# could you really filter saltwater via your rectum? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-really-filter-saltwater-via-your-rectum/568547 "2011-01-22T07:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 11
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-really-filter-saltwater-via-your-rectum/568547/11 "2011-01-22T21:47:52Z")
Nearly the same discussion in [this thread starting with post #8](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=398065&highlight=colon). It includes the following: > [@Rectal absorption of alcohol?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rectal-absorption-of-alcohol/382182/12): > > Sorry, a big **NO!!** for this one. And I am a doctor. > > A seawater enema would pull water out of the body via the colon. And accelerate dehydration. > > In fact, a standard recipe for salt water enemas is 1 tsp. of salt in 1 quart of fresh water. When given, it doesn’t overload the kidneys so much as a pure fresh water enema would, because _much less water is absorbed due to that very small amount of salt!_ Double the concentration of salt in that recipe, and it will begin to pull fluids out of the body. A quart of seawater has close to 10 times that much salt in it! > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Unless the saltiness of the water caused the person to wretch. It’s “retch.” --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-really-filter-saltwater-via-your-rectum/568547)._