Tucks hemorrhoid ointment is one of the most well known and popular hemorrhoid symptom relief systems available over the counter today. Tucks medicated pads and towelettes are also quite helpful for hemorrhoid cleansing and soothing purposes. For people who suffer from hemorrhoids, the itching and pain can get to unbearable levels and start interfering with just about all aspects of life. Of course, hemorrhoids need to be cured, but it’s hard to think of a cure when the symptoms are making rational thought impossible. Therefore, hemorrhoid symptom relief is a very important part of any hemorrhoid treatment plan.
What Is Tucks Hemorrhoid Ointment?
Tucks hemorrhoid ointment used to be known as Anusol. Then a company called McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a subsidary of Johnson and Johnson, bought out the company and of course rebranded the ointment as Tucks. The company still sells Tucks hemorrhoid ointment as Anusol to a few markets, most notably in England, but at this point the two really are interchangeable, at least insofar as the original hemorrhoid ointment goes. Of course, the Tucks hemorrhoid product line has expanded significantly to try and treat any given symptom of hemorrhoids, so do read the active ingredients list carefully to figure out exactly what you need.
The classic Tucks hemorrhoids ointment, formerly known as Anusol, with pramoxine, mineral oil, and zinc oxide as the active ingredients, is still the flagship of the line. This Tucks hemorrhoids ointment also has a lot of moisturizers and soothers for inactive ingredients, such as cocoa butter, kaolin, and Peruvian balsam. The difference between active and inactive ingredients in Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatment is just that the active ingredients have been clinically approved for the specific use they’re marketing it for, while inactive ingredients are more general and chosen first for their binding and preserving properties.
There is also a hydrocortisone cream that’s marketed as a Tucks hemorrhoids ointment. This particular anti-itch Tucks hemorrhoids treatment just has the hydrocortisone alone as an active ingredient, with mineral oil hiding out in the inactive ingredient list along with white petroleum and microcrystalline wax. The main purpose of the hydrocortisone cream in this Tucks hemorrhoids ointment is to act as an anti-itching agent. Of course, the first hemorrhoids treatment you should try for anti-itching is to keep the area as clean as possible. If that doesn’t clear up the problem, then the anti-itch Tucks hemorrhoids ointment is probably a good idea.
MacNeil also markets Tucks medicated pads and travel towellettes, with witch hazel extract as the only active hemorrhoids treatment ingredient. Inactive ingredients include water, glycerin, and citric acid among others, which makes these Tucks hemorrhoids treatment towellettes good soothing, cooling pads to apply to the hemorrhoids area for cleaning and general soothing purposes. These Tucks hemorrhoid towellettes are not terribly elaborate, but by all accounts they do work wonders in hemorrhoid treatment when used after having a bowel movement or when the hemorrhoids area just gets altogether too dry and itchy.
The last thing marketed under the Tucks hemorrhoid name is Tucks topical starch suppositories for hemorrhoids. This sort of starch draws excessive wetness out of the hemorrhoids area and, along with the vitamin E it’s mixed with, helps create a barrier over and around hemorrhoids. These hemorrhoids treatment suppositories are about the only Tucks treatment over the counter product that is actually meant and approved for internal use, though the primary Tucks hemorrhoids ointment does come with a tip that’s meant for getting the ointment inside the anorectal canal. Basically, if you use the Tucks hemrorhoids ointment internally, you’re doing so more or less on your own. The Tucks hemorrhoids suppositories, on the other hand, are proven for internal use.
How Does Tucks Hemorrhoids Treatment Work?
Each Tucks hemorrhoids treatment or towellette has its own active ingredients. To get hemorrhoids treatment for the exact symptoms you’re suffering from, it can often really help to understand each of these hemorrhoids treating ingredients and exactly what they’re expected to do in regards to your hemorrhoids symptoms. If you can figure out which Tucks hemorrhoids treatment product or combination of Tucks hemorrhoids treatment products is going to give you the best hemorrhoids relief, then you’ll rest much easier in less time.
The standard Tucks hemorrhoid ointment
The primary ingredient in the classic Tucks hemorrhoids ointment is pramoxine, also known as pramocaine. It is a topical anesthetic, or numbing agent, also used to treat itching such as you generally get with hemorrhoids. It’s also found in Gold Bond itching cream and Neosporin pain relieving ointment, though of course neither of those is formulated for hemorrhoid use. In addition to hemorrhoids and fungal infections, pramoxine is also often used on sunburn, minor insect stings, poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac and minor cuts or scratches, so it’s proven to work well on the sort of pain you get with hemorrhoids. Basically, the moment you put it on your skin, it’s absorbed into the lower layers of the dermis almost immediately and blocks the nerves for fast hemorrhoid pain relief.
