The Squatty Potty has won our admiration for weirdest of 2013’s various business startups, and, by weirdest, we mean it’s destined to be the butt of many a joke to those first hearing about it.
That doesn’t make it a bad thing, however. Anyone, who has ever tried to run their own business — present company included — needs all the help they can get to fight off irritable bowel syndrome.
This product doesn’t promise to cure all that, but it uses ergonomics to make sure that your puborectalis muscle isn’t all scrunched together, making matters worse.
As you can see from the image above, Squatty Potty goes under your feet and keeps your knees spiked up over the rim of the bowl, so you can get a nice 35-degree angle going, considered optimum for the ultimate deuce.
In recent comments to Huffington Post , Robert Edwards, Squatty Potty creator, claimed that his invention “can end hemorrhoids, prevent colon disease and offer numerous other health benefits,” HuffPo wrote.
“The modern toilet has been sold to us as civilized, but the straining that sitting causes is not healthy,” Edwards said.
Not surprisingly, the company, which was founded by Judy Edwards, has sold at least 10,000 Squatty Pottys with zero advertising.
“It works. I promise,” Judy Edwards said in a company statement, adding that the stool was “thoughtfully designed to deliver all the health benefits of natural squatting.”
As far as “natural squatting” is concerned, a 2003 study testing the positive health benefits of squatting over sitting for a bowel movement found that squatting produced a BM in less than half the time of sitting (51 seconds vs. 135 seconds, or eight minutes for some of us with time to kill and an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader).
Here’s a video of how it works and why you should plunk down the $30 for one ASAP:
Unfortunately, you’re still going to have to use some restraint when it comes to what you put into your body , so it can’t really help there, and it may also be problematic for use in public restrooms .
But Squatty Potty does at least have some science to back up the health claims. Would you pay for one?
[Image via Squatty Potty website ]
