No Poop July
No Poop July is a TikTok trend promoted by the influencer Okcron. Multiple news articles urged TikTok users to not seriously do this trend, with a doctor stating “It’s a funny thing to joke about, but it’s a potentially serious thing to do”. A total of 130 million views came from a trend-based hastag, #NoPoopJuly. The challenge also tripled in popularity since its last editions.

 Trend 
The trend involves young influencers (mostly aspiring ones) to hold their bowel movements while online crowds cheer them on, with the trend being recognized as a joke. The trend is included in month-related trends like No Nut November, No Fap September, and Dry January. The young influencers are also shown to have pretend neck strains and flushed skin. The recognized background music for this trend is the Meg & Dia's song Monster.

The trend went popular as early as 2020, with editions every year after. A Google Trends search hears the popularity surge every year, limited to the month July. The trend tripled in popularity since the original version in 2022. In the same year, a noticeable 130 million views came from the hashtag #NoPoopJuly.

 Controversy 
After the 2022 edition of the challenge, multiple news sources talked about the TikTok trend, with multiple doctors pushing against it. Dr. Austin Chang, a popular TikTok influencer and a gastroenterologist said “Obviously, we hope that no one takes it seriously", "Honestly, people who have regular, normal functioning GI tracts are not going to have this issue, because their body is going to want to get rid of their waste," he said. "So it's not like they have a choice in holding it in."

 Other renditions 
In 2018, a man in England stated that he would "hold back nature" for 40 days so that police wouldn't arrest him after swallowing some drugs. He reportedly exceeded his goal for 8 days. Four years later, in 2022, Cherine Docherty didn't poop for a month with hospital treatment. The reason was that a strange bowel movement caused Docherty to be unable to defecate. A special medication allowed her to defecate for a few weeks, until the medication stopped working.

 See also 

 No Nut November - Similar TikTok challenge
 Dry January - Another similar TikTok challenge
 Blackout challenge - Deadly TikTok trend which claimed the lives of seven children.

 References 

Category:TikTok