This article covers the 2nd major form of true detoxification, in a series that began with an overview of each of the six forms, followed by an article on the first one, fasting.
Colon cleansing is a necessary but often overlooked form of real detoxification, a way to cleanse years of waste build-up accumulated through the course of your life. This waste can weigh anywhere from a few pounds to fifteen pounds or more, and be the cause for a multitude of health problems, from heartburn, suppressed immunity, accelerated aging, and digestive problems to brain fog, lack of energy, depression, weight gain, skin discoloration, high blood pressure, cholesterol and other heart-related problems, and cancer.
Fortunately, a good colon cleansing problem can rid your body of this waste in as little as a month. If you go to your local health store, however, you’ll find a variety of “colon cleansing” products that in fact do very little in the way of an actual cleanse. Many of these are no more than various forms of dietary fiber that do almost nothing to eliminate the pounds of hardened fecal matter at the root of the problem.
Here’s a rundown of the real ways to truly cleanse and detox your colon.
- Colonics/Colon Hydrotherapy: Colonics are the most effective form of colon cleansing, by far. In a typical colonic session, you’ll change out of the bottom portion of your clothing and lie down on an elevated massage table of sorts, at which point the colon hydrotherapist will carefully insert a tube a couple inches into your anus. This can be the part that makes you cringe, but it’s not as bad as it sounds, as it’s done gently and with your input for guidance. The inside of the tube is partitioned into two parts, one for the inflow of clean, filtered water, and one for the outflow of accumulated fecal matter. On the basis of your verbal feedback, the therapist will then direct the clean water into your colon, until you feel the need to release, at which the flow is reversed. This is done repeatedly for the duration of the session. This process is surprisingly clean, sanitary, and more or less painless. A common recommendation is to do 10 to 15 colonics to fully clean out your colon the first time. One word of warning though: avoid colonic clinics that use unsupervised, automated machines to control the flow of water and the removal of waste with preprogrammed settings—they can be dangerous to use and should only be used under careful supervision at all times.
- Enemas: Enemas only work to clean the last portion of the colon generally—they normally involve the manual insertion of a tube with a bag of water or other liquid, often coffee or wheatgrass, attached at the other end, and can function either to deliver nutrients or to cause a greater evacuation than a person normally would, which the person would do by jumping back onto a toilet. Enemas are generally very safe, but by themselves are unable to fully cleanse the colon tract.
- Colemas: Colemas are named for being an attempt at a cross between an enema and a colonic—the difference between an enema and a colema is that in a colema, the bag of water used in an enema is instead a larger bucket. Speaking from personal experience, colemas can be a fairly messy, and frankly, disgusting process, and are generally only popular in third world nations. It is possible they can fully clean out the colon, but it would require a serious effort to do so.
- Supplemental Programs: The majority of colon cleansing supplement programs are not worth the money, as they often do no more than temporarily promote the flow of elimination, rather than clean your colon out. That said, there are some that do work. The ones that do typically require the use of laxative teas like senna tea, in combination with dietary fiber, instead of merely dietary fiber alone, and should generally take two to three months of continuous use to fully clean out the colon. If the directions say it can take any less time than that, it’s probably a sham. The drawback of these supplements is that the repeated use of laxatives can create a dependency that can be difficult to come off, resulting in a period of constipation once the cleansing program is over.
- Ozonated Magnesium with Citric Acid: This is a supplement, but it’s so much more effective than the rest of the supplement-based cleansing regimens that it deserves a category of its own. It functions by releasing oxygen that works in combination with citric acid to soften fecal matter and allow for its release. It’s safe, easy to use, and non-habit forming. It’s possible to clean out the entire colon with it, but it would take several months of heavy use. The most popular brand is Oxy-Powder, though there are a few others with the same ingredients under different brands.
Colon cleansing isn’t exactly the topic of choice for water cooler discussion, but it’s an absolutely critical component of good health. It can aid the body in fighting almost any health problem, and cosmetically, can eliminate the protruding pouch at the bottom of your belly, rid you of pounds of the most toxic substances in your body, turn your skin visibly radiant, and make you look years younger. You’ll slow down the aging process significantly, and have a more youthful body to prove it.
