How to Treat and Prevent Anal Fissures
Posted By Dr. Ben Kim on Dec 14, 2009
Few health challenges can generate as much pain as a chronic anal fissure. This article explains how an anal fissure develops, and how to promote healing of an anal fissure using natural methods.
What is an Anal Fissure?
An anal fissure is a tear of any size in the anus. If you've ever noticed a spot or two of bright red blood on your toilet tissue after having an uncomfortable bowel movement, you have likely experienced an anal fissure.
An anal fissure can lead to burning, stinging, or sharp pain during bowel movements. The pain can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. In severe cases, the pain can cause a spasm of muscles that surround the rectum, which can cause the pain to intensify.
Fortunately, most anal fissures heal rapidly on their own. When a fissure doesn't heal within a few weeks, it's usually because one or more root causes continue to aggravate the fissure.
Root Causes of Anal Fissures
The most obvious cause of an anal fissure is direct trauma to the anal canal. Childbirth, anal intercourse, and insertion of any foreign bodies into the anal canal can cause a fissure.
Chronic constipation and chronic diarrhea can also cause an anal fissure by repeatedly straining the lining of the anus.
In the vast majority of cases, an underlying cause is chronic tension in a muscular ring - called the internal anal sphincter - that surrounds the anal canal.
If your internal anal sphincter is chronically tense, blood flow to this region is reduced. Reduced blood flow causes the lining of your anus to become more susceptible to tearing. Reduced blood flow to your anus also makes it harder for a fissure to heal.
This is why some people tear relatively easily when they try to pass hard stools, while others don't develop a fissure even when chronically constipated - the tone of your internal anal sphincter largely determines if an anal fissure will develop when your anal canal is excessively stretched.
So what can cause your internal anal sphincter to be chronically tense? In the absence of overt neurological dysfunction, the most common cause of a hypertonic internal anal sphincter is ongoing emotional stress.
Emotional stress causes your autonomic nervous system to gear up to fight or run for your life. One of the consequences of being chronically amped for a fight or flight response is a tense and dysfunctional gastrointestinal tract, which includes a taut internal anal sphincter.
Without exception, every person that has come to me looking for a way to heal a chronic anal fissure has reported experiencing significant emotional stress around the time that the anal fissure first appeared.
My experience has been that botox injections, lateral internal sphincterotomy, application of nitroglycerin ointment, and other conventional medical treatments for a chronic anal fissure tend to lead to temporary healing at best and a re-occurrence of the fissure if emotional stress continues to take its toll on the internal anal sphincter.
Natural Ways to Promote Healing of an Anal Fissure
What follows are natural ways to prevent and heal a chronic anal fissure:
1. Avoid using soap on your anus
As explained in my article on why you shouldn't use soap on your private parts, it's best to wash your anus with warm or hot water without the use of soap or other personal care products. Regular use of soap to clean your anus can cause the lining of your anal canal to become dry, predisposing it to tears when stretched excessively.
2. If your anal sphincter is dry or you have an existing fissure, use coconut oil to moisturize the area.
Coconut oil is an excellent moisturizer for all of your body's linings. Coconut oil also appears to have healing properties for wounds - some health practitioners in Indonesia have long used coconut oil to effectively treat bed sores and other skin lesions.
Don't be afraid to apply coconut oil to your anal sphincter several times a day. If your anus is dry or you have a chronic fissure, it's best to apply coconut oil to the area throughout the day and before you go to bed.
3. Take a warm or hot bath at least once a day.
Immersing your body in warm or hot water can help relax your internal anal sphincter, which will allow better blood flow to the area.
Consider visualizing rich blood flow to your anal sphincter as you soak in the tub, as we know that the mind-body connection is capable of producing real physiological effects. To facilitate the use of visualization to promote rich blood flow to your anus, try placing one of your hands against your perineum (the region between your genitals and your anus) to give your mind a palpable target.
4. Work at experiencing comfortable bowel movements.
For comprehensive information on how to promote healthy bowel movements, please view:
How to Keep Your Colon Healthy
5. Strive to feel emotionally balanced.
None of the above is likely to lead to lasting improvement unless you work at consistently feeling emotionally balanced.
If you're not sure where to begin with addressing your emotional stressors, please have a look at the mind-body exercises found here:
Mind-Body Exercises for Optimal Emotional Health
Although the article cited above was originally written for people looking for help with depression, the mind-body exercises found in that article can be extremely helpful when looking to feel emotionally balanced.
If you're currently suffering with a chronic anal fissure, I hope that you find the suggestions in this article to be helpful. Please note that some fissures can be caused by inflammatory bowel conditions, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Fissures can also develop when a person has syphilis, tuberculosis, a weak immune system, or anal cancer. Anal fissures that are caused by excessive stretching and a tight internal anal sphincter almost always occur at the north or south poles of the anal sphincter. The other causes of anal fissures listed here often cause fissures along the sides of the anus. Anal fissures are easily diagnosed with a visual examination, so please see your doctor if you are unsure about your status.
