Benefits of Colon Cleanse

While much well-deserved attention is paid to soluble fiber foods, it is insoluble fiber that provides roughage and improves bowel regularity. This natural bulk also gives feelings of fullness and satisfaction, resulting in less food intake.

In the 1980s, there was a huge push promoting the benefits of fiber in the diet, particularly its ability to prevent colon cancer. Since that time, there have been conflicting studies, and, for some reason, fiber has fallen out of favor. I predict (something I do very rarely) that you will soon begin to see a dramatic increase in the ill effects of decreasing the amount of fiber in our diets. We’re already seeing an increase in many of these problems, such as widespread obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and numerous bowel problems.

Fiber has decreased dramatically as our food supply has become more and more processed. To make matters worse, low-carb diets like Atkins and South Beach often shun the complex carbohydrates that contain insoluble fiber or roughage. The most commonly consumed “vegetable” in this country is now French fries. Food manufacturers have increasingly removed insoluble fiber from processed foods, to both lessen the gritty texture and make ingredients easier to combine.

Insoluble fiber, the portion of the plant that can’t be broken down by your digestive system, provides a valuable service. The fiber absorbs water and swells, making the stool bulky, soft, and easy to pass. (This is why you always need to increase your water intake when you increase the fiber in your diet.) Without adequate fiber, bowel movements slow and toxic material remains in contact with the intestinal walls longer. The foreign material causes inflammation, and additional toxins are reabsorbed into your bloodstream. These additional toxins increase the workload of both your liver and kidneys. The slow-moving stools also lead to a condition called diverticulitis.

Diverticulum: Latin for “You Don’t Want to Know”

In the early stages of the disease, as your intestines struggle to remove toxins and waste material, small, pea-sized, irreversible pockets called diverticula develop. Waste material becomes trapped in these pockets, which often expand and become inflamed, resulting in diverticulitis. If the pockets rupture, the resulting infection and inflammation in the abdominal cavity can prove fatal.

Not surprisingly, the treatment for diverticulosis (the condition before inflammation sets in) is to increase fiber and promote bowel regularity. At the same time, I would also highly recommend the use of probiotics and fermented foods like sauerkraut and others to help re-establish good bacterial flora in the lower bowel at the same time. I don’t recommend the long-term use of over-the-counter fiber products like those mentioned earlier. It is my experience that long-term use of these products seems to deplete various minerals, which can lead to all kinds of seemingly unrelated problems. This just doesn’t happen when the fiber comes from a wide variety of foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, dried beans, popcorn, brown rice, and bran.

For more information on common digestive problems, bowel irregularity, or a list of the highest fiber foods, visit Dr. Williams’ Web site.

If you are looking to detoxify the body naturally (especially if you are doing a colon cleanse), you’ll want to include items that will help heal any damage to the mucosal lining of the bowels. One of the most time-tested products is slippery elm powder—a favorite topical remedy of Native Americans for wounds, burns, and boils. It was also used internally for ulcers and to soothe an irritated intestinal system.

Slippery elm is very safe, and can be purchased in bulk or in capsules (I prefer the bulk product). A slippery elm drink can be made by adding a heaping teaspoon of the powder to a little cold water to make a paste, and then pouring on a cup of boiling water while constantly stirring the mixture. Let it cool and then drink it, three times a day. For a slight variation you can use boiling milk instead of water and flavor the mixture with cinnamon or nutmeg. If you take slippery elm capsules, I suggest 800–1,000 mg three or four times daily.

An alternative to slippery elm is a product called Sialex from Ecological Formulas. It contains an extract of mucin (the main component of mucus) that re-establishes the protective mucus layer in the bowel and provides a lubricating action. You shouldn’t need Sialex if you use slippery elm, but I wanted you to know about it because it is helpful in healing the most stubborn cases, particularly ulcerations in the stomach and small intestine. The recommended dosage is 1 to 3 capsules with meals.

In addition to the slippery elm, now would be a good time to begin drinking green tea. I’ve expounded on the many benefits of green tea for years. However, most people still don’t realize that green tea can have a very positive effect on bowel regularity and bowel flora. Not only does it have antimicrobial properties and inhibit the growth of many pathogenic bacteria, it encourages growth of the beneficial lactobacilli bacteria at the same time.

A recent report showed that the incidence of celiac disease has increased dramatically in this country over the past 50 years. A recent study published in the journal Gastroenterology showed that undiagnosed celiac disease is at least four times as prevalent as it was in the 1950s.

Celiac disease arises when the body begins to react to the gluten protein found in grains such as wheat and rye. Gluten in the gut isn't a problem on its own; it's only when the gluten makes its way into the bloodstream that trouble begins. Symptoms of celiac disease include diarrhea, bloating, and gas. Eventually, because nutrients are not being absorbed properly, individuals may see signs of malnutrition, including muscle weakness, decrease in vision, and easy bruising.

Gluten makes its way into the bloodstream for two reasons. First, it's not being digested properly. And second, the large protein fragments are making their way through a damaged gut wall. Proper digestion depends on the presence of enzymes. You may already be familiar with the role that enzymes play--digestive health supplements such as Lactaid (lactase enzyme to break down milk sugars) and Beano (amylase to break down the carbohydrates in beans and legumes) have been around for years.

Bowel problems occur because the "villi" (tiny finger-like organs that line the intestinal wall) become damaged, and can no longer do their part as gatekeepers between the digestive tract and the bloodstream.

