🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Folk wisdom often says "nine out of ten people suffer from hemorrhoids," showing hemorrhoids have long been a common and widespread disease, causing significant harm and inconvenience to work and life. Despite this, many people still neglect it, leading to persistently high incidence rates—resulting in the "nine out of ten" phenomenon. Thus, proctology experts warn readers: prevent hemorrhoids by paying attention to daily details.
Prevention Can Effectively Prevent Hemorrhoids
Enhance Physical Exercise: Regular exercise promotes intestinal motility and improves blood circulation, helping prevent hemorrhoids.
Prevent Constipation: Constipation is one factor triggering hemorrhoids. Daily diet should include more fresh vegetables and fruits rich in fiber and vitamins; 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 potentially causing hemorrhoids.
Establish Regular Bowel Habits: Correct the habit of holding back bowel movements; avoid prolonged toilet time; during defecation, close mouth and concentrate, avoiding talking or laughing.
Maintain Perianal Hygiene: Keep clean to prevent infection and aggravation of 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 the Lower Body Warm: Maintain smooth blood flow; drink plenty of water to avoid intestinal dryness and hard stools.
Avoid Prolonged Sitting or Standing: Change positions frequently. Treat systemic diseases like heart, lung, and liver conditions promptly to prevent increased abdominal pressure and hemorrhoidal vein hypertension.
Pay Attention to Pregnancy and Postpartum Care: During pregnancy, uterine enlargement impedes hemorrhoidal vein return, easily triggering hemorrhoids. Also, reduced activity during pregnancy leads to dry stools and hemorrhoids. After childbirth, significant blood loss reduces intestinal moisture, causing dry, hard stools and exacerbating or triggering hemorrhoids. Thus, pregnant and postpartum women should increase activity, avoid prolonged sitting or standing, wash the anal area with warm water after each bowel movement, and improve circulation. Postpartum, eat more foods rich in moisture, such as honey.
Practice Anal Lift Exercises: Specific steps: Relax the entire body, stand, sit, or lie down—clear all distractions. Intentionally contract the anus slowly upward, as if forcibly holding back stool, imagining lifting the sinking energy to the lower dantian. Then relax. Repeat several to dozens of times—typically 30 repetitions per session, twice daily. This exercise can be done anytime—during office work, commuting, watching TV, walking, or resting—proven effective.
Self-Massage: Hemorrhoids result from localized venous congestion and dilation forming small nodules. Massage is a traditional method for health and disease prevention in China. Changqiang acupoint (located at the midpoint of the line connecting the coccygeal tip and anus) is the preferred point for treating hemorrhoids. Massaging Changqiang can significantly improve local blood circulation, proving effective in both prevention and treatment.
Timely Medication: Once early signs of hemorrhoid flare-up appear—such as mild discomfort, pain, itching, or bleeding—apply medication immediately, often yielding twice the effect.
Post-Surgery Prevention of Recurrence
Will hemorrhoids recur after surgery? Almost all patients worry about this. Medical practice confirms hemorrhoids can recur, and recurrence rates are quite high. Hemorrhoids are vascular lesions; prolonged sitting or standing work can cause them. Thus, surgery doesn't mean everything is settled. Surgery removes existing hemorrhoidal nodes, but if postoperative care is neglected, hemorrhoidal veins in the rectum and anal canal can still experience recurring congestion, potentially forming new nodes and leading to hemorrhoids.
Thus, to effectively prevent hemorrhoids from occurring or recurring in daily life, pay attention to the following:
First, dietary regulation. Proctology doctors advise post-hemorrhoid surgery patients: avoid alcohol completely—whether yellow wine, white liquor, 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 beneficial. Examples include spinach, celery, water bamboo, watermelon, pear, banana, apple (limit oranges, as they are warm in nature). These help maintain smooth bowel movements and reduce venous congestion and expansion in hemorrhoids. Many effective health foods for hemorrhoid prevention include turtle, softshell turtle, pig or lamb intestines, pond snails, loach, honey, red adzuki beans, black sesame, walnut meat, bamboo shoots, lotus root, black fungus, radish, fig, sophora flowers, and cistanche. Patients can choose based on seasons. Post-surgery, eat lighter meals, avoid overly greasy or fried foods. Meals should be regular and moderate—eight parts full is ideal. Avoid binge eating or irregular eating to prevent gastrointestinal dysfunction.
Second, establish good bowel habits and maintain smooth bowel movements. Constipation is bad, but so is diarrhea—multiple daily bowel movements, even if loose, affect hemorrhoids. Also, avoid prolonged defecation; change the bad habit of reading or browsing while on the toilet.
Third, engage in appropriate exercise and change body position. This is also crucial for preventing hemorrhoid recurrence. Besides general physical 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, and other conditions prone to triggering hemorrhoids should take effective measures for timely treatment to avoid compounding health problems.
Fifth, if symptoms like anal heaviness or bleeding appear, consult experienced proctology doctors immediately—don’t let minor issues escalate and miss the chance to treat effectively.