Hi all.

I have a few things that I want to share with you. Things that you can try in order to heal your fissure. I dont know if any of these things will help you but 3 out of 4 are 100% side effect free and therefore, there will be no harm done by trying it.

I want to mention these things as I have not seen anyone mention this stuff on this site before. First of all, sleeping position (also valid for your hours spent on the couch)

I came by this site that suggested to lie on your left side while sleeping as a home treatment for hemorrhoids. This will bring less pressure on both your stomach, bowels and anus thus promoting blood circulation in the anal area and also it might bring some pain relief too. It is also helpfull for people suffering from abdominal pain and/or acid reflux. There are even more benefits to sleeping on your left side than the above mentioned stuff. Google can tell you more about this.

Now to exercise. I have seen some people having trouble with lifting weights, sit-ups and stuff like that. I don´t lift but I do sit-ups, so far, without any fissure related pain. The thing to remember is to breathe. Don´t ever hold your breath while doing these exercises as it will put extra pressure on your bowel area, anus included. When I do sit ups I do it like this:

On the way down, I inhale, in a tempo which matches the sit-up movement so that then I get to the point where I have to get up (the hard part) I have completed the inhalation. Now as I go up, I exhale, once again in a tempo which mathes my bodys tempo so that the exhalation is completed at the same time as the sit-up exercise. This way you never hold you breath even for one second.

The third thing that I would like to mention might be a little controversial to some of you but I want to mentioned it anyways. I find that nicotin, administered through the lungs, can help a bit with bowel movements. Here is why:

It has some mild muscle relaxant properties.
It has some anxiolytic properties.
It has some stimulating effect which increases defacation urge.

All of the above within a few seconds after your first drag. Of course there are some problems with this. Mostly the following:

It is not practical to handle a cigarette or other nicotin products which relies on combustion while about to have a bowel movement.

Smoking is very bad for your health and the tar reduce blood flow.

There is a way to get around these problems though. At least to some degree. Its called vaporizing, the process which electronic cigarettes rely on in order to get the nicotin to your lungs. This process is not healthy either, but it is much less harmfull than smoking and the vapor from these devices provides no tar at all.
I never go to the bathroom without my e-cig anymore as it calms me down and makes the defecation urge stronger which in return will result in faster elimination of stool with less straining.
I will suggest that you don´t use this advice unless you are already addicted to nicotin as you will get hooked for sure if you use it regulary, especially if you use it like this as the psychological addiction will be stronger.

Last but not least. Sleeping naked.
The point of this is to get more air flow to the area just as you would want to do with any other type of skin wound. I dont think this will help as the wound is not exposed directly to the air in most cases, but I will try it myself anyways as there is really nothing to lose by doing so.

I hope that this will help some of you but I do realise that it is a long shot, but a shot none the less right?

Hi all.

I now have a few things to add to this list and so it shall be.

First off, I would like to mention MSM.
I wont go into detail about this compound as you can find all the information you need through google.
I will tell you about my own experience with this product though.

I started using this as I had read about it online and found that it could help relieve not only one but actually multiple symptoms that I experience on a regular basic.
One of these was inflamation.
I have been dealing with a lot of inflamation in the anal area, resulting in swelling, redness, small cuts, itching, pain and sometimes even a little pus came out from the skin area around my anus.
After starting on MSM, taken oral and applyed on the skin as a homemade cream, the inflamation has gone down significantly!
Actually, its been just as effective as steroid creams in my case but without any of the side effects.
I read about how it might relieve chronic constipation and its made a big impact on this part of my life too.
MSM can help relieve constipation as it strengthens the mucosal membrane in the intestines, making it easier for the colon to "coat" the stools so that the outer surface becomes wet and smooth instead of hard and dry as seen in most people who suffers from constipation.
It took quite a while for this effect to become apparent to me, but when it did, I could not help but notice.
It doesnt matter if its a bad bm day, things will come out easier than what I expected almost every single time.
For instence, I just had a bad bm day today due to being to inactive for a couple of days I think.
I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a big one and it would probably hurt.
It came out too big BUT the coating made it pretty easy to pass anyways and the bm was done in under a minute.
Without MSM, bms like this would have been hurtfull and would have required a lot of straining to get out.
MSM is also mentioned as a compound that can make the body less likely to get upset over eating stuff that you have an intolerance to, which if true, could be of great benifit to some of us, I personally havent seen this effect take place though.

Magnesium Citrate as a stool softener

I have been using miralax/movicol for some time with great results but I have made a complete switch to Magnesium citrate.
I find that it has the same positive effects as Movicol but with a few other positives added to it, which in my case are the following:

It works just as well as a stool softener as Movicol does, but it works much faster, which makes it much easier to get your dose right.
Back when I was using movicol, I would up my dose if I was having some harder than normal bms. This would be done way too late though, as the extra movicol would take 1-2 days to work (at least in my case) while the Magnesium works overnight.
So if I have constipation today, I will up my dose and tommorow morning it will have done its job.

Magnesium is used by the muscles to relax (and calcium to contract, which is why calcium channel blockers are used topically to relax the anal sphincter) and taking magnesium in a sufficient dose will make you muscles more relaxed, which should include the anal sphincter.

In a study done in the US, it was found that about 80% of the population was sufficient in magnesium. Add to this that the widely reconised 1/3 Magnesium/Calcium ratio has been doubted a lot lately with doctors and scientists suggesting that a ratio of 1/2 or even 1/1 might be more optimal for the human body.
Conclusion? You most likely need more Magnesium regardless of your bms and anal fissure(s).

If you know about the following problem, when I would definately encourage you to try Magnesium citrate.
The thing is that, even with the right dose of stool softener, the first few cms of my bm would often be too hard and dry, even though the rest was fine. If I upped my movicol dose, it would improve a little but that would make the majority of the bm way too watery.
Magnesium citrate has been a lot better at resolving this problem than movicol ever did.

I would like to mention that I have seen some concern on this board, regarding magnesium citrate and tolerance development.
I dont think this should be of any concern.
The reason why is that even though its easy to find anecdotal evidence of magnesium citrate and tolerance development, all of these cases are where the citrate are administred in a HUGE dose in order to flush out the system, pre-op.
I havent been able to find just one case with tolerance development under more normal circumstances.
In addiction to this, I have been on Magnesium citrate for about 5 months now and its still just as effective as in the beginning and I havent upped my dose at all.



Last but not least, you could give the low FOODMAP diet a try.
I found that it helped a lot with my constipation even though its more likely to work in people who suffers from diarreaa.
Fructose seems to be one of the culprints for me, which is kind of strange as this is much more likely to cause diareaa, but I now know that apples and pears gives me constipaion like stools so I will stay away for sure.