Naturally Healing Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are varicose veins in the anus and rectum that can ache and bleed. They are very common. There are some estimates that 50 percent of people over 50 years of age and up to one-third of the total US population have hemorrhoids to some degree.

Hemorrhoids may be internal, within the rectal canal, or external, around the anus. The most common symptom of internal hemorrhoids is bright red blood covering the stool, on toilet paper, or in the toilet bowl. However, an internal hemorrhoid may protrude through the anus outside the body, becoming irritated and painful. This is known as a protruding hemorrhoid. The most common symptom of external hemorrhoids is painful swelling in the form of a hard lump around the anus that results when a blood clot forms, a thrombosed external hemorrhoid.

Hemorrhoids are a distortion of an arteriovenous network surrounding the anus and making bowel control possible. These vascular cushions extend into the rectal canal and prevent stool from escaping between bowel movements. Downward pressure during defecation presses them back against the walls of the rectum, allowing stool to escape. Advancing age or aggravating conditions deteriorates the connecting fibers than anchor the cushions to the wall of the rectum, causing them to become congested, bleed, and prolapse, sometimes protruding outside the anus.

Scientists researching the causes of hemorrhoids have identified increasing age, chronic diarrhea, pregnancy, pelvic tumors, obesity, and prolonged sitting and straining as significant risk factors. Curiously, constipation is not a significant cause of hemorrhoids; one study even showed that chronic diarrhea is twelve times more likely to cause hemorrhoids than chronic constipation. Any condition that leads to chronic straining to keep the anal sphincter closed, especially diseases that cause chronic diarrhea (Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and others) greatly increases the risk of hemorrhoids.


So what how do treat hemorrhoids naturally? Here are some basic steps:

Gradually increase the amount of fiber in your diet so that you eat 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Raw fruits and vegetables are preferable. Almonds, dried beans and peas, raw root vegetables (carrots, jicama, radishes, and turnip roots), dried pumpkin and sunflower seeds, whole grain breads, and oranges, apricots, prunes, and unpeeled apples are especially good sources of soluble fiber.

Avoid sugar.
Drink 8 or more glasses of water every day.

Avoid large, heavy meals. Eating smaller portions more often reduces the size of bowel movements.

While dietary changes relieve hemorrhoids, citrus bioflavonoids at least partially prevent flare-ups of hemorrhoids. A French researcher gave 120 hemorrhoid sufferers Daflon, a tablet containing a mixture of the citrus bioflavonoids diosmin and hesperidin, or a placebo for 2 months. During that time, 24 of the test participants taking bioflavonoids experienced at least one attack of hemorrhoids lasting an average of 2.6 days. Among test participants given a sugar pill, 42 experienced at least one attack of hemorrhoids lasting an average of 4.6 days. People taking bioflavonoids also reported lower levels of pain. Clearly, this test did not show that bioflavonoids cure hemorrhoids, but they can reduce pain and accelerate healing. Other studies have found that citrus bioflavonoids begin to work in as little as 7 days, and that they help stop bleeding after hemorrhoid surgery.