Originally Posted by W.M.P.

long2blong:

Hemorrhoids is something that most people will deal with at some point or another in their lives regardless of age. I for one, had a scary episode in the summer of '07 that lasted for a couple of weeks. The reason was that I was using certain supplements that had some ingredients that were causing an allergic reaction, which manifested itself by irritating that whole area. In my case it was the MCT's on a protein shake I was taking, plus the toxic levels of Aspartame I had built up with a little addiction I had for diet Coke/Pepsi. To control the symptoms, the best thing is to first apply some ice (wrap an ice cube in paper-towel, making sure there's only one layer of the paper between you and the ice) right on the area to reduce inflammation and swelling. Once you reduce this inflammation, you can apply some Preparation-H to constrict all those little blood vessels and also control the itching. Avoid sitting for long periods of time and also, avoid laying down on your back, as this will reduce the accumulation of pressure in the area, which will allow for less discomfort and speedier healing. Now, once you've used the Preparation-H for a couple of days, you wanna lay off of it because the tissues will develop an addiction to it if used for to long, which means that eventually the cream will become useless. When you lay off the Preparation-H, the best thing to use to keep healing the area is extra-virgin Olive oil. Several times a day (especially after a bowel movement, which will always tend to irritate the area until it's fully healed), clean the area really nice with some moist towelettes (which by the way is the ONLY thing you should use until you're fully healed; FORGET about toilet paper until they're fully healed) and apply some oil to the area. This should do the job and get it all back to normal.