Can Cycling Cause Hemorrhoids? (No, but this may be the cause – even if you have a healthy diet)

I sent the team at Routeonecycling.com a note asking to be able to do this anonymous post because when I was going through this problem initially it was one of the worst feelings that you could go through. Not only are you initially dealing with crippling pain that you don’t know the cause. The pain is also down there. And you don’t know exactly who to ask about it. The greatest thing was that I had a family member to ask about it, and it turns out that they went through the same and gave me a great initial point in the right direction. All the other things I had to figure out because I have a relatively healthy diet – and it led to some confusion on what was causing it. I am also a cyclist, so I thought that was the cause when I kept thinking can cycling cause Hemorrhoids?

The cold hard fact is the cycling does not cause hemorrhoids. You would have to be doing 100 mile rides each day 5 days a week for about 1 year, maybe 2 years for there to be any chance of cycling to cause hemorrhoids. What can happen is by sitting in that position, it could cause some mild irritation, but after reading this post, you should have enough tools and knowledge to get you moving in the right direction to where a mild irritation is just that – an irritation that can be solved with a brief witch hazel wipe and continue on your way.  

Can Cycling Cause Hemorrhoids?

No, cycling does not cause hemorrhoids. There may be something in the cyclists’ lifestyle that is causing hemorrhoids, but typically that is not the case. Most of the times, unless the hemorrhoids are caused by pregnancy, it is usually food or the way you use the restroom. So we will focus on food intake to get you started in the right direction.

The three steps to change to heal Hemorrhoids:

1. Ease the affected area
2. Find the Source
3. Make the correct changes to your lifestyle

My goal was to avoid surgery or constantly needing to go to the CVS or Walgreens for expensive over the counter medicines with Lidocaine and Phenylephrine inside of them – or needing to ask my doctor for stronger. They work great when the time calls for it – but long term use didn’t seem to be something that I would like for my body. So let’s take a dive:

Ease the affected Area:

You need to get your body back to being in functioning order as soon as possible. Do not try to go through this without a real medicine. Do not try to start out the “all natural way.” You won’t make it. Normally I would give suggestions with Amazon links inserted, but I want to be crystal clear in my message – You need to go to the CVS now and get it. Do not wait for Prime 2 day shipping. Do Amazon with everything else in the blog. Here is what I went to the drug store and found:

• Laxatives: Any standard laxative off the shelf works. Start taking it today.
• Fiber pills: This will be your long standing “laxative.” You can eat fiber pills basically for the rest of your life and never have to worry about an overdose or anything, so once you get a handle on the problem, you can experiment with easing off and back on fiber pills as you please.
• Witch hazel Bottle: The wipes are a tad more convenient, but I didn’t see the value in them because you can bring the witch hazel bottle to the bathroom and wet a piece of tissue paper to wipe.
• Medicated Hemorrhoidal Wipes: Look for something with Lidocaine in it. Check active ingredients. If you are currently in a flare-up you will thank yourself for having a higher percentage. Ignore brands, look at the active ingredients and just find the highest over the counter amount. It’s something like 5% last time I looked which is more than enough over the long run.
• A note on CDB cream: CBD cream is an extremely viable option. When I had my initial flareups and they were their most painful, the Hemorrhoidal wipes slowly calmed down the pain to something reasonable. The CBD cream when wiped directly on the painful area made the pain go away instantly. So instant that I was shocked, and almost scared by how fast it took the pain away. The only reason why I did not continue the CBD cream for the long term is because that was not the cause of the hemorrhoids. So I intentionally now that the problem is solved use something more mild (witch hazel) so that if a aggravation happens, I know exactly when and why it happened so that I can make the necessary change. If I used the CBD cream all the time I would absolutely never feel a thing if I ate the wrong thing, or did the wrong thing to my body. 
  • Long story short: CBD oil and cream is great for numbing pain, but to find the cause, it can mask the symptoms a bit too well.

Find the source:

You need to find the source of your hemorrhoid. It is going to be something that you eat or do in your lifestyle that is causing it. People that are heavy lifters, squats and cleaners tend to get it. But if that isn’t your case it is either simply sitting at a desk or truck driving or the highest percentage cause is going to be from what you eat and put into your body.

I am going to list out some items to look around for, but just think very hard about what you have been eating, and if there has been a change in the last 3-4 months in your diet. This may get you pointed in the right direction. The reason why I say this is because it may very well be outside of this list.

This will be the most statistically insignificant case, but the cause of my hemorrhoids was a sugar-free, sugar substitute-free, whole 30 compliant cereal that I fully checked the ingredients and had all natural ingredients. Most likely it is because of the insoluble fiber that I was putting into my body as opposed to soluble fiber. I highly doubt it was the cereal brand itself. So when I say it can be anything, it really can be anything.

Here are foods that cause hemorrhoids to look for because they are inflammatory:

• Alcohol
• Caffeine
• Starches (Rice, potatoes etc.)
• Any processed foods, frozen foods, pizza dinners, TV dinners
• Red meat

Make the right changes to your lifestyle:

If you make the right changes to your lifestyle, you can find a healthy balance where your body and you are happy with the change that was made. 

Food Intake

I switched from cereal to overnight oats as my breakfast and boom, the fissure healed, bleeding stopped and the pain was gone within about 4 days (ratio 1:1 of my own home-made cashew milk + rolled oats left in the fridge overnight).

Fiber Pills

These are perfect because you can take these essentially for the rest of your life with no negative consequences. There also is a good chance that you who is reading this don’t get enough soluble fiber in your body. So I take 1 or 2 pills a day depending on how I feel. On the weekends I typically forget, and I have not had any problems.

Take walks

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time sitting down and typing. I make it a point to get up twice a day outside of the other times I walk around (like lunch time and exercise) and take a walk for 15 minutes or so. You really don’t want blood just starting to pool around down there and not circulating.

Overall

Every now and again I’ll do something that may make an aggravation happen – like forgetting to use a witch hazel wipe, or forgetting not to squeeze, but these aggravations after taking out the main cause of the hemorrhoid makes the problem go away by going to the restroom and using a witch hazel wipe to calm the area – and if it is a bad aggravation because I did something very incorrect, then you can use the over the counter medicinal wipe to calm down the area back to normal. That happens if I totally forget to do something once a month or so.

Conclusion 

So you can cycling cause hemorrhoids? No, not really. However, there may be something in your lifestyle that is really messing with your body. If you take the initial steps to get the right medicine to help your body initially heal, it will give you the time and runway to figure out exactly what it is and  make the right changes to continue to be happy and content with your life.