That part of the body, like your mouth, has features that greatly reduce the chance of infection because they are the entry and exit points for foreign objects or waste. It is complicated how it all works, but in short your body really needs those parts to bot get infected, so it adapted ways to keep that from happening.
That was the explanation I got from the doc when mine first showed up.
I recall this question coming up on Reddit with some regularity (no pun intended). The typical answer I saw was something like “your rectum has a really strong immune system”
That’s what I remember reading, too. I think that particular area gets its own lymph node system or something like that. Similar to how our head and neck have their own dedicated system.
Those areas are prone to bacteria, so they get beefed up protections.
Something kinda like that. They’re called Peyer’s Patches, and they’re like a base of operations for immune cells. They not only gather there, but they also scout out the bacteria present by reaching through the intestinal lining and pulling some of the stuff through.
Also, a lot of bacteria in our guts aren’t really trying to get into our system. The intestinal epithelium produces mucus to prevent bacteria from getting close to the intestinal lining, and most bacteria are pretty chill with that
It suck to be an immune cell in general. Many disease-causing bacteria have evolved ways to subvert and kill immune cells in spectacular ways. And immune cells generally just have pretty short lifespans to begin with
I am not qualified to answer this, but I did once see a similar question asked on Reddit. The best response I saw was from a commenter whose name I can’t remember, else I would credit them.
That commenter said that his infant daughter had required an operation on her rectum. The commenter asked the surgeon how the surgery site could possibly not become infected and was told “the asshole knows how to handle shit.”
That answer seemed reasonable to me and I probably will never forget it.
They can be pretty common for certain people. I’ve dealt with hemorrhoids since I was 20, my dad also started getting them pretty young too. They tend to “flare up” if you eat food that irritates them. For me it’s something that I deal with every few months or so. When I get them, I gotta squirt a tube of ointment up my ass and they’re usually gone the next day. It’s a very humbling experience. I came as a poor migrant, no college education and through will and determination I became a self taught engineer about to turn 30 who makes six figures, and I occasionally have to squirt a tube of preparation H ointment up my ass.
Fairly sure it’s because of the difference in environment. Gut bacteria tend to be anaerobic fermenting species, whereas the external part and blood are more aerobic. It’s been a while since i did physiology and microbio tho, someone correct me if I’m wrong.
kind of unrelated, but hemorrhoids are only common because something like 95% of people don’t eat the (already low) recommended amount of fiber. eat lots of fiber, people.
I am vegan with no shortage of fiber and get hemorrhoids regularly. IMO the diet argument is a lie. The true issue is the stress brought upon the working class through capitalism.
Yup. Oreos are vegan so it’s totally fine to eat an entire package for dinner! (I had a vegan friend who did this one time, and we were all joking about it being healthy because it’s vegan.)
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