Simple Lifestyle Changes that Can Relieve Hemorroids and Even Constipation

Simply changing your lifestyle can have a great impact on decreasing constipation as well as alleviating if not preventing hemorrhoids. Some people are plagued by both hemorrhoids and constipation and do not know why. Making some simple lifestyle changes to get rid of hemorrhoids may be the simplest method of making your life a lot easier and easing the pain and embarrassment.

Cause of Hemorrhoids
There are many causes of hemorrhoids and one of the main causes is constipation. Just as with hemorrhoids, the causes of constipation are just as varied. Your causes for each could be due to your diet, learn some Diet Changes to Avoid Constipation and Hemorrhoids and apply them to help you better cure yourself of constipation as well as hemorrhoids.

How Lifestyles Affect Digestion and Cause Hemorrhoids

What I want to focus on is your lifestyle and how it can directly affect your digestive system. Leading a predominately sedentary lifestyle; sitting or lying around most of the time, is a large factor in the causes of both constipation and hemorrhoids. By being inactive, you allow the stool in your bowels to stall and therefore become hard. Hard stools are difficult to pass out of the rectum and often require either a lot of straining on the toilet-which can lead to hemorrhoids or worse yet, the use of OTC laxatives or stool softeners.

I am not saying that using stool softeners or laxatives are completely bad, but if you gain a dependence on either, your digestive tract will weaken and therefore make the occurrence of straining more likely and thus causing more hemorrhoid flare ups to occur.

Why You Should Avoid Laxatives and Stool Softeners for Hemorrhoid Treatment
It is best to avoid OTC laxative and stool softeners and opt more for simple changes in your diet, such as increasing your fiber and fluid intake. Simple adding fiber and water to your daily diet will not only soften the stool in your bowels but will make the passage of them through your intestines a much easier process.

Being Active Helps Promote Healthy Digestion
If you work at a job that requires you to sit for extended periods of time and you often find yourself suffering from constipation or hemorrhoids, you may want to take advantage of break times by doing some light walking or using the stairs at work instead of the elevator.

If you are not used to exercising, you want to take on the challenge of becoming more physically active in moderation. If you start off in moderation, your body will adapt to the new physical lifestyle and make it much easier on you to cope with being more active.

How Inactivity Can Cause Hemorrhoids
Being more active will allow the bowels in your digestive system to work better and the contracting necessary in the bowels to move stool through the passages will be better aides if there is more movement in your body. The more active you are, the more likely you are to have better bowel movements that are not painful and do not require straining to pass stool.

How to Change the Way You Use the Toilet\
Another lifestyle change, that many people take issue with, is to attempt different sitting arrangements when you do use the restroom to defecate. We are taught from the toddler days of potty training to sit on the toilet as if we were sitting on a throne or at the kitchen table. This does not promote good passage of stool in the intestines and in fact, it is becoming better known that squatting over the toilet to have a bowel movement makes having them much easier and the gravity makes passing the stools much easier.

Changing the way you sit on the toilet can decrease the amount of strain you have to put forth to evacuate the stool and will open up the passage ways of the anus better in order to pass the stools. It may seem silly, but once you get the hang of it, you will find yourself doing it like second nature.

When you sit on the commode you are compressing your anus or stretching it. Both are not healthy for the rectum. Some toilet manufacturers offer square seated toilet lids which are much better to use, especially for those who suffer from hemorrhoids, but the price and availability may be something that makes you opt for different choices; such as squatting to have a bowel movement.

Lifestyle changes can decrease or even eliminate constipation, lifestyle changes can also prevent hemorrhoids from occurring. Hemorrhoids are painful, as is constipation and if you can adopt a new lifestyle that involves being more active, retraining the way you use the bathroom, adding more water and fiber to your diet, and simply changing some of your eating habits, you will eliminate chronic constipation and hemorrhoids.

Should I See the Doctor About My Hemorrhoids
If you have tried a diet change and a lifestyle change and still suffer from constipation or hemorrhoids, you may want to seek the advice of a medical professional. Sometimes an underlying medical issue could be the blame for constipation or hemorrhoids.

It should be known that women and the elderly are more prone to both. In theory, women have more hormonal imbalances than men and hormonal imbalances are a large cause of constipation if diet and lifestyle are conducive to a healthy digestive tract. Such hormone imbalances may include hypothyroidism which both women and the elderly are more prone to. A simple blood test can confirm if this could be the issue.

The elderly are more prone to constipation and hemorrhoids due to the medications they may be taking, a host of medical conditions, as well as the weakening of their digestive tract overtime and inactivity.

Sources:
www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/hemorrhoids-topic-overview
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20852
http://www.hemorrhoids.org/