The next active ingredient in the classic Tucks hemorrhoids ointment is mineral oil, which is a liquid by-product of petroleum distillation. It is transparent, colorless, non-reactive and has low toxicity. It’s often used to ease inflammation of the skin, such as you get with itchy external hemorrhoids, especially when corticosteroid creams such as hydrocortisone are unsuitable. It does not absorb atmospheric moisture at all, which makes it a good preservative and barrier cream to add to Tucks hemorrhoid ointment. It both preserves other ingredients from moisture and oxidation, and when applied to the skin keeps it from drying out and getting further inflamed, obviously important for hemorrhoids symptom relief.
The last active ingredient found in the classic Tucks hemorrhoid ointment is zinc oxide. This white, powdery nutrient has a veritable multitude of applications, but of course here we just want to focus on the medical aspects of zinc oxide use. When zinc oxide is mixed properly, it becomes calamine and is widely used to dry and soothe poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac problems, minor insect stings, and, naturally, hemorrhoids. Zinc oxide also has deodorizing and antibacterial properties when powdered, which makes it good for wounded external hemorrhoids. So, as you can see, it has a lot of potential for hemorrhoids treatment, being able to fight infection, reduce inflammation and excess wetness, and soothe irritated tissue, which pretty much describes your average hemorrhoid.
The anti-Itch Tucks Hemorrhoid treatment
The hydrocortisone found in the anti-itch Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatment is a corticosteroid that is commonly used in hemorrhoids ointments to reduce inflammation and irritation. It works primarily by interfering with the immune system’s response. Of course, it is the immune system that produces inflammation and all of the accompanying symptoms you generally suffer from with hemorrhoids. Hydrocortisone is often used for allergic rashes, psoriasis, eczema, and similar skin conditions such as hemorrhoids and hemorrhoid-related inflammation. However, you should never use it for more than about two weeks because it can start making the skin and tissue around the hemorrhoids thinner. Thinner skin and tissue mean that hemorrhoids are more likely to get worse or come back in the future.
Tucks Pads and Tucks Towellettes for hemorrhoids
The active ingredient in the Tucks hemorrhoid treatment pads and towellettes is witch hazel extract. It is a powerful antioxidant and astringent, which means that it helps shrink hemorrhoid skin tissues while healing the tissue damage that hemorrhoids often cause. Considering that it is widely recommended for sunburn, minor cuts and abrasions, and insect bites in addition to hemorrhoid relief, you can see where it can be very useful. Of course, it works together well with the water and glycerin that are listed as inactive ingredients in the Tucks hemorrhoids treatment pads for the maximum possible cooling and hemorrhoids relief.
Tucks Suppositories for Hemorrhoids
The last Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatment comes in the form of suppositories made with topical starch. This is usually a form of corn starch that has been mixed with other ingredients to make a soft, waxy hemorrhoids treatment suppository. While it might not seem that this would do any good at first glance, the molecules in the starch unravel and then re-knit together to form a protective coating over inflamed hemorrhoids to help prevent further irritation. It’s formulated to work specifically on internal hemorrhoids, and of course needs to be reapplied to those hemorrhoids after each bowel movement.
Side Effects of Tucks Hemorrhoids Ointment Treatment
Of course, any medication that can have a good effect on the body can also have a bad effect. While all of the Tucks hemorrhoid treatments are about as safe as you can find and still have them count as medicine, you should always be on guard against bad side effects and the possibilities of overdosing.
When it comes to allergic reactions, it’s possible for the human body to have an allergic reaction to just about everything. Therefore, it’s important to read both the active ingredients and the inactive ingredients to make sure you won’t react badly to anything in the Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatments. If you really just cannot tell if you’re sensitive to anything in the Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatment, you should put a bit of it on the skin inside your elbow. Wait for twenty four hours to see if any bad reactions happen. If after that time you don’t see any redness or itching or rash show up, then Tucks hemorrhoids ointment treatment is probably safe for you.
Of course, there are a few other things to watch out for as well when it comes to Tucks hemorrhoids treatment. If rectal bleeding starts up, or if you start getting even more redness, irritation, swelling or pain than you did without the Tucks hemorrhiod treatment, then you should stop it. The problems may be caused by the Tucks hemorrhoid treatment or just by your condition getting worse, but either way you need to know. In addition, of course, if your hemorrhoids get worse or if they don’t start improving within seven days, you need to stop the Tucks hemorrhoid treatment and go see a doctor to find out exactly what is going on.
Tucks Hemorrhoids Ointment Treatment All Wrapped Up
So, while Tucks hemorrhoids treatment isn’t going to cure hemorrhoids, it obviously has quite a bit to offer in the area of hemorrhoids symptom relief. Use the Tucks line of hemorrhoid treatments in conjunction with medicines that improve circulation health, medications that help cure hemorrhoids over the long term, and a proper hemorrhoids diet and exercise plan to make your hemorrhoids both stop hurting now and go away for good over the long term.
REFERENCES
Physicians’ Desk Reference 2010
Lloyd, J. U. and J. T. Lloyd. History of Hamamelis (Witch Hazel), Extract and Distillate. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. 24(1935) (3):220–24.
Written by Loni Ice, Edited by Donald Urquhart
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