Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. Americans as a culture are fairly interested in hygiene, or the country that popularized hand sanitizer, for example, but parts of Europe and Asia have been on the bidet bandwagon for a long time, whereas Americans are apparently fine with cleaning their bottoms less well than other cultures. But why It might have to do with the biday's long and illustrious history, popular in
fancy European households since the sixteen hundreds. The original biday was a little chair or stool with a tub of water built into the seat. The user, after doing all of their chamber pop business, straddled this device and washed themselves off. The word biday means pony in French, which goes a long way in helping the user understand how to use it. Over the centuries, bidays became popular in
at rooms all over the world. Eventually they became a plumbed fixture in the bathroom, sitting right next to the toilet, but they never took off in the US. It's possible that during and after World War Two, American soldiers visiting brothels in Europe and Japan noticed bi days were common in these establishments and began to associate the days with sex work. It's possible they thought bidays were used as a douching method, which was thought at the time to
be a legit contraceptive practice. It's not so. Even though the style of biday most commonly used throughout the world now was developed in the United States, it had to be exported elsewhere to become what it is today. For the article, this episode is based on Hows to work. Spoke by email with Sarah Shearer, owner of Clean Water Bidays in Squim, Washington. She explained the old type of biday, the style that's a separate unit that sits next to
the toilet, is harder to work on. They require a few thousand dollar remodel to install hall and they take up a lot of space. Most Americans only see them when they're on vacation in Europe, but they're still sold. Sometimes. More common these days are the biday seats, an attachment that it fixes to your toilet, replacing your old toilet seat. This device sprays your bone with a jet of water. It can be tap temperature or warmed with an inseat device.
Depending on how much you want to pay. There's a front wash for cleaning the genitals. The biday attachment is less expensive. You can buy a nice one and stick it on your toilet yourself for less than four hundred bucks, and some more basic models for much cheaper. It's also more accessible than a traditional bidat, which requires the user to do their business on the toilet, stand up, scooch over to the biday and sit back down to do
the freshening up. A shearer said. The first rudimentary bidday attachment was created in the US in the nineteen twenties. It didn't get very popular in America, but it really caught on in Asia, where it's been engineered into what it is today. In Japan, for instance, biday attachments can be found in eight percent of homes and in public restrooms. Most are produced in South Korea and some in China.
Using a biday may sound like a difficult process and could be a bit intimidating at first, but it's really quite simple and depends on the type of biday that you're using. You use the toilet as you normally would, both for urination and for defecation. The biday can be used after you wipe with toilet paper or without the use of toilet paper a totally personal preference, So what you do is locate the biday. There are three basic types, standalone,
seat mounted, or wall hanging. For the stand alone type, you must move off the toilet and straddle the biday, either facing the water jet or with your back to it, again personal preference. For the type of biday attached to the toilet seat, locate the controls, which will either be mounted on the wall or attached to the seat itself. The wall hanging type of BIDAY will function much as a handheld shower device. Then when you're finished, by yourself off.
Some bday models have an air drying system, which you'll operate with controls, and which can of course be used in combination with toilet paper should you feel the need. Some models don't include the air dry feature and necessitate the use of toilet paper or towels. Although the days definitely cannot ward off pregnancy or STDs, they can be a healing balmb for other conditions. Shearer said. We see them used most in the US for people who have
a medical need. Crones colitis, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome. The symptoms that make life hard with these conditions can be alleviated with bida seats. General practitioners O b G y n S and occupational therapists send patients to us for a variety of conditions. We have people who used to get urinary tract infections once or twice a month come in and tell this they're down to three or four times a year after getting a bida seat. It
can make an extreme difference. Not only that, but as we age, it's more difficult to keep lean, particularly if we develop arthritis or other rheumatic disease. It makes it harder to maneuver a wipe or wash, and infections like U T e S can be a lot more serious and older patients. Bdays can help with this. A sharer said, for a lot of aging people, the main thing that's going to keep them independent and at home the longest
is their ability to toilet themselves. However, some research has shown that bidats can make some conditions like anal fissures and vaginal bacterial infections worse. If you're experiencing any kind of medical issue, definitely consult a medical care provider before self treating. On another hand, bidats might help the planet. While it's true the bidats use water, it's not as much as a luxurious shower. But the real savings come in when you consider how much toilet paper you don't
have to use if you're using a bi day. Almost of the toilet paper sold in the US comes from the Virgin boreal forests Canada, which cover about six of
the country. They're making the air we breathe in addition to the toilet paper we use, and the American lack of interest in bidays means that although our country accounts for only about four point five percent of the world's population, our citizens use about of the world's toilet tissue, which is why America might need to jump on that biday bandwagon. Today's episode is based on the article getting to the Bottom of the Biday on how stuff Works dot Com,
written by Jescelyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,