The BEST hemroids cream
Walk into any pharmacy and you’re sure to see a bewildering array of hemroids creams, ointments and salves for sale.
Out of all that massive array of hemroids creams that are on the market, how on earth is anyone supposed to navigate through all of them to find the very best hemroids cream? It is easy to pick up a hemroids cream, waste money, and spend yet another sleepless and joyless night in pain, declaring that brand of hemroids cream to be a total failure, which they should be ashamed to sell.
It is, however, not the fault of the hemroids cream!
The trick to finding the best hemroids cream is to match YOUR hemroids symptoms, to the hemroids cream that offers relief for THOSE symptoms. You see, symptoms vary a lot with hemroidsand it is quite pointless to buy a hemroids cream designed for one set of symptoms, if you have different symptoms. You have to match the hemroids cream to your symptoms.
To reiterate, that hemroids cream wont likely help you much, if your hemroid symptoms are different to what the cream is designed to treat. To that end we list further down this page an array of different ingredients for you to read about and select the ones that sound like they will match your symptoms – hopefully you’ll find a cream that has your desired ingredients in them.
When you have done that, then you have YOUR best hemorrhoids cream. Hemroids creams are perfect for providing symptom relief for most people, and it’s easy. Just place some of the hemroid cream on your finger, then put it onto the hemroid and around the anus.
| SYMPTOM | Hemorrhoid cream type:: Active ingredient examples |
| Itching, irritation and burning of hemorrhoids | Astringent hemorrhoids cream:: Calamine,witch hazel extract, aloe vera gel or zinc oxide |
| Painful hemorrhoids | Anesthetic hemorrhoids cream:: Lidocaine, benzocaine, pramoxine, benzyl alcohol, dibucaine, dyclonine and tetracaine |
| Inflamed, itching hemorrhoid | Vasoconstrictor hemorrhoids cream:: Phenylephrine, ephedrine, and epinephrine |
| Inflamed hemorrhoids and pruritis (itching) | Steroidal hemorrhoids cream:: Hydrocortisone |
| Painful and itchy hemorrhoids | Analgesic and antipruritic hemorrhoids cream:: Camphor, juniper tar, or menthol |
Neo-Healar, an all purpose hemorrhoid creamthat aims to cover many symptoms and get rid of the hemorrhoids.
Finding the best hemroids cream can be embarrassing for some people
Hemroids creams are one of the most shop lifted products from a pharmacy – it’s so embarrassing for many hemroid sufferers to deal with in any way public – BUT your hemroids problem is no big deal for the staff, as they sell hemroids creams by the crate – there are just so many people buying over the counter (OTC) hemroids creams every day.
Hemorrhoids are not contagious, they do NOT suggest that you have engaged in certain adult behaviors and even children can get them. You see, most people have or will have hemroids during their life. Symptom relief is the first thing people go for after diagnosis with their doctor – as hemroids can be absolutely agonizing, tormenting, and unrelenting in the pain and discomfort they cause.
If you are still too embarrassed, why not just pretend your buying it for a spouse or a friend? Perhaps then you can explain their symtpoms and have the service attendant suggest an appropriate cream, or at least be prepared to pick up a few tubes of hemorrhoids cream they stock and read what symptoms they treat or what the active ingredients are.
If that idea is too much to tolerate, you can get round this by you or your spouse phoning with the symptoms, and ask anonymously over the phone which hemroids cream they sell that is best for those symptoms – be sure to ask about the carrier base / ingredients if you think allergy may be a problem. You could even ask where in the shop the hemorrhoid cream is located, or for them to put a tube or jar behind the counter till you come in to collect it.
On a side note, most pharmaceutical companies spell hemroids according to medical jargon, which is “hemorrhoids” or “piles” or haemorrhoids”. So you’ll actually be looking for “hemorrhoids cream” and so on if you go visit a pharmacy.
OTC hemroids creams are primarily for hemroid symptom relief, not really for cure, unless you buy one designed to do that – and there aren’t many of those hemorrhoid creams around.
