Hydrocolon therapy: a medical abuse that should be avoided

The colon, common name for the large intestine, is the organ in our body that allows us to complete the long process of digestion as well as expel the waste products of metabolism in the form of feces.

Unlike other organs whose function has been immediately clear to human beings since the dawn of Medicine, the colon's real function as a fluid reabsorber remained obscure, at least until 1622, when Cremona physician Gaspare Aselli discovered the chyliferous vessels, and from there the entire functionality of the complex human lymphatic system.

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The importance of proper colon function is a basic factor in the whole body's well-being: if the intestines become blocked, malfunctioning, or diseased, the whole body is severely affected, since it is from the colon that the body reabsorbs much of the fluids essential to its subsistence.

This is precisely why, unfortunately, for centuries the colon and its well-being has also been big business for wily profiteers who, leveraging the necessary need for people's regular daily evacuation, have always peddled waffle and hodgepodge as a 'miracle cure.'

And this, unfortunately, even after the advent of the scientific method.

Recently, a new practice should also be added to the very long inventory of 'therapies' with no scientific basis concerning the colon: hydrocolon therapy.

If you are a constipated patient, or suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, and have been offered hydrocolon therapy as a 'natural remedy' for your problem, be very careful.

And be very careful even if you are a completely healthy individual who has been offered hydrocolon therapy without very clear scientific reasons, passing it off somewhat as the Panacea of all ills.

Read this page well, written by Dr. Luisella Troyer, Proctology Surgeon, who wants to help you shed light on the real effectiveness (if any) of a 'medical practice' that smacks very much of marketing mush and very little of Medicine.

What is the colon?

The colon, called the large intestine in medical anatomy, is the last part of the long human gastrodigestive system.

It is a long organ, about 7 meters long, that begins where the small intestine ends, namely at the junction of the ileocecal valve positioned roughly at the right iliac fossa.

The colon is conventionally divided into five parts, which wrap around the entire abdomen: the ascending colon, the transverse colon, the descending colon, the sigma, and the rectum, which is the last part that then flows into the anal canal and the anal orifice.

What is the task of the colon?

The primary task of the colon is to reabsorb liquids and electrolytes from thechyle, that is, the residue of food already deprived of nutrients from the small intestine.

Kilo is a milky liquid, composed mainly of water, electrolytes, disaccharides not absorbed by the intestinal villi, and other waste substances from our metabolism and digestion.

Traveling all the way through the colon tube by the natural movement of intestinal peristalsis, the chyle is slowly squeezed down to the rectum, and gradually stripped of its fluids and electrolytes by the lymphatic vessels, which are present in large quantities throughout the mucosa.

While it is stripped of fluids, which will be put back into the body by the lymphatic system, residual sugars from the kilo and waste elements such as bilirubin are attacked and fermented by a large number of bacteria that live in symbiosis with the intestinal mucosa.

This bacterial fermentation completes the digestion, protecting the mucosa from irritating indigestible sugars and making the chyle becoming alvo, i.e., a compact, soft, bulky brown mass, which can be easily expelled from the anal orifice as feces.

Food as an indispensable source for survival

The human being is a mammal belonging to the great apes, which in turn belong to the animal kingdom.

All animals are heterotrophic creatures, that is, unable to synthesize the energy and organic elements essential to their subsistence from simple inorganic chemicals.

This task, in the cycle of life as we know it on this planet, is performed by other living things, for example, plants of the plant kingdom.

These organisms, called autotrophs, can synthesize organic elements from simple elements, such as water, minerals and solar energy, and are therefore called producers.

Human beings have an extremely ductile gastrodigestive system, the result of relentless and meticulous natural selection and evolution.

In fact, our chewing and digestive system is an excellent example of adaptation to any kind of diet, according to the principles of omnivorous nutrition.

By eating grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, and products derived from other animal or plant products, we are able to absorb the energy and mineral and chemical elements that are essential for our sustenance, and which is called nutrition.

Our metabolism is very complex, as indeed is that of all advanced life forms, and requires constant and regular amounts of energy and nutrients, which we absorb by consuming our meals on a daily basis.

