Can I keep hemorrhoids away with exercise?

Summary

Dr. Albert Chung, known as 'Your Friendly Proctologist,' tackles the question of whether exercises can help keep hemorrhoids at bay. Focusing on pelvic floor exercises, Dr. Chung explains that these exercises can indeed strengthen the muscles supporting the pelvic organs, potentially helping keep internal and external hemorrhoids under control. While not a guaranteed cure, strengthening these muscles improves bowel and urinary functions and may reduce the need for surgical interventions. Dr. Chung encourages a tailored approach, emphasizes listening to patients, and advises trying different strategies to manage hemorrhoidal conditions.

Highlights

• Dr. Chung discusses the potential of exercises to manage hemorrhoids. 💪
• Pelvic floor muscles play a crucial role in supporting pelvic organs. 🦴
• Stronger muscles may help keep hemorrhoids in place. 🔒
• Exercise isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s part of a broader strategy. 🎯
• Patient-doctor communication is vital in treatment plans. 🗣️

Key Takeaways

• Pelvic floor exercises could help manage hemorrhoids. 🏋️‍♂️
• Strengthening pelvic muscles benefits bowel and urinary health. 🚽
• Exercises may delay or prevent the need for surgery. ⏳
• Results can vary; personal experiences matter. 📚
• Patient stories guide doctors to better solutions. 🩺

Overview

In a comprehensive session, Dr. Albert Chung, famously known as 'Your Friendly Proctologist,' delves into the effectiveness of pelvic floor exercises in managing hemorrhoids. He underscores the pelvic floor's role as a muscled bowl that supports key bodily functions, explaining how targeted exercises could potentially curb the outward tendencies of hemorrhoids.

Throughout his explanation, Dr. Chung stresses the importance of strengthening these muscles not only as a potential remedy for hemorrhoids but also to boost overall pelvic health. While acknowledging that exercises may not always prevent the need for surgery, he highlights their role in enhancing control and possibly delaying more invasive procedures.

Dr. Chung wraps up with an essential reminder that health is not one-size-fits-all. He encourages those with hemorrhoids to share their stories with healthcare providers, underscoring that personalized care, understanding, and communication are key in crafting effective treatment strategies.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In the introduction, Dr. Albert Chung introduces himself as the creator behind the 'Your Friendly Proctologist' channel. He expresses gratitude towards viewers for their support, encouraging them to engage further by liking videos and subscribing to the channel. Dr. Chung emphasizes that the channel is dedicated to providing real and helpful information to its audience.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Purpose of the Channel The chapter titled 'Purpose of the Channel' discusses the main objective of the channel, which is to provide information and answer questions regarding health topics, specifically focused on the bottom end. In this chapter, the channel introduces a question about whether exercises, particularly those targeting the pelvic muscles, can help prevent or alleviate hemorrhoids. The host expresses enthusiasm in addressing these kinds of health-related queries.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Can Exercise Prevent Hemorrhoids? This chapter explores whether exercise, specifically pelvic floor exercises, can help prevent hemorrhoids. It discusses the common unspoken thought regarding the role of such exercises in managing hemorrhoids, referencing a previous video on the topic. The main focus is on internal hemorrhoids, metaphorically referred to as 'hemorrhoids in the house.'
• 01:30 - 03:00: Internal vs External Hemorrhoids The chapter discusses the differences between internal and external hemorrhoids. Internal hemorrhoids typically remain inside the body and do not protrude outside, unlike external hemorrhoids, which can be more exposed. The chapter aims to clarify the distinctions and common points between the two types.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Explanation of Pelvic Floor Anatomy The chapter provides an explanation of pelvic floor anatomy focusing on hemorrhoids. It describes internal hemorrhoids, which can become swollen and protrude outside, causing discomfort. These internal hemorrhoids are pink and wet, resembling the intestinal lining. Additionally, the chapter distinguishes external hemorrhoids, which are located outside as their usual position.
• 06:00 - 10:00: Pelvic Floor Exercises The chapter on 'Pelvic Floor Exercises' begins by discussing the skin color of certain body parts, indicating they often match the color of one's buttocks but may be slightly darker. It then transitions into explaining what the pelvic floor is, providing insight into the anatomy before diving into exercises. This foundational understanding of the body's structure is crucial before proceeding with any pelvic floor exercises.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Challenges and Benefits of Pelvic Floor Exercises This chapter introduces the pelvic bones as the foundational structure for pelvic floor muscles. The pelvis is described metaphorically as a sideways ring or hula hoop around the hips, emphasizing its structural role in supporting the pelvic floor.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Doctor's Responsibility and Patient Care The chapter titled 'Doctor's Responsibility and Patient Care' seems to delve into the anatomy and physiological structure, referencing skeletal frameworks possibly as a metaphor or analogy for the doctor's role in patient management. It begins by describing the circular structure of the leg bones and hips, likening it to a hula hoop that has depth, representing the complexity and substantial responsibility encircling doctors. The narrative then transitions to an observational lesson akin to looking at a skeleton in a museum or classroom, illustrating the real-world context and tangibility of the medical responsibilities discussed. The chapter's focus remains on the importance of understanding patient care dynamics through various educative analogies, emphasizing that medicine is not just about bones and anatomy, but also about the integral care and holistic responsibility a doctor has towards a patient.

