Each time you eat a substantial meal, you stimulate stretch receptors in your stomach that are responsible for triggering normal and mass peristaltic waves throughout your small and large intestines. These natural contractile waves promote regular movement of waste material through your colon and rectum.

Also, eating substantial meals allows significant boluses (roundish masses) of waste materials to travel together through your colon, turn into well formed stools, and get eliminated from your body in an efficient manner.

Don’t suppress the desire to go.

If you regularly suppress the urge to have a bowel movement, waste materials spend more time than is optimal in your colon, causing excessive dehydration of these materials and formation of hard stools.

Avoid anal intercourse if possible.

Your anus is designed to be an exit, and your anal sphincter is not naturally inclined to comfortably allow external objects to enter your rectal pouch. Your anal sphincter is designed to stretch to allow passing of stools when your rectal pouch accumulates enough waste materials to illicit contraction of its walls.

Repeated anal intercourse can lead to a loss in anal sphincter tone, which may lead to incontinence issues, if not now, then in the future.

Repeated anal intercourse can also lead to regular injury of the mucosal lining in your rectal pouch, anal canal, and in some cases, the distal region of your sigmoid colon. Repeated injury and healing of these areas may increase your risk of developing polyps, which can increase your risk of developing colorectal cancer.

Ensure adequate intake of water and/or water-rich foods.

Water helps to move waste materials along, and is absorbed throughout the entire length of your colon. Insufficient water intake can cause stools to form far before waste materials reach your rectal pouch, which can cause constipation.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to drink several glasses of water per day. If you eat plenty of water-rich plant foods, then you can rely on your sense of thirst to dictate how much water to drink. For more guidance on this issue, please view:

Why Drinking Too Much Water Is Dangerous

Eat fiber-rich foods regularly.

Fiber adds bulk to the boluses of waste material that travel through your large intestine, and this bulk is essential to your colon’s ability to turn waste materials into well formed stools.

A diet that is rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains ensures high fiber intake.

Ensure optimal vitamin D status.

Optimal vitamin D status significantly lowers your risk of developing all types of cancer, including colorectal cancer.

To learn more about how to make sure your body is getting enough vitamin D, have a look at the following:

How to Make Sure that You Are Getting Enough Vitamin D for Your Best Health

Ensure adequate vitamin A status.

As mentioned earlier, glands that line the mucosal lining of your colon are responsible for releasing mucous that is needed to lubricate your feces; vitamin A is needed to maintain the health of these specialized cells that release mucous.

It’s best to ensure adequate vitamin A status by eating healthy foods that contain vitamin A.

Ensure adequate intake of healthy fats.

All of your cells, including those of your large intestine and nervous system, require a constant influx of undamaged fatty acids and cholesterol to remain fully functional. If you don’t ensure adequate intake of healthy fats, your nervous system and the smooth muscles that surround your digestive passageway – both of which are responsible for creating peristaltic waves throughout your digestive tract – may deteriorate in function.

Also, intake of healthy fats is necessary for optimal absorption of fat-soluble vitamin A, which, as mentioned above, is critical to building and maintaining the mucosal lining of your colon.

Healthy foods that are rich in healthy fats include: avocados, organic eggs, olives, extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, coconuts, raw nuts, raw seeds, and cold-water fish.

Build and maintain a population of friendly bacteria in your digestive tract.

Large populations of friendly bacteria can keep your digestive tract clean and healthy by:

• Promoting optimal digestion, thereby preventing build-up of toxic waste materials.
• Taking up space and resources, thereby helping to prevent infection by harmful bacteria, fungi, and parasites.

Three main causes of diarrhea are:

• Undesirable microorganisms
• Food intolerances (like lactose intolerance)
• Stress

In the first two cases listed above, it makes sense that your body would want things to move quickly through your system; your body doesn’t want to spend time digesting foods that it can’t properly extract nutrients from or that are laced with disease-causing microbes.

Stress can cause transit time to shorten by messing with your enteric nervous system; please recall that your enteric nervous system controls the reflex contractions that mark “haustral churning.” Your enteric nervous system is a part of your autonomic nervous system, and your autonomic nervous system regulates your physiological responses to emotional and physical stress.

When waste material travels through your colon more slowly than it should, enough water is extracted from your waste material to cause your stools to become uncomfortably hard.

Five main causes of constipation are:

• Eating sporadically, or eating meals that are too small to elicit mass peristalsis.
• Not going when you feel an urge to go.
• Lack of a healthy intestinal lining that is capable of producing enough mucous to properly lubricate your stools (vitamin A deficiency is a potential cause of this situation).
• Insufficient intake of water, water-rich foods, and/or fiber-rich foods.
• Stress

1. A lowered risk of developing colorectal cancer, one of the most common types of cancer in industrialized countries.
2. A lowered risk of experiencing irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation, and chronic diarrhea.
3. A lowered risk of developing hemorrhoids.
4. Less gas production.
5. More efficient absorption of water and minerals.
6. A feeling of lightness, comfort, and well-being in your abdominal region.

Your colon and rectum are collectively referred to as your large intestine, which is the last part of your digestive tract.

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Large Intestine Explained

Movement of Waste Material

After you eat a substantial meal, your stomach expands enough to trigger a reflex that causes a contractile wave (called a peristaltic wave) to travel through your small intestine and push any liquid waste material (chyme) that is sitting in the last part of your small intestine into your large intestine.

Once enough liquid waste material accumulates in your cecum (the first part of your large intestine), the waste material begins to move up your ascending colon.

