Ever Wonder Why You Have to Go No. 2 in Book Stores? The Poop Doctor Explains the Science.

In case you think they've gone the way of bricks and mortar places like Blockbusters, record stores or travel agencies, books stores still do very much exist. Jeff Bezos might have put them on the Endangered Species list, but they're not extinct yet. I was in one the other day looking for a particular NFL draft resource, and it was crowded. Probably due to the fear that all the Dr. Seuss titles would be gone or maybe the popularity of one particular title:

… but yes, book retailers big and small are still in business. And have always been one of my favorite places to kill an hour while my beguiling Irish Rose is shopping for something boring. 

And while I've never given much thought to the connection between being surrounded by bound and printed works of literature and the need to go No. 2. Until now. Until I came across a scholarly work that explains the phenomena. And now I can't stop thinking about it. 

Apparently it goes back to an influential article published in Japan as far back as 1985. Commonly referred to there as "the Mariko Aoki phenomenon," it has its own Wikipedia page that explains it thusly:

The Mariko Aoki phenomenon (青木まりこ現象, Aoki Mariko genshō) is a Japanese expression referring to an urge to defecate that is suddenly felt after entering bookstores. The phenomenon's name derives from the name of the woman who mentioned the phenomenon in a magazine article in 1985. According to Japanese social psychologist Shozo Shibuya, the specific causes that trigger a defecation urge in bookstores are not yet clearly understood (as of 2014).

Son of a bitch. I'd never put 2 + 2 together on this. But I have to admit, there is something to this. I don't suffer from Public Toilet Shyness, but it's not my favorite thing to drop a deuce in a store either. It's something to be avoided if at all possible. But it occurs to me that some of my most memorable and satisfying moments taking the Browns to the Super Bowl have occurred in book stores. I can't explain it. According to that same Wiki page, some in Japan think it's an urban myth. But I'll be damned if the Mariko Aoki phenomenon doesn't have some merit to it. 

Fortunately, Men's Health magazine has a physician with a very, very specific area of expertise to explain the science behind it. Known to us lay people as The Poop Doctor:

Source - [W]hile Mariko Aoki phenomenon hasn't been medically or scientifically proven, some doctors do say they have anecdotal evidence to support the connection between these quiet spaces and their ability to move your bowels. 

"Oh yes, I've heard about this, and I have patients who've come to see me about it," says Dr. Sameer Islam, MD, a Texas-based gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Texas Tech university.  "It's more common than people realize, and I think people are just embarrassed to talk about it," he says. "I've also heard it called called 'book bowels.' I think that name speaks for itself." We asked Dr. Islam what theories might help explain the strange phenomenon. 

What mechanisms—psychological or otherwise—could explain why this connection exists?
It's a purely psychological problem. Now, the people who experience this aren't crazy or nuts. There's a real connection between the gut and the brain—it's called the gut-brain axis. What we feel mentally will affect our bowels. That's why when you're nervous, like taking a test or giving a public speech, you have butterflies in your stomach. … The intensity of the information that you encounter in museums and libraries—or the sudden quiet of a garden—can trigger an autonomic response in your gut.   …

For "book bowels" specifically, possible theories include the smell of paper or ink having a laxative effect, the nervousness that may arise from all of the books present, the association with reading on the toilet at home, and the posture of browsing making bowel movement easier.  

Oh, what a piece of work is man. Either God or evolution or the aliens who put us here gave us language. We used it to create the written word. The only creatures on Earth capable of it. We make it so we can speak to each other directly across the eons. And yet all that advanced knowledge triggers something deep in our primitive reptile brain that makes us poop. The highest aspirations of our intellect is directly wired to our basest animal bodily functions. Our gut-brain axis. Our books to our bowels. Incredible. 

And now I know I'll never be able to walking into a bookstore or library again without thinking about Mariko Aoki and her phenomenon. Or as George Costanza put it a few years later, "Without the toilet, there would be no books."