Enema

[zeno]

Several people on this forum seem to question the value of enemas. Why is this? Although they aren't a tradition practiced during the Paleolithic era they seem to be an effective way of cleansing one of the elimination systems.

GS, you recommend liver flushes before resorting to coffee enemas. Is this true in the case of water enemas or EVOO enemas as well? Do liver flushes and enemas achieve results that are entirely different? In what instance should they each be applied?

Everywhere except on this forum enemas are touted as a surefire way to kick start the elimination system.

A Personal Aside
I find that my digestive system is sluggish, in that, it requires a great deal of energy to process foods and I do so at a retarded rate. This explains how the Milk Diet has been successful for me: the milk is much more easily digested than solid foods and also provides a balanced nutrition. However, the Milk Diet has not been perfectly curative because I still find that when I do eat solid foods, I still require quite a bit of energy to process the foods and I still suffer from a retarded digestion on the Milk Diet. This leads me to believe that while the milk is supplying me with plenty of nutrition which I was previously deficient of (which explains why I've been feeling better than ever since I began the Milk Diet), the Milk Diet may not be enough to solve my issues. To be honest, I really have no idea what I'm facing (in regard to my problem with digesting food)! However, I observe that the only time I've been able to conquer insomnia since high school was when I was a vegetarian eating minimally and now on the Milk Diet.

This brings me to the conclusion that an enema would be able to help my sluggish digestive and elimination system but the tone of this forum causes me to be apprehensive. I've tried liver flushes with success and I've had a colonic. I found the liver flush to be taxing yet effective in flushing stones and the colonic to be more pleasant and convenient overall and effective in flushing compacted fecal matter.

[TylerDurden]

I once was told to get an enema to deal with one of my health problems pre-rpd diet. It was a waste of time,did nothing for me. AV and others find enemas/colonic irrigation to be dangerous since these apparently destroy the bacteria in the colon etc.

[goodsamaritan]

Enemas are valuable tools and as tools are used in the proper situation.

Know about them, know how to use them and use them when needed.

Not everything must be "paleo" in your life.  We are living in the 21st century and know and use all tools in our grasp to achieve what we need to achieve.

[eveheart]

I have gotten more of my share of enemas and colonics. My opinion now is that I was looking for the quick fix, and got it. I stopped getting colonics (from colon hydrotherapists) when my therapist bragged to me that she hopped onto her own table at the end of every other day and had been doing so for the past 6 years. She still had allergies, food cravings, all the things she was claiming to cure, plus a row of food supplements that she takes every day totaling hundreds of dollars per month.

Nowadays, I'm looking for the slow fix: What can I do to get back to normal, that is sustainable for the rest of my life? A quick-fix enema is still a viable option when a quick-fix is needed for an acute situation, but enemas have disrupting side effects. IMO, the healthy dog that wakes from its slumber and instantly leaps did not need debilitating enemas to attain that abundant energy.

[zeno]

I stopped getting colonics (from colon hydrotherapists) when my therapist bragged to me that she hopped onto her own table at the end of every other day and had been doing so for the past 6 years. She still had allergies, food cravings, all the things she was claiming to cure, plus a row of food supplements that she takes every day totaling hundreds of dollars per month.

Ha-ha, the woman who performed my colonic admitted to the exact same and was terribly overweight, to boot! I was quite confused.

Enemas are valuable tools and as tools are used in the proper situation.

Know about them, know how to use them and use them when needed.

What would you recommend given the information I've provided? Should I first attend to my colon then my liver? And if I were to attend to my colon, would you recommend an enema over colon cleansing products?

[van]

  In the seventies I used to believe that our colons were covered with waste and followed all the cleansing routines.  But ask any colon surgeon, (not that we really know any) and none will say that when they look in there with scopes or do surgery and are handling those tissues that they first have to scrape away the accumulated mucous and hardened debris before they can suture the tissues back together again.    My 'guess' is that the toxins or waste material is all through out the body and when given the proper diet and encouragement that the wastes pass through the intestinal walls and out.  And like the swollen veined nose of an old unhealthy man or woman, that the colon's tissues themselves have collected wastes like a sponge.    Unless something is acute, let your diet heal and cleanse your body.   If not, it's so easy to get caught into the rut of believing one has to follow more and more regimes to find some holy grail of cleanliness.   It will come in it's own due time with proper diet and care for one's self. 

