Research Paper – The Science of Hemorrhoids

I sent this research paper out to 39 different people including the CDC, the NIH, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which is an organization that reviews current medical papers and makes recommendations on newer treatments. This paper was meant to be read by people with enough medical training to understand the medical terminology and recognize it’s validity. The first part was meant to be a plea for help and a brief introduction to my problem.

I wrote this back when I thought medical people cared. Since then, I have seen no indication that anyone in the medical profession in this country cares enough to help. This is why I created this website. I include this research paper here as a different way to present the information, and also because of the bibliography.

The meat of this paper starts with “Some real facts”.

This paper refers to an Appendix A. It did not get transcribed with this paper. I will try to find a way to add it later. Again, the formatting could be better, but this is the best I can do for now.

Are Hemorrhoids the

Digestive System’s

Most Important

Immune Gland?

The digestive system is a system.

The immune system is a system.

Every part of a system is important.

But hemorrhoids are our most definitive way to

detect and diagnose which pathogens are

overwhelming our digestive system.

Introduction:

I’m dying of an inconvenience. I’ve spent the last eight years researching my problem and experimenting on myself. I know what will cure me, but it’s a prescription drug. I managed to get one doctor to listen to me, and he wanted to bump me up to an infectious disease specialist. I haven’t been able to get anyone else to listen to me. I’m running out of time. I feel the need to pass this information on to as many people as possible. It has cost me a great deal of pain, and suffering. If you enjoy science, you should enjoy reading this. The following is proof that hemorrhoids are caused by a pathogen. I’m not dying of hemorrhoids, I’m dying of an invasive fungal infection.

An eleven year-old girl discovered the cure for childhood rickets. No one listened to her. She wasn’t brilliant. The cure was just really simple. This is the norm in the medical profession. When a cure is finally accepted, it always turns out to have been discovered several times before, but no one would listen. The cure for what is killing me is really simple. Real facts in the real world are always really simple. My facts are from medical textbooks and medical papers from the CDC, the NIH, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and other research doctors. I have an advantage over all of them. I can experiment on myself.

Everything we read or hear is trivia. Unapplied data and information is trivia. Only when we take what we think we know, and run an experiment (by changing our habits, diet, or taking some supplement or drug) can we experience the truth. The real world will show us the truth. My eight-year journey has been a trail charted by the results of experimenting on myself. The real world, and not human speculation, has corrected my course as I fumbled along.

Summary:

The following is proof that hemorrhoids are caused by pathogens. Hemorrhoids are my most definitive, and best diagnostic symptom. They allowed me to evaluate my experiments.

Hemorrhoids contain a very high percentage of mast cells^[1].

Mast cells react to viruses, bacteria, helminthes^[2], and fungi. They react by swelling in what’s called an immediate hypersensitivity reaction and a late-phase reaction. Everything that can be observed about hemorrhoids can be explained by these reactions. Mast cells, and other cells involved in this immediate hypersensitivity reaction, affect platelets to release serotonin. Serotonin seems to be the major chemical involved in reducing this swelling. Without adequate serotonin, hemorrhoids stay swollen.

Inadequate serotonin can be caused by too little HCL in the stomach. I know of two parasites that can cause this; Helicobacter pylori, and candida. I’m sure there must be many more.

Hemorrhoids are an endocrine gland. They release histamine, which travels through the blood stream to their target cells. This signals smooth muscles in the digestive track to speed up, and mucus cells, which line the digestive track, to secrete mucus. They do this to protect the digestive track and flush it out, because they have detected a pathogen.

Hemorrhoids are part of the digestive systems’ immune system. Without them, pathogens have a huge advantage. Cutting them off is the last thing a person should do. Cutting them off is a huge disadvantage to a person’s immune system. Understanding what they are doing can tell us what they are reacting to. Hemorrhoids are an incredibly important diagnostic tool. Without hemorrhoids, I would have never discovered the source of my illness.

I’m being eaten alive from the inside by an invasive fungal infection.

Periods of draining fatigue and confusion have spurred me to write out my research before I get any worse. I hope to send this to doctors who have helped me discover the cause of my illness. These doctors have printed textbooks, reports, and produced videos that have contained the facts and clues, which led me to discover what is ailing me. I have not been able to find a doctor to help me, so I want to get this information out to the leaders in the field and others who might be able to use it, or pass it on to someone who can use it. Hopefully, someone will be willing to help me get the treatment I need.

I’m also including some directions for people suffering from hemorrhoids on how to boost the serotonin available to their hemorrhoids during this immediate hypersensitivity reaction. Hopefully, they can use this information to stop the pain, the bleeding, and reduce the swelling. This is in Appendix B with a few helpful hints and miscellaneous comments from my personal experience.

My Story:

Doctors at my hospital want me to have a series of operations to remove the part of my body (hemorrhoids) that is doing exactly what it is designed to do. They will grow back. So I would be getting a series of operations every few years for the rest of my life to remove a perfectly healthy endocrine gland that is fighting off an invasive fungal infection. These operations would only handicap my immune system. These doctors won’t listen to any of my research or my experiences. They look down on me and tell me the same old bunch of nonsense, or yell at me for being stupid or a drug seeker.

It’s estimated that half to two-thirds of the people in the U.S. suffer from some level of hemorrhoids. You can help cure many of them if you know anyone who is willing to apply this information, and test it for them selves.

I have been researching my problem and experimenting on myself for eight years. The biology and chemistry my theory is based on, comes from doctors. None of it is speculation. I have experimented on myself to test an endless list of possibilities. This fits every detail of my life and experiences.

There is no single massively overwhelming fact to prove my theory. It’s like a thousand piece puzzle. In the assembly line American medical industry, most doctors won’t take the time to listen to me. One study, filmed doctors with hidden cameras, and the average time a doctor listened was17 seconds before they interrupted the patient.^[3] Doctors want some massively overwhelming single piece of evidence so they can prescribe a treatment and speed off to the next patient. I’ve heard doctors in the U.S. say they had as many as 800 patients.

I can support my theory with more scientific facts than you will have time to hear or I will have the patience to write. In the end, everything biological is related to and interconnected to everything else biological. Our body’s chemistry is the same way. I spent almost five hours with one doctor and never got through all the details that support my theory. It was very refreshing to talk science with a doctor who wasn’t looking down on me. He was the only doctor to ever listen to me. He thought I should see an infectious disease specialist and try to identify the exact species of my fungus before I killed it. There’s a very good possibility I’ll never be able to kill every last individual fungus. It may grow back, and I may be dealing with it again someday. I haven’t yet found a specialist willing to see me. I just want to kill it.

