The 1 Popular Thing You Should Immediately Stop Doing When Wiping, According To An Anal Surgeon
You've probably heard that few things in life are certain except death and taxes, but we'd like to add something else to the list: cleaning up in the bathroom.
So, since we have to do it, what's the best technique?
The preferred method of wiping 'is not wiping,' nationally renowned anal surgeon Dr. Evan Goldstein told us — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, co-hosts of HuffPost's 'Am I Doing It Wrong?' podcast — when we recently chatted with him.
'When you're looking at someone's [anus], to the left and the right are these wrinkles ― it's like an accordion. It opens. It closes,' said Goldstein, who is also the CEO and founder of Bespoke Surgical.
'The front and the back ― towards the vagina, towards the penis and testicle area, or the tailbone, the skin there is not wrinkled. It's very thin. When we wipe, where do we wipe? Usually front to back — thin skin! We all wipe so much, so what happens over time? People tear the skin. It gets irritated. It gets angry at us.'
Instead of wiping, Goldstein suggested cleaning the area without toilet paper.
'I'm a huge bidet [fan],' he told us, because it can thoroughly wash the anus without harming it. He also recommended a quick shower or rinse if you don't own a bidet.
'You always want to make sure you're drying yourself,' he added, because moisture in that area can cause irritation.
This is one of the reasons why he says even though wet wipes are wildly popular, we should never use them.
'They are so terrible — not only for the environment, but for your hole,' he said. 'There's so many companies out there throwing wipes and I think they should all be banned. I see 90 people a week [in my surgical office], and I would say one-third of all the people coming through are coming in from wet wipe-induced issues.'
That's because using them can change the microbiome of that area of the body.
'Think about it — we have good bacteria, we have bad bacteria, but they are in homeostasis. They are in equilibrium. Wet wipes fuck that in a really bad way,' Goldstein said. 'I see ridiculous dermatitis [in my patients] ... bacterial infections. ... Now that you've messed up that microbiome, it's causing so many problems.'
If you are going to wipe using toilet paper, he recommended more of a 'blot' than a wipe and doing it in a 'standing squat,' because there's less blood flowing to that part of the body when you're standing. And that means less potentially problem-causing pressure on the delicate area.
'The longer you're sitting on the bowl, the more blood [down there], the more wiping, the more irritation. The body senses that,' Goldstein said. Instead, we want to get vertical again as soon as possible to relieve that pressure. 'So, you poop, wipe once or twice [while seated], finish standing up. Why? The blood starts to leave [when you stand up]. The mechanism starts to go back to the normal, daily [position],' Goldstein said.
'There are some people that it's harder [to wipe] when they're standing,' he noted. 'They don't feel like they're getting the full hole. ... But we don't need to go all up in there. If you are going all up in there, we need to go back to diet and fiber and pre- and probiotics, and thinking about better strategies. I always say, 'It's not butt health; it's gut health.' If you have gut health, you will automatically have butt health.'
Goldstein also chatted with us about why squatting is the best position for pooping, what a perfect poop should look like and much more.
After you've had a listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe to 'Am I Doing It Wrong?' so you don't miss a single episode, including how to score the best deals on airline tickets, how to find love online or overcome anxiety, tips for online shopping, taking care of your teeth and pooping like a pro, secrets to booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, shocking laundry secrets, ways to experience more awe and wonder in your life, taking your best shower ever, protecting your privacy online, and much more.
For more from Goldstein, visit his website or his Instagram page, and check out Future Method's Butt & Gut Daily Fiber.
Need some help with something you've been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.
