Colon Cleansing Doesn't Work and Can Be Dangerous

A few-years-ago, my friend Jim and I worked as restaurant managers for a big chain. To make extra money we also had a part-time landscaping business. I've been good friends with Jim for about 25-years now and we couldn't be further apart on our beliefs. I'm the old Pagan (country dweller) and he's the born-again Christian. We used to argue a lot but in a friendly way. We always seemed to be able to put our differences aside.

One day as we were getting the equipment ready to go to work, Jim told me that he had something in the truck to show me. "Here, my aunt gave me this." He said. "I know that you are into health and I wanted to see what you thought of this." I opened up the manila envelope and warily looked inside. I knew that in the past Jim had a tendency to get a little carried away with money making schemes and was a tad naive.

Inside the envelope was some literature about colon cleansing and all of the health benefits you could get if you engaged in it. The first booklet showed some guy laying flat on his back on the bathroom floor. There was an IV pole above him with some kind of bag that looked like a water bottle. From the bag was a tube that ran right into his...ah, anal cavity.

There were also ads for the expensive equipment and worst of all, pictures of fecal material that had supposedly been in the victim, or rather patient, for at least twenty or thirty years. I'm not so sure about that, but I can tell you one thing, it certainly looked like it had been somewhere for a long time.

Then Jim began telling me how the cleansing used a combination of herbs that would get all of the toxins out of your body and make you "clean." He was smiling and excited. For some reason, I thought of the Bible verse: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." I don't know if it is actually in the Bible, but that's what my grandmother used to tell me when I needed to wash my hands.

After telling Jim that the only way to remove toxins from your body is by the process of natural elimination, dialysis, and a process called chelation, which is for heavy metal poisoning and requires a hospital stay. I told him that colon cleansing was just the same as taking a very expensive laxative and it could be dangerous. I didn't hear anymore about it after that.

According to CNN:

"It has been touted as a natural way to improve your heath and cleanse the soul. But doctors are now finding the procedure known as colon cleansing can cause dangerous side effects."

A recent study at Georgetown University showed that colon cleansing doesn't work and if done improperly can cause bleeding, kidney failure, and maybe even death. In some instances flushing out your colon with large amounts of water or herbs can cause it to rupture. And that can lead to peritonitis and death.

Some of the ingredients in some preparations have even been shown to be toxic themselves. It doesn't make sense to put toxins in your body to try to get other ones out. And if your kidneys fail you'll be doing some real cleansing three times a week at a hospital center, only it will be your blood that's being cleaned, not your colon. It's called dialysis.

Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/01/colon-cleansing-not-so-healthy-analysis-says/