So my trainer was trying to interest me in getting a ‘colonic’ from a lady* he knows. I think this is basically just a cleaning out of the colon/rectum/large intestine by inserted water.
Does this have any advantages over simply letting events take their course? I have vaguely heard of colonics before, but in a nineteenth-century spa context, like something the Victorians would do. The lady mentioned buildups of ‘toxic mucus’ in the large intestine, but given the self-renewing nature of the mucal linings, plus the fact that waste products are constantly moving down the intestines, this seems rather dubious.
While we’re on the subject, what about ‘detoxification’ in general? This seems to be the general term for cutting back on regular intakes for a time, eating only carefully-selected and minimal foods and drink, and letting the body sweat/excrete various waste products and residues from its cells.
Again, the idea seems to make sense, considering the amount of pollution present in our environment and additives present in our food, but depending on the amount of hard data (or not) behind it, it could be for real, or it could be a total scam.
So, are these things for real? Any research pro or con?
[sub]*I was semi-interested in this lady, but this does not seem to be the best way to meet.[/sub]
Yeah, those irrigator folks know their shit when it comes to detoxifying your wallet. All those grimy, germy pictures of dead presidents, dusted slightly with cocaine, well, my goodness! Believe me, you’re better off without all those toxins! :eek: :rolleyes:
However, that being said- a full helping of some of that Fiber powder in a large glass of water every day is probably a Good thing. Americans don’t get enough fiber.
I work at a food co-op in the very department that sells detox crap (not colonics though), so I have to listen to a lot of bizarre theories. My co-worker is going to do the whole fast/detox/colonic thing and she’s going to drink a bentonite clay and water mixture because, according to the book that’s dictating her life, bentonite particles are smaller than water particles and therefore leach out heavy metals. I swear she thinks she’s going to shit dimes or something. She says that the reason she’s been sick lately is because she’s super toxic, and she quoted the book as saying something like “Take the toxins out now or take them to an early grave.”
One thing to consider…one of the primary functions of the colon is to withdraw water back out from the material passing through it. If it didn’t, your stools would all be pretty loose.
-so-
If you put water into your colon, you might just be rehydrating something and thereby allowing it to be absorbed through your colon back into your body…thereby re-toxifying yourself to some degree.
As long as the excretory system is functioning properly, I don’t see much sense in messing with it.
I have problems with onions causing farts that can clear a room … and i will keep farting for more than 24 hours. I have secretly wanted to get a colonic to clear me out just to stop the farting [i loves me some french onion soup but it is not worth a day or more of farting ]
Probably not, or if it did, it’d probably be short-term. You’re probably just reacting to something in the onion. Related question: Do you have the same (or similar) issues after eating garlic?
IANAD, but a friend has your problems tripled. She’s sensitive to the point where she can’t trust restaurant food.
The whole “detoxification” and “flushing” procedures touted for the colon are just a continuation of the fascination we have with the idea that normal bodily wastes are horrific and toxic. In the 19th century people went to spas to eat grains and get enemas. Now quacks promote enemas for everything up to and including cancer treatment and sell oodles of crap designed to flush out imaginary toxins. After using some of the stuff they sell (bentonite clay-containing products, for example), people pass odd-looking material they are convinced are toxins or ancient toxic poop. There are many who think they need to “flush” their liver or kidneys as well.
I have no problems with him in the gym as a trainer. If he starts to really push such things, I’ll ask him to back off, but he’s only mentioned it twice in six months, and then outside the gym.
I wonder if the advocates of colonics do them to their pets as well? After all, if (according to them) they’re so beneficial at getting rid of “toxins” wouldn’t they be good for animals as well? Be fun to watch (from a distance) someone try to do that to their cat; would be even more hilarious than watching someone give a cat a bath!
picturing giving a budgie a colonic and having the poor thing explode…
Not really a joke, but a misunderstanding/exaggeration of a truth: the lining of the GI tract has a network of neurons that coordinate local, regional, and even distant responses to a variety of chemical and mechanical stimuli. Without this network, muscular contraction of the intestinal wall would not be so finely timed as to result in peristalsis. You’d also crap yourself every time you farted or drifted off to sleep. Taken in the aggregate, there are as many neurons in the gut as there are in the cerebellum (not in the entire cerebral cortex). So this has a ghost of the truth to it.
The enteric nervous system is indeed sometimes called “the second brain,” although if you’re looking for information on Google that isn’t overwhelmingly New Agey I’d recommend sticking with “enteric nervous system.” I tried to find any kind of cite for the statement
…but couldn’t find anything except that this area is rich in neurotransmitters. What this has to do with colonics I have no idea – nobody seems to be suggesting that flushing out your sinuses improves your brain’s production of serotonin.
Anyway, just find some websites that show images of colonoscopies and you can see all the nice pink colons out there. Or ask a surgeon whether people have thick plaques of impacted feces and mucus in their bowels. It’s just untrue.
Of course, every MD is on the payroll of Big Pharma, so you can’t trust them. Trust the homeopathic doc who charges you $100 to prescribe you a small $10 pipette of water.
And yet if I’m in a car wreck I’d rather have the paramedics take me to the ER than a naturopath – go figure.
]