Can I keep hemorrhoids away with exercise? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hi there i'm dr albert chung and welcome to your friendly proctologist thank you so much for spending your time with me today i truly appreciate every single one of you that subscribed and watching the video on that note would you mind would you click that thumbs up button and also subscribe to this channel it greatly helps this channel to grow i appreciate you for that this channel is about giving you real and helpful information
• 00:30 - 01:00 about your bottom end and we have so many questions to answer because you want to know more and i'm here to help you and do exactly that and that's what this channel is all about so the question today is can i do exercises to keep hemorrhoids away can they go away with exercising your pelvic muscles and i think the um the question is a really great
• 01:00 - 01:30 thought because let me tell you you're not the only one that's thought of it and even if you've never said that question out loud you're probably unconsciously doing it without even realizing it and the original question was can i do pelvic mud floor exercises to keep the hemorrhoids in the house and this is referring to a previous video in the past where the hemorrhoids in the house were the internal hemorrhoids because
• 01:30 - 02:00 usually the internal hemorrhoids stay inside they usually don't go outdoors so let's kind of break things up here let's do the background okay and um obviously internal hemorrhoids is mainly what we're talking about here but we can also apply them to external hemorrhoids too you know many people are trying to keep those guys inside the external hemorrhoids i mean because when they're
• 02:00 - 02:30 sticking out they can be swollen and really uncomfortable and it's it can really be awful to sit on them to walk around with them or stand with them hanging out right so the internal hemorrhoids on the inside and they pop out when they're big enough and those guys are usually pink and wet because they're from they have the lining of the intestine the external hemorrhoids are on the outside that's where they normally live
• 02:30 - 03:00 and they have skin covering so they're usually the skin same color of your skin on your buttocks but probably a little bit darker because you know the skin gets to a darker color when it gets to your bottom end alright so what about pelvic floor exercises what is the pelvic floor even before you get to the exercises so if we were to imagine the anatomy of your body right
• 03:00 - 03:30 first we'll take we'll think about the pelvic bones okay and the pelvic bones we need to thought think about that first because that provides a structure for the pelvic floor muscles all right so the pelvis is really a ring that goes sideways okay if you think of it kind of like a uh well a hula hoop around your hips and that just kind of re just kind of
• 03:30 - 04:00 circles around like this okay and your leg bones your hips go underneath this hula hoop bar and it kind of has some depth to it kind of goes up and down for a fair distance but there are no bones on the top of this ring and there are no bones at the bottom of the ring okay and so if you look at a skeleton in a museum or in a classroom you can see that you can actually put your fist if this was the basin of the
• 04:00 - 04:30 hole here of the pelvis ring you could put your fist and go straight down and it's really just you look down into the pelvic bone and you're like oh my god i see the floor i mean shouldn't there be like a rib cage down there i mean it how did my insides not just fall out onto the floor and that is because of your pelvic floor it's actually functioning and helping to keep things up
• 04:30 - 05:00 right keep things suspended it is carrying the weight of your body as well as other tendons ligaments um other support structures and the all the bonding of these different tissues form the um the structure to keep your lungs your intestines up i mean there's a lot of stuff that's sitting on top of our pelvis okay okay so if you have this ring here the
• 05:00 - 05:30 pelvic floor actually attaches 360 degrees around this ring okay and then that muscle then comes down to the floor so with the pelvis and the floor because this forms a bowl actually if you think about the top here with this ring and then it comes down on all sides 360 degrees around it's just coming down to form the bottom of this swimming pool
• 05:30 - 06:00 and at the bottom of the hole is you guessed it it's your anus it's your urethra your pee hole and if your woman the vagina as well and these muscles surround all of these structures these holes at the very bottom and these muscles actually are very thin i mean i've done surgery in these areas and when you look at these muscles they look so fragile and weak but they hold so much power and such an
• 06:00 - 06:30 important job and function that's it's really amazing how our bodies are designed but these muscles here have so much to do with how we poop and they connect with our anus and our rectum okay and these muscles have a lot to do with how we're supposed to poop these are the muscles like i said in previous videos
• 06:30 - 07:00 that they are contracted when you're not supposed to poop to prevent an accident and then they're relaxed or they you want them relaxed they're supposed to be relaxed when you poop that way things open up the channel opens up and then the poop can come out right and these muscles since they are closely and very much related turn into our sphincter muscles they have a lot to do with
• 07:00 - 07:30 our hemorrhoids and i i understand completely when people are trying to as much as possible avoid like a surgery right because they feel these hemorrhoids coming out to the outside maybe your surgeon has said to you you know you're going to need surgery for those hemorrhoids they're too big and but you know that they're coming out you don't want the surgery and so you're trying to think of other ways to well