My insurance company has created a very convoluted problem to keep the one doctor who took the time to listen to me, and understands my research, from being able to refer me. My insurance has made it all but impossible to change my “primary care” doctor. My current “primary care” doctor just won’t make the effort to help me.

I have maybe twenty-one symptoms of my disease. They could all be symptoms of many things, except one symptom. The only symptom I care about is my severe hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids give me the opportunity to experiment and find the underlying cause of my illness. The condition of my hemorrhoids, tells me how well my experiments have worked (or not).

Some real facts:

Hemorrhoids are made of mast cells^[4]. That means they are part of the immune system. An old clock is a system of gears. Only doctors would think they could throw one of the gears away and the clock would work just fine.Technically, I am using the term “immune system” incorrectly here.^[5] I’m using it to describe the inflammatory response, the immune system and any other cellular or chemical processes. I’ll explain why later.
“Because of their strategic location, the presence of different types of receptors and the unique property to release potent mediators according to specific pathogen, MCs [Mast Cells] are very important effecter cells in immune response to infection.”^[6] This is an interesting article by Rohit Saluja, Martin Metz, and Marcus Maurer from the Charite Universitatsmedizin in Berlin. They state, “The role of MCs [Mast Cells] in antifungal defense is an almost unexplored area of research, and in contrast to infections by bacteria, viruses, and parasites, very little is known about the relevance of MC effects in fungal infections. This is surprising because fungi, just like other pathogens enter the body via MC rich organs (skin, gut, airways) and because MCs express several receptors and mediators known to be involved in antifungal responses. In addition, host defense responses to fungal pathogens share many characteristic features of MC-driven immune responses against bacteria and parasites. Fungal infections are affecting an increasing number of people, current treatment options are not sufficient, and the mortality of invasive fungal infection remains unacceptably high. Therefore, it is important to better understand the contribution of MCs during fungal infections, and this may facilitate the development of novel and better treatment options for this disease.” The article goes on to describe a long list of details about mast cells that indicate they are intricately involved in fungal infections. Hey guys, if you want to make this real easy; round up people with hemorrhoids, test them for pathogens, and treat them. Their mast cells are right there where you can easily observe them.
Mast Cells release many chemicals. One, histamine^[7] is released into the bloodstream and travels throughout the body until it finds its target cells. Among other things, hemorrhoids are an endocrine gland^[8].
The histamine released by hemorrhoids effects mucus cells to secrete mucus, and smooth muscle cells to work faster throughout the digestive system. (It even gives me a runny nose because my sinuses drain into my digestive track.) This may be the reason why my ears are plugged up more often than not. My hemorrhoids know I have a pathogen. The mucus lines and protects my digestive track, and the increasing peristalsis acts to flush out my digestive track.
Mast cells go through an immediate hypersensitivity reaction [7]. It’s the same as a bee sting.
In an immediate hypersensitivity reaction, the swelling should reduce in about an hour and a quarter [7] for a healthy person. When it doesn’t, it’s an indication of a possible lack of serotonin. There’s a chemical cascade initiated by mast cells that helps produce this immediate hypersensitivity reaction. I’m including a diagram[9], of a portion of this cascade, in Appendix A. Mast cells, along with other cells involved in this immediate hypersensitivity reaction release platelet activating factor. This chemical signals platelets to release serotonin. Serotonin temporarily attaches to the endothelial cells lining the capillaries and signals them to vasoconstrict. Platelets quickly reabsorb this free serotonin. Platelet activating factor is neutralized pretty quickly by proteins in the blood. This keeps the process localized. If this swelling does not subside, it is likely due to a lack of serotonin. Since eighty to ninety-eight percent of a person’s serotonin receptors are in our digestive tracks, and since the brain gets unrestricted blood flow, low serotonin can have serious effects on the digestive system before any mental signs.
To prove this, an SSRI can be used to prevent platelets from reabsorbing the serotonin they have released. In this way, that serotonin will continue to float around, reattaching itself to more epithelial cells, causing more vasoconstriction. To do this, a person has to get the SSRI and an adequate supply of platelets to the hemorrhoids at the right time during this immediate hypersensitivity reaction. A person has to lie down and be as still as possible for an hour and a quarter to three and a half hours depending on their health. This only allows blood to flow to the digestive system. Whenever a person moves, blood is shut off from the digestive track and is shunted to what ever muscles needs it. Stress, from pain also shuts down a person’s digestive system [10]. In order to overcome this, a person has to snack on some food. Eating triggers a signal strong enough to keep blood flowing to the digestive track. Timing is everything in this process. Probably, some SSRIs are better than others since they work at different rates. For me, two Vicodin work perfectly without any bad side effects. Celexa works fairly well with lots of crappy side effects and the dosage can be anywhere between a quarter, to one tablet. But, one of these has worked every single time for me for the past eight years to reduce most of the swelling of my hemorrhoids. I haven’t tried any other SSRIs. See additional notes on how to do this in Appendix B.
The chart I included in Appendix A is a very simplified one. An important factor is time. Time cannot be represented on this chart. Some of these chemicals have a half-life of less than a minute and others longer. Each chemical is produced at rates that change. Generally, chemical reactions start out faster and slow down as their concentration diminishes. All chemicals have an effect on the other chemicals around them. They promote some and inhibit others. As their concentrations change so does their effect on the other chemicals around them. Those changes affect these chemicals in turn. It’s like music. It’s not just a lot of instruments playing randomly. It’s a lot of instruments playing at specific times in relation to all the other instruments. Mast cells produce other chemicals like heparin, and chemicals which signal other cells to release some of their chemicals. All of these are interacting. Having studied many of these chemicals for years, and having experienced an immediate hypersensitivity reaction every day, I have a unique understanding of this process. Everything I have read fits my experience. This understanding cannot be charted. It is too monumentally complex to be charted. It’s very simple to understand when you live it. Unfortunately, this understanding cannot be conveyed to other people. This makes it very difficult to “prove” it to people who have no experience with it. Besides, you can’t “prove” anything to a human who doesn’t want to believe you.
Over the years, I had to take Vicodin at many different intervals from every day, to once in three months. This depended on my dietary and other experiments, and how well I managed to remain limp while taking it. More about that in Appendix B. A curious thing happened. For long periods of time, I was taking Vicodin once every 9 or 10 days. I found out years later, that the life span of platelets was about 9 days. During those periods, I was apparently healthy enough, that I only needed a few platelets to be bound to Vicodin. The rest were reabsorbing serotonin quickly after releasing it. Only about 10% needed to be incapable of reabsorbing free serotonin. Today, I’m taking Vicodin everyday, and I’m taking three or more each day. My system is up-regulating to metabolize the Vicodin I’m taking. I will continue to have to take more and more.
My lack of serotonin seems to be from inadequate HCL in my stomach. A lack of HCL grossly diminishes the digestion of several proteins, primarily Tryptophan and Phenylalanine. Serotonin is a metabolite of Tryptophan. I got markedly better when I started taking HCL tablets with my meals; much better than when I was taking Tryptophan supplements, while on a high Tryptophan diet. I now notice an uncomfortable “fullness” when I ‘m eating and have forgotten to take my HCL pill.
Phenylalanine is also critical to my problem. Tyrosine is a metabolite of Phenylalanine. Tyrosine is necessary for the repair of epithelial cells. Without it, the lining of the gut cannot heal when damaged^[11].
The lining of the digestive track can be damaged in numerous ways. Alcohol shears off the ends of the small intestine’s villi. NSAIDs “produce hemorrhagic lesions in the small intestine” and increased bacterial invasion, while interfering with the inflammatory response, and causing “damage in the mucosa.”^[12] There’s twigs, splinters, thorns, sand, tiny rocks, bone fragments, seeds, tiny bug parts, and tiny fragments of metal, plastic and glass from manufacturing our food in what we eat and drink. And then there are all those toxic, caustic chemicals in our food. Without an adequate amount of Tyrosine, the intestinal epithelium cannot heal. This is commonly referred to as “leaky gut.”
I have been ill for thirty years I no longer make an adequate amount of beta-endorphins^[13]. The pain is not as great as it once was because I have learned some tricks to limit it, but I can no longer look past it to complete some tasks. With Vicodin, I can reduce the swelling in about 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours, but when I am in pain, it’s just in my face, and I can’t focus on anything else. I lay down and watch TV when I take Vicodin. During the time I’m in pain, I can’t remember many details of what I watched. For example, I watched the same movie three times in four days and I can only remember four tiny snippets of it. I’m pain-free and clear headed after this procedure with Vicodin. I use to be able to focus on doing a task, despite the pain, and get something done. It’s a strange experience. The pain now, just won’t let me focus on anything else.
I’m convinced that hemorrhoids are triggered by chemicals in stool. I’ve been examined by three surgeons, two doctors, and a gastroenterologist and this always makes my hemorrhoids worse. This pain doesn’t last vary long and goes away even if I’m active. The pain and swelling from a bowel movement is more intense and lasts longer. The swelling doesn’t go away unless I lie down and snack to force blood to this tissue, and then, sometimes only if I take Vicodin.
Once hemorrhoids start an immediate-hypersensitivity reaction, their capillaries vasodialate. This means that the spaces between the cells making up the capillary walls become larger allowing blood plasma to leak out into the tissue in the hemorrhoids. Actually, pressure from the heart pumps this fluid out into the hemorrhoid tissue. This tissue can swell without any pain up to a point. Once the pressure in this tissue reaches a certain point, it hurts. After the cells making up the capillary walls are signaled to vasoconstrict from serotonin released by platelets, these spaces will close back up and no more fluid will be pumped out into the hemorrhoid tissue. This pressurized fluid slowly drains off through the lymph system and when the pressure is reduced enough, the pain stops. This fluid contains immune cells, immune chemicals and everything in the blood plasma except red blood cells. It also contains any chemicals from pathogens and even any pathogens in the blood stream. In this way, mast cells in hemorrhoids are exposed to and will react to any pathogen in the blood plasma. Hemorrhoids check both the digestive track and blood for evidence of pathogens.

