🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Folk wisdom often says: "Nine out of ten people suffer from hemorrhoids," illustrating that hemorrhoids have long been a common and widespread disease, causing significant harm and inconvenience in work and life. Despite this, many people still underestimate its seriousness, contributing to persistently high incidence rates—leading to the "nine out of ten" phenomenon. Therefore, proctology experts warn readers: preventing hemorrhoids requires attention to daily details.
Prevention Can Effectively Prevent Hemorrhoids
Strengthen Physical Exercise: Regular physical activity promotes intestinal motility and improves blood circulation, preventing hemorrhoid occurrence.
Prevent Constipation: Constipation is one factor triggering hemorrhoids. Daily diet should include more fresh vegetables, fruits, and fiber-rich, vitamin-rich foods; avoid spicy, stimulating foods. For stubborn constipation, seek medical diagnosis early, treat underlying causes—do not rely long-term on laxatives or frequent enemas, as this can dull rectal mucosal sensation and delay defecation reflex, worsening constipation and increasing hemorrhoid risk.
Establish Regular Bowel Habits: Correct the habit of holding in stool; avoid prolonged toilet time; during defecation, close mouth and concentrate, avoiding talking or laughing.
Maintain Perianal Hygiene: Pay attention to cleanliness and infection prevention to avoid aggravating hemorrhoids; regularly perform perianal hot compresses, change underwear frequently—especially during hemorrhoid flare-ups, perform warm sitz baths at least twice daily to promote local blood circulation; promptly treat intestinal and local perianal inflammation.
Keep Lower Body Warm: Maintain blood circulation; drink plenty of water to prevent intestinal dryness and hard stools due to dehydration.
Avoid Prolonged Sitting or Standing: Change positions frequently; treat systemic diseases like heart, lung, and liver conditions promptly to prevent increased abdominal pressure and venous hypertension in hemorrhoidal veins.
Pay Attention to Maternal Care: During pregnancy, uterine enlargement impedes hemorrhoidal vein return flow, predisposing to hemorrhoids. Pregnancy often reduces activity, causing dry stools and triggering hemorrhoids. Postpartum, significant blood loss leads to intestinal dryness and constipation, worsening or triggering hemorrhoids. Thus, during pregnancy and postpartum, increase activity, avoid prolonged sitting or standing, wash the perianal area with warm water after each bowel movement, improve circulation, and consume more moisture-rich foods like honey.
Practice Anal Lift Exercises: Specific method: Relax the entire body, stand, sit, or lie down—clear all distractions, intentionally contract the anus slowly upward, as if forcibly retaining stool, imagining lifting sinking qi to the lower abdomen. Then relax. Repeat several to dozens of times—typically 30 repetitions per session, twice daily. This exercise can be done anytime, anywhere—during office work, commuting, watching TV, walking, or resting—with excellent results.
Self-Massage: Hemorrhoids result from localized venous congestion and dilation forming small nodules. Massage is a traditional Chinese method for health and disease prevention. Changqiang acupoint (located at the midpoint of the line connecting the coccyx tip and anus) is the primary acupoint for treating hemorrhoids. Massaging Changqiang can significantly improve local blood circulation, proving effective in both prevention and treatment.
Use Medication Promptly: Once early signs of hemorrhoid onset appear—such as mild discomfort, pain, itching, or bleeding—use medication immediately, often yielding twice the effect with half the effort.
Post-Surgical Recurrence Prevention
Will hemorrhoids recur after surgery? Almost all patients worry about this. Medical practice confirms that recurrence is possible and quite common. Hemorrhoids are vascular lesions; long-term sitting or standing work can cause them. Thus, surgery doesn’t mean everything is resolved. Surgery removes existing hemorrhoidal nodes, but if postoperative care is neglected, hemorrhoidal veins in the rectum and anal canal may still experience recurrent congestion, potentially forming new nodes and causing hemorrhoids again.
Therefore, to effectively prevent hemorrhoid occurrence or recurrence in daily life, pay attention to the following:
First, dietary adjustment. Proctologists advise post-surgery hemorrhoid patients: avoid alcohol completely—whether yellow wine, baijiu, or beer. Spicy, stimulating foods like chili peppers, ginger, scallions, garlic, fennel greatly affect hemorrhoid congestion and bleeding—patients should eat sparingly or avoid altogether. From a hemorrhoid prevention perspective, eating more vegetables and fruits is highly beneficial. Examples include spinach, celery, bamboo shoots, watermelon, pear, banana, apple (citrus fruits should be limited as they are warming). These help maintain regular bowel movements and reduce venous congestion in hemorrhoids. Numerous health foods are effective for hemorrhoid prevention: turtle, soft-shelled turtle, pig or lamb intestines, snails, loaches, honey, red adzuki beans, black sesame, walnut meat, bamboo shoots, lotus root, black fungus, radish, figs, Sophora japonica flowers, and Cistanche. Patients can choose based on seasons. Post-surgery, eat lighter meals, avoid overly greasy or smoked/fried foods. Meals should be regular and moderate—eat until 80% full, avoid overeating or irregular eating to prevent gastrointestinal dysfunction.
Second, establish good bowel habits and maintain regular bowel movements. Constipation is bad, but so is diarrhea—multiple daily bowel movements, even if loose, affect hemorrhoids. Also, avoid prolonged defecation time; change the bad habit of reading while on the toilet.
Third, engage in appropriate exercise and change body position. This is also a key method to prevent hemorrhoid recurrence. Besides general exercises like calisthenics and martial arts, strengthen local functional exercises such as anal contraction exercises, also known as "anal lift exercises."
Fourth, patients with hypertension, arteriosclerosis, cirrhosis, heart disease, abdominal tumors—conditions prone to triggering hemorrhoids—must take effective measures for timely treatment to avoid compounding health problems.
Fifth, if symptoms like anal heaviness or bleeding appear, immediately consult an experienced proctologist for diagnosis—don’t overlook minor issues and miss the chance to treat the condition early.