This continuous assimilation of nutrients (and the energy in them, in the form of carbohydrates) makes digestion an equally continuous process that engages our entire metabolism.

Colon included, which in fact is always working, since its work begins just where that of the rest of the gastrodigestive system ends.

Defecation and the importance of bowel regularity

As we saw just above, a healthy human being needs regular nutrition on a daily basis.

Generally, given that the stomach has a limited capacity, all the daily calorie requirements are assimilated not in one meal but in several meals throughout the day.

The number of meals varies depending on the customs and habits of where you live, your financial means and, last but not least, even your work habits or personal preferences.

Generally, in the West we are concerned with at least providing two main, fairly substantial meals, usually carried out during the first part of the day and toward its end.

This quantity of meals is often integrated with other small supplies, such as an afternoon snack or breakfast (in some part of the Western World, however, breakfast is the main meal of the first part of the day).

Essentially, apart from specific cases (diseases or special sporting demands), the only part of our day where we do not eat is when we sleep.

This feeding cycle means that, on average, a healthy human being produces about 150 grams of stool each day, which is of good consistency, softness, normal brown color (more or less shaded) and not excessively smelly.

To produce all these stools, the colon works tirelessly, assisted by the action of mucosal symbiotic bacteria.

In fact, in the intestines, at least as long as one is alive and nourished, there is always chyle present, which the mucosal lymphatic vessels and the action of bacterial fermentation constantly transmutes into alvo.

This process is natural and physiological: the intestines never stand 'still' , but constantly produce small, well-coordinated spasms that push the chyle along the length of the organ until it is turned into stool ready to be expelled.

This movement, called peristalsis, is involuntary and therefore automatic: the healthy colon performs it all the time, every moment, because at every moment there is the pound to be reabsorbed of fluids.

The natural mucus production by the mucus glands of the mucosa and the constant fermentation action of bacteria ensure that stool transits unimpeded throughout the colon to the rectal ampulla.

Having completed evacuation, the colon is already processing more pounds from the small intestine, and another cycle has already begun.

Any fecal debris from the previous cycle that is still present on the walls of the colon mucosa is 'swept away' by the newly forming stool, and this process works continuously.

This physiological act lasts as long as one is alive and, in normal situations and in the absence of disease, ensures perfect intestinal regularity.

Constipation, an ancient and always poorly experienced problem

In Medicine, constipation is defined as that pathological bowel condition that prevents one from providing for regular and satisfactory evacuations on a daily basis.

Given that each person's bowel regularity may vary, not only due to lifestyles and diet but also due to congenital predisposition, the average of 150 grams of stool evacuated each day should be taken with proper caution.

We usually speak of constipation when there are fewer than two evacuations per week, and most have difficulty with straining (the act of pushing to evacuate), with the laborious emission of hard stools, often of so-called 'goat' conformation.

Constipation afflicts every population in the world beyond social conditions, beyond gender, and beyond age: it is estimated that at least 2% of the world's population is affected, and the onset of symptoms can occur as early as pediatric age.

In addition to the discomfort of not going to the bathroom and the general heaviness and bloating that follows (symptoms that those with chronic constipation are familiar with), countless economic resources are devoted each year to surgical treatment of the whole long list of conditions that the state of general constipation entails.

Hemorrhoidal prolapse, anal fissures, fecaloma: these are just the first three conditions, in no particular order, that chronic constipation can result in, and which often require substantial health and economic resources to address.

From what we know, constipation has always plagued human beings, who have always sought remedies, of whatever kind, to counteract the discomfort of not being able to evacuate regularly.

As is well known, our ancestors ate mainly vegetables and grains, with sporadic supplements of meat and fruit, which, however, were not the preserve of the majority of the European population at least until the modern era.

This almost enforced vegetarian diet contained the problem of constipation in the less affluent classes of the people who, by necessity, could not afford other foods other than vegetables.

For rich and powerful people, however, things were quite different.

Indeed, they could have adequate economic resources to eat meat, fish, and even fresh fruit, all expensive commodities since they were not only difficult to hunt, raise, or grow, but also quickly perishable.

The meat abuse of the powerful and wealthy is a historical and documented fact in virtually every European culture, and has not only exquisitely gastronomic, but anthropological motivations.

