It’s the treatment that promises to make you feel “lighter” with a sense of well-being, take inches off your waist line, and cure bloating, fatigue, and abdominal gas. But we have to ask, how can one treatment do all these things?
Colonic irrigation, also know as Colonic Hydrotherapy, is a procedure that removes waste and toxins from the bowel, including impacted faces and dead tissue, by simply using water to flush it out. The list of conditions it helps to ease or cure is endless, from flatulence to allergies to back ache, including the all important and very tempting inch it is supposed to shed from your waistline. All you have to do is get yourself to a salon; put to the back of your mind any squeamish thoughts you may have and let your therapist work the magic. But why do you need to have colonic irrigation if the body has many other eliminative organs to do the job and why is it becoming increasing popular amongst women and men?
According to medical scientists, the modern industrialized lifestyle has taken its toll on our digestive system and our other major organs such as our kidneys, liver, and lymph system, all of which help to eliminate waste and toxins from our body. This gastro-intestinal crisis has processed, refined, low fiber foods and animal fats to thank as well as lack of exercise and high stress levels. In fact, in a recent study it was proven that people in developing countries actually have better digestive system than us! But it isn’t just a bloated belly that is the only cause for concern here. In 2008, the third most common cancer in men and women in the USA was Colorectal cancer causing 50,000 fatalities and many other ailments have a direct connection with the bowel such as, diabetes, gallstones, kidney stones, heartburn, hypertension, varicose veins, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis—a worrying amount of which you can develop in your 20s and beyond. Looking at the statistics, colonic irrigation appears to be a worthy investment.
So is colonic right for you? One way to tell if you have healthy bowel movements is to assess how many visits you take to the bathroom everyday. There is a massive misconception by the general public about what is considered a “healthy” amount of times to “go.” Some think that anywhere between once a day and once a week is sufficient however you really should have a bowel movement after every meal that you have a day. So if you have three meals, you should go to the bathroom three times and if you don’t, then your digestive system is sluggish. Sluggish bowels can result in our bodies receiving fewer benefits from the nutrients we soak up and it causes toxins and waste to be reabsorbed into our bloodstream, causing a chain-reaction around our whole body, therefore possibly causing the conditions listed above. In addition to the serious problems, this waste can cause black rings around the eyes, tiredness, bad skin, and in extreme cases, bad breath. It is becoming increasingly more obvious why colonic hydrotherapy is so appealing.
Having suffered from a mild case of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) through all my major exams, colonic had always been a treatment I was curious about but had never pursued. However, this year my stomach was worse than ever and had become not only uncomfortable but embarrassing, making noises resembling that of an elephant with a severe wind problem. Having read the facts, I decided to go for it, with all my weight-losing obsessed friends waiting impatiently to discuss my post-treatment tummy (will the inches disappear?) and the effects on my bowel.
The process of colonic hydrotherapy lasts for an hour and a half, but this includes a consultation before the actual treatment. My therapist was quite young, which immediately put me off, but during our initial chat she managed to put me at ease and I found myself being very open about my various eating habits and bathroom visits. I found out some fascinating mistakes I was making food-wise, which I have found very beneficial since—who knew that you should not eat fruit, especially apples, with meals? The benefits of re-scheduling my apples in my daily diet alone have made the treatment worth it as I now don’t have that terrible 4 to 6 p.m. bloat out that I had before. After answering a variety of questions about food, lifestyle, exercise, and bowel movements I was asked to go into a cubicle and put on a treatment gown, undressed from the waist down—I started to get the prickles of anxiety as I considered the procedure I was about to undergo and still had many questions, of which I was too embarrassed to ask.
