# Enema's and Colonics...what's the dope **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2005, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463 "2005-11-04T11:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/1 "2005-11-04T11:58:39Z")
I confess that against my 10 years here, I like to read New Age-y magazines and periodicals. I realize that I just may risk my Charter Membership by admitting such stuff. But, that’s ok. One thing that always appears in the back of such publications are an assorted ads for **Colonics** and whatnot. Other than an enema before surgery to clean the body out, what benefits does this treatment have to the body, if at all? Signed, Just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/2 "2005-11-04T12:00:18Z")
Oooooh, look at the google ads for Discount Enema Supplies. (Band Name!) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/3 "2005-11-04T12:05:16Z")
[The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a900525.html) ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/4 "2005-11-04T15:29:23Z")
My impression of colonics has always been that it appeals to the obsessive compulsive in all of us. Eww!! it’s dirty! Get it out! These are the same people who flush five times & insist that it is for hygiene reasons. This is not much of a cite ([The PoopReport](http://www.poopreport.com/Doctor/Knowledgebase/colonictruth.html)) but it rings true with me. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/5 "2005-11-05T03:39:09Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Other than an enema before surgery to clean the body out, what benefits does this treatment have to the body, if at all? One of the few proper use I was told about is why I should have one after a baryum enema. I have high blood pressure and I suffer from water retention. My doctor told me that the easiest way to remove the baryum afterwards is to drink lots of waters (not an option in my case). Since I work at a “natural” health school-clinic and they perform colonics there and they insisted for me to have one _ **before** _ and after the enema, I compromised and had one after the enema. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/6 "2005-11-05T06:44:02Z")
> [@detop](#): > > Since I work at a “natural” health school-clinic and they perform colonics there and they insisted for me to have one _ **before** _ and after the enema, I compromised and had one after the enema. Why in the name of all that is unholy about the evilness that is a barium enema would you need a colonic before a barium enema if you use a liquiprep kit? I challenge anybody to have anything left inside after one of those … Though one after might have been nice. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/7 "2005-11-05T13:32:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Why in the name of all that is unholy about the evilness that is a barium enema would you need a colonic before a barium enema if you use a liquiprep kit? I challenge anybody to have anything left inside after one of those … > > Though one after might have been nice. I’m still waiting for an answer to that myself and I did get one after which helped get me rid of most of the baryum. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/8 "2005-11-05T16:30:56Z")
[This is a recent](http://poetry.rotten.com/tissue-cleansing/) update to that website. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/9 "2005-11-05T16:40:15Z")
I can tell you that old fashioned enemas are very rare in hospitals these days. There’s minature ones, given to people with constipation if they don’t manage to go for more than a couple of days, but things like cleaning out your insides for colonoscopies and the like are accomplished by drinking colon preps the previous day that get your body to do the work rather than squirting stuff up your bum. It’s stuff like that that make me very happy I wasn’t working in a hospital 20 years ago! ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/10 "2005-11-05T16:51:29Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > I confess that against my 10 years here, I like to read New Age-y magazines and periodicals. I realize that I just may risk my Charter Membership by admitting such stuff. But, that’s ok. > > One thing that always appears in the back of such publications are an assorted ads for **Colonics** and whatnot. > Other than an enema before surgery to clean the body out, what benefits does this treatment have to the body, if at all? > Signed, > > Just wondering. Interesting how the New Age always seems to go back in time for their “wonders.” When I first came to California in 1950 the Classified Section of the Los Angeles _Mirror_ was plastered with such ads. Bergen Evans in his book _The Natural History of Nonsense"_ (1946) writes: “Autointoxication is one of the great modern bugaboos. The theory of it, expounded over the radio with fulsome delicacy, is that the body absorbs from the clogged intestines poisons that would normal have been excreted.” Our physician can correct me but I think that too many enemas are at least as bad as a little constipation, and probably worse. The the “enema and colonics” crowd don’t limit themselves to just periods of constipation. It’s a routing thing. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/11 "2005-11-05T22:41:54Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Bergen Evans in his book _The Natural History of Nonsense"_ (1946) writes: > > “Autointoxication is one of the great modern bugaboos. The theory of it, expounded over the radio with fulsome delicacy, is that the body absorbs from the clogged intestines poisons that would normal have been excreted.” I know that now and then I have been stuck eating [usually at work related pot lucks/parties or stuck visiting a friends house or boyfriends parents [back when i was still single] something like beans or onions that will linger for several days of gaseous warfare [even through several bowel movements] and really considered an enema to try to clear out exactly what ever died and crawled up my ass and was feeding the microbes whatever it was to create 3 days of gas emanations. I dont know what autointoxication is supposed to be - but i have hated every single enema i have ever had … but would an enema solve the gas? Ever read Jethro Kloss’ Back to Eden? I swear that every ‘disease treatment’ starts with an immediate high enema :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/12 "2005-11-05T23:30:04Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I know that now and then I have been stuck eating [usually at work related pot lucks/parties or stuck visiting a friends house or boyfriends parents [back when i was still single] something like beans or onions that will linger for several days of gaseous warfare [even through several bowel movements] Try **beano** You apply to the food before you eat it, comes in discreet little squeeze bottles. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/13 "2005-11-06T01:19:05Z")
This was the Google ad when I posted (I think the ads might be different according to the Google version you use. I use the .ca one for example). > [@Google](#): > > Are You Clean Inside? > “Death begins in the colon.” Why is colon cleansing so vital? > [www.DrNatura.com](http://www.DrNatura.com) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/14 "2005-11-06T16:38:47Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Try **beano** > > You apply to the food before you eat it, comes in discreet little squeeze bottles. LOl doesnt work for me … liquid or little pills … I adore me some french onion soup, but the humanity of the aftermant … and we don’t want to be in the same state if I eat beans … _sob_ ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enemas-and-colonics-whats-the-dope/329463/15 "2005-11-06T19:44:19Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > I can tell you that old fashioned enemas are very rare in hospitals these days. There’s minature ones, given to people with constipation if they don’t manage to go for more than a couple of days, but things like cleaning out your insides for colonoscopies and the like are accomplished by drinking colon preps the previous day that get your body to do the work rather than squirting stuff up your bum. > > It’s stuff like that that make me very happy I wasn’t working in a hospital 20 years ago! Ah yes-almost 30 years ago I had hernia surgery, and got the “Up the bum with a firehose” treatment. Twas shortly thereafter I came to realize why knurled grab bars are next to hospital toilets: You grab onto them for dear life as the entire contents of your body below the earlobes exits in a monstrous mega-shat, relieving you of at least 40 pounds. :eek: