How to Stop Bleeding Hemorrhoids

The first thing most people worry about when they have minor rectal bleeding is that they have a cancer. But it’s the cause of rectal bleeding only 1 to 2 percent of the time.

Two problems are usually responsible for blood on the paper, on the stool or in the toilet: hemorrhoids and anal fissures. The good news is that both problems are usually easy to fix.

1. About Rectal Bleeding
2. Causes
3. Treatment
4. Bleeding Hemorrhoid RISKS / SIDE EFFECTS
5. Bleeding Hemorrhoid TESTS / EXAMINATIONS

About Rectal Bleeding

If you’re older than 30 or have a family history of colon cancer, the first step is a colonoscopy. Colonoscopy is easy, usually painless, and rules out cancer so you don’t have to worry. If we find a polyp that is causing the bleeding, we can remove it before a cancer ever develops.

If you’re under 30, have no family history of colon cancer, and the source of pain and bleeding is obvious, then I usually won’t suggest colonoscopy right away because:

• When a hard stool causes pain and bleeding, it’s usually an anal fissure, or tear in the tissue. Chronicconstipation, prolonged diarrhea, straining and anal intercourse can all cause anal fissures.

• When rectal bleeding is painless and develops after heavy lifting, a long car trip, pregnancy or constipation, it usually means internal hemorrhoids. Anything that places continual pressure on veins in the anus can engorge them. Over time, they can get bigger and bigger. Then when you get a hard stool, it scrapes them and they bleed.

A note about hemorrhoids: They’re our friends, but they get a bad rap. These are natural veins that enlarge, becoming cushions of soft tissue that line our butt muscles (the sphincters). This creates a stronger seal so gas won’t escape when we walk. Hemorrhoids also help continence up to 30 percent.

Two problems, one solution

Using Metamucil®(the powdered form) and drinking lots of water will clear up most anal fissures and hemorrhoids. Metamucil bulks up, or softens, the stool, and drinking water moves the stool through faster. Then you just sit on the toilet and go — there’s no strain. When stool comes out easily, bleeding is less likely.

The best part about Metamucil is that it helps with diarrhea-related issues as well. So you can take it if your stools are hard or loose.

If bleeding continues despite using fiber and water — or if you can’t think of any cause for the bleeding — then you need to see a doctor. An evaluation and colonoscopy exam will rule out polyps, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or other problems that require treatment.

Surgical options

Colorectal surgeons have different surgical options to treat hemorrhoids:

• One is to choke the veins with rubber bands, called hemorrhoid banding. We do this in the office, without anesthesia.
• We can also use staples or sutures to tie off the veins in an outpatient procedure.

These procedures are pretty painless and work well for internal hemorrhoids.

Over-the-counter remedies

If you have hemorrhoids inside, you often have them outside too. Internal hemorrhoids bleed and are painless. External hemorrhoids swell, hurt and can itch.

Over-the-counter preparations stop hemorrhoid pain and ease swelling. Some people use them for internal hemorrhoids, but they rarely stop bleeding. While these products are very safe, try not to use them long-term because they contain witch hazel and can cause itching.

CAUSES of Bleeding Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids bleed easily due to the material they’re made ofInternal hemorrhoids are far more prone to bleeding than external hemorrhoids, as internal hemorrhoids are covered by delicate internal mucus membrane, while external hemorrhoids are covered by relatively thicker external skin. Even so, external hemorrhoids have some very thin skin covering them, it’s just not as delicate as the mucus membrane.

Naturally, both internal and external hemorrhoids can get wounded and bleed rather easily as a result of the swollen blood vessel (hemorrhoid) being so susceptible and relatively unprotected.

Treatment for bleeding hemorrhoids starts out with the same regimen as any kind of hemorrhoid.

A bleeding hemorrhoid arises from a hemorrhoid being damaged.

Bleeding internal hemorrhoids can occur, because at least one of the internal hemorrhoids is scratched, either through wiping or the passing of a hard stool.

Bleeding external hemorrhoids can result from any excessive pressure, twisting, roughness or trauma – hard wiping, hard toilet paper are common culprits. After hemorrhoids have started bleeding, any straining whatsoever can keep bleeding hemorrhoids from healing and even make them worse. See also causes of hemorrhoids to find out more about these strains and pressures. Diarrhea is a danger to hemorrhoid bleeding (and pain and discomfort), because the wiping up after the stool has passed may damage the hemorrhoids and sometimes the diarrhea may pass over the hemorrhoids with an enormous explosive force.

Bleeding Hemroid SYMPTOMS

Bleeding hemroids can generate a great deal of concern, especially if it is your first case of bleeding hemroids.

