Hemorrhoids and Varicose Veins

One of the best ways to stop varicose veins and hemorrhoids from getting any worse is to strengthen your blood vessels and make them less porous. Some of the same herbs used for heart problems, such as hawthorn and ginkgo, can do this. More than 50 studies, mostly from France and Germany, demonstrate ginkgo's ability to improve blood circulation and reduce the discoloration of varicose veins.

In a study conducted in Italy in 1982, the Indian herb gotu kola improved the structure of varicose veins and increased blood flow through them in 80 percent of the participants who took it for one month. This study also showed that gotu kola strengthens the connective tissue.

Researchers have found that ginkgo and gotu kola are even more effective when used together. Almost everyone who took this combination, many of whom had serious circulation problems in their legs, found that their circulation improved. Some enjoyed their first pain-free walking in months. And in numerous other studies, both ginkgo and gotu kola have been shown to be more effective and better tolerated than tribenoside, the standard drug used for this purpose.

Horse chestnut and butcher's broom—strangely named herbs that are not nearly as well-known in North America as in Europe—can also be used to make veins stronger and less porous. In the seventeenth century, an herbalist wrote that butcher's broom, a Mediterranean shrub, was so named because butchers made brooms from it—the herb's smell kept rodents away. Clinical research conducted in Italy, France and Germany shows that butcher's broom does much more than deter pests—it encourages blood to move up out of the legs, decreases inflammation in the veins and helps to tighten the veins.

Horse chestnut, an ornamental tree that originated in Asia, probably got its name as a corruption of the Welsh gwres, meaning "pungent," which was used to differentiate it from the unrelated sweet, edible chestnut. Horse chestnut is one of the few herbs mentioned in this book that needs to be taken with extra care. Small doses (50 milligrams of the plant's active ingredient, aescin) taken two or three times a day are sufficient; very high doses are slightly toxic. European herbalists describe this herb as a "venotonic," a tonic that improves the tone of the veins by tightening the elastic fibers in their walls.

Horse chestnut, the enzyme bromelain from pineapple and gotu kola also stop the enzymes that break down damaged veins. After only 12 days of taking horse chestnut, the level of these enzymes drops by one-quarter. Bromelain even prevents vein breakage right after surgery, when operations are necessary to remove badly varicosed veins. Garlic and pineapple prevent fibrin from forming lumpy deposits around varicose veins.

The compounds known as anthocyanidins are also beneficial in treating varicose veins—they stop swollen capillaries from leaking by making them less porous. Several European pharmaceuticals sold in France, Germany, Italy and Spain contain anthocyanidins. In Europe these compounds are considered so safe that they are even used during pregnancy. In numerous studies, people with various circulation problems, including hemorrhoids and varicose veins, who were given anthocyanidins experienced dramatic and sometimes total improvement in their conditions. In none of the published studies did researchers note side effects.

Similar compounds known as proanthocyanidins—currently derived either from grape seeds or from pine needles—support skin and blood vessels in several ways. For one thing, they increase the amounts of intercellular vitamin C and collagen (fibrous protein bundles that form the connective tissue that sup ports blood vessels, ligaments and cartilage). Another way to strengthen connective tissue is with the silica-rich herbs horsetail, knotgrass and nettles.