How did I arrive at invasive fungal infection? I tried many things over the years. Having totally run out of ideas one day, I tried an over-the-counter product called Candex. It has cellulase and hemicellulase in it. It’s advertised to digest fungal organisms. There is some controversy about this, as fungus doesn’t have cellulose in its cell wall. It has chitin. But if you look at the molecular structure of cellulose and chitin you will notice that half of one is identical to half of the other^[14]. If the enzyme acts on that half, then it should cleave both molecules.

When I took Candex, I got much worse for about three days. I think this is from the die-off. I then got better than I had been in years. I lost ten pounds in the first two weeks off my belly. I also lost my cravings for sugar. I continued to loose 1 ½ pounds a week for months. I reached a plateau, so I quit, and I got worse right away. So, I started taking Candex again and also went on a severely restricted carbohydrate (anti-fungal) diet. This is no sugar of any kind and less than 70 grams of carbohydrates^[15]. 70 grams is 2 carrots and a tablespoon of humus. I started getting better and loosing weight again, but after many months reached another plateau where I wasn’t getting better.

This die-off is a result of my hemorrhoids reacting to parts of a specific parasite; either cell wall or interior parts. When I took Candex and started killing my parasite there was an increase in dead parasite parts in my system and my hemorrhoids got worse. It’s indicative of an endotoxin.^[16] I’m using the term “parasite” incorrectly here for brevity. I probably should say virus, bacteria, fungi or helminthes, but that’s too much to keep repeating.

Candex is not suppose to be well absorbed into the system. It almost exclusively stays in the alimentary track. I got a doctor to prescribe a systemic fungal drug, ketoconazole. After two months, my prescription was interrupted for sixteen days. Before that, I could always look back to the week before, and know for sure, that I was getting better. I have good days and bad days, so I avoid evaluating my health from day to day. Once I got back on the prescription, I was getting better again, but much slower. I could tell I was getting better for sure, but only if I compared my health with two weeks before.

For four months I slowly got better. I was starting to talk to people about going back to work. Then my doctor called me in and told me he was putting me on Nystatin. He snapped at me that, “It’s all in your gut anyway.” I said the liver tests I had been getting every month were fine, and he said they didn’t always show liver damage. He ran out of the room before I could say anything else. He stopped my ketoconazole prescription. I tried Nystatin for three weeks and it did nothing while I got worse. My doctor ignored my attempts to communicate with him.

Then through a series of foul-ups, I had my prescription renewed for another nine months without my doctor or anyone else being aware of it. For three months, I slowly got better, but I never got back to the level of health I had before the second interruption. After three months, I slowly got worse, until when I ran out, it wasn’t helping any longer.