The display of 'economic power' was also manifested in allowing themselves to eat as all the rest of the population could not.

The overuse of meat that many powerful people practiced, however, caused related problems for the intestines, which instead felt the adequate lack of fiber and vegetables.

Thus, constipation began to become a condition predominantly 'of the rich people', somewhat in parallel with obesity (unknown, however, to the poor, who rather had problems with excessive thinness).

The Doctors of past centuries, whose training was mainly philosophical, were all fee-for-service (there was no public health service), and almost all of them therefore paid only by those who could afford them.

That is, the powerful: the rulers, merchants, noble landowners, etc.

All of whom are almost always afflicted with constipation problems due to their hyper-consumption of meat at the expense of vegetables.

Medicine of the times, therefore, rather than treating the causes of constipation and regulating the right diet, thought better of starting to practice, as the only treatment for constipation, purging.

In centuries past, a huge quantity of the most diverse laxative and purgative concoctions were produced: some to be swallowed by mouth, others (most) administered by an invention that we can now say was thousands of years old, namely the enema.

Invented as far back as Egyptian Medicine, the enema remained one of the most widely used therapies throughout the West for centuries, and even now it is one of the most abused prescriptions worldwide.

The reputation of the enema as a 'panacea' for intestinal (and other) ills is well known in every medical text even not so ancient: the famous Louis XIV, the great Sun King, abused it all the time, considering it his favorite medicine.

The Sun King, as a good 'marketer' of the time, also put an end to the diatribe that wanted the Catholic Church to oppose the name in use by the Doctors of the time for the enema, namely 'lavender'.

That name, widely used by the Clinicians of the period to promote the exceptional qualities of their enemas, clashed with the famous 'foot washing' performed by Jesus on Easter Thursday.

Louis XIV resolved the bitter issue, renaming the enema to 'remedy', and thus bringing everyone into agreement.

Even today, the abnormal amount of purgatives and laxatives that are sold against constipation are marketed under that name: constipation remedy.

Until the mid-1800s, the enema remained almost the only 'remedy' for constipation, but not only that: it was prescribed for almost any condition, even the furthest possible from constipation.

The end of the enema as a panacea for all ills and the beginning of colonproctology

In the early decades of the 1800s, French physician Dr. Armand Trousseau accurately described intestinal transit, paving the way for what later became an offshoot of grastroenterology, namely colonproctology.

Although Doctors of the time began to understand the complex dynamics of digestion and stool production, the resistance of the enema as a 'remedy for all ills' widespread among the population was still very strong.

So strong that it heavily influenced the scientific community, which still saw constipation as the source of a large number of diseases, often totally unrelated to constipation: from joint pain to heart disease, everything was blamed on constipation.

Young colonproctology at that time had few weapons to defend itself against widespread ignorance, and the use of enemas and laxatives was therefore always overused.

The discovery of the gut microbiome and its essential function in the completion of digestion is due to the great work of microbiologist Dr. Louis Pasteur and the beginning of the scientific study of microorganisms.

One of his students, Russian Dr. Elie Metchnikov, discovered the presence of the human intestinal bacterial colony and carefully studied its life stage.

These studies, for which the Russian physician and biologist also won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908, definitively clarified the role of the intestine and the deep interaction of the mucosa with the 'friendly' bacteria it harbors at all times, turning the chyle into stool and keeping the entire colon protected and safe.

Metchnikov was also the first Physician who proposed, instead of the abused enemas, the administration of milk enzymes (thus, 'friendly' bacteria) as a cure for many intestinal diseases, according to protocols known and still valid to this day.

Slowly, the treatment with the extremely irritating purgative 'injection' of the anal mucosa ceased, but the misconception that purging regularly with an enema was 'good for' the intestines still remained in the population for many years, at least until after World War I.

It is precisely on this belief, which is hard to die from centuries and centuries of heavy laxative use, that part of the wholly unwarranted success of hydrocolon therapy is based.

What is hydrocolon therapy?

Hydrocolon therapy is a nonmedical practice that is not recognized as such and therefore cannot be called a 'treatment'.