OTC hemroids creams can make symptoms bearable while you take the measures that will cure them. Bear in mind, most people don’t actually try to really cure hemroids, they just buy the hemroids cream and keep getting the symptom relief. What they don’t realize, is that hemroids tend to get worse with time, not better. So masking the symptoms of hemroids with hemroids creams is not a good long term solution, as you’ll possibly end up seeing the doctor and being told you need an operation.
Commercial Hemorrhoid Creams and other hemorrhoid treatments to consider
We have also reviewed a variety of online hemorrhoids treatments and creams, such as the Heal Hemorrhoids solution andVenapro’s convenient tablets and the Neo Healar hemorrhoid cream that we do currently affiliate for. Fantastic for symptom relief and healing of hemroids, and they don’t require you to plough through the ingredient lists to find the right one, unless you are looking for allergy. They tend to be more like a shotgun, in that these hemroid medicines cover as many hemroid symptoms as they can.
Some creams we review but don’t affiliate for (yet): Mayinglong Musk hemorrhoids cream, Tucks hemorrhoid ointment and products, Anusol hemorrhoid treatments, Preparation H Hemorrhoids Cream and Products, Desitin diaper rash cream as a hemorrhoids treatment and you may also be interested in our page on herbal hemorrhoids cream.
Anyway, here’s a breakdown of what to look for in hemroids creams, to help you choose the best hemroid cream according to your symptoms:
The importance of the binder or base in a hemroids cream
The most common ingredient in any hemroids cream is some sort of binder, the most common of which are such things as petroleum jelly, glycerin, cocoa butter. Other potential binders in hemroids cream include lanolin, mineral oil, shark liver oil, and aluminum hydroxide gel.
The purpose of the binder is twofold, first to provide a medium in which to suspend the active ingredients and the second is to provide some moisturizing and lubricating effect on the area in question. Any skin that is too dry will itch like mad, and is more prone to inflammation, so keeping the hemroid and surrounding area well moisturized is very helpful in a hemroids cream. In addition, friction also leads to inflammation, so lubrication does become important.
If you have significant amounts of skin irritation, you may find the shark liver oil or the cocoa butter to be the most effective base in a hemroids cream.
The importance of testing the hemroids cream on a not as sensitive area of your body first
Remember to test a not-as-sensitive area of your skin for allergic reactions before using any hemroids cream you’re not familiar with, and avoid any you’ve had a problem with in the past. For instance, lanolin is a wool product. Therefore, don’t use it if you are even mildly allergic to wool. If you have an allergy to seafood, stay away from shark liver oil, and so on.
Astringent hemroids cream
Many hemroid creams include an astringent medication such as calamine,witch hazel extract, aloe vera gel or zinc oxide. Astringents relieve the itching, irritation and burning of hemroids by drying out and shrinking the skin cells of the area. This both cools the area and gets blood circulating better.
Astringents of some kind are one of the most common and most commonly helpful medications to find in a hemroid cream, and many of them are frequently found in other topical creams for irritated areas. Calamine lotion is famous for treating poison ivy, and zinc oxide is a frequently included medication in diaper rash ointment. Witch hazel and aloe vera gel are more commonly used in facial applications, but are incredibly soothing to an irritated hemroid.
Anesthetic hemroids cream
The next useful ingredient is usually a quick-acting local anesthetic. An anesthetic is a medication that blocks pain receptors, so blessed numbness spreads quickly.
Anesthetics for external use include lidocaine, benzocaine, pramoxine, benzyl alcohol, dibucaine, dyclonine and tetracaine. You may recognize some of these as sharing a suffix with novocaine, and the immediate effect is about the same, although without the scary needle from the dentist involved. The purpose of all of these medications is to get the pain nerves in the area to quit talking to the brain for a little while. You already know it hurts, you don’t need the constant reminder and these medications make it stop fast.
It’s important that other medications are included as well, however, because local anesthetics usually wear off fairly quickly. The anesthetic purpose is to give enough hemroid relief for the other ingredients to start working.
