Sawbones: Seven-Second Poop Trick

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sawbones, Marital Tour of Miss Guided Medicine.

I'm your co-host, Justin McElroy.

And I'm Sidney McElroy.

This is our first recording of the year that we've actually physically did, isn't it?

No, no, we did the book club.

Yeah, we did the book club.

Now we're easing back in.

This is an actual episode.

This isn't a book club.

Yeah, did you get any book recommendations, Sid?

I don't really pay for attention to our email.

Tons.

Thank you.

I knew.

I knew our listeners would have that.

I know you all are readers.

Should people slow down, though?

No.

Do we have too many?

No, not too many.

Not too many.

There's also, I will say, there's a lot of overlap out there.

Yeah.

And a couple people have responded saying they read a book we recommended.

Which one?

Piranesse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that they enjoyed it.

Amanda reached out to me about it today.

She said, I heard you talk about Piranesi.

But she couldn't make out the name.

So P-I-R-A-N-E-S-I-Piranesi.

Thank you.

That's the name of the book.

Someone specifically requested that you do that.

So I think that's

really good.

It's the name of the book, and it's excellent.

No, thank you for the book recommendations.

There can never be too many.

I'm not saying I can read them all immediately, but that's, I will always welcome those.

I knew our listeners would come through with that.

Yeah.

No, but I feel like it's time to, so we need to talk about medicine again, but let's ease into it.

There is a...

Not capital M medicine.

We need to talk about lowercase M medicine.

Lowercase medicine popular medicine is what this that's a thing that's been invented.

Pop med.

Popular medicine.

Pop med.

Which makes sense.

There's popular science, right?

Yeah.

Except, do you know what I think is hard?

What?

I feel like.

I would argue our show is popular medicine, by the way.

In the terms that you are talking about popular science, our show is absolutely popular medicine because we are talking about a layman's understanding of the topic.

Okay.

But when you say that about, when I think of the concept popular science, I think like, oh, this is science you're going to think is cool.

And I'll break it down for you because it has some application or importance or meaning in your life.

We're just interesting, right?

Yeah.

That's popular science.

I think the problem is that popular medicine, it has not necessarily been real.

Yeah.

I feel like popular medicine includes a lot of pseudoscience.

No, but I'm refusing to cede it.

I am claiming Sawbones is the world's number one pop med podcast.

You have no idea.

What?

You have no idea.

I do.

I've done my research.

So the number one pop podcast on the planet.

And we are not ceding the term to the phonies and the hooksters and the jive artists and the con artists and the grifters and the shifters and all of them.

Okay.

All right.

Now you can find a lot of those if you're looking for them.

So the grifters, you're telling me.

On TikTok.

Open a window.

Oh, yeah.

On TikTok too.

Yeah.

Not for much longer.

No, no, no.

No.

I felt like that this was, it was important that we recognize

some of the contributions that TikTok has made since we may possibly be seeing

Tikaway.

I don't know.

I'm going to say this.

I cannot speak to the whole of TikTok, nor would I.

No.

Nor would I.

But here's what I will say.

I think

in terms of understanding of accurate medical concepts,

TikTok

dying may be a net positive.

In terms of our global understanding.

Listen,

I know what you're saying, and

a lot of people had that same sentiment about Twitter dying.

I've seen a lot of great parenting advice on TikTok, too.

So I don't know.

That's what I'm saying.

There were a lot of things I learned back when Twitter was Twitter.

And I missed them when it went away.

I'm not saying there wasn't toxicity that I was happy to, you know, not have to engage with, but it's the same with TikTok.

I learn a lot of things and I also laugh a lot.

There's a lot of funny people on TikTok.

Now you're leaping into a full-throated defense of TikTok that we swore we would not.

I'm not going to do that.

I want to talk to you about the seven-second poop trick.

Oh,

I did.

Huh?

And when I say thank you, Melissa, who sent us this recommendation, I think I'm thanking you.

It's a thank you

for it.

No, I appreciate it.

Cause how this is what TikTok does.

It brings you the seven-second poop trick.

It did.

Maybe.

It did.