This practice, which enjoys no scientific publication in its favor and which many Doctors consider an abuse of the profession, consists of washing the bowel from the rectal ampulla up to the cecum.

Such washing is done with lukewarm water shot into the intestinal mucosa with a certain amount of pressure, to allow the liquid to 'flush out impurities' in the colon that, according to proponents of the procedure, are the cause of a long list of diseases.

Why is hydrocolon therapy practiced?

The assumption on which proponents of hydrocolon therapy particularly rely, totally unjustified, wants 'clean' to correspond to 'healthy'.

And that therefore 'cleaning the colon' of fecal impurities can cure a long list of ailments, and prevent others.

This has no reliable scientific evidence, and therefore should not be taken seriously medically.

The correlation with the natural and physiological presence of fecal wastes from the intestines and pathological conditions such as chronic constipation, headaches, nervousness, and insomnia (to name a few) has never been proven by science.

Just to give an idea of the absurdity of this assumption (clean equals healthy), here is a short list of pathologies or at any rate pathological conditions that hydrocolon therapy is supposed to 'cure':

• 'Cure' for constipation;
  • Colitis 'cure';
  • Elimination of intestinal bloating;
  • Elimination of flautolence;
  • Headache;
  • Nervousness;
  • Insomnia;
  • Rhinitis,
  • Acne, dermatitis, eczema and aging skin;
  • Chronic fatigue;
  • Cellulite;
  • Bad mood, general malaise, decreased concentration and intellectual faculties;
  • Falling immune defenses;
  • Rheumatism;
  • Bronchial asthma;
  • Chronic prostatitis

As you can well see, the list is long, and it also covers things that, on closer inspection, have very little to do with intestinal digestion.

Some of them, and this is not to be overlooked, have such a general symptomatic condition that it is difficult to determine the true origin of the disorder.

At the current state of Medicine, no scientific research has established the beneficial correlation between periodic colon washes with pressure water and the disappearance of even one of the diseases on the list just above.

Is hydrocolon therapy useful for removing toxins from the body?

The human body is a very well-designed biological organism that already has its organs capable of autonomously eliminating toxins, that is, chemical compounds that are either waste or harmful to our metabolism.

Such organs are liver, kidneys and, last but not least, the colon itself.

The liver is involved in all kinds of chemical transformation necessary for all kinds of metabolic processes, including the removal of any toxic substances that may be present in the blood.

Instead, the kidneys are the body's natural filter, filtering water-soluble toxins in the blood and excreting them as urine.

Finally, the colon, i.e., the large intestine, is the organ responsible for the discharge of all fatty (i.e., non-water-soluble) toxins: a task it performs excellently precisely because of the microbiome that lives in symbiosis with the intestinal mucosa.

These three organs are necessary and sufficient for the body to self-detoxify, without any need for outside help.

Invading the colon with lukewarm water in an attempt to 'flush' the internal mucosa of 'toxins' is medical nonsense, which has no element of benefit to the body, quite the contrary: pressurized water detaches the natural mucosal protection made by mucus, friendly bacterial biofilm and feces.

Without more of its natural protection, the intestinal mucosa becomes weak and easily irritated, as it in turn is easily attacked by 'enemy' bacteria, viruses and parasites.

So not only does hydrocolon therapy not remove any toxins from the body, it damages and worsens the natural work of the colon precisely in naturally and autonomously expelling fatty toxins, that would otherwise be deleterious to the body.

Does hydrocolon therapy improve bowel movement?

The inner mucosa of the colon is composed of richly innervated and vascularized tissue, enveloped instead by smooth muscle tissue (Muscularis mucosa), i.e., with capacity for limited involuntary movement, which causes the entire colon to contract and release in small, synchronized spasms.

This bowel movement is called peristalsis, and it allows 'pushing' the forming alvus throughout the colon, from the cecum to the rectal ampulla.

As the chyle, i.e., the still-unconsolidated waste, passes throughout the colon, the fluids and electrolytes are absorbed by the lymphatic vessels, and become alvo and therefore feces (stool).

The movement of peristalsis is automatic, and is controlled directly to the involuntary nervous system.

It does not appear in any scientific publication that hydrocolon therapy is a peristalsis-enhancing wash, when its characteristics make it simply one of many ways of administering a common enema.

