Good Advice
Would you get a colonic even if your doctor told you not to?
This month, a major review of scientific literature, published in The Journal of Family Practice, reported that colon cleansing has little to no benefit and can cause serious side effects.
While the medical establishment has been anti colonics for almost a century—since 1919 when the Journal of the American Medical Association disproved the theory of “autointoxication” due to trapped fecal matter rotting in the colon—proponents of the therapy have essentially ignored them.
This new review, however, looked at 20 studies from the past decade, and found “little evidence of benefit,” according to ScienceDaily.com, and called attention to side effects from cramping to renal failure.
Meanwhile, at spas across Manhattan, New Yorkers continue to make room in their calendars for colonics. Study or no study, it seems, they want that clean, invigorated, flat-belly feeling.
SanaVita's Arul Goldman
“You can do as many studies as you want,” says Arul Goldman, owner of SanaVita, New York’s go-to colonic center and the Barneys of booty cleansing. “Just like going for massage or acupuncture, how you can qualify and quantify the exact benefits that each person is having?”
Goldman didn’t down-play the side effects, when I asked her about them. Many people experience nausea and bloating during the therapy, and for some people, she says, it may last a while. (She did not address renal failure.)
The most important thing, she says, is to make sure you’re going to a therapist certified by the International Association for Colon Hydrotherapy, who uses FDA-approved equipment.
The study, on the other hand, points out that despite the certification process, therapists still have “no significant medical training.”
Which brings us to the discrepancy. In the world of holistic health, scientific data is not always the value marker. Many are more interested in the way their body responds to a treatment, and how they they feel afterward. Plus, people really love to evacuate their bowels.
“Colonics changed my life,” says Goldman, who has been cleansing her colon for 15 years and administering to others for 5. “I’ve never seen anyone who couldn’t benefit from a colonic.”
The research review is sure to turn some away from colonics, and will help potential colon-irrigators make an educated decision about the therapy. Colonics, however, won’t be flushed away. —Lisa Elaine Held
Like many Americans, I suffer chronic constipation. That same medical establishment advised me, at the time a 26-year-old otherwise perfectly healthy female, that I needed to undergo surgery to remove my entire colon. That would have destroyed my entire life. Instead, I chose colonics, which gave me the chance to lead a normal life. Like anything, colonics may have some side effects but for many like me, the benefits far outweigh the cost. An hour of discomfort during a colonic is far better than a week of discomfort without one.
Dori- You are using a colonic for a medical condition, which is different from how they are being used these days. In your case the benefit (colonic) completely outweighs the risk (total colectomy). Most people are not doing them for that reason. So many people I know like to get them to drop a few pounds prior to a big event and even for the supposed ‘detox’ that colonics provide. I am not a believer in said detox properties. A healthy colon is perfectly capable of evacuating itself if you are eating right. There are dangers like electrolyte imbalances and even colonic perforation that people need to consider when deciding about the risks versus the benefits.
[...] • Colonics have little to no benefit and can cause serious side effects. (Well + Good) [...]
As a owner of a spa in NYC, after having colonics on our menu for years; not until we started to investigate the so called therapist, we found out the hard way that therapist are only suppose to show patients after a colon procedure by a MD how to deal with keeping themselves clean. There is no licensing for colon therapist to work on another person. Please your life can be changed drastically by ignorance on the part of one of these people. Remember this is a very intrusive procedure and a manicurist has a license and not your colon cleaner.
I have had colonics and make them a part of my lifestyle. I use it as part of my seasonal detox and it works for me. Just do your research and decide.
I am always leery of these studies because it reeks of economics. Anytime the establishment isn’t making money off of something, you get these studies. Look at how long it took for acupunture to become legitimized though it has been used successfully for thousands of years. The medical establishment is full of invasive procedures that have severe side effects but very few are taken out of practice.
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