Large-scale genetic study sheds light on the causes of hemorrhoids (piles)
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Found at the very end of the digestive tract, hemorrhoids are blood filled cushions that help contain stool and control defecation in humans. Often confusing, hemorrhoids is also what we usually call hemorrhoidal disease (or piles), which is when hemorrhoids swell, causing pain, itching and sometimes bleeding, thus limiting everyday activities. While they mostly remain mild enough to be resolved with over-the-counter treatments, more severe forms of hemorrhoids require surgical treatment associated with considerable disease burden.
Many risk factors have been suggested including a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, reduced dietary fiber intake, spending excess time on the toilet or straining during defecation, strenuous lifting and others, with several being controversially reported. Possibly due to their intimate and embarrassing nature, hemorrhoidal disease has been generally understudied, and neither the exact molecular mechanisms nor the reasons why only some people develop complications are known, hence undocumented theories, myths and hypotheses have become manifest even in the scientific literature.