I don't know.

we'll see and um

you know

this was harder to research than you would think right it's a tick tock thing and there is also videos on other platforms so you would think that would be pretty easy to find

also it's called the seven second poop trick it's already ingrained yeah like it feels like something you could google and just very quickly just get yeah know everything about get the whole deal this one was a little tougher oh yeah there's a lot of different seven second poop tricks also it's only seven seconds.

So you would think, like, once you did find it, it would probably only take you about seven seconds to learn about it.

A minute to learn lifetime to master, they say.

No, seven seconds.

Seven seconds.

Seven seconds.

The idea that you're going to learn it in seven seconds is extremely, extremely generous.

There's probably a lot of training that goes into it.

You know, a high dive only takes seven seconds.

It's the seven years building up to it where you practice wetness and dryness and all the different stages.

Do you think that's part of the training for high diving is wetness and dryness?

Yeah, like different, the way the effects are different in different sort of environments because when you're diving you never know when you're going to go from dry to wet but that that transition is essential i think they know it's when they hit the pool also the they have to practice rolling out of the pool in cool ways because a lot of people the camera's cut away but when you get out of the pool everyone's got a signature climb out that they do You said rolling out of the pool.

They usually do that.

It's more of a flop and then they'll just kind of roll just like I like the same way I get out of the pool every day.

They don't kind of roll on a flop.

They've got way more muscles than we do.

Seven second poop trick.

Yes.

So the Melissa sent a video that was helpful to get me on to start my journey.

Yeah.

And it's interesting because it's a video that is about the hack and it's labeled the seven second poop trick.

And so then you watch this user go through the whole video.

but you don't actually get the hack.

Oh, you hate that.

Don't you hate that?

Hate that.

That happens a lot.

I hate that.

I find that very frustrating.

So the story, I think, is part of understanding this.

And this story became something I heard a lot in my research.

So this very nice woman in the video explains that back in 2019, her mom had to go to the hospital, was rushed to the hospital for severe constipation.

A fart attack.

Constipation.

You're not necessarily farting if you're constipated.

That is true.

That's true.

And in this case, you probably wouldn't be because it sounded like she was saying her mom was obstipated.

Obstipation, it just means you're so constipated, you're blocked up.

Okay.

But you're obstructed.

It's an obstacle.

It's an obstacle to pooping.

Yes.

So she was completely blocked up.

She'd gone to the, and she says she had gone to the dock a few times leading up to this.

The timeline's a little weird.

At first, she says, after three days, which we generally don't have to go to the hospital if we haven't pooped in three days.

So I'm.

I would.

Really?

You would go to the hospital?

If i didn't poop in three days i would go to the hospital because something has gone terribly wrong this is a you thing terribly wrong this is not a medical i'm absolutely not day two i'm like standing outside like

i don't know maybe i should squeak it in this afternoon this is not widely applicable okay so she had gone to the doc a few times and they had given her some things to try like prune juice fiber supplements they prescribed her some laxatives the usual stuff.

Now, in this, I will say on a side note, she says that at first the doctor told her to try fiber supplements and castor oil.

Okay.

And that for me was a bit of a red flag in terms of like how valid is whatever medical thing I'm about to hear that

the doctor prescribed castor oil.

Okay.

Because we don't, I mean, and now let me say this.

There are a lot of weird people in this world and some of them are doctors.

That's true.

And they very may well have gone to a doctor and the doctor said, take castor oil.

I believe that.

I've heard a lot of stuff out there.

But that is not an evidence-based treatment for constipation.

Yes.

If you went to medical school in the 1800s, maybe.

Maybe.

But

that's not something that, I mean, for me, when I hear that, like the doctor told me to take castor oil.

I'm at least going to raise an eyebrow.

It's possible.

I'm not saying it's not true.

It's possible.

But again, that's, we don't use castor oil standardly in the treatment of constipation or anything.

So anyway, her mom tried all this stuff.

And finally, she was in such pain that she had to go to the hospital.

And according to the user, the patient had 20 pounds of poop surgically removed from her colon.

According to this story,

there's lots of imagery in all these.

