Once a year in February it is bowel cancer awareness month we we have a green apple as a symbol? This speaks volumes about how we are NOT comfortable about talking about down there!!  Bowel cancer is second to lung cancer in lives that it takes each year, it is also the most preventable. through diet and exercise, although this is the most private  aspect of our daily living.

Colonic Irrigation has been around since the beginning of time, with documentation that the Egyptians would carry out this therapy using hollow bamboo!! You will hear phrases such as enemas, open systems, closed systems, colema boards, coffee enemas, so to be clear I am talking about a closed system of colonics. This is where the patient has a tube inserted into their rectum; there is no force,  this tube has two tubes attached one for taking warm filtered water into the bowel and one for taking the waste matter away. The therapist is with you at all times, often massaging your tummy to assist elimination, you are lying on your back with knees bent and a sheet over you. It is discreet and a person’s integrity is ensured at all times. The treatment can last from 30 to 45 minutes and the patient has complete control at all times. While initially patients are anxious, normally after 10 minutes on the table with the water circulating the bowel, a heat pack on their tummy they start to feel relaxed and the process begins of filling and emptying to promote peristalsis and emptying of the waste matter. At the conclusion of the treatment the patients spends 5 minutes on the toilet, before leaving to get on with their day, on most occasions feeling clean, re-energised and connected to their wonderful life.

People come for colonics for all reasons. from constipation and bloating to recovering from cancer. What surprises people is that the reason they come for and what benefits they receive are always surprising. Colonics, the colon is like the centre of their being, our GPS. If things are amiss in here than that can lead to depression for example as serotine our happy drug is  made and housed in our gut wall, We can come for constipation and find that our periods are for the first time for ages “normal” as in no pain, nice bright red blood and lasts a few days, as opposed to brown blood pain and lasting for ever. Or the complete opposite and they start getting their periods after years of not having them. We will come to colonics for bloating and find that not only has this been rectified, but now the person is sleeping better and no longer gets migraines.

Two people that come to mind are:

Pam – 35 year old female

Young mum wanting second baby.

A fitness fanatic and PT trainer.

Hasn’t had a period for over a year and has no physical complications gynaecologically.

Pam presented initially  to experience colonic and hoping it will help her bouts of constipation. Her life was full and  she ate “healthy” according to the PT world of 6 meals a day, lots of chicken broccoli protein powders rice and soy.

After getting her client history and understanding her periods not happening we put pam on a program of two colonics for the first 2 weeks and than one week for six weeks. She was asked to take a supplement and also start eating fermented vegetable daily along with coconut Kefir. Pam was also taken off the chicken, protein powder and soy replacing with a whole food probitiotic rich diet. 

After 3 weeks Pam not only was feeling better and having more regularity with her bowel movements but her periods returned.  

Robert – 28 year old Male

Working in sales.

Has had a chronic skin issue since adolescence and been on medication (steroid base)  since and wanted to go off it, so was thinking stating with a detox with a colonic might be a good start.

Robert was worried about how is skin would break out, he also suffered depression and lethargy. 

Robert commenced weekly colonics and changed his diet to a whole food probity rich diet, this means no processed foods and a serving of fermented vegetables each day. He also had to consciously drink water. 

after 6 weeks Robert had come off his medication is energy was increased and he felt “good” when he woke up in the morning, he felt like the “cloud” had lifted. he continues on monthly treatments.

it seems that having colonics is a lot more than cleaning out our poop, it is assisting the bodies elimination channels to prevent auto-intoxication, it is making us well from cleaning every single cell in our body. After all our mesenteric/blood system is connected to our colon with a direct link to our liver and the rest of our body.  I talk about the 5 systems of care, when we are undertaking colonics we are working with not only your digestive system but your Lymphatic system, in particular your G.A.L.T (Gut associated Lymphoid Tissue) your nervous system, in particular your Vagus nerve, known as the wondering nerve from the base of your brain down through your organs to your colon, Endocrine/hormonal system, and our emotional/energy system. We are truly cleansing on a Mind Body and Spirit. This is what no product or juice fast alone can do. 

