Discovering the Colon

When I am coming down with a sore throat the cause is usually something sitting in my gut.  My holistic health practitioner taught me years ago that before I reach for sore throat medicines, or even natural antibiotics such as garlic or oregano oil, I should give my colon a cleanse to see if that’s all that was needed.

Not a fan of enemas, I adopted the Salt Flush – drinking 1-2 spoons of salt dissolved in a quart or more of very warm water.  Done first thing in the morning, on an absolutely empty stomach (not even tea/coffee), it washes through me, with a very productive visit to the bathroom within in 40-60 minutes, and.. ta da!  99% of the time, my sore throat is gone within hours.

I have taken to doing the Salt Flush every month or so, when I know I have been eating a high percentage of fried or starchy food, or if I am just feeling tired and sluggish.  However, I have remained very resistant to getting a colonic.

The colon is another name for your large intestine, which is 5-6 feet long, snaking up the right side of your belly, across the top (just under the diaphragm) and down the left side, ending with your rectum.

The one colonic experience I had 10 years ago was extremely unpleasant.  The woman giving me the colonic was nice enough, and the process was only somewhat physically uncomfortable, but she chatted incessantly at me the entire time and I felt disconnected from the process, and like I had to chat back, even as my belly bellowed with gurgling water.  I also didn’t like going poo with someone in the room.

Recently though, both my partner and my mother have had colonics and have been raving about how great they are, so I finally caved and decided to have one.

The biggest difference was that this woman was really tuned in and gave me relevant feedback and information throughout the session.  She massaged different parts of my belly throughout the process, to help the water to dislodge any impacted gunk, and explained to me how the colon has pressure points related to different organs and how clogging in each area can effect one’s health in specific ways.

She told me which part of my own colon had the most buildup in it, and talked about what she saw coming out (I will spare you the detail, but it was very informative).  Unlike my previous experience, the kind of machine this woman used was a gravity-based “closed system,” where my waste came out through a clear tube and went directly into a drain in the wall – no sound or smell.  This made me feel less like I was going to the bathroom with someone in the room, and it was fascinating to actually watch the transparent tube as I listened to what she was telling me about my body.

She also used chlorophyll, rich in magnesium, in the colonic at different points to both soothe the colon and dislodge debris.

Since I do the Salt Flush once a month or so, and eat tons of raw vegetables, I did not expect the colonic to have a big impact, but as soon as it was over I could feel an enormous difference, like there was 50% more space in my lower abdomen.   It is a sensation unlike any I have ever felt, to feel so light in my lower belly, and I know for sure that a significant amount of encrusted debris was removed and that it will have lasting health benefits.

Here you can see two maps I found of colons – a “normal” one and an “abnormal” one – that show the areas linked to various parts of the body, and how the toxicity generated by a gunked-up colon might look and affect the body.

The unfortunate  thing about this is that the abnormal colon is actually “normal” – meaning that most people today are actually walking around with varying degrees of abnormality due to all of the processed foods we eat.  Not to get too nitty gritty on you here, but we should all be having 2-3 large bowel movements a day – and I’m pretty sure most of us aren’t.  That means that what we eat is stewing, fermenting, rotting, and compacting, which leaves gunk impacted in the crevices of our intestines, affecting any and all of our body systems.

I hope thinking about this will give you inspiration to try the Salt Flush next time you are getting a sore throat, and to have a colonic to see how light you can feel – and to be really aware that the buildup down there may be a major cause of other seemingly unrelated health issues, and cleansing it is a key to your vitality.

Ps. Fun fact:  The Ancient Egyptians did colonics!

- Contributed by Karali Pitzele.  See her bio here.