes its natural curvature and can cause cervical spondylosis (degeneration of the cervical vertebrae).

7. Poor for the Lower Limbs

Sitting on the toilet for more than 15 minutes can cause immobility in the muscles, reduced circulation, swelling, and numbness in the legs. If prolonged, this habit may even lead to deep vein thrombosis in the lower limbs.

8. Negative Effects on Mental Health

Using your phone in the toilet can also affect mental health. Excessive exposure to irrelevant information may reduce your brain’s ability to process useful data, leading to poor concentration and memory decline.

Final Recommendation

Health experts advise:

• Do not stay in the toilet longer than 5 minutes.

• For those with constipation: no more than 10 minutes.

• For people with hemorrhoids: keep bowel movements even shorter.
  Ideally, limit toilet sitting to under 3 minutes for better overall health.