OK, so it doesn’t sound good, but to a lot of people, it sounds like colon cleanings are a good natural therapy cure for what ails you. As Christopher Wanjek covers in this LiveScience.com article, just because it sounds like it should be good for you doesn’t mean it is good for you. In fact, it can be very bad for you.
Unlike many natural therapies, colon cleansing makes a lot of sense. It is expensive, utterly useless and potentially harmful, but it’s all even more logical if one subscribes to the body-as-a-sewer-system paradigm.
Now, I’ll be talking about feces, so this column is not for the squeamish or those eating lunch.
. . .
Laxatives and enemas, which promote bowel movements, have been around for at least 4,000 years and were famously practiced by the ancient Egyptians. That shouldn’t be an endorsement; the ancient Egyptians also buried servants alive to attend to the mummified kings in the afterlife. Colon cleansing refers to a more invasive procedure of water and hoses stuck you-know-where. It’s not clear when this practice started.
All this is part of Mr. Wanjek’s Bad Medicine column. The article covers the history and “logic” of this practive, some of the whys of the rebirth of the practice, and why it’s wrong for you. If you’d like something less (WARNING: scientific term ahead) icky to read that will educate you, here are some other recent Bad Medicine columns:
- Sex and Bad Decisions in Washington
- Revealing the Truth about Natural Cures
- Licensed to Kill: Some Doctors are Real Naturals
- Treating the Symptoms: What’s Wrong with U.S. Health Care
[tags]Bed Medicine, Colon cleansing, LiveScience.com[/tags]