[zeno]

Thank you for your comment Van. I appreciate your optimism.

[RawZi]

    If you study Ayurveda or Chinese Five Phase Theory or another Eastern ancient medical system or even the European ones it was believed things could be explained by a few elements like ether, air, fire, wood, metal and water.  Each organ was assigned an element.  They were assigned parts of our life like psyche, spirit, emotion, structure, passion etc.  Smelly things have to do with air or spirit, so colon waste could be air; because smell carries on the air, it is a gas like air.  In Ayurveda Vata constituion is air/spirit.  According to Ayurveda people who have the vata part of their constitution (spirit) imbalanced, enemas address about 90% of all their symtoms.  Western people tend to eat food flavors that help balance Vata- sour, sweet, salt.  Westerners need this as their/our spirits/intelligence tend to be imbalanced.  Most of Western diet even with added sweet/sour/salt condiment are still imbalanced in relation to Vata.  Hence we/they who have this imbalanced Vata path do well to have enemas. 

    Raw vegan food is not perfectly digested or absorbed so that much of it comes out almost identically to the way it went in.  People get wasting syndromes and find it very difficult to grow muscle. In my case I could not utilize cooked meat, so my body wasted much worse when that was in my diet, and body was extremely deficient.  Vegan condiments can instigate reactions in the body, irritate, roughcleanse etc, but never sooth as well nor build as well as raw animal foods.  When we are strong our colons can work as they should, as they have structure and reality, so they get clean when they're ready, rather than us having to try to manipulate with water enemas and such.  I should know.  My colon works on its own now.  Vegan my colon quit, it was like a bottle dry and stuck with a hard paste or a large brick.  I could drink plain water all day and night and on and just peed it out water, and left me drier. 

    Raw meat, raw FAT and raw eggs have what your colon walls need to eat so they can fulfill their health potential.  No other reasonable nourishment has as much of the right nutrients for a person to live in the body or healthy life in the colon as is in this case.   This is why raw paleo people rarely if ever do enemas, and other people do them time to time or frequently.  Like the Native American, we are healthier in spirit in our diet.  Even millenia ago Ayurvedics ate raw milk and raw meat.  A problem is cities.  Many people lived close together and started cooking meat, so found meat to be a substandard food. They ruled meat almost completely out, and neglected to record it was once in the diet.  Some Mongolians still eat a diet of mostly meat and milk, most of it raw.   It is very long held tradition.  They keep much knowledge in relation to what animal parts to eat in different situations.

[goodsamaritan]

What would you recommend given the information I've provided? Should I first attend to my colon then my liver? And if I were to attend to my colon, would you recommend an enema over colon cleansing products?

There is no correct answer... it DEPENDS on the situation.  Witness these situations:

1. With my 10 year old latest sick son... now almost fully well, no amount of herbal colon cleansers, oils taken in mouth, water enemas, vinegar enemas, coffee enemas could grab onto and dump out his impacted feces in pockets.  It had to take extra virgin OLIVE OIL enemas to get them all out.

2. With my plumber who had TERMINAL liver cancer 6 months to live, his colon plumbing was just so plugged up.  Because in the 10 years he was diagnosed with liver cancer he and his doctors did not know about colon cleansing or liver flushing or raw diets.  I merely taught him to buy Dr. Tam's Miracle tea, take it for 5 straight days, then do egg yolk liver flushing and kidney cleansing, eat raw meat and fat sometimes.  Ta dah, he is all cured.

The colon cleansing resulted in him getting rid of mucoidal plaque.  Those black ugly crap from the colon.

3.  Young woman 21, couldn't get pregnant after 6 months of trying.  Suffering from ACID REFLUX, dependent on taking antacids.  Gave Dr. Tam's Miracle tea, take for 5 straight evenings.   No diet change.  Cured.  She gets pregnant and has her baby.  SAD dieter.

4.  Liver cancer patient 60 years old.  In total body pain.  No pain reliever works.  Morphine does not work anymore.  I teach them to do a coffee enema.  He calls me up in the early morning and exclaims he has slept the best sleep in months and his pain was instantly relieved. "Why don't the doctors know about this ?"

5. My brother, full body psoriasis attack.  SAD dieter, full of medical drugs and steroids.  Emergency herbal colon cleanse immediately relieves him.

