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Colonic hydrotherapy or irrigation is a gentle internal bath using warm, purified water that can help to eliminate stored fecal matter, gas, mucus and toxic substances from the colon. A practice dating from around 1500 B.C., colonics can also help retonify and reshape the colon. However, colonics have a much broader effect than simply cleansing the colon. Additional benefits can often be observed throughout the body in the form of clearer skin, more energy and mental clarity, fewer headaches, improvement in circulatory, immune and weight problems and many other positive side effects. Many people are referred to colonic practitioners by other alternative medicine therapists including homeopaths, acupuncturists, herbalists, etc., since by detoxifying the system using colonics, these therapies tend to be more efficacious.
Your visit to one of our therapist will involve the taking of your case history followed by an explanation of the procedure. The treatment itself will take about 45 minutes during which time water will be gently introduced into the colon via the rectum while your therapist uses special massage techniques to stimulate the release of stored matter. Your modesty is preserved at all times. Supplements along with Herbs and probiotics may be suggested and your practitioner may advise beneficial dietary changes to further enhance your treatment.
It is safe. The water is introduced at a low gentle pressure, so there is no danger of bowel perforation. Here at Mind, Body, and Flow we only use disposable equipment. Colon Hydrotherapy, unlike the use of laxatives, is not habit forming and actually improves the tone of the colon.
Colon Hydrotherapy is a TOOL. It is a powerful tool that gives you a head start in improving your diet, lifestyle and exercise regime. However, a tool is only as good as the person using it. If you use Colon Hydro Therapy to help your body improve, feel younger and work more effectively, then this is what you will achieve. However, if you use Colon Hydro Therapy as roadside assistance only, then you will achieve a short-term rather than a long-term improvement.
The colonic irrigation procedure itself does not cause pain. At the start of the procedure, you may experience a “strange” sensation of wanting to go to the toilet, but most people get used to this feeling in the first few minutes, and even find the colonic treatment “unexpectedly relaxing and uplifting”. The therapist may use massage, vibration therapies, reflexology and hot packs, as well as other modalities, to make your treatment comfortable and effective.
It all depends on your condition and on the results of the first colonic. If a condition has been building up for years, it is unlikely that it will disappear completely after 40-50 minutes of cleansing, but most people feel improvements after the very first session. If you go on our maintenance program between treatments, and you adopt dietary and lifestyle modifications, if they are required, then the number of treatments will be reduced, and the periods between treatments will be longer.
You may lose some weight. Most people feel lighter after a colonic. Just bear in mind that you lose wastes only, not fat or cellulite. If you start eating less, increase your fiber intake, move or exercise more, chew better and drink more water, then you will achieve a permanent weight loss.
After treatment, you should be able to continue with your daily plans, drive, go back to work etc. Some people feel energized straight away, some feel tired “in a nice way” – in the same way as one feels tired after a good workout, some feel lighter, some feel very hungry, some don’t feel like eating for hours afterwards. Some may feel quite tired as the detoxification process kicks in deeper, and in these instances we recommend coming for a repeat colonic without delay (Usually within 72).
In the ideal world, if you lived on naturally fertile farmland and ate organic home-grown freshly cut vegetables, berries and fruit, fish from the river, natural live yoghurt etc you would not need any supplements (As a matter of fact, you would not need a detox program either!) However, in the real world we need to assist our bodies to self-cleanse, hence the need for supplementation. What supplements would you recommend for maintenance between colonic treatments?
Probiotic supplements are recommended to give a head start to the good bacteria, that populate our bowel and that ensure absorption by the body of nutrients and vitamins from our food. Patrick Holford, Britain’s leading nutrition expert (author of the best-selling Optimum Nutrition Bible”) says: “Supplements are needed to carry beneficial bacteria into the intestine to re-establish a healthy colony. The role of these Bifidobacteria is to increase acidity by producing lactic acid and acetic acid, and to inhibit undesirable micro-organisms that would compete against them… Tissues densely covered with beneficial organisms provide an effective blocking mechanism, deterring invading pathogens”.
Combined digestive enzymes, and other supplements improve bowel tone, cleanse bowel walls, bulk up the stool, remove gases and provide quality and regularity of elimination. See our full array of supplements that we recommend at our store.
Most people do not find it difficult to drive back after their treatment.
We are committed to preserving clients’ modesty AT ALL TIMES. You’ll be fully covered, protected and warm during your treatment. Private toilet and washing facilities are for your exclusive use.
You can have a treatment during your period. Please make sure you have a spare tampon that you can use immediately after the treatment.