• External hemroids often cause a great deal of discomfort the moment they happen being near and around a sensitive band of nerves. As we know they are there, can see them in a mirror and feel them, we can normally tell or guess that it is the hemroid bleeding. So fear isn’t such a big issue from bleeding external hemroids.
• Internal hemroids normally remain in an area of our anatomy that we cannot see for ourselves. Hemroid bleeding is mostly the first and one of the most common symptoms of internal hemroids and also the most frightening initially – all you have is blood and no diagnosis. The first thought a bleeding hemroid brings to mind is, I think, cancer.

Hemroid bleeding is bright red in color. Cancer tends to cause dark red to black blood, but regular checkups can put your mind at ease.Bleeding hemroids rarely bleed so much that they’re dangerous, but blood dilutes in water rather well. Two tablespoons of blood from bleeding hemroids in toilet water can look like most of the blood in the body!

Chronic hemroid bleeding also can cause anxiety over bleed throughs through clothing, and also anxiety about ones health – is the bleeding still from the hemroid or a new cancer? How can I know for sure?

Severe bleeding internal hemroids can cover the toilet bowl in blood after each sitting – Severe bleeding hemroids are rare and normally caused by insufficient treatment over a long period of time – Suffering from a condition, such as Malaria, which affects the liver, may prevent proper treatment from being given.

Why do hemroids bleed so freely or so much? Simple, the hemroids are swollen blood vessels, if the blood vessel is damaged, the blood in the swelling is released and for some people, those bleeding hemroids can release a lot of blood.

Bleeding Hemorrhoids Treatment

Although it may take up to six months to heal your hemroids, you should be able to stop the bleeding within seven days.Use non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen (such as Brufen – isobrufen) or naproxen. They work in two ways:

• Block the pain nerves directly, reducing the amount of pain that your brain registers.
• Reduce the inflammation, which takes down the swelling. The anti-inflammatory works by reducing any inflammation caused by the scratched and bleeding hemroid. As inflamed areas in our body draw more blood to them for healing, reducing the inflammation in the internal bleeding hemroids, causes the blood flow and blood pressure to them to be reduced, which then reduces the bleeding from the hemroids.

Take a sitz-bath. Sitz baths are an effective hemroid home remedy for bleeding hemroids. The warmth of the water helps improve circulation to the area, which allows blood to take away toxins that contribute to inflammation and pain while decreasing the pressure that contributes to active bleeding. It may even allow the injured hemroid to stop bleeding and begin healing. You can follow up your sitz bath hemroids bleeding treatment by sitting on a towel-wrapped icepack for about five minutes. The heat from the sitz-bath helps to get the circulation of the area going and reduce inflammation. The quick alternating heat and cold really helps reduce the bleeding from hemroids.

For general aching and misery, add Epsom salts to the sitz bath. If there is a prolapsed and or external hemroid bleeding, you can also add oatmeal powder to the bath for general soothing ability.

Using colloidal oatmeal in your sitz-bath once per day can also help in the treatment of hemroids bleeding, though this is only a temporary measure. Like cornstarch, the oatmeal forms a protective coating over the hemorrhoidal area. Please note that you don’t want to use colloidal oatmeal internally, but only in the bath on the outside of the body. There are also many other hemroid home remedies that you may want to consider, as well as more alternative hemroid treatments.

Wear loose clothing with white cotton underwear – helps as as a bleeding hemroid treatment – helps to cushion and soothe your hemroids. Tight or constricting clothing may cause more trauma. Avoid synthetic underwear or harsh dyes, hemroids and a bleeding hemroid can be irritated by such clothing and made worse.

Another good immediate hemroids bleeding treatment – effective especially for bleeding external hemroids – is to dilute some apple cider vinegar and apply it to the area on a cotton ball or swab. As an astringent, it makes the blood vessels shrink, causes coagulation and causes protein clumping in the skin, which leads to dryer skin, which leads to a decrease in itching, burning, pain and astringents also reduce bleeding through its various actions – hemroid bleeding immediately reduced.

As a bleeding hemroids treatment, pure, straight apple cider vinegar is so acidic that it may burn your sensitive tissues, so take care, dilute if necessary.

Diaper rash ointment is often a good hemroids bleeding treatment for external hemroids. Zinc oxide is normally an ingredient, another astringent that gets the blood vessels to shrink and quit bleeding. Diaper rash ointment also often contains mineral oil or white petrolatum, both moisturizers that treat chapped skin and prevent cracking. In a pinch, diaper ointment can help at least get you about your day and can help to stop the hemroid bleeding on an emergency basis. Bleed throughs into clothing tend to be uncommon, but if they happen to you you can use sanitary pads and the like.