This is evolution in its simplest manifestation. I was killing off the most susceptible fungi when my prescription got suspended. In the sixteen days I was without ketoconazole the first time, the more resilient individuals were reproducing. The second time my prescription was interrupted, even more resilient individuals had the opportunity to reproduce for twenty-one days until I could get back on ketoconazole. Now, they are all resistant and multiplying.

The date of this new prescription was from five months earlier and was related to the first lapse in my prescription. Both screw-ups originated with my doctor. Months later when I got the chance to talk to my doctor again and I told him I had been getting better on ketoconazole, he said it was just a “placebo effect”. He also said, “I would have been embarrassed if I had kept you on it for so long, and something went wrong.” Everything he does, is to protect himself.

I found out fourteen months after the original prescription, that he had actually given me a prescription for voriconazole. He never told me. The pharmacy had substituted ketoconazole (the least effective and most dangerous choice [a drug banned in many other countries]) and they never told me. They assumed my doctor had told me. My on-line medical records didn’t list either of these drugs. I just found out accidentally when looking up something else in my written records fourteen months later. My prescription for ketoconazole was for the lowest dose. I think ketoconazole is legal in the U.S. only because it’s much cheaper than the other choices, and insurance companies want us to take what’s cheapest. Isn’t that what healthcare for profit is all about?

So, thanks to my doctor, I now have an azole-resistant strain of fungi. I know it’s embedded in my digestive track or somewhere inside me, because it’s where neither Candex nor Nystatin can affect it. The 2016 recommendations of the Infectious Diseases Society of America is for a series of anti-fungals starting with caspofugin, then micafugin, and then anidulafungin^[17] [http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/12/15/cid.civ933.full]. So, now I have to find a doctor willing to give me a more severe collection of intravenous drugs. I see that as highly unlikely. Funny how I live in a state where I could have a doctor assist in my suicide, but can’t get a doctor to give me the drug that will cure me.

There are two more important pieces of this puzzle. I use to eat oatmeal everyday because if I didn’t, I was guaranteed to have a really bad day the following day. Oatmeal has the same beta-glucan molecule that fungi use in their cell walls. The oatmeal was feeding my fungus and when I didn’t feed it, there would be more dead ones the next day, and the dead parts would affect my hemorrhoids more.

The doctor, who helped me, tested my blood for allergic reactions. My blood reacts to oats, mushrooms, and yeast. My immune system is attacking something in these things in my blood. They are all high in beta-glucan, which is an important component of fungi, and mushrooms and yeast are fungi.

There are no risks for me, as I have no life. Suffering is not living. I’m getting my affairs in order and getting rid of all my stuff. I have no faith left in the American medical industry. I can no longer research this problem as I am taking too much Vicodin to be able to evaluate any results. And, of course, there’s no point doing any more research if no one cares to hear about it. My symptoms are progressing at an unpredictable rate so I never know ahead of time what’s coming next. I feel some moral obligation to try to pass this information along. It bothers me that other people are suffering and this information could help them. Maybe, you know someone who can use or benefit from this information.

Those were just the highlights. I could write a book on this subject. I could probably write two more books on the experiments that failed. The following is important additional information. This information supports the theory that hemorrhoids are just trying to do their job of keeping us alive.

A four-dimensional spider web.

Everything biological and chemical in our bodies is connected and dependent on everything else in our bodies. Sooner or later, I find a relationship with the cellular and chemical processes I’m studying, with just about everything else in my body. Twice, hoping to find out that I was wrong, and maybe I had some other illness; one I could treat myself, I went back to track down some of the loose ends I had left earlier. After months, all I found was an ever-increasing number of facts supporting an invasive fungal infection. It’s like a three-dimensional spider web changing over time, and every point on this web is the center of another three-dimensional web. At this point, all these different immune cells are becoming personalities to me, and I can almost understand their chemical language.

Just an inflammatory response?

I’ve been using the term “immune system” when technically, I should be saying “inflammatory response.” I’m going to keep doing it too. I don’t want to limit my perspective. I don’t want to miss anything. I think there is more than just an inflammatory response going on here.

The purpose of an acute inflammatory response is to isolate and remove a pathogen.^[18] Hemorrhoids do this in two ways. They become overwhelmed and simply self-destruct dumping everything out of the body. More about that later. If they can control the situation, they will attack the pathogen with many different kinds of immune cells to kill and digest the pathogen. Then, all these end products drain through the lymph system and lymph nodes before being dumped back into the blood stream near the heart. Included in this left over stuff, would be macrophages and other APCs (antigen presenting cells). If any pathogen needed to be “presented” to the T cells in the lymph nodes of the immune system (adaptive immune system), it could easily happen here.

Hemorrhoids are triggered by chemicals present in stool, which come into contact with hemorrhoids during a bowel movement. Once an immediate-hypersensitivity reaction starts, and capillaries vasodilator, blood plasma is pumped into this hemorrhoid tissue by pressure from the heart. Everything in the blood stream except red blood cells can now come into contact with the mast cells in hemorrhoids. These mast cells are not only testing for pathogens in our digestive track, but also in our blood stream. If a person had their hemorrhoids removed and they had already managed to defeat the pathogen in their digestive track, then their hemorrhoids would not trigger an immediate-hypersensitivity reaction, and would no longer be testing the blood stream for pathogens. It would seem like their hemorrhoidectomy had worked, but their pathogen would still be eating away at them from inside their body.

When a person’s adaptive immune system is engaged, APCs take parts of pathogens and present them to T cells in nearby lymph tissue. When the proper T cell recognizes this pathogen it will multiply by the millions. This process also triggers the mass production of B cells. This creates a situation where the immune system is hypersensitive to this pathogen. It only makes sense that when the proper mast cell in hemorrhoids identifies a pathogen, that it would mass reproduce itself creating a situation where hemorrhoids are hypersensitive to this particular pathogen, and react in a powerful way. If these mast cells were removed then the process would have to start all over again. This would likely lead to the appearance that hemorrhoids were “cured” at least for some time. This would give the pathogen an advantage for awhile.

Apparently, the problem with diagnosing a fungal invasion of the stomach or the intestines is that we have no way to “see” it.^[19] It is “rarely” diagnosed, but only because we can’t “see” it. When it has been diagnosed, these diagnoses have relied on supportive symptoms.