The 1 Thing A Coffee Expert Says You Need To Make The Best Cup Of Joe
Why 3-Star Reviews Should Be Your Secret Weapon When Shopping Online
Psst... You're Probably Buying Airline Tickets All Wrong
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Senate Republicans Eye Medicare Changes To Help Pay For Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON ― Republicans are so strapped for budget savings to offset their multi-trillion dollar tax cuts they're looking in a forbidden and politically explosive place: Medicare. The $5 trillion tax-and-spending package that the House passed includes cuts of nearly $900 billion to Medicaid, which serves over 70 million low-income Americans. Now, some Senate Republicans are pushing to broaden spending reductions by looking for supposed inefficiencies in the Medicare program that serves America's seniors. 'The president indicated waste, fraud and abuse is a permissible target,' Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told HuffPost after a meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. 'Part of the issue has to do with abuse in Medicare Advantage.' Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Republicans were looking at 'upcoding,' or the practice of health care providers using inaccurate diagnosis codes in order to wring more money from Medicare Advantage, the Medicare program run by private insurers. Grassley said the topic had come up at Monday meetings, but he wasn't sure if the president was on board. Other Republicans stressed the idea of major changes to Medicare isn't a serious one. 'There's been some discussion. I think the general consensus is it's off the table,' Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. Fiddling with Medicare — even at the edges, without touching people's benefits — is extremely risky and would fly in the face of Trump's earlier pledges not to go after the program. Democrats have already attacked the GOP bill over estimates that it would kick millions of people off their health care. Putting Medicare into the mix could give them even more ammo to wallop Republicans ahead of next year's midterm elections. 'For Republicans to even suggest Medicare be cut to bankroll billionaire tax breaks is frightening and revolting,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Republicans should go after Medicare if they 'never want to win another election again.' 'After George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security in 2004, Republicans didn't win the popular vote for 20 years. Let that sink in,' he added. Democrats have previously suggested that Republicans consider going after upcoding as a way of saving money in their legislation instead of cutting Medicaid. 'This practice by private, for-profit insurance companies leads to wasteful spending in Medicare, picking the pockets of seniors and taxpayers while adding tens of billions in costs to the federal government,' a group of more than 40 Democrats said in a May letter to Republican leaders. Senate Republicans are under internal and external pressure to include more spending cuts in their version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which they are hoping to send to Trump's desk by the July 5 holiday. The House draft would reduce spending by $1.7 trillion, but a group of Senate conservatives is pushing for the Senate to cut even deeper to address the nation's debt. Billionaire Elon Musk, meanwhile, has been on an extraordinary rampage on his social media platform X, calling the bill an 'abomination' because of its negative impact on the deficit, and urging Trump and Republicans to scrap it and start all over. 'The Big Ugly Bill will INCREASE the deficit to $2.5 trillion!' he wrote in a social media post. The math problem is compounded for Senate Republicans by the fact that a number of their members are pushing to scale back provisions in the House bill that, if altered, would increase the total cost of the package. These include its repeal of Inflation Reduction Act renewable energy tax credits, a freeze on the Medicaid 'provider tax,' and its cuts to federal food aid. Moreover, key Senate Republicans have expressed a desire to make permanent a whole host of business tax cuts that, under the House bill, would expire in five years. That, too, would balloon the cost of the bill. For now, at least, GOP senators are expressing confidence about finding a path forward. 'We just started our conversation yesterday, we're just diving into it,' Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said when asked about potential additional spending cuts. 'Everything's on the table. We're going to use the structure the House sent over, but we may repaint the walls and redecorate some of the interior rooms.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
The Alabama Justice Behind Last Year's Radical IVF Decision Is Running For Office
Jay Mitchell, the former Alabama Supreme Court justice behind the contentious ruling that effectively banned in vitro fertilization for a short period last year, announced this week he is running for state attorney general. 'With President Trump in the White House, we have a unique opportunity to get conservative wins here in Alabama,' Mitchell said in a Monday statement announcing his run. 'I'm running for Attorney General to stop the lawlessness, restore order, and dismantle Joe Biden's radical left wing policies.' Mitchell, a Republican, was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2019 and stepped down late last month. His first campaign video describes him as 'a law and order conservative' with 'the guts to protect our constitution.' In the statement announcing his run, Mitchell did not comment on IVF but said he would 'defend the sanctity of life' and 'no matter the cost, I will stand firm to protect the unborn.' 