Anal fissures can be quite painful. The pain is usually felt while passing stool and may remain for a long time afterwards. The pain may be burning or stinging in character. There may be discharge of pus or some foul matter too. An anal fissure is just a cut or a crack in the mucous membrane lining the anal canal. It may occur due to hard stools. When one is constipated, one has to strain to pass stool. This can also cause a break or a crack in the mucous membrane. At times, diarrhoea can also cause anal fissures. In females, anal fissures occur commonly after a vaginal delivery.

What are the symptoms of Anal Fissure or fissure

The symptoms of anal fissure are in many ways similar to piles. In some cases it may be difficult for the patient to understand whether he or she is suffering from anal fissure or piles. An experienced doctor or a surgeon is the best person to diagnose it properly. The common symptoms of anal fissure are as follows-

• There is pain in the anal region. This pain is aggravated while passing stool. In some cases, the pain may be only while passing stools. Some other patients may experience the pain throughout the day. But passing stool is the most difficult part. The aggravation of pain at that time may last for hours afterwards. The pain may be sharp or stinging in character.
• The other most common or important symptom of an anal fissure is the presence of bleeding while passing stool. The quantity of blood may again vary from one patient to the other. But bleeding is a common symptom of anal fissures. The blood if bright red and not mixed with stool. Blackish stools or blood mixed with stool may be due to some other cause and not anal fissure.
• A crack or a rhagade or a wound is felt in the anal region. This is quite often differentiated by the patient himself that he has a crack in the skin.
• Itching or irritation in the anal region is also present.

What causes Anal Fissures

As mentioned earlier, an anal fissure is a crack in the anal canal. It is more in the form of an injury to the anal canal. The common causes of this could be –

• Constipation is a prominent cause of anal fissures. If you have to strain a lot to pass stool or the stool is quite hard, it can damage the anal canal. A large and dry stool can also result in an anal fissure.
• Frequent stools can also result in anal fissure. This happens in chronic diarrhoea cases or in some other diseases like ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease.
• Damage to the anal canal can also occur during delivery in the case of females. A prolonged labour or difficult labour can sometimes result in an anal fissure.
• It is also common in infants in the first year of their life. The precise reason for this incidence at this stage of life is poorly understood.

Management of Anal Fissures

Preventing constipation is an important thing that one has to take care of so as to allow the fissure to heal. This can be done by drinking lots of water and eating enough fruits, vegetables and cereals that are rich in fibre. One should avoid smoking and drinking alcohol. Junk food is also best avoided. Junk food only provides empty calories and leads to weight gain. Walking regularly can help improve digestion as well as blood circulation. Sitting in a tub full of hot water is also quite helpful as it softens the hard tissues and takes care of hygiene.

How to treat Anal Fissures – Fissure treatment without surgery

A commonly held belief which is mostly propagated by surgeons is that surgery is the one and only treatment for anal fissures. The reality is far from this. An anal fissure is easily treatable without surgery. It is only those patients who do not know about this reality that end up getting laid on the surgeon’s table for the treatment of an anal fissure. Anyone who knows better will never do that. This is because a painless and very easy treatment option exists to cure the anal fissures. In my opinion, surgery offers no cure as I have seen many cases where the problem recurs after some time. Therefore it is better that one should treat the problem in a holistic manner so that once cured, it does not recur.

Homeopathic Treatment of anal fissures

There may be many claims about the possibility of alternative or complementary treatment of anal fissures. Ayurvedic or herbal remedies are often suggested as being a possible cure for the treatment of anal fissures. I have often had patients coming to me after taking such medicines, some with little relief and some being even worse than when they started. Many home remedies are often touted as the cure for anal fissures. Some of these work on some of the patients but the results are not consistent. Having practiced for almost two decades, I can say with surety and certainty that of all the possible alternative, natural or complementary treatments available for anal fissures, homeopathy is the best option for the treatment of an anal fissure.

Best treatment for anal fissure- Advantages of Homeopathy for anal fissures

When one opts for Homeopathy for anal fissures, one is able to avoid surgery. Homeopathy aims at curing anal fissures in this holistic manner. It improves the digestive system along with curing the immediate symptoms of anal fissures. Homeopathy not only treats and cures the acute anal fissure, it is able to cure the chronic form of anal fissures too. Moreover, the homeopathic medicines for anal fissures are able to eradicate the tendency to have fissures. This means that recurrence of anal fissures is avoided. That is why Homeopathy is known to have the best treatment of anal fissures. As mentioned earlier, taking Homeopathy for anal fissures is a better bet because it completely eradicates the fissure as well as the tendency to form fissures. There is an added advantage that it does not have any adverse or side effects. This is because the homeopathic medicines are completely natural medicines. They are sourced from plants, fruits, vegetables or natural minerals. There is no chemical or synthetic material present in the homeopathic medicines. Even further, while preparing the medicines, the medicines are serially diluted which leaves no scope for any material presence in the ultimate medicine. That is why there are no side effects of the Homeopathic remedies or any homeopathic treatment.