It is known, that fungi in both the yeast form, and the hyphae form, invade the body through the digestive track. And, the way the immune system responds when it does happen, is also very well known. It involves B cells, cytotoxic T cells, TH1 cells, and TH2 cells of the adaptive immune system, as well as Natural Killer cells, macrophages, and both blood and lymph Dendritic cells. It involves interleukans 4, 10, 12, and 13, interferon y, cathepsin-L, and many other immune chemicals.^[20] In other words, we know it happens, but we don’t know how often it happens because we have no way to test for it. Meanwhile, millions of people have hemorrhoids, which are responding to pathogens, and parts of pathogens, coming down the digestive track. My hemorrhoids were greatly reduced by an anti-fungal drug (ketoconazole). No one has yet proven hemorrhoids can be caused by fungal infections. But, no one seems to be looking. I have no doubt that hemorrhoids can be caused by fungal infections. I have been researching this for eight years and everything I have ever read supports this idea.

So, we know fungi invade through the lining of the digestive track. We know the adaptive immune system responds to this fungal invasion. We know this response comes from lymph nodes in the abdomen. We know that the cells and chemicals left over from an immediate hypersensitivity reaction, in the hemorrhoids, drain through the same group of lymph nodes. We know this material contains macrophages, which are a type of antigen presenting cells. Antigen presenting cells are the cells, which lymph nodes need to initiate an adaptive immune response and send T cells and lymphatic Dendritic cells to defend against the invasion. All the pieces are there. Unfortunately, you can’t study this process directly, because you can’t cut into people to “see” it. We could learn a lot more about it if we started testing people with hemorrhoids for pathogens and treating them.

Why hemorrhoidectomys are wrong.

Cox-1 and cox-2 inhibitors, like aspirin and ibuprofen, should be avoided by people with hemorrhoids. I’m including a chart from Wikipedia (Appendix A) about the chemical cascade produced by mast cells during an immediate hypersensitivity reaction. Cox-1 and Cox-2 inhibitors interfere with the transformation of arachidonic acid to prostaglandin, which limit this cascade.

I did two extensive tests (1 month and longer) with ibuprofen before I knew about this. I slowly got worse both times. Interfering with this process, gives the infection an advantage. Mast cells can’t perform this part of their job as well. Having one’s hemorrhoids cut off would do the same thing, only worse. Some people’s hemorrhoids get better after a hemorrhoidectomy, but some people get worse. The body has many backup systems and work-a-rounds to fight off infections. I don’t doubt, that many people get better despite having their hemorrhoids cut off. I have talked to a lot of doctors about hemorrhoidectomys and not one ever mentions the failures. There are a lot of people whose health gets worse after a hemorrhoidectomy. I don’t know of any of those people who ever went back to the doctor, so it should be easy for doctors to forget about them. Hemorrhoidectomys only cut off he part that hurts. It does not address the problem causing them, unless you accept what doctors say about them just being “worn out.” That’s not science; it’s an excuse for cutting them off. It’s the same “science” as having your nose cut off because you have a runny nose. Mast cells go through two types of hypersensitivity reactions, which can easily explain the swelling with biological and chemical processes that have been understood for decades.

“Inflammation was not a disease, it was a non-specific response to aid in the recovery of the host.” John Hunter 1728 – 1793^[21]

This is not a safe procedure. According to the CDC, there is a one in ten chance of acquiring an infection from a “medical environment”. I don’t know what they meant by a medical environment, but they probably meant it was not exclusive to hospitals. The sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. is from hospital-acquired infections. 99,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections. One study found that 50% of doctors didn’t wash their hands. Hemorrhoidectomys are a lifetime series of operations that have no scientific backing. I think the science I have quoted here, would deem the removal of hemorrhoids detrimental to the patient, if not criminal.

Besides, if you are going to try and kill the pathogen causing your hemorrhoids, you will need your hemorrhoids to gauge your success. The collection of other symptoms these pathogens cause are not definitive of anything. Hemorrhoids are the only definitive symptom.

Hemorrhoids are a symptom. What about the cause of hemorrhoids? Is this the only thing in the known universe that has no cause? It just broke and it’s the only part of our bodies that can’t bother to repair itself. As far as I know, the brain and heart are the only tissues that do not constantly rebuild themselves.^[22] I can testify from first hand experience that hemorrhoids are really good at repairing themselves. When I was really bad off, my hemorrhoids would rupture everyday. I would pass big chunks of tissue. They would heal every night when I finally fell asleep exhausted. They are designed to self-destruct and then grow back.

When I was taking a fungicide (ketoconazole) I got better (until the second time my doctor discontinued it). When I was on a strict anti-fungal diet and eating “anti-fungal foods” I did better. Those are real effects. They indicate real facts. They indicate that I have a fungal infection. The only way you can ignore these facts is believing there are caused by a placebo effect. I know it is not.

Why hemorrhoids self destruct.

Another chemical, which hemorrhoids produce is tryptase. “Tryptase cleaves fibrinogen and activates collagenase, thereby causing tissue damage…”^[23] Collagenase destroys collagen. Collagen may be the fourth most common substance in our bodies. It’s what gives structure to all parts of the body including skin, bones, teeth, muscles, tendons, and cartilage. Collagenase dissolves the base membrane that lines our digestive tract, so it might be the chemical responsible for rupturing hemorrhoids, although mast cells also release chymase, which can also do that.

Mast cells, along with their cousins, basophiles and eosinophiles are severe immune cells. They release digestive enzymes into the surrounding tissue and can destroy that tissue when it is too damaged or infected.

The digestive track is lined with sensory cells that test PH and how well different nutrients are digested. These cells send signals back upstream to tell the cells secreting acid, bicarbonate, and enzymes to either stop, or secrete more. There are two obvious possible reasons why hemorrhoids should be so absorbent. One is to detect outgoing pathogens and signal upstream immune cells about their effectiveness so they can up-regulate their efforts or down-regulate them.

The other is to detect incoming pathogens and signal the body’s defenses to respond. As absorbent as hemorrhoids are, it would seem necessary to have a lot of mast cells there. Mast cells can secrete digestive enzymes to quickly destroy this tissue. How convenient that hemorrhoids, are situated where they are, and these destroyed, infected tissues are dumped immediately outside the body. Otherwise, this infection would slowly drain through the lymph system all the way back to near the heart and be dumped into the blood stream. And how fortunate, that they can repair themselves overnight.