Most important treatment for bleeding hemroids: Don’t strain on the toilet and follow a hemroids diet.

Do Bleeding Hemorrhoids Require Treatment?

Anyone who has ever suffered from either internal or external hemorrhoids can attest to the fact that they are extremely painful, can easily lead to bleeding, and will definitely affect your daily life until you figure out how to stop bleeding hemorrhoids.

Although you are probably reading this in search of a bleeding hemorrhoid treatment it is imperative to first understand the cause and effect of hemorrhoids before finding out how to stop their bleeding.

There are two varieties of bleeding piles that can occur and those are internal and external ones.

Internal bleeding hemorrhoids most likely will not be accompanied by pain and are generally discovered after noticing bloody stool in multiple bowel movements.

External bleeding hemorrhoids are easier to discover as they are quite painful and can bleed rather frequently. This type of piles can be caused by numerous things ranging from poor diet, excessive sitting, pregnancy, excessive alcohol or caffeine consumption or weak blood vessels and capillaries among other things.

The hemorrhoids that bleed can drastically affect your daily life and ability to accomplish seemingly innocuous tasks such as sitting, running, or walking and due to the extreme pain that can accompany them; they can be a burdensome ailment to experience.

If you are currently experiencing a hemorrhoid attack and are wanting to learn how to stop the bleeding, luckily there are multiple treatments available that will effectively stop the bleeding as well as prevent future occurrences of such type of piles.

One of the most common ways to stop bleeding hemorrhoids is the popular cure that involves apple cider vinegar. Ingesting apple cider vinegar has been used as an effective way to stop the bleeding for centuries and will cure both internally and externally bleeding piles.

Simply consume a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with each meal daily. If you have external hemorrhoids, you can stop the bleeding by applying apple cider vinegar to them as the apple cider vinegar will act as an astringent and will stop bleeding as well as reduce pain and swelling of the anus.

An alternative bleeding piles treatment is that of a warm bath and gentle cleansing of the effected area. This hemorrhoids cure works by cleaning out the corresponding pile of bacteria and reducing the swelling and or bleeding with warm water.

If this treatment proves to be unsuccessful, another way to relieve the bleeding hemorrhoids is by applying a cold ice pack to them. This natural cure will stop the bleeding by reducing the swelling and will also help alleviate a lot of the pain associated with the inflammation.

Additional ways to remove the bleeding is through the use of neem oil, hemorrhoidal cream, and baby wipes. All three of the above will reduce the swelling, which will make the bleeding blood vessel constrict. This will also take care of the itchiness or skin irritation and pain that go along with the bleeding.

As long as you follow the above mentioned advice on how to stop bleeding hemorrhoids and use one or multiple natural piles cures, you should be able to successfully stop the bleeding as well as reduce any swelling or subsequent pain that is associated with the engorged piles.

Bleeding Hemorrhoid RISKS / SIDE EFFECTS

Bleeding hemorrhoids are rarely dangerous. The biggest risk that bleeding hemorrhoids pose is that the irritation that made them bleed will also make them grow larger. Infection is also a risk to any open wound, and moreso to a hemorrhoid given the basic nature of the area.

Chronic bleeding hemorrhoids can also eventually lead to a thrombosed hemorrhoid, which is where the hemorrhoid has developed an internal blood clot. This inevitably leads to even more swelling, inflammation and pain. Many thrombosed hemorrhoids have to be treated by a doctor because of the severe pain, so it’s really a good idea to treat hemorrhoids that are bleeding promptly.

Sometimes the blood loss from severe bleeding internal hemorrhoids is so great, that the sufferer may become anemic – iron deficient. So there is good reason to get relief for your bleeding hemorrhoids as soon as possible.

Bleeding Hemorrhoid TESTS / EXAMINATIONS

Out Cancer and Other Nasties Rectal bleeding may be due to bleeding hemroids or to serious conditions such as colorectal, colon and anal cancer or even to typhoid fever. Bleeding should NOT ascribed to bleeding internal hemroids until after the doctor’s anorectal examination.

The anorectal examination is frequently performed by the doctor stretching you anal canal open and looking in – uncomfortable, not normally painful. Based on what he sees and your presenting symptoms he may suggest a sigmoidoscopy, which involves inserting a narrow tube about 25 inches or 65 cm up the anal canal that allows the doctor to visually inspect the inside of the rectum. If acolonoscopy appears required, the narrow tube goes up a long long way.

Only these types of medical examinations can rule out most of the other nasties that may imitate bleeding internal hemroids.

Of course if it is bleeding external hemroids, the doctor will be able to make that diagnosis pretty much there and then by just looking at them.