Colon Therapy

The Colon, or Large Intestine, is one of the most important organs in the human body. Ask anyone who has ever been constipated and they will quickly tell you about it.

As with most things, we tend to not worry about the Colon - until it gives us trouble. Sometimes, the Colon acts up in such a way that it's clear we have a Colon problem. At other times, our symptoms may be remote from the Large Intestine - yet, caused by the Colon.

Some people with the sickest Colons don't have any symptoms, as yet. They are therefore unaware of their problems in this forgotten area of their psychophysiology.

The Functions

The Colon is involved in the processes of digestion and elimination. Important nutrients are absorbed as the food bolus makes its transition through the Large Intestine, on its way out of our body at the rectum. The food we chew and swallow makes its way through our digestive tract, leaving nutrients behind, while it picks up dead cells and toxins.

From ingestion, as the food bolus travels along its way, this dual process is ever at work. Nutrients are absorbed and assimilated while old cells - sloughed off by the body - are dumped into the G.I. Tract, on their way to the toilet.

Many Factors

The G.I. Tract is complex and many faceted. It is actually a system made up of many sub-systems. These are inter-linked and interrelated in important ways.

Physicians who practice Applied Kinesiology (AK) find that when a problem or symptom exists in the Colon, it is often important to look upstream to find its cause. A great many bowel problems begin in the Stomach or Small Intestine.

Acid-Base Balance

After the predigestive activity in the mouth, the Stomach injects hydrochloric acid into the food bolus causing its pH to swing heavily towards acidity. As the bolus passes the pyloric valve at the bottom of the Stomach, exiting the Stomach, it enters the Small Intestine. About an inch and a half later, the digestive juices from the Pancreas, Liver, and Gall Bladder come down the common bile duct and mix with the food bolus, causing its pH to swing greatly towards alkalinity. Real problems result if this swing does not properly take place. In the mouth, salivary digestion must work; the Stomach digestive phases must work; bile and pancreatic digestive function must also be adequate. Then, as the bolus passes the IlioCecal Valve (very close to the Appendix), it leaves the Small Intestine and enters the Large Intestine. If any phase of this digestive chemistry goes awry, it will cause difficulties downstream.

In the computer world, it is said: Garbage in - Garbage out. In our digestive world, it's just the opposite: Garbage in - Garbage tends to stay in. Junk foods junk up our digestive tracts. When the Colon gets dirty (all slimmed up), the blood stream and organs in turn get toxic. The way this comes about is due to the fact that the reabsorbed blood coming from the Colon goes directly to the Liver. And the Liver - all by itself - has to filter it and clean it up. Over time, a Colon that's REALLY dirty "hammers" the Liver quite badly - causing toxins to spill over into the blood stream. The vast majority of these toxins in the blood are in an acid form. This really messes up the body in a number of ways.

The body has a number of monitoring systems (mostly feedback loops). When it looks at the body from one direction, asking the blood stream: "How is our Acid-Base Balance doing," the nervous system gets the message that all is well. If not, it will dump some acid or alkaline substances into the blood, often by driving the Adrenals and the Kidneys. Then, from a different direction the body asks: "Where are these particular acid substances we need for a Certain function." Guess what! They got dumped out of the Kidney, as the body attempted to normalize the Acid-Base Balance. The receptor sites normally available in the system for healthy, needed acid forms has - as a result - been taken up by toxins (bad acid forms). Hence, we can use the term Entropy to describe toxins. (Entropy is energy unavailable for work.)

An example of how this works in real life follows. A patient named Pete has been living under lots of stress for a long time. This stress load has worn down his Adrenal Glands (the body's first line of defense against stress). Among the many jobs the Adrenals have to do is the production of free chlorides, used by the Stomach Glands to make hydrochloric acid (HCL). So, Pete has a functional HCL deficiency. Now, he eats a good piece of steak for dinner. Yum, he says. That is, until that steak reaches his Stomach.

There, the steak should be acted upon by adequate HCL, burning the outer protein matrix to begin the digestive process. This doesn't get adequately done. So, Pete now has partially digested protein moving through the gut. In that it's not been started down the digestive tract properly, it begins to rot. As it does so, it gives off acids of fermentation. Those acids can burn the gut causing ulcers. And, they tend to get read by the body as being a part of the available acid-set. Yet, when called on to do work, they are in reality unavailable. Hence, the acid-base balance becomes a mess.

