September 6, 2023
As Colon Hydrotherapists, we get a first hand and front-row seats, to the amount of waste people are unnecessarily holding onto in their large intestine / colon, and you simply cannot convince us that colonics are not one of the best options we have (if not the best) when it comes to constipation.
Unfortunately, occasionally, colonics receive a bad wrap within the medical industry, which in turn pushes many away from even trying the alternative approach. It doesn’t help that the science isn't behind this alternate method known as colonics, and the therapists who work within the industry are main advocates for colonics due to hands-on experience with entrusting clients.
Did you know, there is currently 15 percent of the adult population suffering with constipation. So, why is it that more Doctors, Nurses, Naturopaths, Gasteroenteroloigists and Specialists etc, aren’t recommending Colonics to more of their patients?
If you think about it, we as humans are essentially a long tube with a mouth at one end and a bum at the other. If you put food into one end three or four times a day, we normally should experience a bowel movement within 3 hours after each of these meals? Consider a baby - what goes in one end, must come out the other. So, with that in mind, why don’t you take a minute to assess how your bowel movements have been going lately.
Did you know that constipation affects between 2% and 27% of the population in Western Countries. MD William Bulsiewicz and author of Fiber Fueled, has attributed the number one cause of bloating, is actually constipation, and bloating being the most common digestive complaint from his patients.
Even if you don’t feel constipated, if you’ve ever had a history of constipation which can look like;
And, if you suffer from diarrhea, did you know that this can be a more severe form of constipation, known as overflow.
The author has personal experience with this topic, seeing anywhere from 50 to 80 clients per week in her Colon Hydrotherapy clinic, and at least 80% of all clients complain of severe constipation, and they seek out colonics to feel relief, and, the most efficient way to feel relief and heal from constipation, according to Dr Norman Walker, is by visiting your nearest Colon Hydrotherapist and attending a series of Colonics to purge the colon and get it functioning properly again.
A colon hydrotherapy treatment can seem daunting to those first timers, as it basically involves trusting a stranger to insert a cold and well lubricated instrument into your prison pocket and help you release! Those who are more conservatives when it comes to bowel habits, may find the idea of colon hydrotherapy scary and daunting or even just overwhelming.
Colon Hydrotherapy has been around for thousands of years, with literature dating back to to the 14th century BC. From the 1940's, colon hydrotherapy equipment continued to evolve, and by the early 1950's, colon hydrotherapy was flourishing in the United States. However, towards the mid-1960's, the use of colon hydrotherapy slowly dwindled until the early 1970's, when most colon hydrotherapy equipment was removed from hospitals and nursing homes in favor of the colostomy, Fleet enema and prescriptive laxatives.
Lets briefly break a colonic session down and see how it runs, basically, this involves warm filtered water introduced into the large intestine (colon), through a small tube called a speculum, which is gently inserted into the rectum (25mm - 40mm). It is now, the water moves into the colon via the tube, this warm water helps to soften and break down any waste build up. The bowel releases the waste and It is emptied out directly into the sewerage.
This filling and emptying of the colon is repeated several times, whilst the colon therapist is gently massaging. This application to the abdomen from a trained Colon Hydrotherapist assists movement and break up. Unlike an enema, colon hydrotherapy aims to reach the entire length of the large intestine.
As stated in the beginning of this article, science backed research and colonics, are few and far between. The pharmaceutical industry is responsible for the research, development, production, and distribution of medications. This market has experienced significant growth during the past two decades, and pharma revenues worldwide totaled 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020. The costs involved to conduct a clinical trial approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), to test a new drug relating to the Gastrointestinal System in 2015, was estimated at USD $44 million total for a 3 phase clinical trial.