And don't think that celiac disease is just for the young or middle-aged. A recent study conducted in Finland showed that celiac disease can make its first appearance even in older adults. If you find yourself with the sudden appearance of unexplained bloating, gas, and diarrhea--symptoms that last for more than a day or so--then consider celiac disease as a possibility.

One solution for many people is a digestive enzyme formula that provides all three groups of enzymes: amylases for carbs and lipases for fats, but especially proteases to help digest proteins. Add a high-quality digestive enzyme supplement to your daily regimen and you'll see bowel changes for the better.

The benefits of a good cleansing and detoxification regimen just keep coming. One you might not suspect is that getting rid of body toxins can improve your bone health.

Your bones are a storehouse for minerals, which your body uses to keep pH within a very narrow range (for most people 7.35 to 7.45, which is slightly alkaline). As I've written in my Alternatives newsletter, eating a diet high in acid-forming foods can pull minerals out of your bones. I recommend cutting out foods such as sodas and "white" foods--white flour, white rice, and white sugar--partially because they increase your body's acid levels.

But food isn't the only source of body acidity. Many metabolic wastes are acidic, as well. The most common example is carbon dioxide; the simple act of breathing helps regulate your blood pH by getting rid of acidic CO2. Sweat is acidic as well, as low-pH body toxins leave through your skin.

Many promoters of body detox regimens tout the value of removing environmental toxins. Certainly this is beneficial, but you need to keep all your body systems in top condition so they can efficiently remove metabolic waste as well. Begin with a thorough liver detoxification program, follow it with a colon detox and cleansing, and you're on your way to stronger bones.

Another part of a detox regimen is a colon cleanse. Most individuals are aware that they should be doing some type of colon detoxification regimen, but many of those people are not completely clear about the benefits. After completing a comprehensive colon cleanse, here's what you can expect:

• Improved digestion.
• Reduction in bloating and gas.
• Improved bowel regularity.

All these benefits depend on restoring the health of your digestive tract after you've gotten it cleaned out. To do this, I suggest looking to two digestive supplements.

The first is L-glutamine. This amino acid is a food source for cells that line your gut, which makes it critical for total GI health. It's available in many high-protein foods, but a focus on low-fat diets has led many people to cut back on their consumption of these foods. L-glutamine supplements are widely available on the Web.

The second supplement us a high-quality probiotic. Benefits come from a rebalancing of the bacterial flora in your gut. There's just no way to keep all the bad bacteria out; your gut has developed an efficient mechanism to keep them under control so they don't cause disease or discomfort.

If you haven't indulged in a good colon cleanse recently, then the time to begin is now.

Though many people don't make the connection, hemorrhoids are one of the more common digestive problems. Simply put, a hemorrhoid is a bulging vein in the area of the rectum. It gets that way from the straining to evacuate the bowels.

It's easy to prevent hemorrhoids: improve your bowel regularity. If you find that constipation is a constant companion, then you'll need to essentially reset your digestive system. One of the easiest ways to do that is with a complete colon cleanse. Benefits include improved digestion and a reduction in gas and bloating along with the relief from constipation.

Once you have your colon cleaned out, you'll want to start on a probiotic digestive supplement to rebalance the beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract and keep everything moving along smoothly.

Drink plenty of water to keep things lubricated and get some exercise to massage the bowel internally, and you have the complete hemorrhoid prevention program.

Nearly every attempt to remove toxins from your body will begin with a colon cleanse. Benefits include the purging of all sorts of environmental toxins and natural waste products as you improve your bowel regularity.

Ironically, one of the side effects when you begin to detoxify your body naturally is constipation, and it happens for a very simple reason: It takes plenty of water to keep things moving freely. To prevent constipation, you'll want to increase your intake of water, even if you're already drinking eight glasses a day. Here's a simple guide: If you're not urinating a couple or three times during the day, then you're not drinking enough water.

One of the most basic steps you can take in a full body cleansing and detoxification program is a colon cleansing. You'll notice that nearly every natural detox program focuses on bowel regularity. There's a reason for this: Your gut receives all manner of body toxins as they're cleaned from the blood in the liver, then dumped into the gut through the bile. Any measures you can take to help remove toxins from your intestines lessens the risk that they'll be reabsorbed before they've had a chance to be eliminated.

A thorough digestive cleansing also requires a little maintenance afterward so you can keep up the benefits. Even so, an effective program is remarkably simple.

• Add more fiber (of course). No matter how healthy your gut is, if it doesn't have something to push against, you're headed for bowel irregularity. Don't bother counting fiber grams; just add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, and replace any "white" foods (bread, pasta, etc.) with whole-grain versions.
• Try a natural laxative. If you find that adding fiber isn't enough to produce the bowel changes you want, then add a laxative to your regimen for up to two weeks. Avoid the chemical-based products (which tend to be hard on your digestive tract) and look for ones that contain herbs such as senna or cascara sagrada.
• Heal your gut with glutamine. The amino acid glutamine is a basic food for the cells that line your gut wall. Glutamine is found in most high-protein foods such as meat and beans, but for focused gut healing take an additional 5 grams a day.
• Take a daily probiotic. Benefits of probiotic supplementation come from normalizing the bacterial balance in your gut. Healthy gut flora promote a healthy gut wall, which means that you're not reabsorbing all the environmental toxins that have just been cleaned by the liver.

That's the basics. You should begin to see the benefits of a colon cleanse almost immediately, as you just feel lighter and more refreshed. The benefits will continue long after, as other organs have their loads lightened (because they're not trying to get rid of everything that wasn't leaving through your colon.)

• Your skin will be clearer.
• You'll breathe more easily.
• You'll think more clearly.

All in all, a regular colon cleansing is well worth the effort.