by Dr. Chris Reynolds. M.B.,B.S.
The symptoms of anal fissure can be relieved by wheatgrass which,
although you may not know it, has quite remarkable pain-relieving and
healing properties.
You may not need to change your diet, drink gallons of water, use stool
softeners or load your bowel with fibre. You may also be relieved of the
pain and bleeding that can be so distressing in this condition.
Surgery, like botox injections and other expensive procedures should only be considered as a last resort.
Anal fissure - What is it?
Fig. 1
As shown in Figure 1, a fissure is a split or tear at the outer end
of the anal canal wall, usually at the posterior or back side of the
anus. In chronic fissures, a skin tag known as a 'sentinel pile' often
overlies the fissure and can be mistaken for a painful hemorrhoid.
The power of wheatgrass healing
Fig. 2
Although it affects a different part of the body, anal fissure
results from a breakdown in the anal wall very much like the split lip
shown in Figure 2 which, as many of us know, can also be very painful
and difficult to treat. This young male patient suffered for more than a
year and received numerous treatments including antibiotics, steroids
and anti-fungals that didn't work. His wound however healed in one week
after only one application of wheatgrass cream. Why? Most likely because
of Growth Factor activation by one or more bioactives in wheatgrass.
(See final paragraph for more information)
What are the symptoms of anal fissure?
Typical symptoms may be:
- Pain, which can be severe, during and after bowel movements
- Red blood in the stool (blood on the toilet paper)
- Constipation - due to pain causing avoidance of passing stool
- Anal itchiness, burning
- Difficulty in passing urine
-
Why is there so much pain?
The area where anal fissure occurs is supplied by numerous nerve
endings that are highly sensitive. Even a tiny split in the wall of the
anal canal can be very painful, particularly during a bowel motion when
the anal muscles are stretched.
Who else gets anal fissure?
Anal fissure is very common. It is estimated that approximately
250,000 new cases occur each year in the US alone. It can occur in
newborns and right across the age spectrum to old age, and affects both
sexes equally. It is most common from young adulthood to middle age.
Pregnancy and childbirth can aggravate or initiate the condition.
How long does it last?
Approximately 50-60% of anal fissures will heal spontaneously.
However it can recur or become chronic (sometimes lasting for years) in
the other 40-50%.
How is anal fissure diagnosed?
Symptoms of pain and rectal bleeding will alert your doctor to make a
simple examination of the outer end of the anal canal. If an acute
fissure is present, it will look like a small tear in the posterior (the
back end, near the spine) of the anus as shown in Figure 1. Chronic
fissures have thickened edges and a 'sentinel pile' as mentioned
earlier.
If considered necessary, particularly if bleeding is present, the
doctor will arrange further investigations such as colonoscopy to
exclude other causes of blood loss.
How is anal fissure treated?
My method is simple. I use a wheatgrass extract in a cream base and
get the patient to apply a small amount just inside the anal opening
twice daily with a cotton bud. In greater than 80 percent of cases, the
symptoms disappear, usually within four to six weeks, sometimes within a
few days.
Because the fissure itself is not a life-threatening condition, it is
not essential to heal the fissure although most of them do heal in
time. The aim should always be to rid patients of their symptoms so they
can resume a normal quality of life - something that wheatgrass is very
good at.
What causes anal fissure?
Doctors invoke all kinds of reasons why fissures develop including
constipation, hard bowel motions, diarrhea, inflammation, reduced blood
flow to the anal region, poor bowel habit and even 'spiky' foods such as
peanuts. They seem to forget that many fissure patients do not have
constipation, (some in fact have diarrhea) and some babies are born with
fissures. It is unlikely the cause is related to trauma unless there is
some direct injury to the anal wall e.g. from colonoscopy or
childbirth.
More likely, the fissure occurs first and the constipation follows. In other words, constipation is an
effect and an aggravating factor, not a
cause of anal fissure. How do I know this?
The answer is based on simple clinical observation of numerous
patients with chronic constipation. Many of them had undiagnosed chronic
anal fissures that were missed because examination of the anal
canal had never been performed. However, when their pain symptoms were
relieved following treatment with wheatgrass, their constipation
disappeared.
This suggests there must be some other process causing the fissure(s). I believe one contributing factor is
auto-immunity.
What does auto-immunity mean?
Normally the immune antibodies our bodies produce act to stave off
bacteria, viruses and other organisms that try to invade the body, and
to kill off cancer cells that continually develop inside us. When this
system goes awry, such as when the body undergoes severe or prolonged
emotional or physical stress or severe illness, these antibodies can
attack and damage healthy cells, tissues or organs. This is called an
auto-immune reaction which can eventually cause an auto-immune condition
if it continues long enough. In rheumatoid arthritis for example,
joints can become severely damaged. i.e. they become red, swollen and
painful and eventually lose their function.
My theory is that this is what occurs in anal fissure and possibly in
other similar painful conditions such as tennis elbow and plantar
fasciitis and perhaps even in the split lip shown in Figure 2. For some
reason, these antibodies attack the mucous membrane on the anal wall.
This breaks down and the fissure opens up. At time of passing stool, the
anal muscles reflexly go into spasm and the bare nerve endings in the
fissure produce a painful sensation. The pain leads to stool avoidance
which can then cause constipation which aggravates the fissure and the
whole process becomes cyclical.
Unless some way is found to heal the fissure, or the body repairs
itself, the fissure becomes chronic. The anal verge being unable to
"rest" for any length of time because of the need for bowel evacuation,
the fissure remains open.
So the aim should be to fix the fissure, not the constipation. However, this has never been an easy task - until now.
How does wheatgrass work for anal fissure?
Having used wheatgrass on thousands of patients for a variety of
conditions it has been strikingly obvious to me that it facilitates
natural healing e.g. for wounds, burns, fractures, anal fissure etc.
(See Fig. 2.) One can actually see the healing in progress for example
in burns and infected wounds when the open wound re-covers with a thin
film of new cells in 24-48 hours. This keeps the exudate that contains
growth factors necessary for healin - in, and the bacteria out. Often
the patient's pain disappears as well. These are not phenomena one sees
when the body is healing itself unaided.
It is well known that hormones produced by the body called
Growth Factors are
an essential and very important part of the healing process, and for
reducing inflammation. It appears that wheatgrass in some way stimulates
the production of these important growth factors that 'normalize'
damaged tissue and facilitate rapid healing. Wheatgrass can also
work very well for some auto-immune related disorders such as acne
rosacea and psoriasis. In other words, wheatgrass is a potent, natural
healing agent.
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