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Dr. Ben Kim Says:
anal fisures
Try raw (unpasteurized) aloe vera juice implants overnight to help heal them. It worked terrific for a chronic condition I had, and since following Dr Ben Kims advise on "keeping the colon healthy" I have been completely pain free, no more tear down there for a year and a half now. The implants took about 10 days to do the job.
My husband and I both drink
My husband and I both drink alkaline water//about two quarts per day..this has healed my husband's fissure, and my hemorrhoids...due to the indrease of blood and oxygen getting to this part of the body.
I just wanted to add that
I just wanted to add that this happened to me and my stills were large and hard. My chiropractor recommend nutritional support for my gallbladder that was not processing fats properly. It has really helped and I am feeling so much better.
Natural Suppository Heals Anal Fissures
Great article and I wanted to let people know that I formulated a product to heal my own anal fissures and those of my readers. I specialize in natural healing methods for digestive diseases and anal/rectal fissures are very common in people with colitis, Crohn's and IBS.
These are very thin suppositories (so easy to insert in a sore anus) - because of the thin size (1/4" diameter) we have to have them handmade by a compound pharmacy - and they contain fantastic wound healers like comfrey root, slippery elm, marshmallow root and cocoa butter.
They are called FissureHeal and they work really fast. The cocoa butter base also helps to moisturize and lubricate the tissue to make your next bowel movement easier. Just Google "FissureHeal" and you'll find them - or ask Dr. Ben to carry them in his store!
best,
Jini Patel Thompson
Anal fissure healing tip
I just want to share a helpful tip I learned many years ago. If you've gotten an anal fissure, for whatever reason, there can be continuing pain or discomfort during bowel movements while the fissure attempts to heal. Just before a bowel movement, lubricate the anus with a small amount of vaseline. This eases the passage of stool and also helps with cleanup, which can irritate when the area is extra sensitive due to a fissure. A bonus is that knowing things will "go more smoothly" eases tension as well!
Manuka Honey, Olive Oil and Basil Oil for fast healing
I had a very difficult labour and delivery with my first child and developed a fissure which unfortunately also became ulcerated, leaving me in extreme, constant pain (not just pain at the time of bowel movements).
I had a very kind doctor who gave me a steroid cream, which helped a bit but never healed the sore completely.
After much research I found a treatment that worked so rapidly and effectively and gave relief almost from the first application:
1) Apply a mixture of olive oil with basil oil after each bowel movement. As uncomfortable as it sounds, it's very important to get the oil INSIDE the anus as the reason fissures heal so poorly is because they are constantly subjected to leftover fecal matter after a bowel movement.
The basil and olive oil mixture seem to give some numbing effect and pain relief. The basil oil also provides antibacterial properties that are important in keeping the wound clean which aids in healing.
2) Apply a small amount of Manuka honey in the morning and before bed, again INSIDE the anus. If you only apply it to the outside, it is not going to reach the fissure and heal it.
Again, Manuka honey has antibacterial properties and wonderful wound-healing properties.
After suffering with this for months after the birth of my baby, I healed myself within a about a week of this regiment. Avoiding constipation is also very very important, as I believe the area where the fissure was will be delicate for some time and may be susceptible to developing another fissure.
I hope this helps someone with this truly painful condition.
Hi Kate, Where exactly is an
Hi Kate,
Where exactly is an anal fissure present? Is it just just about 1 inch into the anus from outside? Or can it also be deeper inside (say about 4 inch)? I'm asking this because I'm not sure whether what I have is an anal fissure or probably something else.
I've been using a prostate massager for a couple of years now. My massage session is usually less than 30 mins. But I recently had a few long sessions (about 2 hours each for 4 consecutive days). I think this would have caused some injury resulting in mild constant burning pain (though I don't bleed). Can I apply the oil you mentioned deep into my anus?
Thanks,
RKB
Question on Olive and Basil Oil for Fissures
Hello Kate--I am curious as to the mixture of olive and basil oil. Is it equal amounts or what? And what kind of Basil oil? I have a 1/2 ounce bottle of Sweet Basil, which says it is 100% Pure Essential Oil, for external use only. I am wondering if that could be used inside the anus. And I do have Manuka honey. It is delicious. I haven't used it as you described, but I very soon will.
Joe
Please do not take daily baths
Please do not take baths daily. It wastes water, one of our most precious natural resources.
Baths
I need to bath daily for my health. I let the water scent and humidify the house before and after my bath, and sometimes I leave it in the tub overnight to keep the room more humid. I usually do not fill the bath totally full, and would use more water in a shower. It is either be healthy,or conserve water for the world.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Ben Kim!!
Your article made me realize why my private area was bleeding, when my doctor only prescribed ointment for it, probably because he didn't know that I clean that area vigorously with bar soap daily! I've been suffering for years without realizing why! This information is a godsend.
Anal Fissures
This is an excellent article on the causes and ways to naturally treat and heal anal fissures.