WHAT BOOMERS AND GEN X CAN LEARN FROM GEN Z AND MILLENNIALS WHEN IT COMES TO GUT HEALTH AND TOILET HABITS

New York Post

 

What boomers and Gen X can learn from Gen Z and millennials about their gut health and toilet habits

By Rachel Sacks

Published Oct. 29, 2025, 9:02 a.m. ET

 

When it comes to health, it’s good to trust your gut.

 

And some generations trust their guts enough to share all the details.

 

According to one medical expert, baby boomers and Gen X can learn a lot from younger people about stomach health — especially in regards to awkward topics, like problems on the porcelain throne.

 

Dr. Wendi LeBrett (@socalgastrodoc), a gastroenterologist and founding partner and medical advisor of Norms, told The Post that a lot of her older patients would do well to take cues from their kids or grandkids when they visit the doctor.

 

“I find younger patients (Gen Z and Millennials) are more comfortable sharing their gut health issues and seeking care for them — which is a good thing!” she said. “My younger patients also are more engaged in learning about their gut health.”

 

And LeBrett’s not the only one noticing this potty talk trend.

 

According to a survey of more than 2,000 participants conducted by Health.com, Gen Z and millennials are the generations bringing up gut health issues with their doctors.

 

Millennials, in particular, are overwhelmingly candid about their problems, with 55% discussing bathroom topics with their doctors.

 

But LeBrett has also seen hesitancy from all patients, but especially older people.

 

“There is still a stigma about talking about gut health issues such as poop and hemorrhoids for patients of all ages,” she said. “But definitely I notice less embarrassment or shyness among my younger patients.”

 

This stigma surrounding talking about what happens in the bathroom could lead to serious gastrointestinal problems in older generations, according to LeBrett.

 

“Unfortunately, I have a lot of Gen X and Boomer patients who suffer from GI issues for many years but have never felt comfortable discussing with their doctor or have felt ignored by their doctor,” she said.

 

She’s doing what she can to push through that discomfort, tackling awkward topics on her own social media accounts and Norms’ YouTube page.

 

The Health survey also found that those between the ages of 29 and 44 were more likely to take supplements and change their diets to address gut issues.

 

Again, millennials are the top buyers of supplements designed to boost their digestion, with 23% leading probiotic sales.

 

There’s certainly been a growing interest in gut health supplements like probiotics and prebiotics, with the digestive health products market seeing an 8% increase.

 

While millennials and Gen Zers are leading the charge on discussing toilet habits, LeBrett hopes more patients feel confident talking about what happens in the powder room.

 

“As a medical community we are getting better [at] providing more integrative care for gastrointestinal issues such as IBS and related conditions,” she said. “My hope is that patients feel more comfortable seeking care for this.”

THE EVOLUTION OF MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS

This article was really interesting. It included so many products and facts I did not previously know about. I wonder what it would have been like if the extraction method had taken hold.

Also, abortion is never safe. Additionally, only women get periods and, as a matter of fact, people are only either male or female: there is no such thing as a trans man or a nonbinary person. 

LIFE OF THE LAW: THE DIAPER WARS

Companies always try to make us think they've now got the next best thing as part of their product, and this seems especially noticeable when it comes to disposable diapers. This podcast looks at the patent wars of the eighties and nineties between Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark over Pampers and Huggies. It would have been nice had the episode explained why the court ruled the way it did, but it's still an interesting listen.

Indeed, nothing provokes the earnestness or the, I think, fascination of diapers. We all wore them and they force us to confront an aspect of being human most of us (though, granted, society's attitudes have changed a lot in the last couple decades) don't want to talk about. There's a reason they didn't do "The Instant Camera Wars" or "The Sewing Machine Wars." 

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER BROKE A TELEVISION TABOO BY SHOWING A TOILET 68 YEARS AGO

PEOPLE

 

Leave It to Beaver Broke a Major Television Rule by Showing This Household Item for the First Time, 68 Years Ago

By Angela Andaloro  Published on October 15, 2025 11:11AM EDT

 

Leave It to Beaver's first episode sparked concerns with network executives.

 

What was supposed to be the pilot episode of the beloved sitcom, which aired from 1957 to 1963, was shelved for a week after CBS pushed back against one of the plotlines. The episode, titled "Captain Jack," shows Wally and Beaver try to order themselves an alligator, only to be sent an eight-inch baby alligator.

