How Colonics May Work for You

Many times I sit with clients and explain why things may seem to get ‘worse’ in terms of bowel movements AFTER having a colonic. I feel that this information is well worth sharing for those who may be seeking colon hydrotherapy with someone other than myself. At my first appointment with a new client I talk a lot about how the colon works within the digestive system and how colon therapy works with that system as well to help the colon preform its function better. I lay it all out there. I don’t know for sure if this scenario will happen to a client but I warn them about it early on so that if it does happen I can remind them of what I told them in the beginning and re-explain for them what might be going on inside them at that time. Often times a second reminder is all it takes for the client to really grasp the concept of colonics and how the body uses them to enhance colon activity.

For those of you who don’t have me to drill information into you in person here is another freebie. You can thank me later

Your colon serves two major functions. It re-hydrates your body after digestion is complete and second, it eliminates solid wastes left over from digestion after it re-hydrates you. Your bowels move for three reasons 1.) Digestion of solid foods. 2.) Pressure building inside the sigmoid (this is the lower portion of the colon) 3.) Intervention from the central nervous system.

Colonics works directly with number 2 and works with your colons natural desire to contract under pressure and its need to rehydrate the body.

Beginning with consumption of food your body ‘loans’ your stomach water to aid in digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Much like adding water to solids in a blender the liquid helps to break down the solids inside the stomach and liquefy the contents. Then the liquefied meal begins its journey through the intestinal tracts; starting with the small intestine. The small intestine contracts to move the liquid through and it also preforms what I call “sucking” through the lining to absorb nutrients from the liquefied meal. (Scientifically this is called osmosis- but I use terms that are simple to understand) By the time the meal reaches the large intestine or colon most of the nutrients from the meal that your body needs have already been absorbed and the only thing left that your body needs from the meal is the water it loaned to you earlier to help digest it. Your colon also contracts to continue to move this waste through the intestine and eventually pushes it out during a bowel movement emptying the sigmoid in the process. The colon’s sucking action is similar to the sucking that takes place in the small intestine and it is designed to remove the water loaned to you from the waste so that only solids are expelled during a bowel movement. If the colon moves this waste too slowly because of weak or slow contractions then too much of the water is removed from the waste and it can become too dry. This can make it very difficult to have a bowel movement. If it moves too quickly like it often does during a common stomach bug then you will have diarrhea and lose water that was required by your body and you can become dehydrated.

** Side-note!!! This brings me to the common concern of people who don’t understand colon hydrotherapy and how it works…They will often say something like” Don’t you risk electrolyte imbalance, and dehydration because of all the water coming out? I mean, it looks like a lot of water is coming out during a colonic.” Well, I understand why they think this way but they need to remember that I am putting water in during the colonic so in most cases the person will actually be more hydrated when they are done than they were when they first came to me. When you put water into the colon and it mixes with waste the stuff that comes out is of course water mixed with waste. Your body will actually absorb a lot of the water during a colonic and often times a more dehydrated client will have difficulty making it through an entire session without their bladder quickly filling up and needing to stop the treatment to use the bathroom. A well hydrated client’s colon doesn’t absorb nearly the same large amount of water as a dehydrated client. Your body is very wise and knows that dehydration is a more urgent and life threatening issue than constipation so it will absorb water the entire time and usually won’t allow much waste to escape at all until the colon is thoroughly hydrated again. Once the colon is hydrated the client will typically begin to release waste for the rest of the treatment. So you see- there is good reason to speculate that a colonic will actually help with hydration. ** Side-note over!

The colon will eliminate waste under 3 conditions. Remember? During a colonic we work with the pressure inside the sigmoid response to cause the colon to contract over and over again. Much like a personal trainer will strive to work other muscles over and over again while in a training session. Also much like a personal trainer I remind my clients that if you were to take their worn out body with atrophied muscles to a gym for the first time in a long time they may be weak. They may not be able to complete a workout the first time. But if you bring them back and do it again within a short period of time and continue to do so on a regular basis- eventually the person’s muscles will become conditioned and able to complete the workout- and move on to become stronger and do harder workouts and have more endurance and stamina for daily requirements as well. Once the person has reached a specific level of strength the amount of work it takes and the frequency of workouts required to maintain this new level of fitness is much lower than the frequency required to reach it. So, if you were going to the gym 5 or 6 days a week to you reached your goal you may only need to go 2 times a week to maintain your results.

