Hahahaha! This is bringing me back to the times I have visited Japan - those squatting toilets, ugh, I absolutely hated them. Toilet water would squish up next to the toilet (on the floor) where it would hit your shoes, you would walk in it, etc. Ew, I don't want to think about this any more!
Enough of that - so the good news is that there is ZERO evidence at all that this causes cancer of any type, including colorectal cancer! Really truly NO reason for this!
If anyone is having so much trouble that the only way you can poop is to strain or to squat all the way down, you definitely have a problem, and it is not because of the way your body is situated. Most of the GI problems in the "western world" are caused by the simple fact that we don't eat enough fruits and veggies or drink enough water. Therefore we put ourselves in the situation where we need to strain because our stool doesn't have enough fiber in it to come out naturally and easily. I always challenge people to truly drink 100+ oz of water a day and eat at LEAST 2-4 servings of fruit and 3-5 servings of veggies each day. If you still need to strain or squat, you need go to a doctor!
Hemmorhoids are actually caused by straining, and aren't specifically prevented by squatting - although moving around into different positions can definitely make it easier to poop which means less straining and therefore fewer hemmorhoids. But again if you are having this many problems just going to the bathroom, you probably need to increase fruit & veggie intake and if that doesn't work, see a doc and get a colonoscopy. Your body is just not supposed to work this way.
Diverticulosis is basically thought to be caused by increasing pressure in the lining of the colon (specifically the lumen), but again, it is also not caused by squatting or not squatting. I like to think of it like a hernia in your colon - the walls weaken and give way under pressure. Like other GI disorders, increasing fiber intake helps prevent this and also helps "treat" it - if you drink a lot of water and eat fiber, the diverticula are happier and don't hurt so much.
FYI - what I was told about the reason they use these kinds of toilets in other countries is that they find it more sanitary to squat rather than to touch their body to something that others have touched. I don't want to discuss my many experiences using these "squat" toilets, but I am glad to say that using our western style toilets does not cause cancer!
Hannah
Hannah K. Vogler
Co-Founder, The Colon Club
cousin of Amanda Sherwood Roberts
dx 1/99 Stage III at age 24
died January 1, 2002 at age 27