Hemorrhoids dietary taboos

First, avoid eating irritating foods that will make you feel burning and tingling around the anus after eating them. Second, avoid indigestible foods that can easily scratch the mucosa of the digestive tract and contain hard residue. Third, avoid foods with extreme properties that can cause constipation or diarrhea. There is no need to compare one by one with the long "fasting list" on the Internet. The difference in individual tolerance is far more important than the unified classification of foods.

I have been in the anorectal department for almost eight years, and I have seen too many patients whose small hemorrhoids became larger after eating the wrong things. There are also many old patients who have done good diet and have not suffered from hemorrhoids for more than ten years. Speaking of this, some people must ask, is it so spicy that you can't even touch it? In fact, it’s not necessarily true. There was an old patient from Sichuan who had been eating spicy food since childhood. Hemorrhoids were diagnosed almost 12 years ago. Except for the occasional blood in the stool, he has basically never had it. On the contrary, when he went to Beijing for a business trip for half a month and followed his colleagues to eat light meals, he became constipated and the hemorrhoids were so swollen that it hurt to walk. The point of view of Western medicine is that capsaicin itself will not directly induce hemorrhoids, but it will not be completely metabolized by the human body and will irritate the perianal mucosa when excreted. If you have tolerated spicy food since childhood, you will not feel any discomfort at all and there is no need to quit. ； However, according to traditional Chinese medicine, spicy food is a hot food and can easily aggravate intestinal dampness and heat. People who have a damp-heat constitution and have a burning butt when eating spicy food or pain after having a bowel movement should try to avoid it as much as possible. Both opinions are reasonable, but the core point is to see your own reaction after eating.

Believe it or not, I just received a 22-year-old programmer guy who rarely eats spicy food. When he was working on a project, he ordered spicy crayfish and ice beer for three consecutive nights. What was originally a small external hemorrhoid that was almost invisible turned into a thrombosed hemorrhoid as big as a peanut. His legs were crossed when he walked. Forgetting the stimulation from capsaicin, the cold beer also gave him diarrhea for two days. It would be strange not to have an attack under the double blow.

In addition to irritating food, there is another type of food that is easily overlooked, which is hard-to-digest food with hard residue. If you think about it, hemorrhoids are originally varicose veins around the anus. They are like small balloons filled with blood. They can easily burst or swell if they are slightly scratched by something hard or squeezed by pressure. Last month, there was an aunt in her fifties who showed off a large bag of handmade crispy rice cakes while watching TV dramas at home. She had not had any hemorrhoid attacks for almost five years, but when she defecated the next day, she scratched the hemorrhoids with hard particles. After squatting for ten minutes, the toilet was filled with blood. She was so frightened that she thought she had bowel cancer. She cried and went for a colonoscopy. Nothing happened, just a small opening in the hemorrhoids. There are also uncooked dried beans, dried bamboo shoots, candied fruits with cores, hard burnt edges on skewers, and even brittle bones and nuts that have not been chewed. These residues are very sharp. It is best not to touch them at all during the attack period, and try to eat as little as possible during normal times.

There is another misunderstanding that many people fall into, that is, they think that as long as it can relieve constipation, they can eat more. Many people eat fruit after being diagnosed with hemorrhoids. As a result, they get irritated and constipated after eating lychees, durians, and longans. The hemorrhoids prolapse directly and have to be stuffed back manually. There are also many people who claim that a glass of honey water can relieve constipation when they get up early every day. In fact, the nutrition community has long made it clear that only people with fructose intolerance will have diarrhea after drinking it. Most people drink it and drink sugar water, which is no different. Too much sugar intake will make you gain weight, and it will not help improve constipation.

In fact, after all is said and done, the dietary taboos for hemorrhoids are really not that complicated. You don’t dare to eat anything if you don’t have to do it. I often tell patients that your butt is more accurate than any popular science list - you can defecate smoothly after eating, and there is no discomfort around the anus, so even if you occasionally eat hot pot or eat fried skewers, it's okay. After all, the quality of life is also important. You can't just eat plain boiled vegetables for hemorrhoids all your life, right? But if you feel pain or blood in your stool after eating, then you really have to endure it, and don’t end up suffering even more for the sake of a bite to eat. Oh, by the way, regardless of whether you have dietary restrictions or not, drinking enough 1500ml of water every day and eating more green leafy vegetables with gluten are more effective than any other folk remedies.