With that scenario in mind remember the colon is exactly the same. It too, is a muscle- and it will take more frequency to get your colon strong but it will take less to keep it there. Especially if you are doing things at home daily to help your results stick around. This is why I recommend for most of my clients to come 2 or 3 times a week at first and as we see they are able to move their bowels on their own at home (this to me is the measure of fitness for the colon) at least 2 or 3 times a day then we begin to decrease the frequency until we find the frequency they need to maintain their results. For most of my clients this is once a month or less. As long as the persons daily bowel movements are frequent enough to keep their colon as strong as it needs to be.

Remember each muscle in your body is designed to have a certain amount of activity. Your colon is designed to move about 3 times a day. Don’t be fooled – we are all born with the same anatomy… and a happy baby with healthy digestion will move their bowels at least this much and more with each time they eat. The only differences we see are with babies who are colicky or are on formula. (By the way I have cured colic dozens of times…. it’s just constipation and gas… it requires very little effort) Everyone is a little different due only to genetics, stress, physical trauma, and often times food sensitivities, and poor diet and habits. But we are all VERY similar and we SHOULD function very similarly. This is why we have anatomy and physiology studies and medical practice as we know it. If we were all really so different than we would not be able to standardize text books to study these subjects.

I believe, and have seen time and time again that we are all designed to eliminate as much waste as we take in as food each and every day. I see people who have been used to eliminating waste only a couple times a week and have been told that this is normal. But they know that it’s not normal. They are uncomfortable, miserable really and find that what’s normal for them tends to get worse and worse as the years go by. This is the patho-physiology of muscle atrophy and wasting along with dehydration and bowel impaction. It takes time to build into a full blown impaction but it begins with sluggish or weak bowels, causing dehydration of the waste inside the colon and eventually becomes constipation. Colonics will strengthen the bowel, hydrate the waste in the colon and eventually move them with ease and constipation will be reversed and prevented over time.

The one thing that CAN happen during a series of colonics is that between colonics it may SEEM like your bowels are getting slower and less active. This is because the pressure inside the colon after having a very productive colonic will be temporarily less than it was before you had the treatment. The colon should be able to sense and react to a normal amount of pressure caused by daily digestion of solid food and should contract to remove waste and make room for the next meal. However, people who have not been having bowel movements with normal frequency can stretch their colon and become less sensitive to normal amounts of pressure. In fact if a client has a slight stretch in their bowel I have seen it correct itself most likely because it isn’t under so much pressure anymore and is able to recoil and recover.

As an example let’s say a client only typically has one bowel movement every other day; then has a colonic that eliminates the amount of 6 bowel movements. This is the equivalent for them of what they would normally eliminate in 12 days. So, their colon is possibly stretched and used to a lot of pressure. This coupled with the atrophy that takes place means that when they have that colonic and their body eliminates the equivalent of say 6 bowel movements, the pressure inside the colon that typically causes the bowel to move is drastically reduced and it may take a few days for that typical pressure to build back up. Definitely not the 12 days you might expect but it may not be that they continue to move bowels every other day right away. Over time the colon will get stronger and stronger and the waste will be more and more hydrated and the colon will begin to contract under more normal amounts of pressure and will not wait days to have a bowel movement. Eventually that every other day pattern will become 2 times a day and finally rest at about 3 times each day and that is where it will stay with proper diet, hydration and colonic regimens. I typically have clients use a small amount of supplements early on to avoid the lag that can take place between colonics and over time when their colon is stronger they can stop using the supplements and will be able to have bowel movements each and every day on their own without supplements or weekly colonics.

If a client is still coming to me 2 or 3 times a week after 2 or 3 months then something would be terribly wrong. This of course has NEVER happened but if it did then I am not doing my job or they are not doing theirs. By the 3rd month we should be on or working on our maintenance schedule. I have had one exception and this and it was a person with a degenerative disease whose doctor sent him to me to have colonics routinely because he was on large amounts of narcotics every day for pain. Under normal circumstances once a month or less is typical routine maintenance for most clients.

I hope that this has enlightened you and helps you understand how the colon works and more of what you can expect when you being a colon cleansing program. For more information on colon cleansing read the article titled Buyer Beware, It talks about the folly of purchasing a colon cleanse in a box instead of having colon therapy. It will help you decide whether a boxed cleanse is right for you. Believe me if it is wrong for you- you could end up worse off than when you started.