• 07:30 - 08:00 not have them interfere with your life so with your internal hemorrhoids after you poop you may be pushing them back in with your external hemorrhoids after a poop you may be also trying to push those guys in and then what do you do when after you do that what you do is you squeeze right you're trying to catch them in like you're putting your finger in and then you stuff them in
• 08:00 - 08:30 there and you're trying to trap them inside of the anus as if it was some kind of you know some kind of glove and you're trying to close right around those muscles and it's really a very ingenious adaptation it's a very smart thing to do because i mean what do you do when you're you don't if something's going to fall out of your hands like a rope is going to fall out of your hands you're trying to make sure you got a good grasp if you don't want to let go what do you do you go you hold
• 08:30 - 09:00 on to that rope and then you try and pull up right because you don't want to lose grip and the pelvic floor muscles because it relates to the anus you're trying to strengthen the muscles there so you want your anus to be stronger that way it has more power more force right and you can actually hold that contraction or force longer when you squeeze if you were to work things out just like you work out any other bicep or your you know your shoulders you want
• 09:00 - 09:30 the muscles to be able to withstand a prolonged exercise and doing it all the time maybe it can get better and it'll be easier for you later on right and these pelvic floor exercises don't just work this the anal sphincter muscles they also work the entire bowl so what if you can strengthen them and then just like when they prevent poop from coming out can you get them to do the same thing to
• 09:30 - 10:00 hold the hemorrhoids in right and that's where the question is asking these pelvic floor exercises which strengthen that bowl it also strengthens the anus muscles can that be a good way to keep your hemorrhoids inside right are you following me i hope you are trying to make the explanations very logical so you can understand and be able to see if this can be applied to your life
• 10:00 - 10:30 okay and i'll tell you that some people absolutely can of course and that makes complete sense and i'm sure you've tried it and you've had some good success but there may have been times where it does not work right maybe the hemorrhoid was just a little bit more swollen than usual right maybe a certain day you were doing a lot more vigorous activity maybe
• 10:30 - 11:00 you're doing a lot more running around and you really weren't able to keep them in the entire time maybe you were standing a lot plus with that moving that may have gotten you to say oh man they they came out that was that was uh surprising right and so you think maybe you should exercise more or maybe you think oh it's not working you know what else can i do but i believe that pelvic floor
• 11:00 - 11:30 exercises are very important and would benefit anyone whether you have hemorrhoid issues or not because strengthening these pelvic floor muscles them being as fragile and thin as they are they produce a huge function for our bowel function and urinary function that you can enhance your strength enhance your control and also enhance your relaxation
• 11:30 - 12:00 and i think for many people relaxation can be very helpful on the toilet right especially people trying to keep things in so let's say all day long you've been holding in your hemorrhoids you've been squeezing your muscles all day finally you get the signal to go poop and what happens you sit down in the toilet and you can't relax you're so used to squeezing and concentrating so hard to keep that contraction maximized and all of a
• 12:00 - 12:30 sudden when it's time to do the exact 100 percent opposite go from zero excuse me go from 100 intensity to zero you can only go down to about 70 percent for some reason it's just not doing what you wanted to and so i think that there's pros and cons to the strategy but can you keep them in better with strengthening those muscles absolutely you can do i recommend that
• 12:30 - 13:00 you do pelvic floor exercises absolutely i do think it's extremely healthy all of our body parts and muscles should get some type of exercise it keeps us strong keeps us moving and keeps our body parts functioning more normally and prevents pain as well now is this a good strategy to keep hemorrhoids in i think it is i mean in my opinion hemorrhoids do not
• 13:00 - 13:30 need something done until they are really ruining your life okay and so if you don't want to have surgery right now or you're not ready or you want to see if this thing these things can help you well i think that doing these exercises even now can help you in the future and if it keeps you away from surgery for another six months well then that may be a big benefit to you you know try and prolong things maybe you don't ever need surgery because now
• 13:30 - 14:00 you've found this new strategy and it doesn't bother you as much anymore i mean there's so many different things that could be happening and it depends on you again i think the most important job of a doctor is and i take this very seriously is to listen to the patient listen to you the problems are in the story that you give me the solutions are in the story you tell me and
• 14:00 - 14:30 the re you know it just all stems from there because you are not a textbook i cannot just read off a treatment and say here you go it's like go to the grocery store pick up these ingredients and then make your loaf of bread it's going to come out perfect every time no the human body does not work that way and we i think doctors need to be more patient and listen and therefore
• 14:30 - 15:00 and then we can really start helping people and make people better so this was kind of a little bit of a tangent but i hope that you really enjoy the content of this video i hope i answered your question and i'll see you on the next one take care bye