PREVENTIVE MEDECINE: PILES, VARICOSE VEINS

by admin

23 Apr
2009

Piles

It is hard to tell how common piles are in any community because the term is a relative one and most people with the condition do not seek medical help. A study of seventy-seven rural hospitals in Africa found that fewer than 3 people a year were diagnosed as having severe piles. This is dramatically less than in the West where the condition is said to affect half of the entire population over the age of 50!

Piles used to be thought to be a kind of varicose vein of the back passage, but recent research shows that this is not so. They should now be thought of as a prolapse of special anal cushions which, when of normal size and in their normal position, help maintain faecal continence. These cushions are now known to prolapse when hard, sticky stools pass over them and shear them away from their underlying tethering. This can be entirely put down to a diet too low in dietary fibre. Many early cases of piles can be cured by putting the affected person on to a high-fibre diet.

Varicose veins

It is much easier to estimate how common these are than is the case with piles. In North America 19 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women over the age of 30, and 42 per cent of men and 65 per cent of women over the age of 50 have varicose veins. In Third World countries the figure is nearer 10 per cent of people over the age of 30.

The erect posture of humans, constrictive clothing, repeated pregnancies and heredity are no longer acceptable causes in view of the differences in worldwide distribution of the disease. It is now thought that the main problem is the increased pressure in the leg veins that is produced while straining at stool. We in the West strain to pass our hard stools and do so in a sitting position. Peoples who don’t get varicose veins squat to open their bowels (so shutting off the leg veins at the groin) and pass their motions easily because these are very soft (like toothpaste) as a result of their high-fibre diet.