When you first start to suffer from hemorrhoids, the one piece of advice you're practically guaranteed to hear over and over again is "Don't strain.
" While this is true, it's often not very helpful.
Why should you avoid straining? Is there some straining that's worse than others? Can you put strain on your hemorrhoids without realizing it? Considering that straining is one of the major underlying causes of hemorrhoids, answers to these questions will prove vitally important both to relieving your hemorrhoids and making them vanish on a permanent basis.
Under ideal conditions, any strain placed on the hemorrhoidal area of the anorectal canal is very brief, not overly forceful and is counterbalanced by the support of the pelvic floor muscles.
Humans evolved to squat during bowel movements that consisted of soft, bulky stools.
In addition, humans evolved to walk a great distance each day.
In fact, a properly conditioned human being can outwalk any other animal on the planet.
However, an industrialized, sedentary lifestyle with foods poor in fiber and nutrients don't exactly fit the evolutionary bill.
The kind of straining that brings hemorrhoids on comes from a few different sources.
The most common problems that lead to excessive straining are constipation and diarrhea.
While these may seem to be opposites in terms of health disorders, they both lead to long periods of time sitting on the toilet.
Irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease and other gastrointestinal issues are often culprits as well.
Considering that this is the most common contributor to the straining that leads to hemorrhoids, alleviating the gastrointestinal condition as much as possible is an important first step both in relieving and preventing hemorrhoids.
Another common health issue that contributes to hemorrhoid causing straining is pregnancy and childbirth.
Pregnancy also adds two pounds of blood to your system, in addition to increasing your salt retention.
These aren't always beneficial to your circulatory system and represent more possible contributors to hemorrhoids.
Now, pregnancy and childbirth are generally considered to be good things, but they cause a lot of physical changes very, very fast.
Fortunately, given enough time, the effects of pregnancy and childbirth do resolve on their own.
Following your obstetrician's recommendations regarding diet and exercise is the best way to reduce pregnancy related gastrointestinal problems.
Sheer gravity is yet another common and commonly ignored cause of straining.
We did not evolve as a species to sit on a toilet.
Doing so removes all muscular support from the anal sphincter and encourages us to stay in that position for far too long.
Rather, we evolved to squat for elimination.
The physical position of squatting flexes muscles that support the anorectal canal.
The best way to simulate this in our modern era is to use a footstool while on the toilet and keep our stays on the toilet to less than five minutes at a time.
Eliminating all straining is likely impossible.
There are unavoidable everyday activities that will produce strain on the area.
However, the idea is to minimize strain as much as possible.
By being careful, eating right and taking thoughtful precautions, you should be able to reduce the strain that leads to worsening hemorrhoids.
By eliminating this straining as much as possible, hemorrhoids will shrink and possibly even vanish.