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General Comments

Virtually every physician and physiologist who has ever troubled to write on the subject agrees that squatting is the most natural and physiologically sound posture to use for evacuation. This is the conclusion of Professor Alexander Kira, of Cornell University's Center for Housing and Environmental Studies, who conducted a seven-year study of the design of the modern bathroom. His 1976 book, The Bathroom, contains numerous quotations from Western scientists who have deplored the use of the modern toilet.

He quotes Dr. Henry L. Bockus, the author of the standard textbook, Gastro-Enterology:

... The ideal posture for [voiding] is the squatting position, with the thighs flexed upon the abdomen. In this way the capacity of the abdominal cavity is greatly diminished and intra-abdominal pressure is increased, thus encouraging expulsion ...

Dr. Alexander Kira cites an article in the journal American Anthropologist and draws the following conclusion:

We must bear in mind that while we regard the use of the water closet as natural, we represent only a relatively small percentage of the world's population, and a percentage that may be said, in an absolute sense, to be wrong, insofar as we have allowed civilization to interfere with our biological functioning.

Dr. William Welles, the chiropractor referred to above, wrote an article entitled "The Hidden Crime of the Porcelain Throne." Here is a brief excerpt:

The design of the modern-day toilet was created with absolute disregard for the anatomy of the human body. On the conventional Western toilet, pressure is exerted inside the abdomen by pushing the diaphragm down in such a way as to push all the organs of the body downwards, causing them to sag (prolapsus), and creating dysfunction of the ileocecal valve. The abdominal muscles are left totally unsupported, as we have said, and the body suffers the consequences.

Dr. Leonard Williams states that the modern toilet effectively paralyzes the abdominal muscles. "These muscles are little enough exercised by sedentary man, but when seated on the ordinary everyday water closet, he could not exercise them even if he would."