6. My grandmother 88 years old full blown pneumonia.  In hospital.  Hospital says they had given up and she was going to die.  I finance my aunt to fly in to that province, she gives apple juice, then the herbal colon cleanser.  Grandmother poops tons after 4 days of hospital neglect.  She is CURED of pneumonia and lives on to this day she is 92.

7. Another grandmother, then 82 years old.  SAD dieter.  None of her laxatives work.  1 week no poop.  I supply Dr. Tam's Miracle tea.  She gets her poop.

And I have lots and lots and lots and lots more stories I could give you, all first hand.  Enema, colon cleanse are TOOLS in the hands of a skilled healer could spell the meaning of life and death... in an EMERGENCY!

The basic thing is, you give something to a sick person as general treatment, something that does no harm.  Or does the least harm.  30 to 60 ml of castor oil comes to mind.  Or Dr. Tam's Miracle Tea.  Or Colosan.  Or oxypowder.

If you have never done any colon cleansing ever in your entire life, it may be prudent to do one of the above.  As I have not met you face to face, it is hard for me to judge.

I would not bet on colon hydrotherapy.  I feel that is too much of a shock.  Me and my family did colon hydrotherapy.  But when we learned to use enemas and colon cleansers and castor oil, we never looked back and felt colon hydrotherapy was harmful and not as effective.

I would use Barefoot herbalist MH LBB later to restore colon function and even strengthen better than ever.

The order of detox is always:

#0 DIET CHANGE to RAW PALEO DIET.

#1 Colon Cleanse
#2 Kidney Cleanse
#3 Liver Flush

I got a detox list here http://www.curemanual.com/detox-protocols-and-treatments/

Barefoot Herbalist MH orange juice fasting with raw eggs with LBB (check your activation dose how many you should take) and nightly warm water enemas if you don't poop may be for you.

[van]

goodamaritan from the examples you gave above,  it looks like they all had diets that contributed to their condition.   And yes a constipated colon full of who knows what, is going to pollute the rest of the body, and hence, yes, to empty the colon of that matter should give immediate results and relief to the entire system.  And yes, if someone is not willing to shift dietary patterns and is suffering then to expel the matter in the colon will give immediate relief.    But for those who have made the choice to eat as you are doing now,  the real question remains as to how beneficial in the long run are all the myriad or many offered cleansing products on the market today?   Or what is really working, eating a natural diet and letting the body clean and heal itself, or imposing something on it.     For instance, I used to belief that to be clean inside, one had to eat lots of fruit etc.  And then I discovered the strongest cleanser of them all For Me,, and that is raw proteins.     I am not stating something black or white here, just posing the possibility that the body has  its own way of handling things.   

[zeno]

Van, thank you for your insight. I see now the benefit of patience and perseverance.

My only concern is that due to whatever abnormality that is present regardless of feeding the body with powerful food the body won't be able to use it well. I suppose this is foolish because the body is constantly breaking down and building up, even if it seems slight and slow.

Nutrition is what sustains us and thus we can rely on our natural healing functions to repair our bodies if we are meeting our nutritional requirements.

I suppose I'm expecting miracles too soon. I'll stick with slow and steady...

I now understand the widely held opinion of enemas on this forum.

[eveheart]

One thing that has helped my digestive cycle is giving my system a complete rest of 12 hours overnight. The more I read about digestive and other bodily processes, the more I understand that the whole body has a cycle, including an elimination cycle. The hormonal cycles are incredibly complex, and they work best when the ingestion cycle is moderately regulated.

Since digestion itself uses so much of the body's energy, a "warrior" big meal wasn't working for me, nor was "5 or 6 small meals" doing me any good. My commitment is to eat 3 meals spaced 5 or 6 hours apart, fast from 7 pm to 7 am (this works well with my work schedule), and evaluate how it works by the end of December.

What I do know so far is that enemas are out. I tried a week of Colosan followed by an egg yolk liver cleanse and felt horrible afterwards. PM me if you want my leftover Colosan; I got plenty, I'll pay postage.

[goodsamaritan]

I am currently advising a man whose bile duct is stuck / shut / says it is cancer.  So he cannot digest fat.  One of the treatments he needs to remove the inflammations and stuck gunk in his liver are coffee enemas.