The Speed of Transit

It has been said, "Timing is everything." In the world of digestion this is also true. In order for one to get the best results from one's digestion, food must pass through the gut at the proper speed. If one's food passes through too quickly, one will not get the necessary nourishment from that food. Absorption and assimilation take a bit of time. And conversely, if one's food takes an extra long time to pass through, that will not be good either. Indeed, the longer it takes for the food bolus to move through the Alimentary Canal, the more problems will be caused in terms of adding toxins to the body.

Patients often ask, "If I eat some fresh corn, how long should it take for me to see it pass out of my body?" Our standard response is, you really don't want to know. That is because we humans, all eating the modern diet, are so far away from proper Colon health that it is laughable. In the words of Arnold Ehret: "Food taken into the body should pass out of the body in about four hours." Few of us are there in terms of proper functioning!

In the worst cases, the G.I. Tract becomes so clogged and sluggish that if the patient failed to put new food into the mouth, nothing would come out the other end. It becomes a veritable "push it on through" kind of a deal. These are the first patients to become sick when they try fasting.

How To Fix It?

We need to fix what is wrong (at a causative level) . . . not get stuck with our focus on the symptom. This symptom-based approach to finding The Cause is the Number One reason for the failure of this broken system of Mainstream Medicine today. They treat the symptoms, not the patient. What the cause is varies from patient to patient. There is no panacea for Colon health. A skilled clinician must slow down and take the time needed to sort through all the problems present.

We've all been BRAIN-WASHED with The Big Lie: "If you have symptoms, then you're sick. And, if you don't have symptoms, then you're well." This is followed by: "Take drug "A" to fix symptom "A", and if that doesn't work, do surgery "A" to fix symptom "A". Sadly, neither does taking vitamin or mineral "A" to fix symptom "A" work effectively. Very few situations in the human body are that simplistic. If they were, there would be robots in Clinics, not physicians.

Because of the above-mentioned BRAIN-WASHING, many patients are stuck in a loop looking for the single-cause - and The Magic Bullet to fix it. This approach is based in Stinkin' Thinkin' and will never yield wonderful results.

Regardless, for a great many patients today, painless Colon Hydrotherapy is a necessary and important part of their healing process. If a DIRTY Colon is having a major toxic impact on the Liver, nothing much will get better and stay better until that toxic impact is removed.

Colon Disease

. . . is on the rise. The Large Intestine often takes the brunt of our digestive sins. According to some estimates, over 70 million Americans suffer from bowel problems. Colon cancer is the second most deadly cancer, killing more than 100,000 annually in the USA. Additionally, more than 100,000 individuals in America have a portion of their Colon surgically removed and are fitted with a colostomy bag each year.

The slower the food bolus moves through the system, the worse our Colon health becomes. And, the slower the throughput, the more toxic our bodies become. Autotoxicity - our body's functioning in a way that makes us toxic - is the Number One cause of our being toxic, putting dark circles under our eyes. (Dirty blood causes myriad problems and symptoms.)

Body Disease

One of the key reasons the Colon is so very important relative to the body's health is that the blood returning from the Large Intestine goes directly into the Liver, via the Portal System. If the Colon is toxic, it really hurts the Liver.

The Liver is the single most important organ in the human body. And it is the largest, after the skin. When the Liver gets sick, we get sick all over. Indeed, in the process of getting sick people well, we almost always have to fix the Liver in order to fix whatever else is ailing the patient.

Hemorrhoids and varicose veins are the result of a congested Liver. When the Liver gets congested, it causes a build up of back pressure in the Portal System, which in turn causes a ballooning out of areas in the rectum. There is also a strong possibility that a congested Liver, with its decreased bile function, is a precursor to arterial disease, and subsequently Heart disease.

Starvation Syndrome

When the body loses its ability to absorb and assimilate macro and micronutrients, it often triggers a Starvation Syndrome. One result of this is that the body will hold onto anything and every-thing passing through it, for fear it may never see another meal. These patients put on weight and cannot get it off. And if they DO lose it, it's only temporary.

So, What's To Be Done?

There are many things that one can do on the road to health. Some are obvious; some are not.

Eating good, healthy, and vital food is simply common sense. In his book, New Breed of Doctor, Alan Nittler, M.D. said it this way, "God-made food is good; man-made food is bad." It's never been said better. However, the old cliché, "You are what you eat" is only a half truth. The whole truth would be, You are what your body makes of what you eat.

On a daily basis, drinking enough pure, clean water is the prime imperative. Also, start the day off with some fresh, ripe fruit. Eating lots of vegetables for roughage is very important, those cellulose fibers being the intestinal broom.