Part of this tissue destruction and bleeding process is the inhibition of clotting. “Heparin is usually stored within the secretory granules of mast cells” [and basophils] “and released only into the vasculature at sites of tissue injury” [which can be caused by enzymes released by mast cells]. “It has been proposed that, rather than anticoagulation, the main purpose of heparin is defense at such sites against invading bacteria and other foreign material.”^[24] It may not be the main purpose of heparin, but heparin is a major player in anticoagulation. It is involved in a cascade of chemicals which “then inactivates thrombin and other proteases involved in blood clotting”, and the “rate of inactivation of these proteases …can increase up to 1000-fold” by the action of heparin. Heparin is needed for hemorrhoids to destroy themselves. They keep the process going by stopping clotting. Heparin can also be involved in angiogenesis. It can form molecules that promote or inhibit angiogenesis.^[25] So, it is probably involved in both the destruction and regeneration of hemorrhoids. It’s easy to see when this happens that people would think there is something drastically wrong with them. Not so, this is what hemorrhoids are designed to do. They are fighting off an invasion. Why cut them off? They will remove themselves when the time is right.

It seems so obvious to me that hemorrhoids are very similar in some ways to lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are tissue where APCs (Antigen-Presenting Cells) take antigens (which they have collected from other parts of the body) to a large collection of T cells. They find the T cell that is designed to attack that particular antigen, stimulate it to reproduce itself, and send out copies of that T cell to fight the invasion of that pathogen.^[26]

Lymph glands collect information about pathogens in their area, and mount an attack. Hemorrhoids are very absorbent tissue. Suppositories take advantage of this. They can collect information about pathogens in the digestive track. So, there’s this highly absorptive collection of immune cells strategically located at the end of the digestive system where it can analyze how well the digestive system’s immune system is working and where it can also analyze what pathogens are trying to get in. It can up-regulate the immune system to what may be getting in and what is already in (but not being adequately dealt with). Mast cells send signals to other immune cells to respond to the processes going on in hemorrhoids. These cells also release chemicals into the blood stream. All these chemicals are available to be “read” by any of the immune cells in the digestive track. It would seem incredibly unlikely that the immune cells throughout the digestive track would not be aware of what’s happening in the hemorrhoids.

Like lymph nodes, hemorrhoids could have an important role in regulating the digestive system’s immune functions.

Another reason hemorrhoids stay swollen.

Hemorrhoids (mast cells) also go through a Late-phase reaction^[27]. This involves less swelling and starts one to four hours after the immediate hypersensitivity reaction. It can last up to twenty-four hours. If you go through this everyday, then these two reactions can overlap and the swelling can be somewhat continuous. The late-phase reaction causes less swelling, so less pain. Some of my hemorrhoids are always swollen. I don’t care, as long as they don’t hurt.

What is the success rate for hemorrhoidectomys?

I know a couple of people who have had hemorrhoidectomys. None were totally successful. One person got worse and died later that year. It is easy to find testimonials on the Internet from people who have gotten worse from a hemorrhoidectomy. I never found any survey or statistics on the success rate of hemorrhoidectomys. I serious doubt that there are any. After years of research, I have never seen any statistics.

The first thing a doctor will tell a patient is that there is a chance they will grow back. They are designed to grow back.

The End

I hope you appreciate that I am now quitting. I don’t have to. There’s a point where everything fits. I wish it didn’t. I’d like to have a disease I could treat myself.

Endnotes:

Increased mast cell density in hemorrhoid venous blood vessels suggests a role in pathogenesis, Taweevisit M, Wisadeopas N, Phumsuk U, and Thorner P S, ”Singapore Med J 2008; 49 (12) : 97

http://smj.sma.org.sg/4912/4912a2.pdf ↑
Cellular and Molecular Immunology, fifth edition, Abul K. Abbas and Andrew H. Lichtman, 2005 ↑
The Great Courses video, The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal, by Professor (Doctor – General Surgeon) Anthony A. Goodman, Montana State University, 2007 ↑
Increased mast cell density in hemorrhoid venous blood vessels suggests a role in pathogenesis, Taweevisit M, Wisadeopas N, Phumsuk U, and Thorner P S, ”Singapore Med J 2008; 49 (12) : 97 ↑
The Great Courses video, The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal, by Professor (Doctor – General Surgeon) Anthony A. Goodman, Montana State University, 2007 ↑
Role and Relevance of Mast Cells in Fungal Infections, Article in Frontiers in Immunology, June 2012 source PubMed, Rohit Saluja, Martin Metz, and Marcus Maurer ↑
Cellular and Molecular Immunology, fifth edition, Abul K. Abbas and Andrew H. Lichtman, 2005 ↑
This definition of endocrine gland was taken from The Great Courses video, Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology, by Professor (Doctor – General Surgeon) Anthony A. Goodman, Montana State University, 2004
Wikipedia. See chart appendix A. This chart appears in many places. Arachidonic acid is one place. ↑
The Great Courses, Stress and Your Body, Professor Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University, 2010 ↑
Fungal Immunology From an Organ Perspective, Edited by Paul L. Fidel and Gary B. Huffnagle, 2005 ↑
Pathogenic importance of intestinal hypermotility in NSAID-induced small intestinal damage in rats. Takeuchi K., Miyazawa T., Tanaka A., Kato S., and Kunikata T., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12379813 ,PubMed, Us National Library of Medicine , National Institutes of Health ↑
The Great Courses, Stress and Your Body, Professor Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University, 2010 ↑
Wikipedia, Cellulose and Chitin ↑
Candida-Related Complex, What Your Doctor Might Be Missing, Christine Winderlin with Keith Sehnert, MD, 1996 ↑
The Great Courses video, The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal, by Professor (Doctor – General Surgeon) Anthony A. Goodman, Montana State University, 2007 ↑
Clinical Practice Guidline for the Management of Candidiasis: 2016 Update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Peter G Pappas, Carol A Kauffman, David R. Andes, Cornelius J. Clancy, Kieren A Marr, Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, Annette C. Reboli, Mindy G. Schuster, Jose A Vazquez, Thomas J. Walsh, Theoklis E. Zaoutis, and Jack D. Sobel http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/12/15/cid.civ933.full ↑
same as 16 ↑
Fungal Immunology From an Organ Perspective, Edited by Paul L. Fidel and Gary B. Huffnagle, 2005 ↑
Fungal Immunology From an Organ Perspective, Edited by Paul L. Fidel and Gary B. Huffnagle, 2005 ↑
I’m not sure this is a direct quote from John Hunter. But it is a quote of Professor Anthony Goodman on The Great Courses video, The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal,, 2007 ↑
The Great Courses video, The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal, by Professor (Doctor – General Surgeon) Anthony A. Goodman, Montana State University, 2007 ↑
Cellular and Molecular Immunology, fifth edition, Abul K. Abbas and Andrew H. Lichtman, 2005 ↑
Wikipedia, Heparin ↑
Wkipedia, Heparin ↑
The Great Courses video, Mysteries of the Microscopic World, by Professor Bruce E. Fleury, Tulane University, 2011 ↑
Cellular and Molecular Immunology, fifth edition, Abul K. Abbas and Andrew H. Lichtman, 2005

APPENDIX B

This is all the cool stuff you can test for yourself

It’s the total drain on your immune system.

