Sitz bath is one of the natural ways by which you can get a relief from pain, itching and irritation of hemorrhoids. It is also used for personal hygiene by many people. Warm water has pain relieving and soothing capabilities and it can be used for these properties, to a good extent.
Now what exactly is sitz bath?
It is a shallow bath where you can sit in with warm water which is used to clean perineum and also get relief from pain in rectum. You can easily do it at home. Perineum is the area between rectum and scrotum or vulva.
Equipment –
You can get yourself a sitz bath in a bath tub or if you don’t have a bath tub, you can also go for a tub or a kit meant for this. These kits are easily available at chemists and pharmacies. The idea is to keep your infected area soaked in water.
The correct way to do it is to soak the area for 15 minutes or so and pat dry with soft towel. Scrubbing or rubbing may cause more irritation to the area.
Warm or cold
You can add about 5 inches of warm or cold water in sitz bath and sit in it. Warm water can help you cleanse the area and cold water helps in reducing the soreness and swelling so both can help in thri own way.
Benefits/Side Effects –
Just like other natural treatments, you don’t need to get a prescription from a doctor to do this. You can do it yourself at home and benefit from it. When you are suffering from hemorrhoids, it serves a double purpose – pain relief and hygiene. So you should be a regular with it. Generally, there is no side effect of this, sometimes when don’t clean the tub thoroughly you could catch an infection. So make sure that you take care of all the cleaning and you should be good to go. This is also a safe way for piles pain relief in pregnancy
Ingredients/Additives –
Sometimes doctors recommend sitz bath with added medications. You could also add salt, baking soda or vinegar to the water.
Adding basic salt
Salt water is a good antibacterial agent and it also helps in healing skin ailments. You can use 3-4 table spoons of sea salt to the water for soaking.
Baking soda and sitz bath
Adding baking soda to your sitz bath can help you relieve the pain. It can also help you in conditions like vaginal yeast infections and other infections in rectum area. Baking soda has natural soothing properties which help in reducing itching and burning sensations.
Witch Hazel
You can also add witch hazel extract but make sure you use a good quality one especially the alcohol free ones.
This is a simple and non-invasive way of getting some good relief from hemorrhoids, no matter how worse the situation is.
Epsom salt
This actually is not a salt but a pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulphate. Both of these minerals are easily absorbed by human skin and have provide some good health benefits. These salts when added to bath water helps in absorption of nutrients and elimination of toxic substances. You can also make a paste of Epsom salt and apply it over your infected area for a relief.