How I Cured my Fissures.
Hello everyone. I thought I would spread the good news on my secret of curing my recurring fissures-(knock on wood). I have been to many sites like this heard all of the testimonials, triumphs, sorrows, fixes, heartaches, setbacks, you name it.
For me as I’m sure for most of us a big part is the diet. I always thought it has to be something I’m eating. And I most assuredly have finally found the culprit………”Bread”.
That’s right, bread was the number one thing that was causing me fissures that would come and go on a monthly bases for the last 25 years or so-(im 47). It was on another forum months ago that I heard that bread consumption should be reduced, but I thought, wow I love my bread, I don’t think this Is my problem.
Back then I was sure my fissures were from too much salt, not knowing that bread indeed has quite a bit of salt in it. I clearly saw In my diet, that when I took in a lot of salt-sodium of the processed foods that is when my stool turned into rocks-sort f speak.
Then I started to look at the sodium content of those refrigerated sub sandwiches that I love, but that makes my but feel like I’m giving birth, and I was surprised at how much sodium are in these sandwiches. Back then I was regularly eating three to four slices of bread per day not even realizing most breads have a high sodium count.
So to make a long story short, it was ultimately those subway sandwiches that turned the light switch on for me. I clearly saw that my stools were particularly hard a day or so after I have eaten one of those sandwiches. So I thought I would take a visit to my local grocery to check and see the sodium count of my favorite sliced bread.
After crunching the numbers and multiplying by the number of slices I eat per day or per week, I said wow, that’s too much sodium. So you guessed it. For the next several days and weeks, I swore off of all bread.
Bingo.. eureka..epiphany… BM after BM my stools were coming out fine. And this was around the holidays where you knew you would have plenty of BM’s. I’d get nervous when I really feel a push to unload thinking, oh this time my fissures will definitely come back. But no!!!! even a crap load around the holidays didn't produce my monthly recurring fissures.
God as my witness, for the previous 25 years or so I don’t think 2 or three months went by where I did not feel a little discomfort down there, where I knew if I did not break out the tucks or other ointments and creams that my little bitty fissure would turn into the “passing the shredded glass feeling” that we all dread.
But now that I've cut back on the bread(I now eat only a few slices a week vs a dozen or more), I have had absolutely no fissures whatsoever. Before, it was in the shower that I would actually probe with my fingers and press hard all around my anus for any signs of lingering fissures and discomfort. And during my battles there were only a few times that the anal area would seem completely healed and smooth. I’d go up my anus as far as I could with my fingers, and it seems I always find some old scar or lingering discomfort.
Not any more people. I still have my almost daily finger exams and I must say what a good feeling to be able to feel a nice smooth anal canal. I have been fissure free now for well over a year. Just recently I was wondering whether it was a salt-sodium thing at all or just the bread. So sure enough I started eating what I knew was too much sodium in my diet. This time I left out the bread.
At first BM after BM was ok. Then one day in the showers doing my exams, sure enough a little discomfort was felt---i.e, the tell tell signs of a birth of a fissure. So I immediately corrected my diet and backed off the sodium and I gleefully averted anymore fissures.
So guys, that’s my story. Perhaps in most of us there is a food or two that we must stay away from. It took me years to discover what mine was (Bread and sodium). Please my advise to everyone is to try and find that food. Do not stop trying. perhaps All the creams and potions are just Band-Aids. Perhaps for many of us we can avoid a drastic surgery.
And don’t get me wrong. Plenty of water and fiber and exercise are very important too. These things are like the natural remedies to replace the expensive creams and potions. I easily saw how plenty of water in the diet gives my stool the push where I did not need to “give birth” to my BM as much. And we all know what straining at the stool leads too……..
Thanks for your time……