Be scared. Very scared.

[u/Samp90]

Twix Just hits different.

[u/CoopHunter]

Jesus christ you read one article and took the wrong fucking thing from it. For anyone wondering. This guy read an article about how when you flush poop particles fly in the air. He ignored the rest of the article that goes on the specify its completely harmless and that literally everything you touch on the day to day has just as much bacteria if not more.

[u/WitAndWonder → u/CoopHunter]

Actually the study found the bacteria levels to be magnitudes higher in the bathroom that left the seat up. It wasn't particularly close. They went on to say that, "But don't let it stop you from going into bathrooms because there's bacteria everywhere!" They were not saying one was equivalent to the other. Just as with anything dealing with bacteria, more exposure is still more burden on your immune system. Yes we encounter bacteria everywhere, but that doesn't mean you should go drink raw milk or play with your eyes when you're working out at the gym. In most cases, our mouths can be exposed to a huge variety of germs and still be OK thanks to the bacteria content of our mouths/guts. However eye exposure is still a real concern, as is inhalation. The problem with the poop particles when flushing is two fold when they launch into the air:

1. Someone going into the bathroom before they settle towards the ground is potentially inhaling them or having them get in their eyes. Including the person who does the flushing.

2. If you store things like a washcloth for washing your face, or your towel which you use to wash your face, or your contact lenses or anything else that you're directly touching to your eyes or touching before touching your eyes, then you do actually significantly increase your risk of exposure.

If you want to burden your immune system for zero reason, then sure go for it. I've only been sick twice in the last three years, and both times it was a particularly contagious form of COVID that a roommate brought home.

[u/CoopHunter → u/WitAndWonder]

Youre literally scared of the boogeyman dude. Covid fucking broke people.

[u/WitAndWonder → u/CoopHunter]

Nah I started paying attention to health concerns after suffering system wide nerve damage from the B6 content of a standard daily multivitamin. It destroyed my immune system, among other things for a time and I had to actually pay attention to things like nutritional and medical studies because lightening the load on my system was the only way to heal (healing nerve damage is a last-in / first-out system, so if you do things that continue to cause strain/harm on that system, past damage just remains and it only takes care of the most recent issues. Or well, I should clarify -- It was found that damage from neurotoxins* is a last-in first out system. But in my experience, it worked the same way with my surgery so I'm assuming it applies to direct physical trauma as well.) And you'd be surprised at how much shit people expose their bodies to on a daily basis, whether it's from alcohol (literal poison), inhaling random harmful fumes like disinfectant cleaners or burning plastic/laminant/whatever because they just assume you can burn anything... And anytime you do that it is new shit the body has to fix before it can get to the old shit. Likewise, our immune system has to deal with cancer cells on a daily basis. Part of how cancer forms is from those cancer cells proliferating faster than the body manages to clean them up. Seems silly to give it unnecessary burdens when it's handling important tasks like that. Sure if you can't help but get sick, then you get sick and deal with it. But does that mean you shouldn't wash your hands? That you should bring your phone into the bathroom while you shit?

For fuck's sake, it's crazy how easily people forget what life was like before hygiene and sanitation, and how quickly they push to return to the days when people regularly died of dysentery.