From Dr. Mercola's newsletter (mercola.com):
You might find the idea of going without toilet paper a bit shocking, but lots of people around the world do it, and there are good technologies available now to replace your toilet or add on to it. It is cleaner and healthier, and saves a lot of water -- making a roll of toilet paper uses 1.5 pounds of wood, 37 gallons of water and 1.3 KWh of electricity.
Many bidet-style toilets or toilet seat add-ons are expensive, but the Blue Bidet is only $69. It can be installed in under half an hour.
Most people find they have no problem using a bidet. Occasionally, a few sheets of paper are needed for drying. To avoid this, you could get an air-drying bidet that would eliminate toilet paper entirely.
Sources:
Treehugger October 1, 2009
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
I love sharing simple, inexpensive technology advances that can make a difference in your life and in the world, and the Blue Bidet is certainly one of them.
In one day Americans use 34 million rolls of toilet paper, which uses massive resources to produce, including:
•221,000 trees
•255 million gallons of water
•88 million pounds of greenhouse gases
•161 million KWH of electricity
Using a Blue Bidet, or any bidet, can reduce this usage by 75 percent. It’s not 100 percent because even with a bidet most people will use a small amount of toilet paper to remove any remaining moisture, however this extra toilet paper can be eliminated too by getting an air-drying bidet.
Even eliminating a few rolls of toilet paper in your household each month could have major implications worldwide when you consider that each roll of toilet paper produced uses:
•1.5 pounds of wood
•37 gallons of water
•1.3 KWH of electricity
•Harmful chlorine, sulfur and calcium carbonate
The Blue Bidet is also worthy of looking into because it can be installed onto any toilet (you don’t have to do any major plumbing in your bathroom) in under half an hour and it sells for just $69, which seems like a reasonable price to pay given the benefits.
Using a bidet is also a simple way to increase your bathroom hygiene, as it’s very easy to contaminate your fingers when wiping yourself with toilet paper -- a risk that is eliminated when you use a bidet. It’s also a gentler form of cleansing if you have hemorrhoids, as rubbing the area with toilet paper can irritate and inflame your skin.
More Healthy Bathroom Tips
While we’re on the topic, I’d like to share another “innovation” I actually had an opportunity to use during my trip to India last year, and that would be: the squat toilet. Interestingly, many places in India do not have regular toilets but just a hole in the floor. When you use a toilet like that, your body will be in the position it was designed to be in when you’re having a bowel movement, which is a squatting position.
I’m certain most Westerners would find this unusual or odd but it actually is very efficient and works quite nicely. They have an empty pitcher on the floor and a faucet above it so you can actually flush the waste down.
When you sit on a regular toilet, you lose a lot of the force that helps with elimination. Now, I’m not suggesting you cut a hole in your bathroom floor; there are other devices you can put around your toilet that will somewhat simulate that squatting position, to help you eliminate with greater ease.
Further, here are four more safe and effective toilet habits:
1.Allow your body to work naturally by using the toilet whenever you feel the urge to have a bowel movement. Go as soon as you feel the need -- delaying can cause or aggravate constipation.
2.Don’t sit on the toilet for prolonged periods. This increases pressure on your rectum, which is not good for you. Limit time on the toilet to three to five minutes per sitting. If necessary, get up, walk around or otherwise distract yourself, and wait for the urge to return before returning to the toilet. You can also use a small footstool while seated on the toilet to elevate your legs and relieve pressure.
3.Don’t strain excessively to have a bowel movement. Exert gentle pressure only, for no more than 30 seconds per attempt, focus on using your abdominal and pelvic muscles.
4.Use a squatting position. Hemorrhoids are rarely seen in countries where people squat for bodily functions. Results of a study published in the late 1980s showed 18 out of 20 hemorrhoid patients had complete and sustained relief from pain and bleeding with use of a squat toilet.

Good one Cheryl :D
I have been squatting for 7 months now...it feels natural.
How are you?

Hi Corsi,
I am doing fine, thanks. Just returned from a cruise to the Western Caribbean with 2 friends of mine. It was nice to be in warm weather, and I told myself that if you could travel with an AF, I would be fine, no matter what happened to me! I posted a recap of my trip on another thread. How are you doing???

I am doing OK, but work and stress are teasing my digestion disease so I have some problems. Not sure what's happening, but it's something. I am a bit confused about it, because I want to work and I am a bit sad because of it it.
Oh yes, I travelled with a really bad fissure and I survived. By the time we went on holiday I was so used to the pain and discomfort so I even enjoyed my vacation
I am so happy you dared to go on that trip, and that you were able to have a nice trip - you deserve it
Was it a one week cruise?
Corsi

Corsi,
We had a 5 night cruise with one night prior to the cruise in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which was also nice--very WARM there. We ate outside at a restaurant, and we had just left colder weather behind here in Central Illinois. It was great to look out of my window there and see palm trees blowing in the wind and sunshine!! If I get some pics from the trip developed, I will post some. I love your new avatar! Is that Corsica????