You can’t study biology for more than twenty minutes without realizing that practically every detail of every cell functions to keep you healthy, or to fend off an attack to your health. At times, there can be many attacks, and your body’s resources can become depleted. Everything a person can do to help their immune system will add up and give their body’s defenses a better chance to overcome these attacks. In biology, every little thing helps.

Details on using Vicodin to shrink hemorrhoids.

Hemorrhoids go through an immediate hypersensitivity reaction. They swell up and then this fluid drains off slowly through the lymph system. If you were real healthy, you could remain active and the swelling would go down. If this does not happen, your hemorrhoids will need some help. To get enough blood to your hemorrhoids to complete this chemical process, you will have to lie down and be as still as possible. You can lay reclined to eat and watch TV as long as you can go totally limp. Holding up a book does not work. Sitting up does not work. Sitting strapped in a car seat hoping to hang limp does not work. You will need to relax all your muscles including your neck. This only allows blood to flow to your digestive system.

You may be tense from the pain or fidgeting and these things will stop the blood flowing to your digestive track. Even a little pain will cause a hormonal change that will stop blood flowing to your digestive track. You have to snack on something. This sends a signal to your digestive system to “get going, more food is on the way” and this will get blood flowing to your digestive track. Go totally limp between bites. Don’t forget what you are doing and don’t just eat. You don’t have to eat much to trigger this signal. I did the whole thing once on a couple of handfuls of shelled sunflower seeds.

When I was healthier, I could get up in about an hour and a quarter. My hemorrhoids were still a little swollen, but that would go away even while I was active. As I have gotten worse, I have had to remain laying and snacking for up to four hours. The fungus in me is winning. I am literally, “rotten to the core”.

Vicodin to the rescue.

Ok, so when that doesn’t work, it’s very likely you can help your hemorrhoids shrink with 2 Vicodin. This is a total of 10 mg. Norco is basically the same thing, but both now come in different strengths, so check the lable. You want 10 mg of hydrocodone. Refer back to the main article to see how this works. It’s a really good idea to lie down and make sure you have everything you need where you can reach it before you take the Vicodin. You are in pain and not thinking clearly. I have no idea why, but even the first few minutes are important and your better off if you don’t have to get up because you forgot something, or the remote is lost in the covers. You can get up to pee, but you should limit your use of Vicodin to minimum, so don’t waste it on getting up for trivial things.

You need to be able to see a clock.

There are two important thresholds you need to watch for. During this hypersensitivity reaction, the swelling will be at it’s greatest just before the fluid starts to drain away through the lymph system. This can be a painful time. Six times in the past eight years, it has been extra painful for me. This is very disturbing. The most this period has ever lasted for me was 18 minutes. It’s nice to have a clock to know how much longer it is going to last.

The second threshold is very important. When the pain is gone, you will want to get up and get stuff done. Don’t get up right away. If you do, most likely the swelling will return before the end of the day. If it does, and you need to repeat this procedure in the same day you have already taken 2 Vicodin, just use 1 Vicodin this second time. When you feel like getting up, check the time and continue to rest and snack for 15 more minutes. This should be enough time to get past this second threshold. This is the point where your hemorrhoids will continue to shrink after you get up. You may need to learn when your own body reaches these thresholds through trial and error.

How often?

Hopefully, you will not need to take Vicodin more than once a week or ten days. If you lay down everyday (and snack), you should become familiar with the time that you usually start feeling better, and only take Vicodin when that time passes and there is no sign of getting better. I use to be able to tell the day before when I was going to have to take Vicodin. I would slowly get worse everyday until I had had enough. I would know to take Vicodin the next day.

It’s really important to take as few Vicodin as possible. There are a lot of reasons for this. I’m only going to mention two. You can reach a point where your liver will become more efficient at metabolizing Vicodin and you could have to start taking more and more. You’re probably fine unless you start taking it everyday. But, the most important reason is that while you’re manipulating your symptoms with Vicodin, you can’t evaluate your progress or the results of your experiments. There are lots of reasons to avoid taking any more Vicodin than you have to. One thing you do not have to worry about is becoming addicted to it. If you can get healthy again, you won’t want to take Vicodin unless you have to. Your mind will associate Vicodin with suffering, and you know by now, that the only good “high” is feeling healthy.

If you understand what I have said in the main article about NSAIDs, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, you will strongly curb your use of them. NSAIDs interfere with this hypersensitivity reaction. That benefits your parasite and they will multiply. Also, NSAIDs damage the lining of your digestive track allowing microbes to escape into your body.

Constipation?

Mast cells produce many chemicals. One of these is Histamine. Histamine triggers your digestive track muscles to work faster to flush out the pathogens in your system. Your hemorrhoids know you have a pathogen. Vicodin slows down the muscles of your digestive track. You will not get constipated until you have taken more Vicodin than you need. If you follow the directions above about laying still and snacking, and you try to get the most out of the Vicodin you need to take, you shouldn’t have problems with constipation. There may be a little trail and error before you get good at this. A little bit too much is not a problem, because straining does not cause hemorrhoids.

Straining does not cause hemorrhoids.

“To strain or not to strain…that is the question” From Shakespeare’s Notes for future plays, 1616

You may have hemorrhoids that are not swollen enough to hurt or be noticeable. Straining can make them hurt. Stool passing against them can make them hurt. That doesn’t mean straining was what originally caused them. Hemorrhoids absorb toxins in what passes against them and they swell in a hypersensitivity reaction. This swelling feels like there’s some bulk there that needs an extra push. The idea that straining causes hemorrhoids is not based on one single scientific fact. If it was, it would have led to the discovery of more facts, and then the cure. It hasn’t. My personal experience is that straining does not cause hemorrhoids.

Once hemorrhoids swell, it’s impossible to tell if there is stool there or if it’s just your hemorrhoids. If it is stool, it will continue to set off your hemorrhoids because of the pathogens in it. If you strain to get it out, it will seem like this is making your hemorrhoids swell even more, but any swelling that might be caused by this mechanical action will go away fairly quickly. It doesn’t matter how long you sit on the toilet. This isn’t about gravity, it’s about an inflammatory response called an immediate hypersensitivity reaction.

