Effects of Constipation on Your Colon's Health

Improving your colon's health

It would be easy to clear up the problem of constipation if it were just a matter of removing loose waste material from the inside of the colon. In fact, it is likely that a high enema would be able to eliminate any loose faecal material from the colon. Unfortunately, the solution to constipation is not that simple.

The Function of the Colon

Although most people tend to think of constipation as the inability of the body to eliminate faeces from the bowel, it involves more than that. In addition to the retention of faeces in the bowel, constipation also involves faecal retention throughout the entire first half of the colon. This includes the area from the cecum and extending all the way to the middle of the transverse colon. This section of the colon includes a wall with nerves and muscles that are highly sensitive. Its function is to create a series of motions known as peristaltic waves that propel the contents of the colon on the path that eventually leads to evacuation of the waste material.

The first half of the colon also has two other essential functions the first of which is to extract any nutritional material the small intestine was unable to collect. The nutrition that has been extracted from the colon is then collected within the blood vessels of the colon’s lining and carried into the liver for processing. It also collects intestinal flora that is used to lubricate the colon from the glands in its wall.

Many professionals erroneously think that enemas and colon cleanses and irrigations wash this intestinal flora from the colon and deprive it of lubrication.  This line of thinking has no basis in truth or fact, though when there is an accumulation of packed faeces in the bowel causing faecal encrustation, it’s impossible for the colonic lining to do its job of producing intestinal flora for lubrication. A lack of lubrication in the colon makes the constipation worse and can lead to toxaemia.

Constipation and Intestinal Parasites

Faecal encrustation has a detrimental effect on the production of the intestinal flora that lubricates the colon, the creation of peristaltic waves that allow the elimination of waste material, and the absorption of any nutritional elements that remain in the waste residue that enters the colon from the small intestine. One can easily assume that the adhesive qualities of the faeces in the colon can prevent the colon from functioning normally, thus allowing it to create an abundance of toxins within the body.

When the bowel is toxic, it can become home to a variety of harmful bacteria and intestinal parasites. Many people don’t realize that worms are deadlier than cancer on a worldwide basis with over 200 million people suffering from intestinal parasites. The worms can vary in size immensely with some being microscopic while some tapeworms can measure up to twenty feet in length. Although we tend to think of parasitic infections attacking areas where there is little sanitation, this is not always the case. In fact, cases in the United States and other civilized areas are on the increase.

Importance of Colonic Hydrotherapy

Colon hydrotherapy is not only beneficial to the health of your colon in cases of constipation, it can also be an excellent screen device for colo-rectal cancer and as a diagnostic procedure to evaluate the overall health of the colon. If used as a screening device for cancer, the entire colon would be cleansed every six months. In addition, it will be examined for occult blood for early detection of colo-rectal cancer.

Colon hydrotherapy can replace other diagnostic procedures including barium enema, sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy, thus providing a more accurate study.

Colon hydrotherapy can address the real issue of constipation. Though laxatives provide temporary relief, they do not address the root of the problem. The key to eliminating constipation is to address the issue causing it rather than to seek temporary relief with laxatives, and colon hydrotherapy can evaluate and eliminate the causes of constipation.

Cindy Grant