You are here: Home / Colonics / Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Interesting-Facts-1

Some version of colonics, also known as Colonic Irrigation or Colon Hydrotherapy has been used for millennia as a method to achieve greater health.  There is reference to enemas and rituals involving the washing of the colon with water as far back as pagan times.  The first recorded reference to colon cleansing is an Egyptian medical papyrus that dates back as early as 1500BC.  It shows that the early Egyptians used purgatives, enemas, diuretics, heat, steam and blood-letting to treat a diversity of diseases.  Colon cleansing both in ancient times and modern is one of the fundamental practices of yoga teachings.

Hippocrates, Paracelsus and Galen, collectively recognized as the founding fathers of Western medicine, described, practiced and prescribed using enemas to clean the colon.  The ancient Essene people are also now known to have used enema type methods to cleanse the colon as mentioned in the Essene Gospel of Peace by Edmund Bordeaux Szekely.

The difference between an enema and a colonic is that enemas have the ability to cleanse only a small section of the colon at a time whereas a colonic is able to cleanse the whole colon, depending on the initial condition of the bowel, in one appointment.  When you take an enema, you need to retain the water inside the bowel for as long as you comfortably can before making your way to the toilet to release, whereas, with a colonic, the water gently flows into and out of the colon without the need for retention.  Closed system colonics, which is the method used here at Macedon Ranges and Sunbury Colon Hydrotherapy, use a disposable waste tube to remove wastes from the body hygienically, free from odor and without the effort of straining.

The ideal transit time of food through the body is 18-24 hours.  On average in the UK it is now 60 hours for men and 70 for women!  The UK is the most constipated nation in the world – with 20 000 new cases of colon cancer annually.  Laxatives are the 2nd largest selling pharmaceutical drug worldwide and antacids the third.

Interesting-Facts-2

Colon hydrotherapy is a fast developing complementary health practice.  It is believed that there have been over 6 million colon therapy procedures performed in the USA using FDA approved, disposable equipment and that does not take into account systems that are using non-disposable, metal equipment.  In England, it is believed that there are more than five to ten thousand colon hydrotherapy procedures performed monthly.

The statistics relating to issues regarding the colon are staggering.  At the end of 2007, it was estimated that there were 105,144 people in Australia who were diagnosed with bowel cancer in the previous 26 years, 45,763 of those in the previous 5 years.  Bowel cancer is estimated to account for between 12 and 13 percent of the burden of disease due to cancer in Australia.  It is not assumed that colon hydrotherapy can cure bowel cancer, but if the large intestine is functioning efficiently and the owner of the bowel is educated in proper diet and hydration practices, leading to efficiently frequent elimination and overall health, perhaps the trend in Australia will see a reduction in statistics relating to bowel diseases.