Keeping the diet free of poisons is VERY helpful. (Please read the labels on the packages before you purchase anything!) This would include pesticides, food additives, artificial food coloring, preservatives, drugs, hormones, laxatives, artificial sweeteners, and American chocolate products. (American chocolate has tons of paraffin and other junk in it. As a rule, European chocolate is fine if taken in moderation.)

Doing our best to keep our Kidneys happy is also of great concern. It shares the major toxin removal chores with the Liver. Chinese Medicine teaches us that the Kidney is the source of most of the body's energy-generating circuits. It is directly "across the clock" from the Large Intestine, and therefore shares energy with it. There is a magnetic wave that moves its focus through the twelve major meridians, staying two hours in each meridian. Here, we are talking 5:PM to 7:PM and 5:AM to 7:AM. Any symptoms that occur during these times (such as waking at 5:00 A.M.) often involve these circuits. This Midday-Midnight Law relationship is the most important level of energy borrowing in the body.

AyurVedic Medicine speaks to the three Doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Kapha Dosha is primarily made up of Earth and Water elements. In that the Kidney is Water element, we want to keep Kapha happy, too. For those individuals with much Kapha in their body type, some coffee first thing in the morning can be very helpful. (Some folks react to the pesticides, so organic coffee is sometimes necessary.) It appears that coffee has an antiparasitic effect, as well as being a bit of a laxative in some patients. Coffee later in the day always acts as a poison to the body.

What Not To Do

Emotional stress is VERY hard on the body. It is worse yet if stuffed down deep inside. Anxiety and fear reside in the Kidney circuit, and therefore can contribute to Kidney and Large Intestine problems. Most disease processes have digestive and emotional problems at their base. Good emotional and digestive health is fundamental to a happy and healthy life.

Fatigue and/or exhaustion are important enemies. In our crazy world, taking time for ourselves is of paramount value. This means getting adequate rest and recreation. Maintaining a reasonable schedule is smart. Everyone's body wants to be asleep by 10:00 P.M., at which time a switch goes off on the Parathyroid Gland. If we are in bed and falling asleep, this switch facilitates going to sleep. If we are up and about, this switch can make us a bit wired, making us feel as though we could run hard all night long.

The Great American Diet, although enjoyable, is not friendly to life. Over time, most of us end up with our G.I. Tracts slimed up. The Colon and the IlioCecal Valve usually get the worst of it. The bowel often holds many pounds of old fecal matter and dried mucous.

Over-The-Counter potions and elixirs can be a problem. In our experience, Multi-Level Marketing Companies seldom have a workable solution. And remember, everything we put into our bodies takes something out of our bodies in the processing.

The Causes of Waste Buildup

Incomplete digestion of the food we eat can cause lack of complete throughput of the food bolus.

Remember, in our stress-filled world, the Adrenal Glands really take a beating. Worn out Adrenals yield incompletely digested proteins . . . which quickly begin to ferment, giving off acids of fermentation, which in turn may bless us with duodenal ulcers (heliobacter pylorus notwithstanding). These putrefied proteins can get stored in the bowel causing lower bowel gas, and worse. They can - and often do - add to the yeast, fungi, and parasites in our bodies.

Dehydration dries out the stool. Pure, clean water hydrates; coffee, tea, soda pop, and many other drinks dehydrate. Kidney-Hyper-Drive wrings water out of the stool. This happens when the Kidney gets out of control and runs too hot, usually making us urinate too frequently. AK physicians can usually fix this.

Lack of adequate exercise causes a lack of normal bowel tonus and motility. If we don't move it, we lose it.

Living life in the fast lane can sometimes lead to serious problems. Some people are so caught up in the Rat-Race they have difficulty sitting on the toilet long enough to allow their bowels adequate time to move . . . the ultimate hurry up and stop!

Depleted enzyme stores in the body can surely slow down normal digestion. Some experts are of the opinion that we are born with a limited ability to convert one enzyme into another. And, that as a result of eating so much cooked foods, we are running out of our Enzyme Convertibility Factor at a much younger age than we should. This in turn makes us old and wrinkled before our time.

Certain drugs and toxins decrease the normal, healthy strength of the rectal muscles, making elimination more difficult.

A decrease in the functional amount of Fire Element available to the digestive system will slow - if not stop - digestion. All Five Elements need to be in a powerful and healthy balance. Also, Chi from the Spleen supplies the majority of digestive fire to the Small Intestine. Anger is the emotion associated with the Spleen. If one does not handle and process their anger properly, it WILL adversely effect digestion.