I watched watched a lot of videos.

No, thank you.

No, no, no.

I gotta tell you.

No, listen, what they do is they have like sort of diagrams of intestines.

Do you do grams?

I can't.

I'm not, I will not give you a laugh for that.

I refuse.

I refuse.

No.

All right.

So they have a lot of diagrams of intestines and

they're sort of showing, like, see, look, it's blocked here or whatever.

But then to like evoke the thought of poop, they have like

other things being pushed through tubes.

So like a big muddy ditch or sorry, say it five more times.

It's very sorry, sorry.

Sorry, if you could say five more times.

What is it they use?

Big muddy ditch.

To represent the

colon and poop.

And sometimes it's like just like one of those industrial, like something being compressed with a, like, you know, the kids like those ASMR videos where they just crush things

with a thing.

We all know know what you're talking about.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, it's weird the things people are like, we'll show a bunch of pictures of that.

Yes.

There it is.

We'll show a bunch of pictures of that while we're talking about poop because we can't show you poop, but we'll show you this.

And you get it.

You get it.

Anyway.

And then there's Subway surfers just like in the corner.

But then she says that this is actually a very common problem that you might be walking around with 10 to 20 pounds of poop in your colon.

No.

And that she knows the secret.

And then eventually you get to the end of the video and she's like, click the button at the bottom of the video.

Right.

Heartbreaker.

Now, here is what was hard for me.

So, first of all, I initially watched that.

And then I was like, well, I'm going to go try to find out about this.

And I didn't click the button because I'm not going to do that.

I never clicked the button.

Very smart.

I don't click the button.

Don't click the button.

But then I couldn't, I was having trouble finding an answer.

So you went back to the button.

So I went back to click the button, but there wasn't a button.

So in that video.

So there was a button before.

There wasn't now.

No, I just hadn't, I assumed it was in the comments.

And so I went to the comments to look for the button and there was no button.

And so then I start like trying to find

other videos or other platforms of this original video to find the button.

So is it like the button you're worried might have been lost in the editing process?

At some point, they had a button at the end of the video that you're thinking maybe got cut off.

And now this poor lost.

Poop trick vid is just wandering around.

Is that the reality you've constructed for me, Squid?

I don't know.

Like, you've, you've, it's just an orphaned poop trick.

Like, we lost this.

This is lost knowledge.

This is gone.

We've lost this trick.

Tell me, reclaimed it.

I was watching it on TikTok, and I think this video exists on like YouTube and Facebook Reels and all over different platforms, right?

And so, like, I'm watching it on TikTok, and I get, and I'm like down at the bottom of the TikTok looking like there's no.

That's how they're getting rid of TikTok.

There's no buttons.

Starting with the buttons.

That's how they're banning it.

They're starting at buttons first, and then they're working backwards.

Yeah.

There may be something like that where it just starts to slowly fail.

But anyway, I, so I'm like down at the bottom of the video, like, where is there a button?

And then I click on the little round circle in the bottom right of the video, but that's just the sound in the video.

Right, that's the video.

It's what I've got people who've heard the tale of the poop trick, but do not possess the knowledge that this is where you realize that as much as I do enjoy TikTok, I only have a very surface-level understanding of what is happening, other than how to swipe up and down through the videos.

I've got that part.

Anyway.

I i don't like on tick tock when you're scrolling through your friend's videos and they seem to have made a video that is very funny but then really it's not them they're just reuse someone else's funny sound i don't enjoy that you don't enjoy that i think everyone should come up with their own funny sounds

You did famously take a sound that you didn't make and put it on TikTok.

Yes, it went viral.

Yes.

Yes, that's correct.

That is sort of a meta

level to what I was saying there that I did realize until the end.

Okay, so as I'm looking for, I can't find the button, so I keep looking for more videos.

I really didn't think so much of this episode would be about you trying to find the trick.

And I, yeah, I mean, it was hard.

I'm going to get to the, I'm going to tell you the trick.

I know this feels like I'm doing what the videos did.

I'm going to get to the trick.

And then

getting bonus tricks.

There's lots of tricks.

