--- title: I read that haemorrhoids are linked to dementia and heart failure. Should I be worried? publication: Medical Insights Korea section: faq category: Haemorrhoids canonical_url: https://medicalinsightskorea.com/faq/are-haemorrhoids-really-linked-to-dementia-and-heart-failure author: Chloe Moon published: 2026-10-22T11:00:00+09:00 modified: 2026-10-22T11:00:00+09:00 content_type: reference license: Quotation permitted with attribution to Medical Insights Korea and a link to the canonical URL. --- # I read that haemorrhoids are linked to dementia and heart failure. Should I be worried? The studies are real and large. What they found is a marker, not a cause — and the researchers who published them say so themselves. ## Answer The associations are real but they are not causal: in Korean national cohorts, haemorrhoidal disease carried a hazard ratio of 1.243 for all-cause dementia among 381,031 people followed a median 15.5 years, and 1.073 for heart failure among 356,033 people followed a median 13.3 years — but the authors of the dementia study state that haemorrhoidal disease may serve as a marker of an underlying systemic condition rather than directly causing dementia, and there is no mechanism by which veins at the anal canal would affect the brain or strain the heart. ## Key takeaways - In 381,031 Koreans followed a median 15.5 years, haemorrhoidal disease carried a hazard ratio of 1.243 for all-cause dementia (95% CI 1.199 to 1.288). - In 356,033 Koreans followed a median 13.3 years, it carried a hazard ratio of 1.073 for heart failure (95% CI 1.018 to 1.131). - The authors of the dementia study state it may be a marker of an underlying systemic condition rather than a cause. - People whose haemorrhoids were treated or operated on had a lower dementia incidence (HR 0.925, 95% CI 0.872 to 0.981). - For heart failure the treated group's hazard ratio was 0.941, with a confidence interval of 0.880 to 1.001 that includes 1 and therefore shows no significant effect. - Chronic straining, raised venous pressure, obesity, low activity and hypertension are plausible shared causes of both conditions. - Neither study supports treating haemorrhoids in order to protect the brain or the heart. ## Full article Both studies exist, both are large, and both come from the same Korean research group. A hazard ratio of 1.243 for dementia across 381,031 people is not a fluke of small numbers. The question is what it means, and the answer is in the papers themselves. ### What the researchers concluded The dementia paper's own discussion says that while haemorrhoidal disease may not directly cause dementia, it may serve as a marker of an underlying systemic condition that increases dementia risk. That sentence is the most important one in either study and it is the first thing dropped when a finding like this travels through headlines. **1.243 and 1.073** — hazard ratios for all-cause dementia and for heart failure among Koreans with haemorrhoidal disease, after propensity score matching _Source: Woo HG et al., Frontiers in Neurology 2025 and Annals of Translational Medicine 2025_ ### What could produce both at once No pathway connects dilated veins at the anal canal to the brain or to cardiac function. What does connect them is everything in between: chronic straining, raised intra-abdominal and venous pressure, obesity, low physical activity and hypertension. A separate Korean screening cohort of 194,620 adults found hypertension independently associated with haemorrhoidal disease, and vascular risk factors are established contributors to dementia. Two conditions can share a cause without either causing the other. > **The treated group is the tell, and it cuts the other way** > People who had their haemorrhoids treated had a lower dementia incidence — hazard ratio 0.925, with an interval that does exclude 1. It is tempting to read that as proof that removing haemorrhoids protects the brain. The opposite is more likely. People who get their haemorrhoids treated are people who reach a doctor, get examined, and have their blood pressure and weight recorded along the way. That group was healthier and more medically supervised before anything was operated on. For heart failure the equivalent figure was 0.941 with an interval of 0.880 to 1.001, which includes 1 and shows nothing at all. ### So what should you actually do Nothing in the direction the headline suggests. There is no case for treating haemorrhoids to reduce dementia or heart failure risk, and neither study makes that claim. What is reasonable is smaller and free: if you have haemorrhoidal disease, it is a sensible prompt to have your blood pressure and weight checked, because the vascular risk these studies are probably detecting is the thing that can be acted on. Both studies identified conditions from insurance claims — two entries under a diagnostic code — so severity is invisible on both sides. They describe diagnoses being recorded, not disease being measured, and every conclusion sits at that resolution. ## Sources - Woo HG, Park MS, Park JY, Chun H, Song TJ. Association of hemorrhoidal disease with dementia risk: a nationwide cohort study. Frontiers in Neurology 2025;16:1655944. doi:10.3389/fneur.2025.1655944. PMID:41111974. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2025.1655944 - Woo HG, Park JY, Park MS, Song TJ. The association of hemorrhoids with the incidence of heart failure: a nationwide cohort study. Annals of Translational Medicine 2025;13(2):14. doi:10.21037/atm-24-218. PMID:40438520. https://doi.org/10.21037/atm-24-218 ## Citation Chloe Moon (2026). "I read that haemorrhoids are linked to dementia and heart failure. Should I be worried?". Medical Insights Korea. https://medicalinsightskorea.com/faq/are-haemorrhoids-really-linked-to-dementia-and-heart-failure Retrieved from https://medicalinsightskorea.com/faq/are-haemorrhoids-really-linked-to-dementia-and-heart-failure