Waste Management - Colonics (Part 1)
Ok, you don't have to drop your drawers yet, but I hope after this little talk you'll want to make an appointment with you local colon hydrotherapist and drop em' then.
We're going to talk about why you want to know what you poop, what you don't poop, when you poop and how to keep a clean colon. Is that clear enough ;)
It's ok. Don’t be shy. This is so crucial to being healthy and feeling better.
Why should you care about keeping your colon in tip top shape?
A huge amount of disease occurs because of improper functioning of the colon. Here are some stats to play with:
- Digestive diseases affect 60-70 million people
- Digestive disorders account for 50 million visits to the physicians' offices per year
- 13% of all hospitalizations are because of digestive disorders
- Digestive disorders cost $87-$107 billion in direct medical costs and $20 billion in direct medical costs each year
It's true that we can have extremely healthy diets, but also have a clogged inner waste management system causing us to break down. The toxic debris is usually from years of eating too much meat, pasteurized dairy, processed foods, refined sugar, breads, candy, cookies, bad oils, pesticides, and fungicides.
When the pipes get backed up, the stagnant food rots and ferments causing a slew of problems like trapped toxic gas, lack of absorption, and an imbalance of the good/bad bacteria. It's true that the good bacteria and the bad bacteria naturally share space in our colons. BUT, if we compromise the space with poor food choices, drugs, environmental toxins, chemicals, etc., the bad bacteria takes over. This is when disease occurs.
Take a look at these pictures. The one on the left is a healthy colon and the one on the right shows all kinds of disease and dysfunction that can happen in the colon.
Kris Carr, a true wellness warrior and Oprah darling, makes me giggle when she gives this analogy on why it's important to keep a clean colon:
"Ya know when your trash can is full of stinky stank because it hasn’t been emptied in a while? Picture it: there are leaks (maybe even holes from erosion), it’s a hot summer day, and there’s spoiled milk, rotten hot dogs, and cat litter involved. You open the lid and fall queasy. Nothing but the garden hose makes the smell and crusted crap go away. Well, the same thing goes on in your body."
and because she's so good with analogies of the body, here's one more.....
"When you begin a detox process the garbage that’s been swimming around in your bloodstream or stored in your organs gets kicked up and looks for an outlet to escape. Imagine a room that has been locked up for years. It’s loaded with dust and weird hair bunnies. You take a broom to it (fiber) and what happens? A dust storm is kicked up making it seem/ feel worse before it gets better. If you don’t open a window and mop it all up you haven’t made a change. Bad breath, weird-smelling sweat, break outs, all toxins movin’ out, headaches, and rash – these are all symptoms of the broom in your room. Your clean colon will provide the biggest outlet for the stored poisons."
Take Out the Toxic Trash
The best way to clean out your pretty little colon is through an internal bath – an enema or a colonic.
Enemas are a great way to get the lower bowels moving and grooving. Enemas are a snap. Just follow the directions on the box, deck out your bathroom, and go to town. Colonics are even better because they access all parts of your colon - the ascending, transverse, and descending intestines.
Once the colon is overrun with old waste, toxins and parasites, a colon hydrotherapy session (colonic) may be needed to return the system to its normal, healthy state. Colon hydrotherapy is a very safe—and often very pleasant—procedure. If your colon isn’t working a peak performance, toxins, bad bacteria, and normal bodily waste can sit stagnant in the system… sometimes for years! Colonics can help bring the balance back to your system and make it a healthy environment.
Keeping a Healthy Colon for Years to Come
Even after you do an at home enema or sign yourself up for a colonic to get everything looking spic and span on the inside, you need to stay on top of the elimination process to create long-term and long-lasting results.
One of the first questions ayurvedic practitioners like to ask is something regarding your bowel movements. Regular bowel movements are key to maintaining good health for the long run and let's you know how your digestive tract is doing. Ayurvedic practitioners say that in a perfect world you're moving your bowels between one and three times per day. Otherwise, consider yourself constipated and your colon a storage unit for toxins.
Ideally, you'll have a bowel movement first thing in the morning. If this is not the case for you, there are several ayurvedic practices that might help you get things moving.
- Stay away from cold foods, cold drinks, dried fruit, salads, and most beans
- Favor warm foods, warm drinks and fiber-rich veggies
- Take the ayurvedic herb known as triphala before bed. Mix 1/2 - 1 tsp of triphala in a cup of hot water. Let it steep for 5 -10 minutes and drink.
- An apple a day keeps constipation away :)
- Eat more fiber
- Add more oil to your diet
Cultural Concerns
Some people oppose colon therapy. Some of the top doubts I see on the topic are that it's unnatural, someone might become dependent on it and that it washes away the good bacteria.
Here's what I think (and remember I'm not an expert):
We are living in times where we're exposed to an ungodly amount of toxins on a daily basis. People are fighting diseases that are unnatural because of our hyper-toxic environment. To counteract some of this unnatural disease and disorder we have to work on the edge and think outside of the box. In this case, technology has found a way to enhance the very ancient practice of colon flushing. From experience, I recommend it 100%.
Colon therapy will not make you dependent. Think of it like a workout – the gentle pressure from the water actually tones and rebuilds your muscles by making peristalsis – the contraction of smooth muscles that propels stuff through the digestive tract – stronger. People may be freaked out the dependence issue because of laxatives. Laxatives attempt to perform a similar function, but cause dehydration, addiction, weaken peristalsis and more. Colon therapists recommend a series of sessions to begin with, the number depending on how much toxicity your colon is holding onto. After that, you can do it once a month, on a season, just during a cleanse or whatever works for you.
Finally, good bacteria can only breed in a clean environment. Period.
The last word on colonics is that we are what we eat, but also we are what we don't poop!
In Part 2 of this post i'll take you through, step-by-step, what it's like to get a colonic. Yep! All the juicy details.
For going deeper, more inspiration & more information........