No it's Norway in my avatar this time. I hope you'll have a relaxing and fine weekend Cheryl
Corsi

That's a beautiful picture in your avatar, Corsi. Maybe you could try meditation and/or deep breathing when you get stressed from your job.
You have a good weekend also! (I'm ready to go on another cruise!)

Bidets and squatting toilets are awesome! I used both when in Europe and Asia and wish we had more of them here. Squatting took a bit of getting used to but once I got accustomed to it, I definitely noticed that "contents" exited the premises with considerably less resistance. Took me some time to get used to pushing so much during BMs when I got back home!
The Blue Bidet looks pretty cool, might have to do that as a weekend project sometime. For only $69 it's a no brainer, thanks for the tip!
On a bit of a tangent, one other thing that's common overseas that I wish we had more of here are the toilets with two flush buttons, one for low water and another that uses more water. I see them in the US here and there but not nearly as frequently as in other countries.

Here's a video on bidets:
http://products.mercola.com/toilet-bidet/?source=nl

Is the Western toilet in part responsible for problems like hemorrhoids, constipation, IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), appendicitis, and even heart attacks?

If you examine the data, there is a great deal of evidence this is true. The modern toilet has required us to change the position we use to evacuate our bowels, which changes the anatomy of… well, a poop, to put it bluntly.

Infants instinctively squat to defecate, as does the majority of the world's population. But somehow the West was convinced that sitting is more civilized.

Sitting on the modern Thomas Crapper-style sit-down toilet is designed to place your knees at a 90-degree angle to your abdomen. However, the time-honored natural squat position places the knees much closer to your torso, and this position actually changes the spacial relationships of your intestinal organs and musculature, optimizing the forces involved in defecation.1

Sitting to evacuate your bowel requires you to apply additional force (straining), which has some unwanted biological effects, including a temporary disruption in cardiac flow.

Can the Toilet Be Blamed for Increasing Rates of Colon and Pelvic Disease?

Squatting is the way our ancestors performed their bodily functions until the middle of the 19th Century. Chair-like toilets were reserved for the royals and the disabled. But the "progress" of westernized societies may be partly to blame for higher rates of colon and pelvic disease, as described by a report in the Israel Journal of Medical Science:2
"The prevalences of bowel diseases (hemorrhoids, appendicitis, polyps, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticular disease, and colon cancer) are similar in South African whites and in populations of prosperous western countries. Among rural South African blacks with a traditional life style, these diseases are very uncommon or almost unknown."

As globalization continues to make its way across the world, squat toilets are being converted to sitters. For example, Thailand's Health Ministry just announced it will replace squat toilets with the sit-down varieties at all public facilities.3 This may be a bad thing for public health, as a wide range of health problems have been associated with the transition from squatting to sitting. In fact, health problems potentially stemming from the sitting position include the 15 outlined in the following table.

Appendicitis
Constipation
Hemorrhoids
Incontinence
Colitis
Crohn's Disease
Diverticulitis
Contamination of the Small Intestine
Gynecological Disorders, including Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Uterine Fibroids
Colon Cancer
Hiatal Hernia and GERD
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Prostate Disorders
Sexual Dysfunction
Reduced Risk of Cardiac Events
The Straight Poop

Evidence suggests bowel and pelvic problems may be related to improper potty posture. Only with the traditional squat position is your body aligned in a way that promotes complete bowel emptying. As you can see from the diagram, squatting actually straightens and relaxes your rectum.

Reference: Tagart REB. The Anal Canal and Rectum: Their Varying Relationship and Its Effect on Anal Continence, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 1966: 9, 449-452.

According to Jonathan Isbit of Nature's Platform:

"For safety, nature has deliberately created obstacles to evacuation that can only be removed by squatting. In any other position, the colon defaults to 'continence mode.' This is why the conventional sitting position deprives the colon of support from the thighs and leaves the rectum choked by the puborectalis muscle.These obstacles make elimination difficult and incomplete – like trying to drive a car without releasing the parking brake.
Chronically incomplete evacuation, combined with the constant extraction of water, causes wastes to adhere to the colon wall. The passageway becomes increasingly constricted and the cells start to suffocate. Prolonged exposure to toxins will often trigger malignant mutations."

He goes on to explain how the kink where your sigmoid joins your rectum (refer to the colon diagram above) serves an important function in continence. It "applies the brakes" to the flow of peristalsis, reducing the pressure on your puborectalis muscle. According to Isbit's article, squatting offers seven advantages:

Makes elimination faster, easier and more complete. This helps prevent "fecal stagnation," a prime factor in colon cancer, appendicitis and IBD
Protects the nerves that control the prostate, bladder and uterus from becoming stretched and damaged
Securely seals the ileocecal valve, between the colon and the small intestine; in the conventional sitting position, this valve is unsupported and often leaks during evacuation, contaminating the small intestine
Relaxes the puborectalis muscle which normally chokes the rectum in order to maintain continence
Uses the thighs to support the colon and prevent straining. Chronic straining on the toilet can cause hernias, diverticulosis, and pelvic organ prolapse
A highly effective, non-invasive treatment for hemorrhoids, as shown by published clinical research
For pregnant women, squatting avoids pressure on the uterus when using the toilet; daily squatting helps prepare pregnant women for a more natural delivery