COLON CLEANSE.

            Colon cleanse aims to get rid of nonspecific harmful toxins from either the colon or the entire intestinal tract. The procedure utilized to cleanse the colon is commonly known as colon therapy. Colon therapy utilizes several alternative medical therapies. With the advent of infomercials and internet marketing, colon cleansing was re-braded and referred to as colonic irrigation or colon hydrotherapy.

            There are several forms of colon therapy. Some forms utilize flexible tubes to infuse a liquid formula into the intestinal tract or the colon through the rectum via the use of a special equipment. The liquid formula commonly used is either pure water  which is used for colonic irrigation or colonic hydrotherapy, or water mixed with a predetermined content of herbs and/or a fixed amount other liquids which is then injected into the colon through the rectal route. Other forms of colon therapy utilize oral cleaning regimens. The oral cleaning regimens are usually made up of dietary fibres, laxatives, dietary supplements and herbs either singly or combined at a predetermined proportion.

            Practitioners of colon cleansing postulate that feaces do putrefy within the colon and that significant amounts of these putrefied feces do attach themselves to the walls of the colon and in the process end up lining the inner wall of the colon, and their subsequent accumulations do provide a pleasant environment for pathogenic intestinal flora and parasites to anchor, grow and reproduce. It is these pathogenic intestinal flora and parasites that cause non-specific gut symptoms and sometimes general ailment. This auto-intoxication postulation was first put forward by Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

            Based on the above-mentioned postulation, it is thus deemed necessary for one to irrigate his or her colon using pressurized liquid so as to cause the attached putrefied feaces to detach from the intestinal lining thereby denying the pathogenic intestinal flora and parasites a medium to attach themselves to, and in the process their rate of growth and reproduction will be sufficiently reduced to levels which would not support their causation of non-specific symptoms.

            It is believed that this auto-intoxication causes gut irritability, headache, loss of appetite and fatigue. However, current medical knowledge does attribute these symptoms of auto-intoxication to mechanical distension (that resolves itself) of the colon or the intestines, and as such colon cleansing is not necessary. There have been reported adverse effects of colon cleansing in modern clinical literature. Some of these adverse effects are dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, perforation of the rectal wall, amoebic infection, heart problems and constipation.