 

In seeking out information on how to care for the reptile, they learned he needed to be in water, but were keeping him a secret from their parents, Ward and June. The boys decided to keep him in the toilet tank, where he could be safe, but undetected.

 

Showing bathrooms on TV was frowned upon in that era, Jerry Mathers explained in a 2010 interview with the Television Academy. Mathers played the titular son, Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver.

 

"At that time, you not only couldn't show a toilet, you couldn't even show a bathroom on television," Mathers told Fox News in 2014.

 

"It was prohibited. And so they fought with the sensors, and that was our very first show, and they said, 'Well, they could show it in the back of the toilet, the tank, so that was some way that Leave It to Beaver actually set some precedent for the television industry."

 

Hugh Beaumont played father Ward Cleaver and Barbara Billingsley played mother June Cleaver. Tony Dow rounded out the foursome as older brother Wally Cleaver.

 

Recalling his time with his TV parents, Mathers told PEOPLE that the set was a very positive and friendly atmosphere.

 

“Hugh Beaumont was basically a very nice man, but he was also a minister,” he said of his on-screen father, who died in 1982 at 73. “So he kept everybody pretty much on the straight and narrow.”

 

That meant that while the set was still “a good time” and “a lot of fun,” the crew on the show was people who “weren't out drinking every night and coming in drunk," according to Mathers.

 

Mathers’ relationship with Billingsley, who died in 2010 at 94, continued to grow after the series. “She did a lot of charity work,” he remembers. “Every once in a while, she'd call me up and say that maybe she was not feeling so well that day, could I help her? And I'd go around different places that I'd never been before and help out with whatever organization she worked with.”

 

Mathers was just 8 years old when he joined the series, which continues to run to this day in syndication.

 

“It was fun all the time. I could have had to go to school and stuff like that, but it was just a lot of fun and a lot of nice people, so there wasn't really any bad part to it,” Mathers added.

DEAR ABBY: MY HUSBAND BLAMES ME FOR HAVING MY PERIOD

New York Post

 

UK cops show up at Trump-supporting cancer patient’s home to force her to apologize for ‘offensive’ Facebook post

By Anthony Blair

Published Sep. 18, 2025, 4:48 p.m. ET

 

An American cancer patient living in the UK accused British cops of questioning her over an allegedly “threatening” message she’d posted on Facebook as part of the UK’s crackdown on online speech.

 

Shocking video shows Deborah Anderson, a President Trump supporter and mom of two, being confronted by a police officer in her home in Slough, England, over something she wrote on Facebook.

 

In the clip, which was filmed in June but shared by the pressure group the Free Speech Union (FSU) Wednesday, the officer tells Anderson that her “threatening” Facebook post was reported to police.

 

“You can come in, but you’d better have a damn good reason for being here,” Anderson tells the cop before adding, “I’m a member of the Free Speech Union and I’m an American citizen … I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quickly, your feet won’t touch [the floor].”

 

The Online Safety Act went into effect earlier this year in the UK — a law ostensibly meant to target harmful content online, including posts that are violent or pornographic. But critics say it’s enabled police to stifle free speech and even arrest everyday people for simply retweeting.

 

In Anderson’s case, the officer from the Thames Valley Police didn’t tell her the contents of her allegedly offensive post — just that it had “upset someone.”

 

“You’re here because somebody got upset? Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?” Anderson asked, to which the officer replied that she was not under arrest but asked her to apologize.

 

“I’m not apologizing to anybody, I can tell you that,” Anderson said, to which the officer warned her that she would have to be taken in for an interview.

 

“Are there no houses that have been [burglarized] recently? No rapes, no murders … why aren’t you investigating those?” she asked the officer.

 

“I’m a cancer patient. You can see that because I’m bald … I’m a woman living on my own, who has never broken a law in her life,” she said.

 

Thames Valley Police did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

 

Earlier, a spokesperson for the force said in a statement, “In June, we received a report from a person who felt threatened by comments directed at them online. Following engagement with both parties, no arrests were made, and no further action was taken.

 

“While people are entitled to express their views, it is the police’s duty to respond to allegations of threatening language and references to violence.”