Given that Colon Hydrotherapy does not require the ongoing use of a ‘drug’, and is essentially only using filtered water into the colon - the profit margin is next to nothing. Additionally, Colon Hydrotherapy has been documented to provide immense relief from constipation, meaning no use for any ongoing laxative or similar medications, so one would imply that colon hydrotherapy may get a bad wrap because A) There is no money to be made and B) It’s healing from within and decreasing the use or need of gastrointestinal medications…. Food for thought.
A study was carried out between April 2000 to April 2004, where 690 patients used Colon Hydrotherapy prior to a Colonoscopy, to prep and clean the large intestine for examination. This study concluded that Colon hydrotherapy is an effective means of cleansing the large bowel before undergoing a colonoscopy, and is more effective than the use of either oral mannitol or magnesium sulfate as a means of cleansing the large intestines.
Board certified gastroenterologist since 1972, Robert Charm, MD, of Walnut Creek, California, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, combines conventional allopathic medicine with Colon Hydrotherapy. He stated, “Colon hydrotherapy is the perfect specific procedure to eliminate constipation and restore normal bowel function.”
W. John Diamond, MD, medical director of the Triad Medical Center in Reno, Nevada and coauthor of “An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer, has stated “For some patients with chronic constipation or extensive yeast problems, colon hydrotherapy works advantageously to get rid of the physical load of pathology in the gastrointestinal tract.
An easy concept to understand is, if there are hard pieces of mud in a tube and you can’t get the mud moving through the tube to the other end, you’d simply pour water down to lubricate and get it moving to the other end right? Well, that’s the same as Colonics helping with constipation.
A study with 175 patients from August 2016 - Jan 2018 who suffered with chronic constipation, used Colonic Irrigation as a way to manage their symptoms. It concluded that 100% of all patients had success, and that Colonic Irrigation was a well tolerated and safe alternative to medical therapy, for patients suffering with Chronic Constipation.
Another study with Eighteen patients, 12 with constipation-dominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS-C) and 6 with diarrhea-dominant IBS (IBS-D), were randomized into treatments of 1–4 weeks, where a Colonic irrigation was performed twice daily for 6 consecutive days per week. The results found there was an improvement in abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea, and the patients were more satisfied with their bowel movements and found their symptoms were less disturbing.
It is evident there is more negative information online about colonics, than there is positive. Many allopathic medical professionals advise against getting a colonic, stating things like, it’s dangerous, can cause electrolyte imbalance, bowel distension and bowel perforation. However, these claims have been made with no real science based evidence, though there is evidence of bowel perforation in every 1 in 1000 colonoscopies conducted (which is medical procedure with camera up the backside), even though colonoscopies are still a very commonly medical procedure to investigate internal issues of the gastrointestinal tract.
Colon Hydrotherapist and Health / Detox Coach Michael Perrine has been practicing for 21 years and has facilitated over 20,000 colonics, believes there are two main reasons why Colonics aren’t recommended. He says, “The first one is that there’s no solid body of studies. When people conduct large scale studies they put money behind it because they’re usually trying to solve a problem, but at the same time justify the solution as a product. And I just don’t think there’s any financial motivation to invest in such studies about colonics. The second is that there’s a synergistic effect that diet changes, Colonics and other bodywork have together. So there are plenty of people that never change their eating or lifestyle and then get Colonics and although it makes them slightly better, nothing magical happens. There’s no major transformation to speak of. But the synergy of all of those good choices and practices coming together we know has a tremendous effect on people. But that’s much more difficult to prove and study from a medical perspective.”
Sarah Moore, owner of Sarah Moore Health in Nashville Tennessee, who has 15 years of Colon Hydrotherapy experience, says, “Those who say negative things about colonics, they don’t actually have a clue how it works”.
When researching this subject, the science backed information is unfortunately scarce.
How is it, that an ancient Egyptian practice with thousands of years of history, has just been left in the dark and labeled as ‘colonic quackery’, especially in this day and age with all of the information and access we have available at our fingertips? Is it because colon hydrotherapy it's largely unprofitable? Is it because it's ‘too’ alternative? Is it because many in the allopathic industry, have labeled colonics as quackery’ Is it that colonics can help to heal major digestive complaints, resulting in the decreased use of pharmaceuticals?