Can't go out the normal route, go down the back portal.

[Dorothy]

Zeno - I see that there were other posts and you have come to some conclusions already while I slowly wrote the following post little by little while doing other things. I will post it anyway.

Van, Zi, Eve - your posts show just why raw paleo as a lifestyle makes so much sense. It's about giving the body what it needs to heal itself in its own time in its own way. That's why so little talk about enemas happens here.

Instead we talk about providing fat to hydrate, about eating bacteria-rich foods to supercharge our digestion, about exercise and sun exposure. Like Eve said, it's about the long-run, not the fast miracle cure that might end up not being so miraculous later. It's about changing every day eating and habits for the rest of life. That seems to be the big focus here.

Granted, if you are extremely ill or about to die you might need extreme measures like the Gerson coffee enemas that GS referred to, to flush the liver toxins directly into the colon to release them in a fast and furious way. But if you aren't about to die or aren't in terrible pain the good old tortoise and the hare story comes to mind. Step by step taking charge of making your every day habits healthier and healthier until there is a firm foundation for you to live from as your body heals its way back in its own way.

Taking herbs as food to help cleanse and build can be useful and an addition. But I think of them as extra boosters and helpers and diet as the main focus.

A note on colontherapy. Many years ago I suffered terribly because I was given so many antibiotics. A healer told me to do get a colonic. It nearly killed me. I had just enough good bacteria in my colon left to keep on breathing but when the little I had was washed away I was in real trouble.

If you aren't digesting well, instead of washing and scrubbing, sometimes building up your nutrition and your army of digestion helpers makes more sense. There is much discussion here about fermented foods. These, to me, in terms of really supercharging your digestion for the long-run, make the most sense if you aren't in an emergency situation.

[TylerDurden]

Dorothy, glad to see someone else railing against colonic irrigation/antibiotics/enemas, given my own and others' past seriously negative experiences  with those. Those things are extremely dangerous and should be avoided whenever possible.

[Dorothy]

I am currently advising a man whose bile duct is stuck / shut / says it is cancer.  So he cannot digest fat.  One of the treatments he needs to remove the inflammations and stuck gunk in his liver are coffee enemas.

Can't go out the normal route, go down the back portal.

Is he turning bright yellow yet? Itching like a maniac all over his body? If it's pancreatic or biliary cancer that is very different than having a stone stuck.... I'm sure you realize. Most often if the bile duct is shut off and it's pancreatic cancer that means it started on the other side of the pancreas and worked it's way over and it's at its last stage. You have almost no time to reverse such a condition - but of course you can't know unless he had scans done. If it is what you are suggesting it is, the condition is much more serious than liver cancer and if he is really backing up bile, if that is not unstuck, the danger will be extreme. Even the most holistic cancer practitioners in such a case prescribe a bile duct stent to give the patient enough time for the cancer treatments to work. It's also agonizing.

[raw-al]

As others have alluded, the problem with introducing things through the wrong end is that it tends to dry out, irritate or otherwise damage the tissue and since the tissue is very delicate, infection and a number of things can be introduced which can be worse than the original issue.

Also you may be attacking the wrong place for the problem.

Also the problem is that the practitioner may be following a regime that they dreamed up or an Allopathic solution which are well known to be very invasive and not holistic. Holistic in this case meaning treating the whole area or tissue as opposed to just the supposed problem (t)issue.

A properly trained Ayurvedic physician can administer an enema and it is typically done every second day during Panchakarma. It is very gentle and uses various things which are appropriate to the body type and or issues. In the process, various techniques are used to encourage problematic tissues in the patients body to pass off the toxins which may be located in the areas in question. The toxins may be undigested food that has made it's way through the intestinal walls into the bloodstream and made it's way to a spot where it settles in.

This process is done with a special easy to digest diet, rest and in a warm, comfortable clinical, retreat setting as the patient is weakened due to the robbing of nutrients.

I would not have an enema done by any other person regardless of what story that spun.

If you really believe your colon is coated then one or two teaspoons of castor oil before bedtime will do the trick. You can do this for as long as you wish. (Who would wish to eat castor.... yucky) (I get sick just thinking about it) Just chase it with some juice or whatever.

Really the best thing is to eat a raw diet with lots of fats to soften and clean the GI Tract.