According to N.J. Paonessa, D.O., FACOS, a professor of Surgery, “Conservative / Nonoperative Therapy”, anesthetic topical agents found in hemorrhoid creams are only good for pain from thrombosed external hemorrhoids – I. Khubchandani ed et al., Surgical Treatment of Hemorrhoids, Chapt 6, 2nd ed., Springer, 2009
Vasoconstrictor hemroids cream
Next on the list of potential additions is a vasoconstrictor, which reduces blood flow to the area and may quiet an inflamed, itching hemroid right down.
Commonly used vasoconstrictors include phenylephrine, ephedrine, and epinephrine. Keep in mind that these cannot be taken with certain medications, and that some people are sensitive to them. Check with your regular pharmacist to make sure that no bad drug interactions will happen, and discontinue use immediately if you have any bad side effects whatsoever.
However, for the majority of the population who can use vasoconstrictors, they can be a wonderful thing to use for hemroids relief.
Steroidal hemroids cream
Another commonly found ingredient is a steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, such as hydrocortisone. This is mainly useful for itching hemorrhoids.
Hydrocortisone is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory medications available in over-the-counter medications, but it should not be used for long periods of time. Over time, hydrocortisone, or any steroidal medication, can cause the tissue of the anal area to grow thinner, which will decrease the muscular support of hemorrhoidal cushions and can wind up making the problem worse and perhaps even cause injury to the area. Therefore, creams with hydrocortisone in them should be used only for relief of hemroid crises and not as a chronic hemroids medication. It is for this reason also that you should be very careful before applying a hemorrhoids cream to your face or any other area – it may make things a bit better, but using for more than a few days can normally make things much much worse.
In the book, Colonic Diseases ed by T.R.Koch, MD., et al., Humana Press 2003, page 537, two professors of surgery condemn the use of pile creams. They especially condemn the use of the steroid based ones, claiming that they cause the skin to thin with prolonged use and cause healing to be more difficult. This sentiment is also echoed by another professor of surgery, N.J. Paonessa, D.O., FACOS as referenced above under anesthetic hemroid creams.
Analgesic and antipruritic hemroids cream
Other ingredients fall into the category of analgesics and antipruritics, or in plain English, painkillers and anti-itch medications respectively.
This category can include such unusual medications as camphor, juniper tar, or menthol. Any of these will cause a tingling cool/warm feeling similar to muscle cramp relief creams. At the specific dosage calibrated for hemroid creams, this sensation can be quite comforting and significantly distract from or eliminate itching and burning symptoms.
Be warned, never try to use a cream designated for a different part of the body on a hemroid. The skin around the anus absorbs medication at a much faster rate than the skin on your leg, and you’ll get too much medication too quickly.
How to work out what’s in the hemroids creams
Which active ingredients are included in any given hemroid ointment or cream can easily be determined by looking on the drug information panel, which is usually on the back or sides of any medication packaging. The binder – also known as “cream base” – that was used to form the salve can either be found in the active ingredients or as the first listed inactive ingredient. You can see that out of all these ingredients listed in the picture of a tube of hydrocortisone cream below, that there is only one active ingredient – the hydrocortisone – all the other ingredients are used to make the cream to hold the active ingredient in. these other ingredients in this hemorrhoids cream don’t actually work on the hemorrhoids, except to offer perhaps some lubrication or protection through coating the sensitive area.
Hemroid cream targets external hemroids
Internal hemroids creams have not been approved by the FDA for use in humans.
Remember that all hemroid creams on the market today are only rated for external use and are not to be put inside the body. Hemroid creams are only considered safe for external hemroids – not prolapsed nor internal hemroids. However, they are assumed to be safe if the cream comes with directions for applying internally and comes with a manufacturers applicator for doing so, even though they may not get FDA approval for internal use. It does come down to trust though, do you trust the company making the hemorrhoid cream to do the right thing?
Choosing the best cream for hemroids
The best hemroids cream is the one that relieves your specific symptoms. Using this guide that we have provided, you should be able to pick out the best cream for hemroids for you personally, that has the exact right ingredients for your symptoms, and enjoy the relief!
Remember: If you are allergic to any of the ingredients in the hemroids cream, then that hemroids cream could make things worse, so you definitely have to check the suitability of the hemroids cream for you.
Research and main write by Loni L. Ice, editing and additional writing by D. S. Urquhart.
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