Right after the Billy Department.

But it was wild because I found videos where there, first of all, there was the same user sort of retelling the story in different ways.

Only sometimes she was the one who had the surgical poop emergency and other times it was a family member.

So that is not that weird for TikTok, right?

So TikTok doesn't want to punish like, and a lot of algorithms like this.

You're not necessarily trying to create the best version of it where you think it's the best version of an ad, right?

What you're doing is the version of like what you'd see in newspaper headline or online headlines was like A-B testing where they would put up two different versions of the headline headline and the one that got the most clicks, they would

generally let the other one sort of die off and they'd start using the one that got more clicks, right?

This is a similar thing with TikTok creators who are trying to sell stuff where like they'll oftentimes create many different versions of the same one because they don't know algorithmically what's gonna cl'cause it's not about like what's most fun to watch the whole thing, right?

It's like what hooks you in those first like half a second, what the algorithm's gonna support, you know?

I've seen I've seen a lot of people do that that seem to be like the same content just repeated over and over again hoping that something gets picked up but it's but what's hard is that if you were if this is supposed to be a medical story and you are telling it in first person this happened to me it should be pretty much the same time every time you tell it well and if you change it then it immediately becomes apparent that it's not true Yeah.

Or at least, I mean, why am I, why do I believe any version of it is true if there's multiple versions of it?

So then I don't know what's true.

Right.

And then why doesn't that undermine your confidence in the advice that's going to follow?

I would think.

So I also found other users telling pretty much the same story, like very clearly other users.

Like, yeah.

And so like the story, again, the details get shifted around a little bit each time, but more or less that somebody tries a bunch of stuff for constipation, goes to the hospital.

They have 10, 20.

In one case, this guy was like, there were 40 pounds of poop in my intestines.

A lot.

Yeah.

And that he

also, and some of them start to make other wilder claims because like, you feel awful.

It It feels awful, which is true.

Like, that's a very easy thing to say.

Like, when you're really constipated, it feels bad.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

Fair.

But then he's like, also, that constipation can cause diabetes or dementia or alternative colitis or there's all kinds of serious conditions.

Also, maybe there's a parasite hiding in there and you could get serious infections.

Also, at one point, if I have a parasite, why do I have all this poop?

Well, there's different, that's another episode.

But then also there are things like, at one point, he's like, also, it makes you look like you weigh more than you do.

Like that gets thrown in there.

And I'm like, wow, they're just hitting everything here.

They're like anything that people might click on.

No, I will.

I can't say scientifically about the appearance, but I will say from a, from a technical perspective, he is true.

I mean, those pounds of poop are in there.

But that part of it is.

There is not.

Okay.

You do not have 40 pounds of poop.

I know that, but I'm saying if you did, it would be in you.

I did enjoy.

I saw there was somebody who said they were a surgeon commenting on one of the videos who was just like, there is no possible way.

Just like very angrily.

I don't know if they were a surgeon or not, but it did feel to me that the way a surgeon would approach this.

I have to keep doing this.

This is the dumbest that, like, we know it's dumb.

We have to keep doing that, though.

Just keep putting true stuff out.

Okay.

So I still haven't gotten to the seven second poop trick and we are going to have to take a break now.

And that did feel like a...

I knew you were going to do it.

I love you so much.

I'm taking you.

I want you to experience the journey i went on listeners i want you to you're coming with me on this journey that's good barnum you got them you get you hooked these suckers see you after see after the the capitalism

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okay welcome back city you're finally going to teach me this trick i know i know i feel really bad that was not intentional i just uh I just want I was trying to give this I think it's interesting that it's this hard to find yeah um and I will say that okay let's get to the trick and then I'm going to talk about why I think there's a, there's a culture ripe for this.

Here is the trick.

And I found as I went through, there were a lot of different seven-second poop tricks out there.

So initially, and I'm going to walk you through what I thought each one was until I get to what I think might be the real answer.

Okay.

If any of them are real.

Some were very surface level.

Like you click on a seven-second poop trick and it's just selling you a supplement, right?

Some were very clearly like, okay, this is just clickbait.