Fiber does not necessarily help.

The reason antidotal stories are of little use, is that if they haven’t led to a cure, they probably aren’t related to the cause. Sometimes, people get better on their own. Our entire biology is based on trying to stay healthy and heal as quickly as possible.

The only advice I ever got from a doctor that ever came close to being helpful was to eat more fiber. Fiber adds bulk and makes hemorrhoids worse. But, some fiber is a prebiotic, which is food for probiotics. Trying to establish a healthy intestinal flora is a good thing and can only help to control parasites. That particular fiber is helpful. Trying to find out exactly what fiber is a good prebiotic is difficult. I’ve tried super high fiber diets and it only added a lot of bulk with no noticeable improvement. I just try to eat a healthy diet.

I found oatmeal to help. If I ate oatmeal one day, then the next day I might be better or worse. But if I didn’t eat oatmeal, it was absolutely guaranteed the next day would be a bad day. I thought the oatmeal was helping me because I did better eating it. I no longer believe this to be the case.

Oatmeal differs from other foods in that it is high in beta-glucan. I got the same results if I took supplements of beta-glucan instead of eating oatmeal. There is a lot of different molecules called beta-glucan. They have very different biological functions and effects. I thought the type of beta-glucan I was eating in oatmeal and taking as a supplement, was different than the type in the cell walls of fungi. I had looked it up, but I had relied on an article that printed the wrong beta-glucan for fungi. All those years of eating oatmeal, I was feeding my fungi. Whenever I stopped, I had a bad reaction due to the additional die-off.

The doctor, who helped me, tested my blood for allergic reactions. My blood reacts to oats, mushrooms, and yeast. My immune system is attacking something in these things in my blood. They are all high in beta-glucan. If these things make you feel better, you may have a fungal infection.

Feeling better versus feeling healthier.

There’s a difference between “feeling better” and “feeling healthier”. Eggs make me feel healthier. Eggs are high in arachidonic acid. This is a key chemical in a hypersensitivity reaction. Eggs reduce my other symptoms and give me more energy. Oatmeal only reduced the severity of my hemorrhoids. I felt better. My hemorrhoids were reacting to dead parts of my fungal pathogen. When I ate oatmeal, I was feeding my fungal pathogen and fewer were dieing. When I skipped eating oatmeal, more died and my hemorrhoids were worse.

I found out eggs are high in arachidonic acid, by reading a book on an anti-inflammatory diet. The idea is not to eat foods that cause inflammation. This diet would have me eating oatmeal and not eggs. I would be feeding my pathogen to keep it from dieing, and I would starve my body of the nutrients it needed to fight off the infection by the inflammatory response.

When I find a food or drink, like green tea, that helps, I try to find out what’s in it. This is a massively complex subject. Learning about foods is really helpful, but foods are very complex organisms. A lot of “anti-fungal” foods make me feel healthier, and most importantly, it gives me an excuse to eat lots of onions. Anti-fungal foods help me feel healthier, and support my theory of having a fungal infection, but have never lead to any scientific information that would help me kill it. Foods are too complex for me. I’ll never really know what total effect they have on me, or my pathogen.

Back to probiotics

Good intestinal microbes can kill bad ones. Probiotics is a market with some of the biggest shysters in the human race. “Live at manufacture” means they killed them when they manufactured them. Labels that don’t list the amounts of each strain usually means they used a few expensive ones and then drove up the numbers on the label by adding cheaper or even useless bacteria. Even a good brand might take a year to help. There are trillions of microorganisms waiting to be fed in your gut. An extremely good diet lacking in sugar, alcohol, growth hormones, antibiotics, toxic sprays, and cow products and including prebiotics is essential to supporting probiotics. Grocery shopping just became quick and simple because this kind of diet eliminates most of what you’ll find in the grocery store.

Good stomach acid is also part of supporting good microbiotics, and HCL tablets might be necessary. Half the people over sixty don’t produce enough acid and that lets through bacteria and other pathogens. You’re sending in a few solders to fight a massive army that has literally transformed their environment to suit themselves and their needs, and your probiotics will need all the support they can get. Without this support, you are probably just wasting your money. Just read lots of stuff and experiment on yourself. You are the doctor here.

Diets.

When I was taking Candex, I was on a severely restricted anti-fungal diet. The Candex worked much better when I was on this diet. It’s a diet that includes no more than 70 grams of carbohydrates.

I was hammering a lot of nails for about three days. A lot of those were over my head. I think all the extra blood flow to my shoulder, with all that collagenase and possibly other enzymes in my blood (from my mast cells), may have acted to dissolve the cartilage there. Meanwhile, this diet, didn’t give my body the resources to repair it. I have severe arthritis in my right shoulder now, and there is a lot of cartilage missing in that shoulder. That shoulder is now lower than my other shoulder and its movements are restricted. This change happened pretty rapidly. I think it is more than just a coincidence.

40% Zinc Oxide (Desitin), stops the pain.

Desitin (Johnson and Johnson) is an over the counter ointment for diaper rash. Hemorrhoids are very absorbent tissue. They are designed to sample the chemical makeup in the digestive track looking for signs of parasites. Zinc is important to the health of your body and immune system. Your immune system can deplete your available zinc when it’s fighting off an infection. Too much of anything is a poison. One of the symptoms of zinc poisoning is numbness. Yaaahooooooo. It comes in different strengths, so make sure you get the 40% strength.

I’ve tried everything I ever heard of, and this is the only thing that works for me. It takes a little while to work, but lasts quit a long time.

Heat is not so good, but cold is.

It is possible that heat might help kill bacteria, and mast cells are known to react to bacteria. I have no personal experience to rely on. I have a fungal infection.

Cold helps shrink swelling. Even just a little below body temperature helps. Heat can overshadow pain if it is hot enough. Heat may help in other types of swelling, but it has never helped my hemorrhoids. Once the heat is removed, it hurts. Once the cold is removed, the pain is not quite as severe and the pain is slow to return. A little reduction in the swelling can reduce the pressure, and the pain is caused by pressure. Probably neither is going to help your immediate hypersensitivity reaction do a better job, but sometimes a person just needs a little break from the pain.

I have heard that heat interferes with the proper functioning of all organs, but can’t find any scientific explanation of the process involved.

Hemorrhoids can be caused by other pathogens

I know a lot about my fungal infection, but mast cells also react to viruses, bacteria, and helminthes (worms). If you think your problem is something other than a fungal infection.