hemorrhoids and blood poisoning?
Another weird question I can’t find an answer for on any website:
A lot of people have hemorrhoids bad enough that they will bleed when they go to the bathroom.
Now, this means that fecal matter passes by a wound, an opening in a vein. The fecal matter is alive with bacteria that can, if they get into your system, cause all kinds of conditions. Yet I have never heard of people getting sick. Wouldn’t you expect something like blood poisoning to happen? Feces and open, bleeding wounds aren’t supposed to mix well.
I am obviously missing something here, but I just can’t figure it out. Statistically, you just would have to expect people to infect themselves occasionally.
zbelle60: Usually with hemorrhoids you do not bleed all the time when you defecate, only occasionally. Looking at it from a statistical point of view there simply have to be times when E.coli or othere germs would have to enter the vein.
Your immune system will kick in and produce antibodies and send out leucocytes, but still, sometimes germs overpower the immune system. People die of blood poisoning from small wounds.
haslo: Well, while I know a toothbrush is a haven for bacteria (that’s why I dry mine out and change them regularily), still and all, the bacteria get washed down your stomach – and in general the hydrochloric acid in our stomach takes good care of lower doses of bacteria, else our species would have died out long ago.
And as far as our immune system taking care of small wounds – this is generally true, but not always. So why don’t hemorrhoids ever kill you, but a scratch can?
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Filed under: Hemroid Causes
You make a very good point. One of the most common bacteria in the digestive tract is E. Coli. People get food poisoning from this, so logically a bleeding hemorrhoid or fissure should cause blood poisoning, but like you, I have never heard of this happening. I can only speculate as to why this is, but blood is nature’s way of cleaning a wound. Perhaps since the hemorrhoid is actively bleeding during a bowel movement it keeps the wound clean and doesn’t allow the bacteria to enter the blood vessel. Also the body is remarkably resilient and I would assume that if you had a tear or hemorrhoid, the bodies natural defenses would "kick in" increasing the number of white blood cells to destroy any bacteria that did manage to get into the system. It is definitely something to consider.
you know what that is a great question…i never really thought about that…at least 90% of women get hemorroids when they give birth add men to that ratio and there is a h*ll of a lot of people out there that have bleeding *sses. i think you are an intelligent person for asking a question like that…even though some people might tell you its dumb, but no question is dumb…maybe you never hear about it because some people have unexplained infections and nobody can find the cause…maybe you are on to something…good luck
there are more bad things in the society,than good things,but not every body becomes bad,because god has given them inherent strength to resist bad affecting them.same thing happens here,hemorrhoids and blood .our body has defence system to thawart that infectious bacteria entering the blood system.some times you get infected piles[hemorrhoides] ,but the infection is localised in nature most of the time.if ones body defence system fails in a major way[as happens in aids,anaemia,cancer,] the infection is overwhelmmed,causing bacteria to grow and giving them chance to spread their poison in the blood,then you get pain locally,swelling,fever and all things that come wtih uncontrolled infections .
Forget hemorrhoids…did you know you flush your blood stream with bacteria everytime you brush your teeth?
That’s right. Every time you brush or floss, millions of bacteria get into your blood stream. When you are healthy, these bacteria are immediately (within minutes) destroyed and you never even notice it. The previous poster has already explained why. The healthy immune system intercepts and destroys the bacteria. Same thing happens with little cuts, hemorrhoids, etc. The body’s defenses take care of the problem. When the body is damaged in some ways, like if the heart valves are damaged for example, one need to take extra precautions. That is the reason people with heart valve problems need to take antibiotics prior to dental vists.
Actually I have never heard of this either. But bacteria from lesions in the GI tract do occasionally enter the blood stream and cause problems.
One way is from injury from a sigmoidoscope. This can cause bacteria to enter the blood stream.
Another is from colon cancer. Sometimes Strep. bovis can enter the blood stream from colon cancer and cause endocarditis.
But in these instances we are talking about large wounds that could allow an overwhelming number of bacteria into the blood. Hemorrhoids are small openings in the veins sort of like bleeding gums. You can see the blood but usually not the wound it is coming from. The few bacteria that enter this way are taken care of by the immune system.
Also bacteria and other pathogens can enter the blood via the GI tract to cause illness but this is because they have mechanisms to invade uninjured GI tissue. That list is long and not really what you were asking.