Curable & Incurable Hemorrhoids Causes (which do you have?)

Doctors generally tell us that hemorrhoids are caused by obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, constipation, and straining when defecating.

But some people who are overweight get hemorrhoids while others do not.

Some who binge on fiber get it while others who eat little fiber do not.

So, if hemorrhoids are caused by lifestyle factors, then why do lifestyle changes not work for all? That’s a question that a new study in the journal Gut asks.

The results identify two types of hemorrhoid causes: curable and incurable.

A team from several of the world’s best research institutions collected information from the biobanks of various European countries and the US, totaling almost one million genetic samples. All of these people were of European ancestry, which unfortunately prevents the researchers from generalizing the results.

Of these samples, 218,929 belonged to people with hemorrhoidal disease and 725,213 to healthy controls.

The investigation pinpointed genes in 102 regions of the human genome that put us at risk of hemorrhoidal disease.

Most of these genes are involved in blood vessels, gastrointestinal tissues, smooth muscle tissue, and the growth and function of the tissues lining our intestinal tracts.

Altogether, the scientists concluded that hemorrhoidal disease results mostly from dysfunction in smooth muscle, connective tissue, and epithelium, a cell layer that lines our blood vessels and intestinal tracts.

So, what does this mean for you? Does this mean you are genetically at risk or not?

Essentially, you don’t know, but the study gives clues about other conditions that often result from the same genetic variants.

1. Genes related to dysfunction in connective and smooth muscle tissue also put us at genetic risk for conditions like cutis laxa (saggy skin, poor muscle tone, aortic aneurysm, etc.), diverticular disease (when small pockets in the large intestine become inflamed), and severe stretch marks.

2. Genes that interfere with proper movement of food through the digestive tract can also cause irritable bowel syndrome, so people with these genetic traits often use more laxatives. This explains why so much research shows a relationship between hemorrhoids and constipation.

3. Genes that cause epithelial dysfunction in our blood vessels can also cause genetic predispositions to coronary artery disease, thrombosis, hemorrhage, and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.

Therefore, if you have a family history of many of these conditions, you may carry the genes that increase your risk of hemorrhoidal disease.

However, the fact is that for almost all genetic condition, genes account for a maximum of 50% of the risk. This means that it doesn’t matter if your hemorrhoids are genetic or not—you can rid yourself of them using the simple lifestyle changes explained here (and no, it’s not the same old fiber, constipation, and movement advice) …