Perceived risks of colonics

I say perceived as all of the risks talked about are unfounded and mostly come from either a misunderstanding of how the bowel works or ignorance. But let’s go through them:

Loosing good bacteria – Every day when you poo 70% of this poo is made up of dead cells and bacteria, our body is made to cleanse 24/7. What we do is make the home for your good bacteria to thrive, thing is if you have a digestive symptom of bloating etc you have a lack of good bacteria anyway

Dehydrating the bowel – through the process of a closed system of colonics your bowel is being hydrated through out the whole treatment, which also hydrates your blood through the blood portal system, this is why people will see improvements with their skin after having a series of colonics

Inflaming the bowel – we are using pure filtered water gently soaking into your bowel

Stretching the bowel – Your bowel is a muscle that is made to expand and contract, the issue we have due to the amount of processed food we consume our bowels are becoming stretched with putrefied matter!! 

Making the bowel lazy – in the process of colonic’s that Bottoms uses it teaches the bowel to work again, promoting peristalsis giving the bowel the opportunity to have a work out 

Perforation of bowel – we only insert a speculum into the rectum of the bowel that is well lubed and a lot smaller than an average bowel movement. We have a pressure gauge to measure the pressure in the bowel, but we can tell by the look on your face, you have complete control of the treatment. Sometimes people get this confused with colonoscopies which do carry a risk of perforation.

Loosing electrolytes – If you see what I see every day for 9 hrs every day for the last 8 years from people from 5 to 95 years of age you would soon come to understand for your body to absorb any nutrient it has to be rid of the putrefied matter to even start to absorb electrolytes.

Because of the fluidity of definition and terms used with colonics, there is a lot of misconception of what the actual process is which makes people fearful with a lot of rumours around colonics making our bowel lazy, to taking out all of the good bacteria. The thing is, these rumour is unfounded, after being in my busy clinic for over ten years and seeing people turn their lives around, reclaim their health from, being able to go the toilet, not having  encopresis, to sleeping well,  to getting their period again, to being off depression medication, to not getting their bowl cut out from diverticulosis, to recovering from cancer, colonics really is a medicine of the future allowing your body to find its own GPS to set you on the track of reclaiming your health, knowing what is right for your body. 

When booking for a session what do you ask? 

• Is their equipment TGA approved?
• Do they use disposable one time only use and TGA approved speculums and hosing?
• Are they an open (you self-insert) or closed (therapist inserts)?
• Do they use gravity or device?
• Where was their training? This will give you an idea of styles of therapy, it’s like finding a hairdresser, its abut finding a therapist you get on with
• What professional development do they do? 
• What do they offer with the colonic? Implants, nutritional information, probity shots after the session etc
• Do they have a toilet/bathroom in the clinic room for the clients sole use?
• What association do they belong to?

 The first and last question we ask when someone comes  with a complaint whether it is a headachesor aching bone we ask “how much water have you drank in the last few days”? Dr Dr. F. Batmanghelidj in his book Your Bodies many Cries for Water, talks of his experience of curing all in the war prison camps with water.

In his best-known work Dr B outlines the breakthrough medical discovery, that if we drank more water daily degenerative diseases such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, bulimia, Alzheimers disease and many other afflictions could be prevented and sometimes cured

So how is the body made up of water?

Water is absorbed into our blood stream via the large colon. This is why it is said that if you are thirsty you are in fact dehydrated. It has a little way to travel before the body can absorb it

 Drinking filtered water is a must to remove chlorine and fluoride that change the taste of the water along with killing all of our beneficial bacteria in our inner ecosystem. You can add fresh lemon or lime, fresh herbs like ginger and mint 

Drinking soft drinks, energy drinks, commercial ice teas, coffee, alcohol, commercial herb waters and natural flavoured spring waters are not hydrating, they are dehydrating.