Complaints & connections · borters.ch
A normal cushion that has enlarged — common, harmless and usually improvable without surgery.
Also known as: hemorrhoids · piles
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Enlarged vascular cushions at the anus — common and usually harmless. Signs: bright-red blood on the paper, itching, burning, pressure or palpable lumps. Promoted by constipation, straining, prolonged sitting, pregnancy. Helps: fibre-rich diet, plenty of fluids, don’t strain; creams/suppositories relieve. Important: always have blood in the stool checked — don’t just assume “hemorrhoids”.
The itch usually comes not from the haemorrhoids themselves but from the moisture and traces of stool they leave behind.
After a bowel movement clean with lukewarm water instead of rubbing, apply cool compresses, do not sit longer than three minutes on the toilet.
Sit for ten minutes in hand-warm plain water, once or twice a day, then dab dry gently.
One to two tablespoons of ground linseed or a tablespoon of psyllium husks with at least 250 ml of water, once a day.
Ointments and suppositories ease itch and pain; they do not shrink the piles. Rubber band ligation or sclerotherapy do that — and soft stool, because it takes away the pressure that creates them in the first place.
More than half of all people over fifty have enlarged haemorrhoids; everyone has a haemorrhoidal cushion — it belongs to the seal. Symptoms come and go over years. After treatment they return in some, because the pressure during bowel movements remains.
A small stool under the feet opens the angle and makes straining unnecessary. Straining is the very thing that keeps haemorrhoids going.
Blood lying on the outside of the stool or dripping into the water, bright red, without pain. That is the most common sign — and yet every first-time bleed belongs looked at once.
Moisture at the anus, itching, burning after opening the bowels and traces in the underwear. It comes from the cushion no longer closing tightly.
A lump that appears on straining and goes back by itself, later has to be pushed back by hand and finally stays outside. These four stages decide which treatment comes into question.
Haemorrhoids themselves usually do not hurt. A sudden, severe pain with a hard, blue lump at the rim is a clot — very unpleasant, but benign and well treatable in the first days.
Dark blood mixed into the stool, a lastingly changed shape of stool, unintended weight loss, anaemia, or a first bleed after the age of fifty. Then nothing is assigned — one looks.
Weeping and itching often come before the blood. Rubbing and harsh cleaning make it worse, not better.
Piles bleed bright red and usually little. If the bleeding leads to anaemia, treatment does not simply continue — a second source is looked for.
Falls earlier than the haemoglobin and thereby shows that more blood is being lost than it appears.
Soluble fibres like psyllium and oats bind water and make the stool supple. Wheat bran and a lot of raw vegetables, by contrast, increase bloating and pain in a sensitive gut — this distinction explains most of the failures.
Fibre without water makes the stool harder instead of softer. The two belong together, and the effect only sets in after some days.
Draws water into the bowel and therefore works with a sluggish stool. The belly shows the upper limit: if the stool gets too loose, the dose at once was too high.
Yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and the like bring living cultures with them. Many tolerate them well; with a strongly bloated belly they can also do the opposite in the first weeks.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
In pregnancy this hormone relaxes the vein walls, and the growing womb additionally presses on the return flow. Together they explain why haemorrhoids are so common then — and why they often recede by themselves after birth.
In reviews fibre clearly reduces bleeding and discomfort. 25–30 g a day with enough fluid; without drinking, stool gets harder rather than softer.
Studied at 5–10 g a day, stirred into at least 200 ml of water, over several weeks. Taken dry it can swell in the throat.
Soft stool without straining is the actual treatment — everything else only relieves.
Ointments with calendula or witch hazel are the traditional care for irritated skin.
The traditional vein oil, in a sitz bath blend or diluted in an ointment. What decides the course is soft stool over weeks.
Traditionally used for bruises and swelling, here in a small amount in an ointment. No essential oil belongs on open, bleeding places.
Assigned to the Large Intestine, together with descending and letting go. What counts in both systems is the same point: soft stool and short sittings.
Warming with smouldering mugwort instead of needles — traditionally used for “cold” and sinking. The warmth is real, and so is the smoke: air the room well.