Colonic hydrotherapy, also known as colonic irrigation or colonic cleansing is a controversial therapy which flushes away the contents of your colon with the intention of ridding your colon of toxins, plaque, compacted faeces and even foreign bodies which have got stuck in your colon.

Private clinics offering colonic hydrotherapy have sprung up around London, and some people swear by it. But many medical experts warn against this procedure, pointing out that the health benefits are unproven. As a personal trainer in London I’m sometimes asked by my clients if I would recommend they go for a colonic. My reply is ‘absolutely not, unless your GP or medical specialist advises it’.

I first became interested in this procedure when I read an article back in 2002 in The Guardian (Saturday 9th March 2002) by Ian Belcher. He went on a fasting/colonic retreat called The Spa Resort in Koh Samui, Thailand. What stuck in my mind was his claim that his photographer Anthony Cullen, who also had a colonic, excreted a child’s marble (back in the 20th century, up until the early 1980s, children played marbles) that he claimed to have swallowed 22 years earlier at the age of 5. Ian Belcher himself claims that he excreted solid lumps and strips that he thought were meat gristle from a history of eating steaks.

These dramatic claims led me to think that the colon can become clogged up if you’ve eaten too much junk food and red meat over a number of years, and that a colonic is the best way to cleanse your colon of built-up waste products. But now, after further research, and talking to medical experts, I’m far from convinced.

The Colon and its Function

The colon (also known as the bowel, or the large intestine) is the lowest section of the gastrointestinal tract. It connects at one end to the small intestine at the lower right side of your abdominal cavity, and at the other end it connects to the rectum where waste matter is expelled from the body in the form of faeces. The colon not only expels waste (by a muscular movement called peristalsis) it also absorbs water and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) into the body. The three parts of the colon are the ascending colon, the transverse colon and the descending colon, and the colon is rather like a large inverted U shape.

Your colon contains literally billions of ‘friendly bacteria’, more in number than the total number of cells in your body. This ecosystem of flora (such as Acidophilus) is crucial for digestion and also for fighting toxic (pathogenic) bacteria, excess yeast, and parasites. There is around 4kg of good bacteria in the colon of the average adult. The collective name for all this bacteria in your colon is the ‘microbiome’.

What is Colonic Hydrotherapy?

Also known simply as a ‘colonic’,  this procedure is an alternative therapy designed to expel toxins and compacted waste matter from the colon.

There is usually a period of fasting before the procedure itself. Then you lie back while a lubricated speculum is inserted into the rectum, attached to an inflow/outflow tube which is attached at the other end to a machine that pumps warm water into the colon, between 2 and 6 litres at a time.

When your colon is full of warm water, the therapist massages your abdomen, to help dislodge built-up waste. The outflow tube is see-through to enable you to see for yourself (with horrified fascination) what waste products are excreted. Often the therapist recommends several colonics to remove all compacted waste. Each procedure lasts around 45 minutes, and up to 100 litres of water is used each time.

What are the Health Claims for Colonic Hydrotherapy?

Advocates of colonics will inform you that the body is unable to eliminate all the waste products that enter the colon, if someone has eaten an unhealthy diet over a number of years. The theory goes that layers of plaque build up over time, along the internal walls of the colon, and trap pieces of undigested food such as meat gristle, resulting in a build up of pathogens and toxins that cause or contribute to a wide range of ailments and medical conditions.

Colonic hydrotherapy has been claimed to cure or relieve IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), constipation, chronic flatulence, depression, ulcers, fatigue, and a range of other disorders. Advocates claim it can give you healthier skin, clear eyes, more energy, a stronger immune system. It is also claimed to rid you of parasites, and help with weight loss. Above all it is claimed to give you a fully functioning digestive system once all the compacted waste has been washed away.

Clinics which perform colonics may even refer to its use in ancient Egypt in 1,500 BC, and ancient China. Chai Yu-Hua, a Chinese physician in 400 BC, talked of “purging the bowels to eliminate the source of poisons and repair the body.”

What Do Medical Experts Say?

There is no conclusive medical evidence that colonic hydrotherapy does what it claims to do. The body detoxifies itself, through a combination of the liver, kidneys, friendly bacteria in the colon, and the physical muscular movement of peristalsis which pushes faeces out of the body.

One major scientific paper (The Dangers of Colon Cleansing) published in August 2011 in The American Journal of Family Practice concluded that it has “no proven benefits and many adverse effects”. Its lead author, Dr Ranit Mishori of the Georgetown University School of Medicine, reviewed 20 studies on colonics.

He highlighted the many potential dangers: perforated bowel from insertion of tube or water pressure on the sensitive colon walls, acute water intoxication, bacterial infection from contaminated equipment, electrolyte imbalance, bloating, nausea, severe and painful cramps, subsequent bowel disorders, and at the most extreme end of the scale, the risk of  kidney failure or heart failure.

Dr Mishori also warned against orally administered detox products (various pills, powders and herbs that are sold over the counter, or worse still on the internet), which “tout benefits that don’t exist”.

In researching this blog post, I came across an article in the Mail Online (11th August 2011), which interviewed a gastroenterologist, Dr David Forecast. He was adamant that colonic irrigation had no benefits:

“I’ve looked up approximately 20,000 bottoms and can promise that I’ve never seen waste older than a few hours. The idea that faecal matter sticks to the bowel walls and can sit there decaying for several months or even years is nonsense.”

He goes on to say “Likewise, the claim that faecal matter accumulates in crevices in the bowel doesn’t make sense. The bowel wall is smooth.”

My research also revealed a report that the Advertising Standards Authority banned a colonic irrigation advert by The Body Detox Clinic in Newcastle, which claimed that it could relieve symptoms of 19 conditions including colitis, fatigue and bad breath. The ASA ruled that these claims were not medically proven. The clinic’s defence was that it had many satisfied clients who could provide anecdotal evidence of resulting health benefits.

My Views on Colonics

Personally I would never risk colonic hydrotherapy. The colon contains a delicately balanced ecosystem of friendly bacteria which would be flushed out by a colonic, and although friendly bacteria can be repopulated by probiotics, it seems to me that it’s best to leave those billions of friendly bacteria where they are.

Advocates of colonics point to the large amount of waste that is eliminated. Could that possibly be the 4kg of friendly bacteria that lives in the average colon? The only thing that puzzles me are the claims that meat gristle, marbles etc have been discovered as a result of colonics (which supports the claim that faetal waste and plaque and toxins build up in the colon over years), but this is only anecdotal evidence, and has never been proven or reproduced in any scientific study of any colonic performed under controlled conditions. Most likely the only gristle found is what has been eaten in the last few days before the colonic.

Colonic hydrotherapy seems like an unnecessarily radical and invasive procedure, and unless medical doctor strongly advises it for a medically proven benefit, I’d prefer to keep my colon healthy through good nutrition, regular exercise, sleep, and healthy lifestyle.

The fact that colonics have been discredited by the medical profession is a good enough reason for me to advise against it. I think the popularity of colonics is a symptom of our ‘quick fix’ culture combined with our celebrity culture in which celebs like Madonna, Princess Diana, and Jennifer Aniston have at various times endorsed this procedure. As a personal trainer in London, I advise my clients to avoid this procedure.

(Dominic Londesborough is a personal trainer in London and an online nutrition coach)