 

Thames Valley Police’s jurisdiction includes Windsor Castle, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump have spent the past two days as guests of King Charles.

 

Trump and Vice President JD Vance have said freedom of expression is under attack in Britain.

 

“Trump and Vance were absolutely right. There should be no doubt that people in Britain are being cautioned, arrested and imprisoned simply for exercising their freedom of speech,” the head of the London-based think tank the Bow Group, chairman Ben Harris-Quinney, told The Post.

 

“Famous comedian Graham Linehan, who moved to the US to escape free speech restriction, was later arrested by armed police on returning to the UK over tweets opposing trans ideology. Many felt the case was dropped so quickly due to [UK Prime Minister Keir] Starmer’s fear of reprisals from the US with the state visit upcoming.

 

“The biggest voice championing free speech in the UK is currently Donald Trump’s,” Harris-Quinney added.

 

“The free speech comments from the White House have caused great concern in the UK,” Maxwell Marlow, director of public affairs at the London-based Adam Smith Institute, told The Post.

 

“Whilst officials and the government do not believe that there is a free speech crisis in the UK — despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary — recent legislation such as the dreadful Online Safety Act have put ministers on the back foot.

 

“It is important for the American government, if they wish to reinforce free speech for the British people, to maintain the pressure on the British government to repeal the impositions on our liberties,” he added.

 

The FSU called the June incident “chilling” in its post about the video.

 

“What was Deborah’s supposed crime? The policeman didn’t tell her. Was it her passionate support of President Trump and the MAGA movement on her Facebook and X pages?” the post read, before saying that police had dropped Anderson’s case after the FSU took it up.

 

“The FSU took on her case and, as a result, the police have now dropped their investigation. But they still haven’t told Deborah which of her posts got her into trouble, claiming they’ve accidentally deleted the record of the complaint,” the post continued.

 

“Thames Valley Police are responsible for guarding President Trump this week. What would he make of the fact that those same officers are visiting the homes of his supporters — including US citizens — and threatening them with arrest,” the post concluded.

THE POLITICS OF CO-ED WASHROOMS

This article is interesting in that the students were at first weirded out by having to use co-ed bathrooms, but later came to accept that everyone does it, even going so far as to have poop partners and shower dates.

PASSENGERS TOLD TO PEE IN BOTTLES DURING MIDAIR EMERGENCY

New York Post

 

Flight from Hell: Passengers told to pee in bottles during travel nightmare

By News.com.au

Published Aug. 29, 2025, 10:29 a.m. ET

 

Originally Published by: News.com.au

 

Virgin is grappling with the fallout of a disaster on board a flight from Bali to Brisbane, after all toilets malfunctioned mid-air and passengers were forced to improvise in humiliating conditions.

 

The ordeal unfolded on Thursday afternoon when Virgin flight VA50 departed Denpasar.

 

The rear lavatory was already out of service, but the six-hour Boeing 737 MAX 8 service was not delayed or cancelled due to limited engineering support in Bali.

 

Midway through the journey, the situation worsened when the remaining two toilets failed completely.

 

“One elderly woman was unable to hold on and suffered the humiliation of wetting herself in public,” a passenger told The Australian.

 

“Midway through the flight, every toilet failed. For the remaining three hours, the cabin crew informed us we would need to relieve ourselves in bottles or ‘on top of whatever was already in the toilet’.”

 

According to the passenger, a foul smell filled the air as urine seeped onto the cabin floor.

 

Virgin Australia confirmed the incident, apologizing to those affected.

 

“A Virgin Australia flight from Denpasar to Brisbane on Thursday evening experienced an issue during the flight which affected the serviceability of the lavatories,” the airline said in a statement.

 

“We sincerely apologize to our guests and thank our crew for managing a challenging situation on board.”

 

The airline said customers would be credited for the flight and contacted directly with updates.

 

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said it had reached out to Virgin following the “distressing event, which constitutes a severe hazard both for crew and passengers”.

 

“Across the board, aviation workers are dealing with increasing risks to their health and safety at work, with an industry-wide trend towards profits over performance,” TWU national assistant secretary Emily McMillan said.

 

“We need to see decisions made in the interest of public and workers, not just prioritize getting planes out to maximise profits at the expense of the community.”