Problems with the Citric Acid Cycle - deep in the body's biochemistry - twist and bend all things chemical within us. Here, everything pivots around Betaine, in an effort to maintain functional balance regarding how our phosphorus becomes ATP - the currency of energy in the body's chemistry. Problems here effect the body's iron, which directly affects the Large Intestine. ATP is stored in the muscles of the body. Inadequate ATP stores will cause many muscles to fail to work properly - including rectal muscles and the ICV.

The IlioCecal Valve (ICV)

. . . is a muscular sphincter valve separating the Small and Large Intestines. This is one of the most richly enervated structures in the body via its circuitry and interconnections. A great many symptoms and problems are primarily or secondarily involved with the ICV. These range from back pains that won't go away to pseudoappendicitis cases. It is safe to say that ANY symptom that comes on when lying down involves the ICV. We can also say that any symptom that is there upon awakening in the morning - and gets better as the day goes on - is tied to the ICV.

Treatment of the ICV is the domain of the AK physician. In the early developing years of AK, extensive research into ICV mechanics was done by AK pioneers. Certain nutrients are relevant to the ICV. There are electrical and magnetic patterns involved with ICV health and stability. Specific reflexes govern and control the ICV. Four different spinal bones and four cranial sutures can be pulled out of place by aberrant reflexes coming from an unhappy ICV. And, these bones will not hold their adjustments until the ICV is reset.

The ICV gets shorted out when its tissues become toxic. A dirty Colon really messes up the ICV, causing myriad symptoms. As in most areas of life, cleanliness IS next to godliness.

Colonics

Cleaning out the Large Bowel through gentle Colonic Irrigation can be nearly miraculous for some folks. For thousands of years, hydrotherapy of the Colon has been helpful to patients suffering from malfunction or toxicity of the large bowel. With Colonics, just removing the toxin load from the Liver can change a person's world. It is not uncommon to find patients carrying ten to twenty-five pounds of impacted fecal matter in their Colon.

Patients having any form of parasitic activity - including worms - benefit greatly from cleaning out the Colon. It is close to impossible to get worms out of the Cecum without the help of a skilled Colon Therapist.

How It's Done

With the patient lying down, the Colon Therapist gently fills the large bowel with warm water. While the water is entering the Colon, the Therapist massages the tight areas of restriction and reflexivity with knowing fingers.

It is not uncommon for a patient's Large Intestine to have areas where the stool doesn't flow easily or properly. Over time, these areas of restriction lose their ability to contribute to normal peristaltic (wave like) movement. Gently breaking up the tense areas and working the associated reflex beds along the Colon's wall helps to restore healthy function. The doctor will normally recommend an initial series of three sessions. After this, the doctor and therapist will confer to determine additional treatment needs and special attention required.

There are no negative side effects from Colon Therapy, when done properly. In rare cases, patients feel an accelerated cleansing; they feel deeply changed and purified. Extra rest may be required, over the short term.

It is imperative, however, that the therapist monitor the state of the ICV - using proper muscle testing procedures - during the entire irrigation process. Some Therapists, lacking complete training, fail to monitor the ICV. In the worst cases, it is possible for one's IlioCecal Valve to malfunction during the Colon irrigation process, opening up when it should be staying closed. This allows the contents of the Garbage Area (the Large Intestine) to be back-flushed into the Kitchen Area (the Small Intestine). This will often make a patient just plain sick . . . similar to having a cold or the flu. What they experience then, as a result of this insufficient monitoring, is a form of self-poisoning.

Patients will do well to speak with their Colon Therapist prior to beginning a series of treatments. As in all matters pertaining to one's health, be sure that the Therapist is skilled and trained in the proper procedures. This must include the ability to muscle test the integrity of the IlioCecal Valve.

Benefits

Colon Therapy is a very important part of the healing regimen necessary for many patients.

The following symptoms frequently show improvement from getting one's Colon cleansed:

· skin problems

· cold hands and feet

· constipation

· back pains

· low energy

· headaches

· bad breath

· low sex drive

· excess weight gain

· anxiety

· fear

· worry

· insomnia

· abdominal bloating

· hemorrhoids

· irritability

· depression

· flatulence

· asthma

· prostate trouble

· tension

· loss of appetite

· menstrual problems

· indigestion

· poor concentration

· bad posture or pot belly

· loss of memory

· allergies.

Many other symptoms have responded, too. Whereas a Colonic is no panacea, it is a creative option for anyone eating the Great American Diet. Why wait until sickness knocks upon the door? Does it not make a lot more sense to be proactive?

If you walk into your garage and trip over an old box filled junk and break your leg, is it the box's fault? Or, should we talk about the fact that you forgot to do Spring House Cleaning?