Natural ideas, options and diet recommendations.

The old saying 'Prevention is better than cure' needs to be applied to constipation!

Daily ritual.

• Each morning start the day with a glass of warm/hot water with a squeeze of lemon added.
• Then gently massage with some oil in a clockwise direction over the abdominal area.
• Then make a habit of sitting on the toilet every morning for at least 10mins.  Do not strain but wait patiently. If no result  you may get the urge later in the day.
• But also repeat the warm drink/ massage routine tomorrow morning.

Ways to treat constipation naturally.

• Drink 2litres of warm or hot water daily , not cold.
• Try hot prune juice or lemon juice in hot water half an hour before breakfast
• Eat plenty of fruit like Kiwifruit/ kiwicrush from most supermarkets.
•  Make your own muesli with oats, seeds, nuts, linseed etc. Soak over night and pour off liquid.
• Or add LSA mix 1 desert spoon full to your cereal every morning.
• Avoid adding Bran as this absorbs too much fluid and can create dry stools.
• Take Probiotics or Slippery Elm powder which keep the gut healthy.
• 1 tsp freshly ground linseed with 1 tsp ground psyllium seed hulls with each meal is an excellent treatment for constipation
• Omega 3 fish oils 1000mg - 2000mg daily.

Natural Haemorrhoid Treatments.
The following may help:

• Sit in a warm bath up to hips for 10-15 minutes at least twice a day. If there is minor bleeding after stool and considerable pain, Epsom salts may be added to the water.
• Drink 1-2 cups of stinging nettle and oat straw infusion per day. Nettle infusion is helpful for bleeding haemorrhoid's.
• Apply witchazel, or after a warm bath, apply Wizard ointment from Lincoln Mall Pharmacy or Weleda Haemorrhoid ointment. 
• If haemorrhoid's do not bleed, try cold compresses. Soak a sanitary pad in cold water and put in the freezer. Once frozen place on haemorrhoid anal area and lie on your side for 10-20mins.

Exercise regularly.
Yoga can be an especially helpful as well as pelvic floor exercises. Gentle walking for 20mins a day helps the circulation throughout the whole body including helping to create regular bowel movements.


Homoeopathic Treatments.

Nux Vomica:
If you are hooked on laxatives and need to break the habit,
Characterised by itching. Better from cool bathing.
- Discharge of light blood after evacuating bowel.
- Constant ineffectual urging to stool.
- When your Haemorrhoids protrude and feel like a bunch of grapes by your anus.
If you require repeated doses, see your homoeopath for constitutional treatment.

Sulphur:
If painful to pass stool due to rectal fissure or 'crack'
Itching and burning around the anus is made worse by bathing.
When it all becomes  worse by rubbing or standing.
Becomes worse at night.

- You may have ineffective urging to pass a stool but do not seem to be able to go plus there is burning at anus, alternating with diarrhoea.
- Your stools are hard, dark, dry
- You have a tendency to haemorrhoid's

Alumina:
- Difficulty passing stool, even if the stool is soft and sticky
- Stools hard, dry, and covered with mucus

Bryonia:
- Stools pass with great difficulty.
- You are irritable and ill-tempered
- You have a large thirst for drinks of cold water

Nat rum Mur:
- Hard crumbly stool that causes rectal bleeding and soreness
- Contractions of the anus, bleeding and pain

Graphites:
- When there is no urge to pass a stool.
- May go for days without bowel movement and when it finally comes it takes the form of round balls stick together with mucus and is painful to pass
- The person who needs graphites is often obese

Aescules:
- Burning sensation in the rectum.
- Dull ache in the lower back and sharp shooting pain upwards.
- The lining of the rectum seems swollen and obstructs the passageway.
- The haemorrhoids look like a bunch of purple grapes.
- Worse from moving, standing or walking.
- Worse in the morning.

Arnica:
- Useful for haemorrhoids that develop after childbirth.
- Heals damaged tissue.
- Do not apply Arnica lotion or ointment take tablets orally.

Collinsonia:
- Sensation of sticks in the rectum. Usually constipated.
- Worse from cold, better from heat.

Nitric acid:
- Haemorrhoids feel like needles or splinters in the rectum and bleed easily.
- Pain after stool lasts for hours.