raw hope

As a raw foodist, I have been very conflicted about the use of colon hydrotherapy to complement my raw vegan lifestyle.  There’s a good reason for this.  The raw food community as a whole is rather conflicted on this issue.  Many people swear by colonics and feel they are a necessary component of the detoxification process.  Others warn that it is a dangerous and unnecessary procedure, which can be potentially life threatening.  

The internet is awash (pun intended) with forums discussing ‘mucoid plaques’ and ‘P&B (psyllium and bentonite) shakes’.  Many people even proudly post color photos of the things that have emerged from their rectums.  A clean colon is a very serious pursuit to many health seekers.  As well it should be.  But the question of exactly how to get your colon (and the rest of your digestive tract, for that matter) clean is where the controversy lies. 

If we consider the topic from a natural standpoint, there really are no equivalents to colon hydrotherapy in nature.  Our closest relatives, primates such as common chimpanzees and bonobos, have never been observed (at least not in public) sticking hollow reeds up their butts and then having a friend pour some water in.  Now you may argue that they also don’t have as many accumulated toxins due to lifetimes of poor dietary choices, and therefore they don’t have the same need for internal cleansing.  However, I would think that our bodies’ infinite wisdom will allow them to cleanse themselves unassisted if given the right nutrients and fiber content.  

I must admit that I have fallen prey to the hype of colonics (and my own curiosity), and have had a series of them performed within the last year.  The colon hydrotherapist came well-recommended by a couple of raw foodists, so I felt I was in good hands.  

My experience was luckily not a particularly negative one, but it also wasn’t a particularly positive one.  It was kinda….meh.  I didn’t experience all the wonderful benefits such as increase in energy or vibrant health or that ‘clean’ feeling that everyone was touting.  I wondered to myself if perhaps those things were more of a placebo effect for many people.  Maybe people felt great after colonics because they expected to.  And maybe I didn’t because I still had a lot of reservations.  

The therapist was a rather large (okay, obese) woman, who handed me a little introductory pamphlet on proper nutrition.  I inquired how often she herself got colonics, and she answered about once a month.  I made a mental note to myself that they didn’t appear to be particularly improving her health.  She then proceeded to bring a large cup of coffee into the procedure room (for her own consumption, not as an additive to the colonic fluid), and placed it on a small ledge, inches from her ‘control panel’. 

The procedure itself for me was very uncomfortable, and often quite painful.  In the therapist’s own words “it’s never a walk in the park”.  I asked her how she knew how much water was safe to use, and how she would know when to stop adding more water.  She explained that it generally takes around one minute for the water to traverse the entire length of the colon, so she would fill for one minute, and then start allowing it to empty.  

I didn’t like this ‘one size fits all’ explanation.  As much as I don’t always support allopathic medical approaches and philosophies, I do know that human bodies can tend to have variations and anomalies.   It just makes sense that some colons may be narrower in width than others, or have scar tissue, weakened areas or even ulcers, which can be dangerous to indiscriminately flood with water.  A cookie cutter approach doesn’t seem wise when dealing with the human anatomy.  

As it turns out, I was unable to tolerate one minute ‘fills’, and for the majority of them I would insist that they stop at around 30-45 seconds.  

The rationale of colon hydrotherapy is that it removes years’ worth of waste and toxins that are clinging to the walls of the colon, and prevent proper absorption of nutrients.  Proponents of colonics claim that most people are carrying around multiple pounds of weight in the form of uneliminated waste.  My own hydrotherapist informed me that each session would flush away approximately 3-4 years’ worth of waste.   

Having worked for a few years in a medical laboratory, this doesn’t make sense to me.  I have seen hundreds of portions of colons and sometimes even entire colons that have been freshly removed after surgical procedures.  In the laboratory, the specimens are then cut open lengthwise and cut into much smaller sections, for eventual examination under a microscope.  Not once have I ever witnessed thick layers of waste clinging to the colon ‘walls’.  And these specimens were removed due to diseased states, so one would think that if any portion of the colon would be caked with toxins and debris, those would be the ones.  

But what about those mucoid plaques that P&B shake connoisseurs are always pooping out?  Well, I would deduce that by combining the fiber of the psyllium husks with the liquid bentonite clay, once the water is absorbed into the body, they are essentially taking molds of their innards and crapping those works of art into their waiting colanders.  

I was also concerned about the possibility of water being forced past the ileocecal valve, and up into the small intestine.  This would actually flush wastes into a portion of the intestine where they would be more readily absorbed, and seemed like something that could potentially injure the delicate tissues.  When I asked my therapist about this, she said it was impossible, because it’s a one way valve and won’t allow the water back in.  Again, this defies logic.  Any ‘one-way’ valve can be easily turned into a two-way valve if enough pressure is applied.  

I didn’t even get into the controversy about whether or not beneficial bacterial organisms are flushed away during colon hydrotherapy, upsetting the body’s delicate balance of micro-organisms.  Even if one were to take a probiotic supplement or have organisms manually implanted during the colonic, how would we really know if we were replacing the correct species of bacteria?  How would we know if those bacteria would readily make themselves at home in our colons, or just get washed right back out? 

Ultimately, after my series of colonics, I did not feel any extra energy, did not lose any weight, and (thankfully) did not notice any significant changes in my bowel habits.  I have since heard of some horror stories involving colonic hydrotherapy, and am grateful that I did not learn that lesson the hard way.  

So with regard to colonics, my personal recommendation is….don’t!