'Known for his strong conservative rulings and tough-on-crime approach to law and order at the Alabama Supreme Court, Mitchell is eager to take a more proactive role in implementing the Trump agenda as the state's top law enforcement official,' the statement reads. Reproductive rights are under attack. HuffPost is committed to reporting the truth, amplifying voices, and covering this fight with depth and care. Support our work by today. As state attorney general, Mitchell would be in charge of enforcing state laws around reproductive health care, including the state's near-total abortion ban that has no exceptions for rape or incest. The attorney general can choose to investigate and prosecute pregnant people for miscarriage and stillbirth — situations that have happened in several states since the fall of federal abortion protections. Steve Marshall, the current Alabama attorney general who is term-limited, pledged to prosecute women who used abortion pills or traveled out of state to get care (a federal judge recently ruled against Marshall). In February 2024, Mitchell and several other conservative justices on the court handed down a sweeping decision that granted embryos the same legal status as children — posing a direct legal threat to physicians and patients using IVF. Mitchell, who authored the brief, equated frozen embryos used in IVF to 'unborn children' under the state's wrongful death statute. '[T]he Wrongful Death of a Minor Act is sweeping and unqualified. It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation,' Mitchell wrote in the decision. The ruling forced three of the state's largest fertility clinics to pause IVF services. Providers scrambled to find answers, and many patients were forced to delay time-sensitive care with no promise that access would be restored. Jamie Heard, who lives in Birmingham with her husband, was one of the patients who had to pause care when the ruling came down. 'When that Supreme Court decision shut down IVF care, I think a lot of people don't understand that it didn't just impact clinics, it also shattered families,' Heard told HuffPost. 'To hear that the judge who authored that decision now wants to be attorney general is definitely frightening.' Mitchell wrote in his May resignation letter to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey that he was stepping down because he wanted to be more vocal about his political beliefs and further President Donald Trump's agenda. 'Serving on the Supreme Court has been the privilege of a lifetime, but my role as a judge limits what I can say and do for our state and country,' Mitchell wrote, according to Alabama Daily News. 'President Trump is moving boldly to restore the United States Constitution — and we must ensure that his agenda takes root not only in Washington, but also in the state. I feel called to play a larger role in that effort in Alabama.' Dr. Mamie McLean, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Alabama Fertility, a clinic in Birmingham, was one of the providers whose clinic temporarily paused IVF services. When the decision came out, McLean was forced to cancel time-sensitive and costly appointments that devastated her patients. She told HuffPost at the time that those conversations with her patients were 'some of the most heartbreaking' she's had in her career. The state Supreme Court decision centered on a 2020 lawsuit in which three couples sued another Alabama fertility clinic and hospital for the 'wrongful death' of their frozen embryos, using a legal framework for bringing civil charges when a child dies. The couples' frozen embryos reportedly were destroyed by a patient who wandered into the cryogenic storage area where the embryos are kept and dropped them on the floor. The state Supreme Court's ruling essentially pushed the issue back to the Legislature, which passed a law protecting IVF weeks after the decision. 'We're tired of IVF being a political football,' McLean said. 'Just the suggestion that IVF would not be allowed in Alabama is creating extra worry and stress and that's not good for the men and women of Alabama. … It's important to the voters of our state that IVF is available and high quality.' The election for Alabama attorney general will be in November 2026. Current Attorney General Marshall is running for U.S. Senate. Heard has four remaining frozen embryos, which were moved from Alabama to Minnesota because of last year's political climate and due to storage costs. She hopes to one day give her son a sibling. 'We need leaders who protect families and not punish them or threaten their existence under the guise of quote-unquote politics,' she said. 'IVF is not a culture war issue, it's health care — and we won't forget who turned our path to parenthood into a political battlefield.' After Alabama Court Decision, Panic And Heartbreak In Fertility Clinics Trump Says He Supports IVF — But He Has Deep Ties To Those Who Oppose It Alabama AG Is First Republican Pledging To Prosecute Women Taking Abortion Pills Trump's IVF Executive Order Isn't 'Promises Made, Promises Kept'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
"Orthorexia" Is Becoming More And More Common, So Here's What Experts Say To Know About It
Between fad diets, the protein-ification of nearly everything and new wearable technology that tracks all kinds of biometrics, it's easy to get swept up in the health-obsession craze. Plus, with all of the information online and on social media, it can be hard to know what you need and don't need when it comes to your health, especially nutrition. There are videos all over social media in which people refer to certain foods as 'bad' or containing 'fake ingredients,' which only fuel a societal infatuation with 'eating healthy.' While there is nothing wrong with eating a healthy diet — it's a great way to bolster your well-being — there is a line that healthy eating can cross. Too much of a focus on it can turn into something known as orthorexia, a condition that's becoming more common in society, and some research says that's in large part because of pressure from social media. You won't find orthorexia in the DSM-5, which is the official handbook for mental health diagnoses, but two dietitians told HuffPost they expect it to become an official diagnosis eventually. Asian Nutritionist holding healthy food for patient in hospital, nutrition and vitamin. 'It's subclinical disordered eating, so it's not something that has a clinical diagnosis code, but it's widely recognized in the disordered eating community,' said Beth Auguste, a maternal wellness dietitian in Philadelphia. ″[Orthorexia] can be generally categorized as a preoccupation with healthy eating and a fixation on the purity of food,' added Auguste. 'It's an obsession with what someone perceives as the proper way of eating, or the healthy way of eating,' added Beth Heise, a registered dietitian with OnPoint Nutrition. Since lots of people enjoy eating healthy foods or do so to keep certain health markers like cholesterol and blood sugar in control, it can be hard to know what is just a healthy diet and what is dangerous. 