A:
Fiber acts kind of like a colon cleanser. It moves the food you eat through your digestive tract quicker and the bulk of it is what pushes against the wall of the colon on it’s way out to clean it out. It doesn’t thicken anything but your stool. I don’t understand what your nutritionist means by thickens your digestive tract. The main ingredient there is wheat dextrin.
I think metamucil is more of a bulking fiber than benefiber. Too much bulking up of your stool like you get with metamucil isn’t really helpful to a person that suffers from anal fissures because your back side has to stretch too much to pass it, that’s why a lot of us like benefiber. When you have fissures you need a consistently soft, strain free stool so if you only took it every 2nd week how would that help you in the first week.

I am a HUGE proponent of Benefiber as it really softens things better than any other product I’ve tried. This (on top of Miralax & lots of water) was the only thing that finally helped me heal my fissure after 7 months of debilitating pain & after trying so many different things including botox, LIS, aloe vera, wheatgrass cream, Metamucil, Nifedipine, Nitroglcerin ointment, etc.

I literally felt the tear (glass-passing sensation) every single BM (even 3 months after LIS) until I added Benefiber to my regiment.
I take 3 Tablespoons of Benefiber throughtout the day & Miralax at night. I make sure to drink 64 oz of water a day. When I get to work, I put 2 Tablespoons of Benefiber into 32 oz of water & sip on it all day. Then, with dinner I have 1 Tablespoon of Benefiber with 16 oz of water. Then, before bed, I take a quarter dose (17 gms is regular dose) of Miralax with 16 more oz of water. I was taking 1-1.5 x a full dose plus the 3 Tablespoons of Benefiber when my fissure was at it’s worst & finally began to heal.
I’ve found it’s easier to use a 32 oz water bottle to make sure I get the 64 oz of water & stick to my schedule.
I can pretty much eat what I want, but I do tend to have a spinach salad & fruit everyday. I usually add peas or chickpeas to my salad for a little more fiber but not always. I think I have a more constipated system than most so don’t know if others would need both Benefiber & Miralax.

At any rate, I wanted to relay my story again & what worked in hopes that it may help someone else. I cannot stress enough about stool consistency! I did not get this & no one stressed to me. I thought things were soft enough for the longest time as it was so much easier to go than what I was used to before the fissure. However, things were not nearly soft enough . . .
need to be the consistency of pudding/soft-serve ice cream in order to heal those suckers! I do recommend shortly after you’ve healed (maybe month) firming things back up though b/c I did experience burning for a while after healing & none of the docs nor I could figure out why since fissure was healed. I am a lifer on the Benefiber & maybe Miralax too

I found it interesting the info having to do with Chinese medicine. There is no doubt that Eastern medicine, Ayurveda, and herbal remedies can help, but I would not go so far as to judge those of us that have this chronic condition. It is something many of us deal with regularly and not from choice. I am going to be seeing a Chinese MD as a health consultant for various things. One of which is a zinc deficiency that I experienced recently. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the oils.

I had the misfortune of having repeted tears after fissurectomy.
Then, I consulted reputed gastro surgeon – he did a digital exmanination of my anus. He suggested me to udnergo surgery again.
 
I took the decision not to undergo surgery and to make life style modifications like walking, taking more vegetables/greens, timely food, regular sitz bath….etc
 
Now I am free from retears / burning senssation in anus.
 
From my experience, I strongly feel that a holistic approach by the sufferer can tackle fissures.
 
You can take cue from my experience and avoid the mistakes I comitted.

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I’ve been dealing with anal fissures on-and-off for 7 years. Writing this down helps me 
feel less alone and embarrassed about this debilitating condition.

When the condition started I didn’t know what was wrong. I went to three doctors, one
who was a colon-rectal specialist, and even had a mini-colonoscopy, which I now realize
probably made the condition worse. After all that, the doctors kept telling me that they
couldn’t figure out why I was so uncomfortable. Needless to say, I’m extremely angry at
these doctors for practically dismissing the agony I was in. I was young, embarrassed and
naive, so I didn’t pursue the issue further and tried to figure out how to live with the
extremely uncomfortable symptoms.

I’ve had long periods of time in the last 7 years without suffering from the symptoms. But
the fissures are back with a vengeance. I gave birth 9 weeks ago. During the pregnancy I
had horrible morning sickness. The only thing that helped to reduce the nausea was a
medication that made me constipated. Anyway, by the end of the pregnancy I had anal
fissures and the vaginal birth only made things worse. During the pregnancy, I kept
complaining to my OB about pain and spotting during BM’s. She told me it was
hemorrhoids and there was nothing I could do.

I was finally diagnosed 2 weeks ago as suffering from anal fissures. While I was grateful to
finally know what was causing my symptoms, I’m extremely concerned that I may never
recover from the fissures. I’ve been using the nitroglycerin ointment for about 1.5 weeks.
There is some improvement but I doubt that the ointment will heal everything. The doctor
said that if I didn’t see a significant improvement after using the ointment for 2 weeks,
then I’d need surgery to get rid of the fissures.

The idea of a surgery that could leave me flatulent or incontinent is absolutely terrifying.

I’m going to get a second opinion in a couple of days. I live in Seattle. Does anyone have
recommendations for doctors, acupuncturists or naturopathic doctors that can help with
this condition?