The 'bowel washing' practice of hydrocolon therapy does not solve the causes of poor peristalsis, which often have congenital or psychosomatic roots, or even due to poor dietary habits, such as a diet low in adequate fiber.

Can hydrocolon therapy treat constipation?

No, it cannot.

Chronic constipation, also simply called constipation, is a condition that can have a long list of triggers, but certainly cannot be cured by a trivial warm water wash (not unlike an enema).

Chronic constipation is treated by changing any incorrect diet, introducing the right amount of fiber and water, and possibly reeducating the colon with the right rehabilitation therapy.

Hydrocolon therapy is nothing more than a pressure enema, which history has shown to be not only useless in combating constipation and its causes, but harmful in the long run to the delicate balance of the intestinal mucosa.

Can hydrocolon therapy help detach old fecal debris in the colon?

In the human intestine there are always fecal elements or stool in formation.

As long as you are alive, and in order to be alive, you need to feed yourself, and thus activate the long digestive process.

Feeding occurs on a periodic, daily basis, and is not an option for anyone-it is an obligation.

Therefore, as long as there is nourishment, the colon will provide reabsorption of the chyle fluids, and complete digestion by the gut microbiome.

Traces of alvo will therefore always be present on the walls of the intestine, but this should not be a cause for concern: peristalsis provides a continuous push of the forming stool toward the rectum.

New stool therefore will push any remnants of the old outward, i.e., the rectal ampulla, in a continuous cycle, lasting as long as life itself endures.

Thus, there is no need to 'wash away' fecal residues from the colon: residues are always present, and always 'pushed away' by other residues.

The human body is the result of millions of years of evolution, and it has very well-established mechanisms that can make it autonomous.

Can hydrocolon therapy protect the colon from the attack of enemy bacteria and fungi, such as salmonella and candida?

No, the natural protection for pathogenic microorganisms that can attack the intestinal mucosa is provided solely by the biofilm of the intestinal microbiome, the mucus naturally produced by the muciparous glands, and, no less, the presence of stool in formation.

The alvo, that is, the stool that is being formed, is the result not only of the reabsorption of fluids from the lymphatic vessels in the colon, but also (and especially) of bacterial fermentation of the intestinal microbiome.

Our 'friendly' stool-forming bacteria join the mucus produced by the mucosa and protect it, acting as a real 'plug' that prevents other harmful organisms from entering.

When we get sick with enterocolitis, for example, it is precisely because our intestinal flora has weakened, and other harmful bacteria have taken the place of friendly ones.

Thus, hydrocolon therapy not only does not help the colon get rid of 'bad' bacteria, but in fact, it also takes away our friendly bacteria, including mucus and fecal debris that act as 'plugs' for potentially dangerous infections!

Is hydrocolon therapy useful as a therapy for gluten intolerance and other food intolerances?

Celiac disease is that unfortunately incurable condition that consists of extreme intolerance toward gluten contained in grains.

Known to human beings since ancient times, after millennia it still has no specific cure other than the total absence of gluten in the diet.

The violent diarrheal discharges of patients with celiac disease begin immediately when the intestinal villi of the small intestine come in contact with even insignificant traces of gluten.

Hydrocolon therapy not only has no effect whatsoever on celiac disease, but the tepid pressurized water cannot go beyond the ileocecal valve, and thus reach the small intestine, the place where the violent inflammatory reaction starts.

Again, hydrocolon therapy has no effect whatsoever on food allergies, which are essentially a genetic factor.

So, also for this question, the answer is no.

Does hydrocolon therapy improve the assimilation of food nutrients?

No, intestinal lavage has no effect on the assimilation of food nutrients.

The nutrient that reaches the intestine from the stomach, chyme, is absorbed by intestinal villi, which are located well before the beginning of the colon, and access to which is one-way, protected by the ileocecal valve.

Hydrocolon therapy 'flushes' the entire colon, but does not reach the small intestine and villi.

Its usefulness is therefore, again, zero.

What, then, can hydrocolon therapy be useful for?

To nothing: hydrocolon therapy is a medically useless procedure that can be compared to nothing already but a pressure enema.