Like here's some fiber pills.

Here's a powder, whatever.

Okay.

I'm going to say, also, if it takes you seven seconds to swallow a pill, I don't know what you're doing.

You need a few seconds to build up the courage or what?

A lot of them are like, sprinkle this powder on your food before you eat it.

Again, I could do that in two seconds.

No problem.

There is a lot of

very specific belly massages out there that claim to be the seven-second poop trick.

Like rub your belly in this way, or you can go to someone who specializes in belly massages to get things moving inside the belly.

And these are not, I should say.

very good for that.

I've heard

tummy rubs.

He does, he does tummy rubs.

Well, and let me just say that this is separate from there is in osteopathic manipulative therapy, OMT, which is practiced by doctors of osteopathy.

There are specific, I've seen people do this.

I've had colleagues who are DOs, who are trained in specific maneuvers where you do put your hands on someone's abdomen and do certain things to try to encourage constipation to be relieved.

That's not what I'm talking about.

This is not me throwing shade on OMT.

These are just like rub your stomach this way kind of massages, right?

Like no one is claiming any expertise in these videos.

If anyone has a degree, they're not talking about it.

Yeah.

It's just rub your belly.

There was another user who just said, oh, well, the seven-second hack is that you just lean over while you're on the toilet and strain really hard for seven seconds.

Heck yeah, dude.

Heck yeah, dude.

Just don't

push it to eight or you'll rip in half.

Like, what do you mean?

If that was a trick, first of all

everyone who's ever been constipated has tried that for at least for seven at least for seven i hope you haven't quit after six seconds and be like there's no hope but the but the other thing is we we very specifically encourage you not to strain yeah and so that would obviously not that didn't make sense to me there was another one um a user who demonstrated well still clothes and everything a hack where okay you if you can imagine this you sit on the toilet okay

and then you cross one leg over another.

I don't know if it matters which way, this is not specified, and then you kind of turn your body,

I don't move away from the mic, turn your body around

in the direction you crossed your leg

and put your like opposite hand on the wall behind you.

So, like, I'm demonstrating that I've crossed my left leg over my right, I'm reaching over my right shoulder with my left hand, and she's gonna keep her mouth pointed at the microphone, and I'm gonna touch the wall behind me while pooping.

And that's going to help me.

That's everyone.

And I guess that might take you seven seconds just to like.

It took you 20 to just describe it.

I mean, I would think so.

What else you got?

Okay.

There was another one who, this was somebody who I think practices acupuncture.

And this one, actually, I found several articles that claimed that this is the seven second poop trick, what was described in this video.

I do not think this was the original seven-second poop trick.

I think this is a copycat.

I'm sorry.

Seven-second poop trick.

Yeah, there's just no way that the seven seconds is seven seconds where you're getting needles shoved into you.

Oh, well, it's not acupuncture.

It's acupressure.

Oh, right.

Okay.

So this person,

this person does practice acupuncture, but they have an acupressure spot where in seven seconds you could apply that pressure.

Except as now, let me just say, as Justin is saying this, he's pushing on his belly as if he assumed that the acupressure spot would be somewhere in the abdomen.

I know.

It is not.

So I know that that is actually not the way acupressure works because it's more like energy chi-based, right?

So it's more sort of the reflexology mapping idea.

Exactly.

Now, this one is not feet.

I know a lot of people think reflexology immediately.

I just meant that the connection between the geography and the energies.

Exactly.

So what this trick tells you to do, and this was, like I said, I found several like

popular med articles out there that were like wellness bloggers and people wrote where they were like, this is the seven second poop trick.

This is not the original.

I think that that must have started trending seven second poop trick and other people just

started, you know, tagging on to it.

Anyway, in this trick, so you take your hands, make them into two fists.

Okay.

And you're going to put them like thumbs towards each other.

Put them together.

Okay.

And rub them for seven seconds.

That's it.

And that's going to make you poop.

Okay.

Okay.

I got to go.

So finish on your own.

That one, it was interesting because they, like, for one of the articles, they, like, interviewed a GI doc to say, like, what do you think?

