Colon hydrotherapy is a subject which often draws a polarized response, often anything from utter intrigue to downright horror! I thought then that I’d put something together that might answer some basic questions, explain where I think it has its place and hopefully demystify a subject which is often poorly understood.

Dototo "Toxygen" machine used at Boda

Firstly I’ll answer some of the questions up front which undoubtedly some of you have (I get asked these all the time);

‘Does stuff get stuck up there that has been in there for years?’ This one is similar to “have I ever seen a marble or crayon that someone swallowed when they were three years old?” question. My answer to both is essentially the same; I guess it could be possible, but in the well over one thousand colonics I’ve administered I’m yet to see anything coming through the viewing tube like a marble or crayon , or anything looking like it was consumed back in the 1980′s! Truth is if I did see these sorts of things it would probably make my job a bit more interesting, but alas it’s nowhere near that interesting!

 On the subject of how long something may stayed lodged in the bowel, for the most part I personally don’t believe that “stuff” gets stuck in there for years, especially if you have anything like reasonable bowel function. In cases of severe, long term chronic constipation and or bowel disease however, I can see the possibility that matter may accumulate over weeks, months or even years. You’d expect that type of situation would be a precursor to serious disease – to illustrate the point, apparently when John Wayne’s autopsy was performed after he died of colon cancer they discovered literally kilograms of compacted material lining the colon.

To me though, getting caught up in how old the matter that’s being released from the bowel is unnecessarily sensationalizes the subject and misses the main point  – colonics ought to be a tool all of us (regardless of your bowel function) periodically use to augment and accelerate the detoxification process. The state of the colon is a reflection of what state the body as a whole is in. If your colon is retaining gas along with excess mucus (which mixes with fecal matter), then you can be sure that this situation of excess mucus and gas is mirrored right through the digestive tract and beyond, in fact right down to the cellular level where toxic cells are inflated with gas and their basal membranes clogged with accumulated waste. Your colon is your major elimination channel, the main way you remove waste and toxins out of your body, so it makes sense to ensure it works optimally.

Our bodies are always trying to maintain balance

If allowed to, our bodies continually bring us back to balance, they decongest, remove toxins, they detox. Anytime our body is not being labored with digestion or dealing with an inflammatory response to what we’ve consumed, our intricate collection of organs that make up our detoxification systems innately cleanse and decongest the body. Unfortunately though, modern living characterized by stress, unbalanced and or poor diet, along with absorption of environmental toxins, has made it very difficult for our detoxification systems to keep pace with the amount of waste and toxins that need to be removed. We are often then left feeling congested, susceptible to allergies or just feeling generally dull, reflected in our skin and eyes or in our diminished mental clarity. Often this bubbles away just below the surface as many of us soldier through with the morning coffee to get us going and then alcohol at the end of the day or week to help wind us down.

The congested / toxic state

This state of imbalance over time plays havoc on our digestive health to the extent that it’s more the rule than the exception these days that people have weakened digestive systems.  Overly acidic (toxic) bodies in time drain our bodies of alkaline minerals (in order to neutralize the acidity and rebalance blood pH), resulting in diluted digestive juices. Add to this our over consumption of cooked food which not only lack live enzymes but because of their lack of liver enzymes (which assist in the breakdown of the food) end up draining our store of digestive enzymes. This illustrates the point of why at least 50% of our dietary intake should contain unrefined raw foods.

As important as blood pH balance and live enzymes through diet is, our key determinant to digestive health is the state of our gut flora. Again our lack of dietary balance and raw food consumption are primary contributors to loss of healthy bacteria lining the gut. In addition, our consumption of antibiotics, contraceptive pill, alcohol/caffeine all further decimate our store of healthy gut flora. Lack of healthy gut flora leads to compromised ability to digest food and enables unhealthy pathogenic bacteria and yeast to overgrow. Yeast overgrowth (candidiasis) is extremely common, which brings with it symptoms including (among others) of, abdominal gas and bloating, headaches, excessive fatigue, cravings for sweets and alcohol, mental fogginess and bowel irregularities.

So to bring us back to the point of where Colon hydrotherapy benefits and fits in with all of this, I very much see it as part of the process to assist detoxing and restoring digestive health.

At Boda we’ve created 14 and 21 Days Programs which include a comprehensive “Cleansing Diet Plan” emphasizing raw alkalizing food, along with fermented foods designed to rebalance and begin to restore the inner ecology of the gut. This “Cleansing Dietary Plan” also very much promotes detoxification as toxins are released from cells, sent to the liver for neutralization and then moved to the elimination channels (kidneys, lungs, skin and colon) for removal from the body.

Throughout the intestines (small and large) accumulated mucus is often lining the walls.  A cleansing diet plan allows this accumulated mucus to begin loosening up, on top of promoting more toxins being sent down to the colon bound up in bile and mucus produced as part of the process towards the removal of these toxins.

In summary, I see colonics serving two main purposes; one to remove any retained material in the bowel and two (and more importantly) to assist in the removal of toxins bound up in mucus, bile and gas produced and then released largely via the bowel during the detoxification process.

So there you have it, hopefully I’ve managed to demonstrate there is a bit more to colonics than is generally understood. Like any other therapy it ought to go alongside other things you’re doing to restore and maintain your health. Certainly, our experience with our clients going through a cleansing program is that it’s a great place to start; the experience really brings your health state into focus and provides a means to reset and balance the body back on the road to restoring full vitality.