'It's so hard to spot that even professionals can have trouble spotting it — they kind of question, like, is this person just really healthy, or is [it] bordering on a disorder?' Auguste noted. Below, Auguste and Heise share the signs that you may be crossing into orthorexia territory and what to do if you're concerned about your eating habits. You have extreme food restrictions (that aren't related to an allergy or suggestion from a doctor). Related: 19 "Body Changes" That Clearly Indicate A Person Is Not Young Anymore, And I'm Not Ready For This Reality ″[Orthorexia] can show up some of the same ways that anorexia shows up, where it can be restricting — not eating certain food groups, having a lot of anxiety if you are not having full control over the food that you're eating and the source that it comes from,' Auguste said. You may find yourself creating rigid rules regarding your food intake, Heise added. Like, maybe you tell yourself you can only eat brown rice and can never make exceptions for white rice. 'It winds up becoming less about healthy eating, which is usually what it starts out as, and more about an unhealthy obsession with food purity or 'clean eating,' or 'proper eating,'' Heise said. It messes with your social life. 'When it crosses the line is when it starts to interfere with your activities of daily living,' Auguste said. If your stress about food interferes with your social engagements, like you turn down plans because you aren't sure of the food situation, it could be cause for concern. 'When it impacts your ability to live socially in the world, comfortably, then it's a problem that you should address,' Auguste added. 'It winds up being less about the average person concerned about healthy food, and more just really obsessing about it where it's almost your personality,' Heise said. You spend lots of time analyzing ingredient lists. Related: "I Can't Wait For This To Go Out Of Style": People Are Sharing Popular Modern Trends That Are Actually Pretty Toxic It's normal to check the ingredient lists and nutrition labels on food from time to time, especially if you have an allergy or a specific nutrition goal you're trying to hit. But, for someone with orthorexia, they may find that they're 'compulsively, all the time, analyzing all the ingredients,' Heise said. This may turn into hours and hours spent meal planning or researching the nutrition of every ingredient that's going into your food, she noted. When you break your food rules, you feel anxious or guilty. 'I think the line comes when you start to feel like you're thinking about [healthy eating] all the time,' Heise said. 'If you feel like you have anxiety ... you're nervous about eating something ... and you feel like that more often than not, then that could be a sign that maybe you're thinking about it too much,' she said. The same goes for if you feel guilty after breaking any of your food rules, Heise added. Auguste added that if your thoughts about food are disrupting your mental health at all, you should consider talking to someone. Auguste also said if it interferes with your physical health, it's absolutely a red flag. Here's what to do if this sounds like you. With support from either a dietitian or mental health professional, you can determine whether your healthy eating is simply that — or something more. 'It's really important to talk to somebody like a dietitian who specializes in disordered eating, a therapist who specializes in it, who can help you figure out [if this is a problem for you],' Auguste said. Dietitians generally take insurance, noted Auguste, and they can help you make sure you're on the right track with your eating, whether or not you have specific concerns. 'You can definitely recover from orthorexia if you have the right support,' said Heise, 'so, as soon as you feel those feelings, address it as early as possible so that it doesn't turn into something that rules your life.' Healthy eating is a lifelong process and isn't meant to be perfect. When it comes to what you eat, your nutrition needs likely differ from your partner's, your neighbor's and your favorite social media influencer's. So, don't put too much stock in social media nutrition trends or what diet a friend is raving about, Heise said. Instead of obsessing over the latest food trend, focus on realistic goals — 'so, not focusing on whether or not a food is clean, but focusing on whether or not you have variety in your meals,' Heise said. 'Are you getting a variety of different foods? Are you getting a variety of different nutrients? Because that's where true nutrition comes in.' Auguste said it's important to let go of all-or-nothing thinking when it comes to eating, which includes rules around following one specific diet or a rigid plan to lose weight. 'I have so many patients that do that, and then it's not sustainable to be 100% all of the time,' Auguste added. Then, when they fall off of the diet, they feel like a failure and give up, she noted. 'I feel like that is a downside for somebody with orthorexia, is that you are afraid of letting go of the 100%, and you're afraid that if you let go, that you fall back into that nothing,' Auguste said. It's important to find the middle ground and remind yourself that you don't have to be perfect, added Auguste. 'You can say to yourself, 'I usually eat healthy.' You don't have to say, 'I always eat healthy,'' she said. When you use 'always' language, you 'introduce that concept of failure and judging yourself,' Auguste noted. And it's perfectly OK, and not a failure, to have that salty snack or sweet treat. 'The more practice you can get of letting yourself find the middle, where you're not 'always,' you're just 'usually' doing something, I think the better,' Auguste said. As you work on all of this, have compassion for yourself. Society does not make it easy to be forgiving about food choices. 'Eating and healthy eating in general, is just a lifelong journey. It's not really a set of rules and a one-and-done; it's something that you engage in throughout your lifetime,' Heise said. Your diet needs may change as you age, as might your food preferences. 'A few choices here and there that you feel like maybe weren't as great are not going to make that big of an impact. It's really more focusing on getting you what you need throughout your life,' Heise said. If you're struggling with an eating disorder, call or text 988 or chat for article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in Goodful: 30 Absolutely Wild Medical Facts You've Probably Never Heard Of But Probably Should Hear Also in Goodful: 25 Life-Changing Habits People Added To Their Everyday Routines To Improve Their Lives For The Better Also in Goodful: "This Actually Isn't A Necessity": Millions Of People Watched A Mom Explain How Not Buying This Super Common Household Product Has Saved Her Family Thousands