And it's, I mean, I can, I can't even imagine having to be like, I have no, why I don't,

I mean, like, is this harmful?

No, I don't know if that's, you can do that.

And it's seven seconds out of your day.

I guess you might, if, you know, but

anyway.

Um, and then there was another one that I enjoyed where, um, the person doing the video has like a model, basically.

They're using another person to demonstrate this on.

and they have someone laying down on their back stomach exposed like abdomen exposed and he says draw like not literally draw but you know make a diagonal line between the navel and your right hip so like if you imagine there's a line from there to there the middle of it put your fingers there and massage for seven seconds and what he says you're doing is that that is the iliosequal valve

that it's connecting your small and large intestine and it's blocked.

And so by massaging it, you're opening it.

And he says, and if it doesn't work the first time, don't worry.

Just keep doing it about twice a day, every day, until you poop, which I love it because

probably you will.

I mean, most of the time constipation relieves itself.

Like, yes, occasionally people do need to go seek medical attention, but most of the time you're constipated and then it alleviates.

So probably you could do this twice a day for a couple of days and then you would poop.

It would almost certainly have nothing to do with this, but yeah, whatever the seven seconds were right before that happened, that's your seven second trick.

What I finally found was on another GI Health sort of blog website where they like collect different topics and articles and then people write about them.

And I finally found there what I think was the original description of the video.

I think what happened is the original video was an ad that got like, I assume eventually they just don't run anymore, right?

Like you pay for them.

So I think the video that I couldn't find the button for was an ad.

Oh, okay.

And that it was gone.

And so I can't find the ad, which maybe tells us all we need to know.

It's an ad.

But here is the step-by-step guide to the original, I think, seven-second poop trick.

I don't want to make, I am not like a great internet in terms of the history of the internet and chasing down videos.

I'm good at medical research.

When it comes to this area of research, I know there are people out there who are really great at it, right?

Like tracking down where did those weird internet ideas, memes, trends, where did it come from?

Not necessarily my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure this is the original seven-second poop trick.

I'm ready.

So Dr.

Sam came up with this, who is a GI doc, according to the literature around it.

I don't know any of this to be true or false.

I'm just reporting to you what is written.

So first, you're going to drink a full glass of room temperature water upon waking in the morning.

Okay.

Okay.

You can, that is noted later, you can add some apple cider vinegar to this.

And there's an entire argument for why this might be helpful to you.

But the important thing is drinking the room temperature water.

Okay.

Second, while you're still in bed, you're going to do some stretches to increase blood flow, reduce muscle stiffness, and support your digestive system.

So stretch.

Drink water, stretch.

Right.

Number three, there's a specific yoga pose, which is usually referred to as the wind-relieving pose.

That makes sense if you.

I'm looking looking at a picture of it.

It's kind of like you lie on your back with your

knees brought into your chest.

Yes.

Kind of like when Austin Powers pretends to be a nut inside the nut.

There you go.

Yeah, like that.

What you're trying to do is compress your colon and release gases.

Squeeze it out.

And squeeze it out.

You're trying to squeeze it out.

Yeah.

And then do some

breath work, basically.

Do some diaphragmatic breathing.

There's some specific techniques that are recommended to do, but it's basically relaxing your body, increasing oxygenation,

doing some breathing work.

Okay.

I mean,

if you did that every day,

poop or not, I think you'd be living a happier life.

I bet you'd be a little bit happier if we all started our days this way.

I think we would all be killing it.

I thought this was very, it was disappointing to me how mundane the seven-second poop trick turned out to be because I agree with you.

There's nothing, I mean, I, we could talk about apple cider vinegar for an entire episode because we did.

We did a whole episode last episode.

And I, you know, we said it in the episode before, and I would say it again.

There really is no evidence that taking a teaspoon or tablespoon or whatever you're drinking in the morning of apple cider vinegar is having some sort of impact on your health, positively or negatively, really.

I can't, I don't have evidence to claim either.

So if you like the taste of it, okay.

But the water, water is important.

