Tannic acid is a mild astringent, so if you take a tea bag and empty it out and jam the tea up there, it might work.

Then when the doctor does his proctoscopy, he can also tell you if you'll live a long life and whether some day you might marry into money.


That was just a GI guy's idea of a joke, believe it or not, although I've met people who swear by the tea bag method. I don't think it would be any better than witch-hazel.