Piles, Haemorrhoids and Fissure
Piles – A painful concern!!!
Piles or Haemorrhoids is be one of the common problems faced by the aged people especially those living with history of sedentary lifestyle. It refers to swelling of the veins located in the rectum and anal region.
Common causes of piles
- Lack of Fiber diet – Dietary fibres help in retaining water in the stools.Lack of fibre in diet may lead to less water retention causing the stools to become hard and dry.
- Constipation: Hard stools and long straining for stools can cause pressure over veins around and can cause them to enlarge.
- Ageing – Ageing increases the risk of piles as the muscle and their supporting tissue become weak.
- Pregnancy – As the growing foetus needs space and puts pressure on the abdominal and pelvic organs, piles can be seen as one of the common problems developing during pregnancy.
Grades of Piles
The severity of Internal piles can be accessed in the following grades according to the degree of their prolapse into the anal canal.
- Grade I – Grade I piles manifest as small swellings inside the anal canal and may bleed sometimes.
- Grade I may progress to Grade II piles which may protrude outside the anus during straining at stool but may return to its original position after the abdominal pressure becomes normal.
- Grade III piles may protrude outside the anus without any straining at stool and patient will have to manually push them back in place.
- Grade IV piles always remain protruded outside the anus.
Symptoms
- Bleeding with bowel passage is the most common symptom of piles. Bleeding may be little as seen on the toilet paper or as a blood streak on stool.
- Mucus discharge may be seen in some cases.
- The patient may be anaemic due to frequent blood loss.
- There may be feeling of fullness or incomplete passage of bowel movements.
- Pain, irritation and itching may be present in some cases
- The patient may feel the piles/haemorhoids hanging outside the anus.
Thumb rules for patient with Piles
- See a physician – Do not ignore!
- Treat constipation
- Increase fibre intake in your diet. Few fibre rich foods are: Apple, Barley, Oats, Carrot, Brown rice. Take 2 helpings of salad every day
- Eat two seasonal fruits every day, one can be a banana
- Do not strain for long while passing stools
- Correct your diet
- Increase fibre intake in your diet s mentioned above.
- Increase water intake to 3-4 litres per day
- Increase physical exercise
- Walk as much as you can – increase your walk to double than your routine
- If you are still doing exercise, increase the time/ number of steps each day.
- Do not sit for long hours in one place
- Keep on the move
- Get up every 45 minutes and take a walk
- Take home remedies
- Radish is one of the beneficial home remedy.Take half cup radish juice twice a day.
- Taking 2-3 bananas each day helps you in pain relief.
- Figs soaked in water one day before and consumed in the morning with water it gives you positive result
- Mango Seed is one of the best remedy solutions. Take powder twice a day to help swelling pain and sensitive itching.
- Coconut oil for local application in affected area, but should be done after thoroughly cleaning the part with water
- Keep the area clean. Bath daily. Don’t use soap on the area as it may cause irritation.
- Use moist toilet paper to dab the area after a bowel movement to lessen friction from wiping.
- Try alternative medicine. Try homeopathy, Ayurveda or Unani but under proper guidance.
Homeopathy Treatment of Piles :
Grade 1 and Grade 2 piles can be treated very well by homeopathy, but Grade 3 need surgical intervention. I’m sharing few basic remedies which you can try, but if you aren’t better in one week you must consult a homeopathic physician to find the right remedy for you. Homeopathy is a very individualistic based treatment, each ailment can have many remedies and final selection depends on patients individualistic symptoms.
Some of the medicines useful in cases of piles are:
Aesculus hippocastinum
Is an excellent remedy for people suffering from piles attended with much soreness and pain. Also In conditions of soreness of rectum with fullness, burning and itching. For cases of constipation with hard, dry stool, which is difficult to pass and is accompanied with much dryness and heat of rectum. There is intense pain in anus for hours after passing stool. Very useful for cases of piles with severe backaches causing patient unfit to carry on the regular day to day activities.
Hamamelis
Is a very valuable remedy especially cases of piles bleeding profusely with much burning, soremess, fullness and heaviness and sensation as if the back will break. There is bruised soreness of the affected parts.
Acidum Muriaticum
It’s a valuable remedy in cases of most sensitive piles. The area is so sensitive that even the touch of toilet paper is painful.
Aloe socotrina
A very good medicine for protruding piles, with constant bearing down sensation. Piles protrude like grapes and are very sore and tender to touch, better by cold water application. Stool passes with a lot of mucus with pain in rectum after stool
References
Allen H. C. Keynotes and characteristics with comparisons of some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica
Boericke W., (1999) Homoeopthic materia Medica
Clarke J H, (2000) A Dictionary of practical Materia Medica
About The Authors
Dr Geeta Rani Arora is a homeopathic consultant at Kalkaji ,New Delhi. She has been practicing classical homeopathy for more than 15 Years. She has treated many cases of varied diseases like eczema,, psoriasis, GERD, other gastric disorders, despression, anxiety, recurrent respiratory infections , autoimmune disorders like RA, and also takes cancer cases for palliation and delaying recurrence of cancers.
She has presented many national and international papers on homeopathy.
Dr Geeta Rani Arora, MD (Hom), BHMS
Homeopathic Consultant
9718063158
healer.g@gmail.com
Dr Guneet Walia BHMS
Homoeopathic Consultant
drguneetw@yahoo.co.in
9775158967