Putting aside any humor often accompanying the mention of the bidet, this personal hygiene appliance embraced by Europeans for cleaning the backside of the body has other uses. Recognized as a late 17th or early 18th century French furniture maker's invention, the bidet originally operated with a hand crank producing the cleansing jet of water through a rubber tube. Popular as a status symbol among the new rich of the Industrial Revolution, 19th century plumbing advances moved the bidet from next to the chamber pot in the bedroom to the bathroom. Increasingly, American upper scale hotel baths include a bidet for function and form. Growing numbers of physically challenged people install this useful fixture while new attitudes in bathroom design include the bidet.
World travelers find signs instructing the use of a bidet.
Pain
Chronic pain sufferers and elderly or other less mobile people find the bidet a helping hand for cleansing the often hard to reach genitalia and rectal areas, particularly after bowel movements. Physically challenged patients find this personal hygiene tool further reduces the risk of dangerous bacterial infections.
Women's Health
Sexually active women use the bidet to cleanse the vaginal area where bacteria too often enter the opening of the urinary tube, causing a bladder or urinary tract infection (cystitis). This same discomforting malady may add to a woman's pain when experiencing vaginal yeast infections. Avoiding a urinary infection becomes more controllable with the use of the bidet to thoroughly cleanse the genital and buttocks area after sex, or while suffering from yeast infections,
Hemorrhoids
Afflicting nearly 75 percent of Americans at least once, hemorrhoids (dilated and swollen veins beneath the tender skin of the anal sphincter) reduce in size with the use of a bidet. The steady diffusion of cooling spray soothes the afflicted area. With continued use, the swelling shrinks around the inflamed membrane, reducing bleeding and irritation of surrounding tissue.
Constipation
Constipation is the inability to have a bowel movement. Working in much the manner as an enema does, the upward spray of a bidet stream with an eight- to 10-minute application of increased water pressure assists relaxing the sphincter muscles controlling bowel movements. With daily use of the bidet, successful and less painful bowel movements follow.
Diarrhea
The bidet soothes and provides practical relief from the debilitating bowel activity called diarrhea (occurrence of multiple loose bowel movements). Tempering the irritation to the rectum caused by the acidic nature of diarrhea is yet another use for the bidet.
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