It does not have any kind of scientifically proven beneficial effect, and it is not curative of any known pathology.

Its alleged beneficial effects are null from a scientific point of view, while on the contrary, the side effects of this practice are well known, all of which are harmful to the delicate mucosa of the colon.

The gut is a delicate organ, which protects itself with the right diet, proper hydration, and care of its equally delicate gut microbiome.

Although it is all too easy to think that we can solve serious and disabling problems, such as chronic constipation, with a trivial lukewarm water flush, it is an illusion that has no scientific basis.

Sort of like how, in centuries past, Doctors of the day considered it useful to practice enemas and bloodletting for any ailment condition.

Nowadays we all know that such practices were useless (when it was going well), and harmful when it was going wrong.

'Flushing the colon with warm pressurized water has one great utility: it makes a lot of money for those who manufacture expensive equipment for the purpose, as well as the personnel who practice such 'flushing.'

But hydrocolon therapy, on closer inspection, can also have a small, though not therapeutic, utility: it can be used, for example, for pain-free preparation for invasive examinations that require adequate (forced) colon cleansing, such as video colonoscopy.

And indeed, it was for preparation for this examination that hydrocolonics (not 'therapy') was originally designed.

In this, its usefulness is great: it can save the patient the hassle of preparation, but at the expense of high costs of administration and machine purchase.

That is why, for now, for a simple cost-saving reason, it is preferred to have the patient perform the preparation the day before the examination, with specific electrolyte drugs.

What are the risks of hydrocolon therapy?

The passage of pressurized water throughout the colon is an unnatural process for which our intestines were not designed.

By performing hydrocolon therapy, you alter the delicate intestinal micro-climate, and you always damage the gut microbiome, which will then struggle (and not a little) to reform.

And so many other things are altered.

Specifically, hydrocolon therapy can:

• Damage to the gut microbiome and friendly bacterial balance;
  
• Inflaming the mucosa, removing the natural layer of mucus and fecal debris, thus exposing it to potential attack by enemy microorganisms;
  
• Causing electrolyte imbalances as well as dehydration;
  
• Slow down natural peristalsis, creating addiction to washing and 'sluggishness' of the intestines;
  
• Perforate the intestinal walls or damage them, especially in the presence of diverticulosis

Are there any contraindications to hydrocolon therapy?

For the reasons previously stated, hydrocolon therapy should be never prescripted to anyone.

Our colon does not need to be 'flushed' and our body is able to dispose of toxins on its own, thanks to the constant work of the liver, kidneys and even the intestines themselves.

Anything that disrupts the natural intestinal balance is always contraindicated, for everyone.

To conclude: you know watch out for misinformation and prejudice

The concept of 'purifying' and 'cleansing' the colon is, as we have seen, ancient and die-hard, unfortunately well anchored in the hodgepodge of popular beliefs, misinformation and medical ignorance that, today as yesterday, plagues the human population.

Hydrocolon therapy is just yet another piece of these practices without any valid scientific rationale, which are proposed for one reason only: profit.

Not unlike those who propose the gluten-free diet even for absolutely healthy patients, or a purely vegan diet, hydrocolon therapy also falls under those practices that are referred to by the English term Health Halo.

Practices that appear to be healthy, but instead are totally unnecessary, and are proposed only for pure profit, which is accompanied by considerable ignorance of those who receive the marketing message (often passed off as health information).

Hydrocolon therapy is comparable to medical abuse, and has elements if not of genuine fraud, at least of a very unclear practice.

Proponents of hydrocolon therapy always rattle off only the data in their favor, but so far there has not been a shred of scientific evidence supporting colonic lavage as a useful therapy (except as a preparatory to colonoscopy).

That the colon is an indispensable organ for our well-being, and that it actively participates in our immune response is a fact and scientifically proven.

Just as it is a well established relief that wants many people to suffer from constipation and colonproctological problems, and the adequate lack, in the market, of trained and experienced Medical professionals in treating these afflictions.

But the right must always be said: you cannot pass off an ancient and scientifically null practice like hydrocolon therapy as a medical treatment, and a beneficial one at that.

Medicine is based on observable data and real measurements, and not on trust, with no evidence for it.