Do you normally feel these symptoms from time to time; A feeling of discomfort, pain or itching around your anus?
Do you see blood stains on your toilet paper when you go to the bathroom? Have you seen pink/ blue moist bumps around the edge of the anus bulging out? If you happen to see these symptoms, then you might be having hemorrhoids.
According to Mayo Clinic, Hemorrhoids are veins that are swollen in the rectum and anus. These blood vessels at times stretch and bulge out to cause a lot of irritation when you are on a “long call.”
Hemorrhoids are also known as piles, and they are one of the primary reasons for rectal bleeding, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Now, if you suffer from hemorrhoids, you don’t want to eat something that will cause a lot of pain. The best way to reduce hemorrhoid pain is to avoid constipation, which is ideally the primary trigger of painful hemorrhoids.
If you eat foods that are easy to release as waste, you can prevent constipation and reduce hemorrhoid flare-ups.
But if you eat foods that cause constipation or cause hemorrhoid flare-ups, you will have an uncomfortable time while you are in the bathroom. If you have hemorrhoids, the following foods should be avoided (watch video for a quick snapshot).
Processed foods
If you want to avoid the hemorrhoid flare-ups, then you have to avoid taking processed foods. Processed foods have nutrients that have unhealthy fats and a lot of salt.
These ingredients can easily lead to constipation and poor digestion. Eating junk food, sweets, freezer meals and other processed and pre-packaged food, they will contribute to hemorrhoid pain.
Besides, most processed foods contain ingredients that promote inflammation. If these foods are ingested, they contribute to inflamed blood vessels which worsen the pain of hemorrhoids.
Refined Grains
To have proper digestion, you need to have fiber in your diet alongside other nutrients, and that is where refined grains lack.
Any refined grains that you ingest can settle in your stomach for a while which can cause stomach pains and result in constipation.
Once this is done, you will have painful hemorrhoid, and the hemorrhoid site will swell.
Laxatives
Although it is easy to think of laxatives as a way to prevent constipation, they can cause a painful effect on patients suffering from hemorrhoid.
According to Laxative Dependency, laxatives promote the excretion of loose stool that is rich in acid. It goes without question how uncomfortable and painful frequent acidic stool can have on hemorrhoids.
Also, you can have constipation if you use laxatives for an extended period. Laxatives are diuretic, which makes your body feel dehydrated after a while, which is a direct trigger for constipation.
Alcohol
According to Vein Institute of Utah, you can easily get constipation because of alcohol because alcohol causes dehydration.
If you take large amounts of alcoholic drinks, you will cause constipation to take place, and you will also upset the digestive balance in your intestines which can cause excretion to be a painful experience.
To avoid constipation and when you have hemorrhoid, avoid taking more than two glasses of any alcoholic beverage.
Deep Fried foods
Fried foods constitute an unhealthy meal because of its high-fat content and unhealthy oils. These types of foods are unhealthy before they are even fried.
Although you won’t damage your health permanently while ingesting these foods, they can cause a lot of pain when you have hemorrhoid flare-ups.
There are two ways in which deep-fried foods can be damaging to the body. The first one is that these foods are hard and heavy to digest, which can slow down the digestive process, making it even hard to have a good bowel movement.
Secondly, deep-fried foods are cooked using vegetable oils like rapeseed, corn and soy oil which are inflaming, and they can cause intestinal damage. These damages can make existing hemorrhoid to be more painful.
Spicy foods
Spicy foods are harmless to a normal stomach, let alone to the development of hemorrhoid. But if you are a hemorrhoid patient, you need to stay away from spicy foods until the hemorrhoid pain is no more.
You can have a very rough time in the bathroom when you eat spicy foods while you have sore hemorrhoids. There are cases where you can have diarrhea which is very painful.
Unripe fruit
It is important to check that you are always eating ripe fruit. For hemorrhoid patients, pain and suffering can be the only words that will describe an excretion process.
It is hard for the body to digest unripe fruit. According to Constipation Experts, some fruits like bananas have constipating compounds while they are unripe.
Most of the fruits that are sold at the grocery store are unripe, so, if you plan to eat fruits that you have bought from the grocery store, only ensure that they are ripe before eating them.
You can either ensure that you buy ripe fruit, or store unripe fruit in a warm spot in a paper sack for a few days for it to ripen.
Constipating medications
There are medications that have the effect of inducing constipation; when you discover that you are taking such kinds of medication, it is important to consult your doctor.
Your doctor may provide you with an alternative drug that can stop the disease you are suffering from, without affecting your hemorrhoids.
Some of the medications to avoid are:
OTC Medications: pain relievers, anemia medication, antihistamines, iron supplements, antacids that contain aluminum and cold medicine.
Prescription medications: pain relievers, tranquilizers, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, heart medications, blood pressure medicine and cholesterol medicine.
Dairy
Your hemorrhoid can get worse due consuming dairy products. Dairy products are not known to cause constipation by themselves, but they can contribute to the discomfort and pain that happens in hemorrhoid patients undergoing constipation.
When you eat dairy products, the body produces gas which can contribute to stomach cramps and hemorrhoid outbreaks in case you are already constipated.
In some cases, consumption of large amounts of dairy products can lead to accumulation of fatty acids in the intestines.
These fatty acids then form calcium deposits which lead constipation and the formation of hard stool.
To check on other foods that you need to avoid if you are suffering from hemorrhoids, check out the link below: