10 years of anal fissures healed

I had terrible anal fissures for over 10 years. It was soooo bad. I tried every medicine. Stool softeners, steroids, suppositories, nitroglycerin, witch hazel, herbals, over the counters...... some things brought a little relief but in the end nothing really worked. I eventually got rid of them and haven’t had a single one in over a year. Here is how I did it.

I started trying to do anything and everything I could to heal my anal fissures. Eventually, I was able to cure them without surgery (surgery wasn't an option anyway because my Crohn's was so bad the doctor refused to do surgery but instead told me to just tough it out and gave me pain pills). There are two things that I think really helped this.

First, I got my Crohn's under control. I did this through a strict SCD/Paleo like diet, but that wasn't enough. It also took Humira and supplements. The two key supplements that I think were related to helping the fissures were digestive enzymes and betaine hcl. After I started taking these at the start of every meal, my digestion improved. One key thing was that there wasn't whole food in my stool anymore. This in turn made my stools far less acidic. Gone was the terrible burn during a BM because the stool didn't have as much acid to make it burn. I tried lots of brands of digestive enzymes and betaine hcl, but anything that was rated high on iherb or amazon was okay for me.

The second thing I did, and this sounds crazy but it was sooooo important was that I applied chapstick down there. By this time I was no stranger to putting cremes and suppositories and who knows what down there from the doctor. What happened was one winter day my lips on my mouth were very dry and cold and they cracked and bled. I noticed the pain was of a certain nature but less intensity to the pain down there and I released that both parts are kind of "lips" at the end of the digestive track and so I thought if chapstick can help my mouth lips, why not my anal area. hahaha. I tried and to my surprise it really helped. After a couple of weeks, I had my first bm without blood in a decade. I sat in the bathroom and cried.

The problem with the chapstick method is that it wasn't permanent. It really helped far better than anything I had tried and made them go away, but as soon as I stopped, they came back. Still.... I was happy with a stopgap solution. Finally, it wasn't until I got my Crohn's under control as mentioned above with meds, diet, and supplements that it finally worked and they didn't come back.

I think the chapstick worked for a few reasons, but these are purely speculative. One, the chapstick had coconut oil and bees wax in it. Both of these were kind of disinfectants. They naturally kill bacteria and other bad actors. Two, they really helped moisturize the area. I think that my poor stools and their acidity had dried out my area down there and the dry flesh was much more likely to not be elastic and rip during BMs. Soooo painfully rip I might add. By moisturizing, I think it gave the skin more flexibility. For a long time in the past I had used steroid suppositories and they kind of helped. In hindsight, I don't think it was the steroids that helped, but the base of the suppository that was moisturizing the area. One key to identifying this is that if I could put the suppository in 1 hour before a BM, the fissures were less likely to reopen as bad. The third reason I think the chapstick helped was that it had peppermint oil in it. This was a double edged sword. The peppermint oil made things burn, buuuuut that burn was an icy/hot kind of burn and actually allowed everything down there to relax. This was much like how the nitroglycerin but without the headaches. This peppermint part was really important. Only with the icy/hot burn were the muscles able to relax and not spasm. Only once they were relaxed could the healing start. Also, for the first 3 days, there was actually more blood. I am not sure why this was, but the pain was noticeably less from day one so I continued to use it. My guess was that the extra blood came from the muscles not being so tight. Honestly, at that time my poor anus was like hamburger meat so it could have been anything. It was sooooo bad. Eventually, all the fissures were healed through diet, supplements, meds, and the chapstick. The chapstick alone didn't do it, but was a huge part.

This was my test case of one. I have no idea if it would work for anybody else, nor am I a doctor. I just wanted to share my story. Hopefully somebody will have something they can take away from it. I am enclosing a pic of two different kinds that worked for me.

I love chapstick. It's even good for nicks when I shave.

Glad you finally have releaf.

thanks

Thanks for all the info Jabo. I have a fissure too and know how incredibly painful they are, and how difficult they are to heal. I'm willing to give anything a try to get mine to heal, so will try your idea. How often did you need to use the chapstick to get results?

That makes sense about the chapstik but you could also just resort to Vaseline or coconut oil if you want to put bigger globs and not keep using a tiny chapstik.

I tend to use Vaseline instead, too. It's helped a lot with mine, in combination with some stool softeners.

Balneol is really soothing and can be found in drug stores.

SarahD said:

Thanks for all the info Jabo. I have a fissure too and know how incredibly painful they are, and how difficult they are to heal. I'm willing to give anything a try to get mine to heal, so will try your idea. How often did you need to use the chapstick to get results?

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30 minutes before a bm if possible. if not at least after. Also, I did it once in the morning and once at night regardless of a bm. The pain was a little better on the first day, but I couldn't really tell if it was working until after a few days. By the end of the first week, I could tell it was getting better. Not healed all the way of course, but I could notice a difference.

nogutsnoglory said:

That makes sense about the chapstik but you could also just resort to Vaseline or coconut oil if you want to put bigger globs and not keep using a tiny chapstik.

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Yes, I think vaseline or coconut oil would surely be better than nothing.

I think the chapstick was better though because it had a kind of magic formula to kick start healing. It had two key parts that without each other wouldn't help as much. The first part is the oils that help with healing and disinfect and preventing of further ripping if used before the bm. The second part is the peppermint oil. (actually because of this I could only use a little at first just on the outside; later I could use more on the inside and out) As I said, this burns and that sucks about it, but it is that burning that allows all the muscles to relax that is very important. I think with the muscles tight and going into spasms, the wound cant close and heal. I mean I don't really know because I am not a doctor, but that is just what it felt like. Basically what I needed to heal, the key for me, was that I was able to get the muscles to relax, only then could it heal. The oils and moisture help facilitate that making the skin more flexible and protecting the wound some. Peppermint alone would make it relax, but the healing wouldn't be that fast. Oils alone could help it heal, but only if the muscles would stop spasms.

There are other ways to get the muscles to relax. Nitroglycerin does this and can be given by a doctor via prescription, but it gives terrible headaches and the healing is quite slow. Hot baths work to help every thing relax too. This is long been touted to help for centuries but it is hard in today's society to sit in a hot tub all day. We have jobs and families. But yes, I think if somebody just used a coconut oil beeswax combo and took a lot of hot Epson salt baths, I think that really might help too. Or likewise a coconut oil/beeswax combo used in conjunction with nitroglycerin. I do know Vaseline has something like menthol and that might facilitate things to relax. I didn't really ever think of it to try, but it seems like it might be similar to what I did.

While the chapstick container seems small, they were only like 4 or 5 dollars and lasted a couple of weeks. It was one of those things where just a little really went a long way, kind of like with your lips too.