It's important to drink water to stay hydrated stretching is good

you know doing things like yoga that that are that stretch and strengthen your body that get you moving that make you feel more relaxed and centered these are all positive things there's nothing wrong with any of that advice breathing work i mean these are all i i would say that that probably all takes more than seven seconds yeah i mean you're really chugging that water yeah if you're if you're drinking an entire glass of water and all this in seven seconds do each of these things in seven seconds it's like several seven seven seconds, you know?

Yeah.

Seven seconds of water drinking, seven seconds of stretches, seven seconds of Austin Power yoga, seven seconds of deep breathing.

You know what I mean?

And then you just like sit on the toilet.

It's really, it's really interesting because if it was an ad, there had to have been something to sell.

Right.

Now, I don't know what that original product was.

I can imagine that there are, I don't know, but I could imagine that it could be some sort of gut health supplement.

There's lots of those out there, right?

Things that people sell that tell you that they support gut health.

It could be a book or some sort of video series, something that you're like teaching you techniques, possibly.

I don't know.

I don't know.

We're operating completely in the theoretical year.

It could be a one-act play.

I mean, I don't know.

It could be a serial.

Well, but it's interesting because when I hear seven-second poop trick, I think, well, oh, this is not.

Well, no, I don't.

Yes, it's funny, but I also think like, well, that's not real.

Like immediately, just the title of it makes me think you're just going to try to get me to buy something.

The first time that you heard there's a special stool that you put your feet on to poop better, you probably thought that was pretty silly.

Silly true, too.

And there are, there are advantages to different positioning while you're going to the bathroom.

As you reference, the squatty potty.

A stool that you put your feet on to kind of bring your knees up higher as you poop can be beneficial if you're, to help keep you from straining, because like we said, we don't want you to.

Why is this out there?

We've done an episode on constipation before, but I will say that everything they're drawing on in these videos is old stuff.

We have been obsessed with pooping as long as we've been pooping as a species.

And so always.

I think that it feels bad to be constipated.

And so we seek solutions for it.

That's normal.

The idea that if you don't go to the bathroom regularly, that the stuff building up inside you is creating some sort of like toxic milieu that will make you sick.

That's a really old idea and has been blamed on all.

I mean, like all kinds of different illnesses have been blamed blamed on constipation through the years.

We've done a whole episode on Kellogg, who, among many terrible, terrible acts and deeds, was also obsessed with constipation and obsessed with the dangers to your health of not pooping and prescribed all kinds of things to alleviate it.

We know that there are real medical conditions.

that can cause you to be severely constipated or obstipated and it does need to be addressed.

And as always, if you are somebody who is regularly fighting this problem, please go talk to your provider and figure out if there's something else you need to be doing.

For most of us, constipation is something you just occasionally get irritated by and then it alleviates on its own.

And it's certainly not causing all of these other diseases.

And fixing it is not the cure-all that I think a lot of people claim it to be.

So the best advice is probably not too different from the seven-second poop trick.

Hydration is important.

A well-balanced diet with fiber in it is important.

And also staying active.

I think a lot of times constipation becomes something we struggle with more, maybe as we become less active in our life.

It's associated a lot with becoming elderly.

Not all elderly people are sedentary, but if you have pains and arthritis and stuff, it can get harder to be up and moving.

And just being active can help, not necessarily even in exercise, but just getting up and moving regularly can be helpful.

But that is the seven second poop trick.

Or at least one of them somewhere in there is the seven second poop trick.

You will find a lot of them out out there.

I think that this is just if something's catching,

everybody wants to get on that poop bandwagon.

Hey, thank you so much for listening to our podcast.

We hope that you are

hanging in there, and we really appreciate you coming back and visiting with us every

single week.

We hope that you are happy to be here as well.

Thank you so much to Maximum Fun for having us as a part of their podcasting family.

Also, thanks to the taxpayers.

Speaking of the taxpayers

who did make our intro song, they have a new album coming out called Circle Breaker that's coming on March 25th.

You can follow them on Instagram, V underscore taxpayers.

That's exciting.

That's going to do it for us for this week until next time.

My name is Justin McElroy.

I'm Sydney McElroy.

As always, don't drill a hole in your head.

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