Colon Therapist and Owner of The Divine Healing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cassondra Klein, has been practicing colon hydrotherapy since 2014 and personally getting colonics for almost 12 years. She says “I believe colonics get a bad rep because Big Pharma cannot put a patent on water. They are in the business of sickness while we are in the business of healing”, and the author of this article tends to agree with this statement.
The aim of this paper was to discuss the reasons why Colon Hydrotherapy isn’t recommended by more medical professionals as a treatment option for constipation, and it's evident that there is a need for more science based evidence to be conducted on this treatment as a whole.
REFERENCES
Ernst, E. M.D., Ph.d., F.R.C.P. (Edin) Colonic Irrigation and the Theory of Autointoxication: A Triumph of Ignorance over Science, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology: June 1997 - Volume 24 - Issue 4 - p 196-198
Mishori, R., Otubu, A., & Alleyne Jones, A. (2011). The dangers of colon cleansing. Journal of Family Practice, 60(8), 454.
Hsu, HH., Leung, WH. & Hu, GC. Treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with a novel colonic irrigation system: a pilot study. Tech Coloproctol 20, 551–557 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10151-016-1491-x
Parekh, P. J., Burleson, D., Lubin, C., & Johnson, D. A. (2018). Colon irrigation: effective, safe, and well-tolerated alternative to traditional therapy in the management of refractory chronic constipation. J Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol, 2(1), 5.
Morton Walker, D. P. M. (2000). Medical Journalist Report Value of Colon Hydrotherapy Verified by Medical Professionals.
Nurse Hua, J. H., Fa, S. Z., & LinLi, G. (2004). Colon Hydrotherapy for pre-endoscopy preparation. Hebei Medical Journal, 25(12).
Parekh, P. J., Burleson, D., Lubin, C., & Johnson, D. A. (2018). Colon irrigation: effective, safe, and well-tolerated alternative to traditional therapy in the management of refractory chronic constipation. J Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol, 2(1), 5.
Moore TJ, Zhang H, Anderson G, Alexander GC. Estimated Costs of Pivotal Trials for Novel Therapeutic Agents Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 2015-2016. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(11):1451–1457. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.3931
https://www.statista.com/topics/1764/global-pharmaceutical-industry/#topicHeader__wrapper
https://www.gpact.org/docs/the%20history%20of%20colonic%20hydrotherapy.pdf
Leonard, B. C. G. S. D. (2000). Medical Journalist Report Value of Colon Hydrotherapy Verified by Medical Professionals by Morton Walker, DPM© Copyright 2000 by Dr. Morton Walker From the signal stage of history surrounding ancient Egypt, practices of colon.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0965-2299(95)80007-7
“Colon Health” by Dr. Norman Walker
Van, Jeremy DO; Abraham, Rana MS, MD 1550 Overflow Diarrhea in the Setting of Urinary Retention, The American Journal of Gastroenterology: October 2019 - Volume 114 - Issue - p S860-S861
doi: 10.14309/01.ajg.0000595728.24592.62
“Fiber Fueled” by Will Bulsiewicz, MD, MSCI
Lembo, A., & Camilleri, M. (2003). Chronic constipation. New England Journal of Medicine, 349(14), 1360-1368.
Prof Arnold Ehret & Fred Hirsch, The Definite Cure of Chronic Constipation, P 20
WALD, A., SCARPIGNATO, C., KAMM, M.A., MUELLER-LISSNER, S., HELFRICH, I., SCHUIJT, C., BUBECK, J., LIMONI, C. and PETRINI, O. (2007), The burden of constipation on quality of life: results of a multinational survey. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 26: 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2007.03376.x
FLUSH . RELASE . RELIEF
Book your session
today!
