The colon is a tube approximately five feet long and 2-1/2 inches in diameter. A healthy colon has uniform size and tone. It extends from the cecum, where it joins the small intestine, up and across the abdominal cavity and down the left side of the body. The sigmoid is located between the descending colon and the rectum.
The colon completes the digestive process. It absorbs minerals, nutrients and excess water from the digested residue of food we have eaten, and discharges toxins and waste materials from the body. When the colon is clean and healthy, we experience a feeling of well-being. When it is congested with stagnant wastes, poisons back up into the system and pollute the inner environment. This is called Auto-intoxication literally, “self-poisoning.”
All of the body ‘s tissues are affected by auto-intoxication. If the poisons back up into the nervous system, we feel irritable and depressed.
We feel weak if they back up to the heart, bloated if they reach the stomach, and our breath is foul if they reach the lungs. If the toxins back up to the skin (another organ of elimination), it becomes sallow and wrinkled. And if they back up to the glands, we feel tired, lacking enthusiasm and sex drive, and look old beyond our years. Auto-intoxication can be a causative factor in numerous serious diseases. The colon, being the largest perpetrator of disease of any organ in the body, is said to be the initiator of 80% of all critical illnesses.
Improper diet, insufficient exercise, stress, overeating and ignoring the “call of nature” can all lead to bowel problems. You can see how unhealthy a colon can become in a lifetime of toxic, unnatural habits. One common sign dense, sticky bowel movements indicates an excess of mucus in the system. This is usually the product of mucus-producing foods such as meat, dairy products and flour. When they are expelled, they leave behind a glue-like coating on the wall of the colon, which accumulates, layer by layer, into a hard rubbery crust. The body cannot eliminate the layers of hardened mucus on its own. They are often carried for the duration of the person’s life, as a toxic burden.
When a person is constipated, the walls of the colon are often encrusted with this accumulated fecal matter. The inner circumference of the colon is reduced, rather like a water pipe blocked by mineral deposits. Since the encrusted feces form a barrier, the colon is unable to absorb and eliminate properly. Wastes from the blood stream, which should normally be drawn in through the colon wall, are reabsorbed by the body along with other toxins resulting from the fermentation and putrefaction of incompletely digested food. Intestinal stasis occurs when the muscular contractions known as peristalsis can no longer sweep the hardened feces along the digestive canal. The opposite effect is diarrhea, which occurs when the body reacts to encrusted fecal matter by stepping up the frequency of peristaltic wave action.
Colonic irrigation is an internal bath that helps cleanse the colon of poisons, gas and accumulated fecal matter. There is no discomfort, no internal pressure just a steady gentle flow in and out, stimulating the colon to recover its natural shape, tone and peristaltic wave action.
A person receiving a colonic lies on a table below the temperature-controlled input tank. A sterilized speculum is gently inserted in the rectum. Water flows in the colon via a small water tube and out through a different tube called the evacuation tube, carrying with it excess, impacted feces and mucus. As the water flows out of the colon, the practitioner gently massages the abdomen to help release its contents. It is possible to see this expelled waste matter when it passes through a special viewing window in the tube. The person is well covered, and his/her privacy is respected during the procedure. The process takes from 30 to 45 minutes.
A series of colonics is sometimes necessary to dislodge hardened waste. Colonic irrigation is most effective when employed in combination with exercise and a proper diet of fresh fruits, vegetables. Certain intestinal cleansing products are suggested to help loosen and dissolve accumulated fecal matter.
Once the colon is clean, it is advisable to have a colonic every one to two months to maintain environment. A good time is at the change of seasons, when diet and exercise patterns often change. It is important to have a colonic before, during and after a fast to hasten the removal of toxic waste.
By cleansing the colon of impacted and putrefactive fecal matter, colonies offer relief from a variety of disturbances. Fatigue, gas, headaches, irritability, skin problems, ,cold hands and feet, lethargy are among the problems people have found relieved by colon cleansing. Constipation, of course, is another, as well as chronic diarrhea.
With colonic irrigation, your sense of wellbeing is often dramatically improved. You feel lighter, more energetic. The body can again take nourishment from food and defend itself against disease. Natural peristalsis, tone and regularity are restored and many serious diseases may be averted through this gentle, sterile, scientific technique. Colonic irrigation is a key factor in the restoration of the radiant health we all can have.
Indications for Colon Irrigation
The indications for a cleansing technique in colonic therapy are stated by the late Dr. Cora Smith King as follows: Impactions and threatened obstructions of the large bowel, chronic or acute toxemia from absorption of putrefactive products, diarrhea, which is frequently Nature’s effort, though ineffectual, to remove fecal masses or other static material: preparation for surgery to prevent postoperative gas pains; from decomposition of retained material; postoperative clearing on the fourth or fifth day after surgery to remove hardened feces and gas; amoebiasis, chilomastix, trichinosis, giardia and other parasitic infections.
As indications for a corrective technique, the following conditions may be considered: constipation, spastic and atonic, where the object is, by a series of short, stimulative treatments, to reestablish a normal degree of physiological peristalsis; preparation for fever therapy where absorption of toxins from retained alternate hot and cold rectal irrigation is a most efficient measure in the relief of chronic inflammations of the pelvic organs. It is also one of the most effective means of combating chronic constipation.G.K. Abbott: Elements of Hydrotherapy for Nurses p 258
