ARE you suffering from hemorrhoids? Don’t panic, you’re not alone. Hemorrhoids are among the most common form of all health ailments, striking an estimated eight of 10 of us throughout our lifetimes. Two-time Oscar winner Elizabeth Taylor had them. So did Alfred the Great and German philosopher Karl Marx. Indeed, hemorrhoids are so common, they’ve been with mankind for centuries. No one, it seems, is sparred from the pain and discomfort they bring.
The problem of hemorrhoids is so widespread that Russian author Nikolai Gogol was shocked to learn “there was not one man in Saint Petersberg free from this nuisance.” French Emperor Napoleon couldn’t ride his horse because of them and the distracting pain contributed to his crushing defeat at Waterloo. The African explorer David Livingstone reportedly died due to hemorrhoids.
Hemorrhoids are the most common disorder affecting the rectum (the last part of the large intestine) and the anus (the opening from the rectum). They occur when hemorrhoidal veins become swollen, irritated, or clotted, often the result of prolonged local back pressure such as that caused by a pregnancy or a job requiring long hours of sitting.
“Hemorrhoids can bleed, typically alter a bowel movement, producing blood-streaked stool or toilet paper,” The Merck Manual of Medical Information explains. “The blood may turn water in the toilet bowl red. However, the amount of blood is usually small, and hemorrhoids rarely lead to severe blood loss or anemia.”
Hemorrhoids that protrude from the anus “may need to be pushed back gently with finger, or they may go back by themselves,” the manual further states. “A hemorrhoid may swell and become painful if its surface is rubbed raw or if a blood clot [thrombus] forms in it. Less commonly, hemorrhoids may discharge mucus and create a feeling that the rectum isn’t completely emptied. Itching in the anal region isn’t a symptom of hemorrhoids, but it may develop because the painful area is difficult to clean.”
In the past, hemorrhoids are an enormous embarrassment. Such is not the case anymore. “Much like varicose veins, those swollen veins in the anus are partially hereditary, but they can also be caused by—and be remedied by—such things as diet and toilet habits,” The Doctors Book of Home Remedies points out.
So stop blushing, sit yourself down on a comfortable pillow, and read what the experts—interviewed by the editors of Prevention magazine health books—say about this common problem.
Strive for soft and easy bowel movements. The most effective strategy against hemorrhoids is to go right to the source of the problem. More often that not, on top of every year-end with hemorrhoids sits a person grunting and groaning. If it’s news to you that passing one’s stools is not supposed to be a long and arduous affair, you’ve likely got hemorrhoids. Huffing and puffing on the toilet provides just the kind of strain needed to engorge and swell the veins in your rectum. Hard stools then make matters worse by scraping the already troubled area. Solution? Drink lots of fluids, eat lots of fiber, and refer often to the following remedies.
- Clean yourself tenderly. Your responsibility to your hemorrhoids shouldn’t end when you’re through moving your bowels. It’s extremely important to clean yourself properly and gently, suggests Dr. John O. Lawder, a nutrition and preventive medicine expert. Toilet paper can be scratchy, and some types contain chemical irritants. Purchase only nonperfumed, noncolored (white) toilet paper, and dampen it under the faucet before each wipe.
Select a kinder, gentler toilet paper. If you’ve never heard of lubricated toilet paper, that’s because it isn’t sold yet. But you can find facial tissues coated with moisturizing cream—and these, says Lawder, offer the most hemorrhoid-friendly backside wipe on the market.
- Don’t scratch. Hemorrhoids can itch, and scratching can make them feel better. But don’t give in to the urge to scratch. “You can damage the walls of these delicate veins,” and make matters much worse for yourself, Lawder says.
- Don’t lift any heavy objects today. Heavy lifting and strenuous exercise can act much like straining on the toilet, says Dr. Edmund Leff, a doctor who specializes on colon and rectal surgery. If you’re prone to hemorrhoids, get a friend to help or hire someone to help you move those heavy objects, like piano.
- Go soak yourself. The sitz bath—sitting with your knees raised in three or four inches of warm water in a bathtub—is a remedy that still tops the list of most experts as a way to deal with hemorrhoids. The warm water helps to kill the pain while increasing the flow of blood to the area, which can help shrink the swollen veins, says Dr. J. Byron Gathright, chairman of the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Apply a hemorrhoid medication. There are many hemorrhoid creams and suppositories on the market, and while they generally will not make your problem disappear (contrary to what the ads may say), most are designed as local painkillers and can relieve some of the discomfort, Gathright says.
- Choose a cream. Select a hemorrhoid cream over a suppository any day, says Leff. Suppositories are “absolutely useless,” for external hemorrhoids, and even for internal hemorrhoids, suppositories tend to float too far up the rectum to do much good, he says.
- Watch your weight. Because they have more pressure on the lower extremities, overweight people tend to have more problems with hemorrhoids, just as they do with varicose veins, explains Lawder.
- Control your salt intake. Sure, you like your bagoong, but it can make your hemorrhoids worse. Excess salt retains fluids in the circulatory system that can cause bulging of the veins in the anus and elsewhere, Lawder says.
- Avoid certain foods and drinks. Some foods, while they won’t make your hemorrhoids worse, can contribute to your anal misery by creating further itchings as they pass through the bowels. Watch out for excessive coffee, strong spices, beer and cola, Leff says.
- Pregnant? Take the pressure off. Pregnant women are particularly prone to hemorrhoids, in part because the uterus sits directly on the blood vessels that drain the hemorrhoidal veins, says Dr. Lewis R. Townsend, a clinical instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. A special hemorrhoid remedy—if you are pregnant—is to lie on your left side for about 20 minutes every four to six hours, Townsend says. By doing so, you decrease pressure on the main vein draining the lower half of the body.
- Give it a little shove. Sometimes, the word hemorrhoid refers not to a swollen vein but to a downward displacement of the anal canal lining. If you have such a protruding hemorrhoid, try shoving it back into the anal canal, Dr. Townsend says. Hemorrhoids left hanging are prime candidates to develop into clots.
Meanwhile, if you’ve always had a healthy bottom and all of a sudden you experience discomfort, it may well be hemorrhoids. It could also be something else. If discomfort is accompanied by itching and you’ve recently returned from a trip abroad, for instance, you might have parasites. You will need medical treatment to get rid of them.
Bleeding from the rectum should always warrant a trip to the doctor, Leff says. “Hemorrhoids can never become cancer, but hemorrhoids can bleed and cancer can bleed,” he explains.
Other times, an enlarged vein in your anus can clot, creating “a big, blue, swollen, hard area that’s very painful,” Dr. Lawder says. In most cases, your doctor can easily extract the clot.