We would not recommend treatment at any time during pregnancy unless it is recommended and performed by a qualified medical practitioner specializing in pregnancy.
You can have treatments 10-12 weeks after a regular childbirth, unless you had complications or a cesarean. You need to decide for yourself whether your body has recovered enough from the shock of the childbirth. Make sure your stitches have healed fully, talk to your doctor or nurse if in doubt.
by Douglas G. Richards, Ph.D.
from the Meridian Institute I-ACT Quarterly Fall 2005
Colonic irrigations enjoy widespread popularity in the alternative medicine community, while being viewed with considerable skepticism by the conventional medical community and doctors. While proponents make claims of substantial health benefits, skeptics cite the lack of evidence for health benefits, and emphasize the potential for adverse effects. Historically, there are clinical reports of effectiveness, and virtually no research refuting these reports. Instead there was a campaign against exaggerated claims by non-medical practitioners that resulted in a movement away from this form of therapy without any scientific study of efficacy. Given the current popularity of colonic irrigations, it is important that such research be performed, but it is first necessary that a quantitative estimate of the potential for adverse effects be made for the purposes of informed consent. Although there is little specific literature on colonic irrigations, a review of the literature on related procedures such as enemas and sigmoidoscopies suggests that the risk of serious adverse effects is very low when the irrigations are performed by trained personnel using appropriate equipment.
by Morton Walker, DPM
Copyright © 2000 by Dr. Morton Walker
Printed in the Townsend Letter for Doctors
August / September 2000 (#205/206)
MEDICAL JOURNALIST REPORT OF INNOVATIVE BIOLOGICS
From the signal stage of history surrounding ancient Egypt, practices of colon hydrotherapy in their most basic form – enemas or clysters – have provided people with internal cleansings adjunctive to their personal external hygiene. The Ebers Papyrus, from the 14th century BC prescribes internal cleansing for no less than twenty stomach and intestinal complaints.
But in the modern era it fell to J. H. Kellogg, MD, of Battle Creek, Michigan, famous for his invention of corn flakes and various techniques of good hygiene, to popularize colon hydrotherapy. This happened from Dr. Kellogg’s publication of his article in the Journal of the American Medical Association praising the procedure’s efficacy for saving a dysfunctional large bowel.
That descriptive article was the impetus for advancement of a highly beneficial therapeutic method which has since flourished and found recognition among enlightened health professionals in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Enthusiastic expressions of approval for colon hydrotherapy are undeniable medical endorsements for this significant complementary treatment which removes metabolic waste from a person’s large bowel without applying toxic agents of any kind.
byThomas Dorman, M.D.
Contemporary Health Care
August 2000 – Vol. 5, Issue 8
Colonic irrigation is an ancient method of healing and it would never have survived until the present scientific age if it were without value. It is a curious fact that medical practitioners seem to be either in favor of this treatment (and usually quiet about it) or vehemently opposed to its use. The objectors never have any experience of it. Every grown creature probably has an instinctive dislike of its own waste products, and this may explain why the physician is generally so remiss in examining the feces of his patients. There are indications from ancient documents that the Egyptians and the Greeks practiced colon irrigation therapeutically, although their ideas and the benefit to their patients are unknown to us. Hollow reeds and gourds were used to introduce water through the rectum.
I first heard the term colonics as a young doctor practicing in California. Immediately, I knew that it was a form of quackery. 1 It is self-evident that the bowel excretes the waste products of digestion regularly, naturally and automatically. There is no need to interfere with nature. This pre-formed opinion (and I am uncertain how it came to be so firmly formed in my mind) was reinforced when I read comments from an official source, that I can no longer identify, condemning the use of colonics by lay practitioners in the state of California and, in due course, the medical association lobbied for its banning through the legislature. This surprised me a little. If something is useless and harmful, why is it necessary to make laws about it? We don’t have laws against swimming in sewage nor do we lobby our legislators to make such laws. The only sensible thing any person would do with sewage is dispose of it as hygienically as practical. This dilemma hung in my mind for a number of years. Since then, I have assiduously prescribed diuretics to my patients who retain water, laxative to those who were constipated and, personally, I brush my teeth every day. Think about it for a moment. Which is the cleaner part of your alimentary canal (The alimentary canal is the pipe through which the food passes in your body from mouth to anus)? The mouth is cleaner than the rectum, and yet it is the mouth that I clean with a toothbrush, with paste, and even flossing. Why clean the clean end? I think, in final analysis, the answer is that it is esthetic. The dirty end should be beneath our dignity; or should it?