WHY YOU DON’T WANT A ‘CLEAN’ COLON
By engaging in a physical process that seems worthy and theoretically sound in the pursuit of inner cleanliness, many men may be doing themselves unintended harm.
During the past decade, colon cleansing has become increasingly fashionable in this country. Cities now have dozens of natural health clinics offering this cleansing under the name of colonics, colonic irrigation, colon therapy or colon hydrotherapy.
Typically, the process involves pumping a large volume of liquid into the rectum and, with the aid of massage, swishing it around the colon. When it is finally expelled, it carries away pieces of faecal matter.
The naturopathic theory is that this flushes out rancid bits of old faeces and other toxins that have been clinging to the colon wall. It restores the wall to its natural condition so it can once again function efficiently. If allowed to accumulate, this material builds up and may, the theory goes, lead to disease.
Sydney writer Robert Treborlang has been having colonic washouts for years.
T don’t feel any better or any different afterwards,’ he says. T do it for inner cleanliness just as they did in ancient Rome and Greece and still do in India.’
The very word ‘analysis’, he says, comes from the examination of faeces. From such examinations, ancient doctors used to work out the state of people’s health. This was probably the first chemical matter human beings analysed.
Treborlang goes to a naturopath for one session at a time. ‘I lie on my side, draw up my legs and he inserts a tube attached to a machine that pumps in fluid. Should I want to, through another transparent tube I can watch what comes out. What is important is not how much liquid is used but how deep it goes. That depends on how relaxed I am.’
In the last few years stressed-out corporate types from all over the world have been making their way to a small island in Thailand that has become known for colon cleansing. The island, Koh Samui, has three health spas devoted to this process and a couple of private practitioners who offer the service. Typically, men come for a week of cleansing, wrap on a sarong and crash out on the beach between sessions.
But mainstream medical practitioners have doubts about the whole business. Some dismiss the theory behind colon cleansing as a mixture of pseudoscience and wishful thinking better suited to the Middle Ages than today.
Besides saying there is no scientific basis for colonic irrigation, they warn that it might do harm. The mucous layers that line the colon are very important for the maintenance of its health. So are the millions of bacteria that reside in the colon.
These bacteria constantly ferment food residue. The product of this fermentation supplies nutrition to the bowel lining, and it has been shown that it may play a role in preventing bowel disease.
Studies are presently under way to see if this fermentation process plays a role in the prevention of bowel cancer too. Doctors say gut bacteria are highly specialised and very important for bowel health, and should not be flushed out in the first place.
In Australia, colonic irrigation is not a standard hospital-based practice. Only in cases of severe constipation would a patient be irrigated or given an enema. The concern is that there is no regulation of infection control outside hospitals. When inserting anything into the body, it is crucial that absolutely sterile techniques be used. The bowel is not robust, and introducing foreign bacteria into it can lead to a range of gastrointestinal complaints.
Other potential hazards include perforating the bowel with the hard end of the tube and actually bursting the bowel with too much liquid. If there is a growth obstructing the colon, the fluid might bank up against it and cause a rupture.
A further danger is that irrigation could disturb the fluid and electrolyte balance within the bowel. Too much water, salt or sugar could cause problems. The colon absorbs fluids and electrolytes, and the condition of a person with kidney problems or heart failure could worsen if the water used was high in salt. Even plain water used to irrigate the colon of a healthy person could be absorbed through the wall of the colon and cause dilutional problems in the blood, making them feel unwell.
The best way to achieve a healthy bowel, doctors say, is to eat good, fibrous foods, exercise regularly and, if there is a problem, see one of them.
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