Movement of waste material through your colon is facilitated by something called “haustral churning.” Your colon is divided along its length into small pouches called haustra. When a haustrum is filled with substantial waste material, its muscular walls contract and push the waste material into the next haustrum. The contractile reflex that allows haustral churning is regulated by your enteric nervous system, which is a division of your autonomic nervous system.

On average, your colon experiences anywhere from three to twelve moderate waves of contractions every minute. After every substantial meal, your colon experiences a much larger contractile wave, called “mass peristalsis.” Mass peristalsis serves to push waste materials from your transverse colon all the way to your rectum. In most people, mass peristalsis occurs about three times a day.

Water and Nutrient Absorption

The mucosal lining of your large intestine is lined with tiny pits that open into long, tube-like intestinal glands; these glands are lined with specialized cells that absorb water, and other specialized cells (goblet cells) that release mucous into your large intestine to lubricate your stools and to protect the lining of your large intestine against acidic substances and potentially harmful gases.

The specialized cells that absorb water from your waste materials are responsible for about 10 percent of the water that you absorb from the foods and beverages that you ingest; the remaining 90 percent is absorbed by cells that line your small intestine.

This 10 percent of water absorption in your large intestine amounts to anywhere between a pint and a quart of water, and represents a significant portion of your body’s daily intake of water. As water is absorbed from the waste material in your colon, so are some nutrients, mainly minerals like sodium and chloride.

It takes anywhere between three to ten hours for your large intestine to absorb enough water from waste material to turn it into solid or partially solid stools. Your stools consist mainly of water, mucous, fiber, old cells from your intestinal lining, millions of microorganisms, and small amounts of inorganic salts.

When your rectal pouch is distended with enough feces to trigger a contractile reflex, your feces are pushed out through your anus. When you consciously contract your abdominal wall, your diaphragm moves downward and helps open up muscles that line your anal sphincter.

Your rectum is lined with three horizontal folds, called your rectal valves; these valves are what prevent stools from passing through your anal sphincter when you pass gas.

If you choose not to release stools when you experience the urge to do so, your reflex contractions may stop, in which case you likely won’t have a significant bowel movement until the next mass peristalsis occurs.

Excessive fermentation in the gut, from poorly digested carbohydrates, causes a ‘toxic’ alcohol to build up that can literally burn holes in the lining of the gut wall = ‘leaky gut’. Endotoxins from fermentation are: propanol, ethanol, methanol and butanol.

Put gut inflammation and leaky gut together, and you have a recipe for disaster, and a potential medical emergency waiting to happen. SEPSIS.

We just need to get the message out there, that modern ‘closed’ colon hydrotherapy treatment, whether it be on a ‘machine’ or a ‘gravity’ system is very effective in treating all manner of gastro-intestinal symptoms, including bloating, flatulence, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhoea, indigestion, back pain, skin problems and fatigue, just to mention a few.

Crikey, it sounds like a miracle cure doesn’t it. Indeed, for some people who have been blighted with these symptoms for years, it can seem like a miracle, when their symptoms disappear after a course of colonics.

It’s time colon hydrotherapy came out of the wilderness and was used more in mainstream medicine to treat some gastro-intestinal disorders. Methinks attitudes are changing though, and not just with the public, but with the medics too.

If we want to be taken seriously by the medical profession, we have to maintain our high standards, particularly when it comes to the safety of the public, and not compromise on our well-established protocols for treating GI dysfunction.

SIBO is most often diagnosed by using a hydrogen breath test, which is frequently also positive in patients believe to have IBS. Both small intestine bacterial overgrowth and Irritable Bowel Syndrome drastically reduce the patients ability to function normally in society.

Irritable bowel syndrome is characterized by abnormal bowel habits, often alternating between extreme instances of diarrhea and constipation. Because irritable bowel syndrome is not a life threatening condition, there is usually no drastic intervention involved.

However, this has come under question in recent years as the importance of stress on overall health becomes more prominent. While IBS is not a life threatening condition, the stress that it puts on an individual can lead to major health problems.

Patients suffering from IBS are often afraid to eat in public places or travel long distances. The social embarrassment associated with the major symptoms like flatulence and extreme gas greatly reduce the quality of life of those suffering from the condition.

Because the treatment of SIBO often is very effective for reducing the symptoms of Irritable bowel syndrome, many doctors are beginning to treat IBS patients without confirming the existence of SIBO. The most common treatments for small intestine bacterial overgrowth are oral antibiotics or probiotics.

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria, such as those found in yogurt that are eaten, and then compete effectively with the harmful bacteria in the small intestines. Both treatments are extremely effective.

The most controversial issue involving the link between IBS and SIBO is the overuse of antibiotics.  SIBO and probably IBS are both caused by abnormalities in the muscle tissue surrounding the intestines. The major cause of both SIBO and IBS is that the muscles cannot effectively move material through the intestines and it results in bacterial overgrowth in SIBO and gas formation in IBS.

Because of this, oral antibiotics do not actually treat the cause of the problem, they only treat the secondary problem. This means that in most cases, oral antibiotics have to be given very regularly, if not continuously to relieve symptoms.

Atonic constipation is rampant in the Western world. Fibre-free animal foods in the diet of most Westerners, and the high intake of simple carbohydrates greatly slows down colonic transit time.

Obviously a sedentary lifestyle, ignoring the urge to defecate and perhaps our toilet design (squatting to defecate does make it easier to pass stools) do not help speed up transit time.
For expert help on the treatment and management of both types, contact Ultimate Health Clinic 061-322011

The good news is that bowel cancer can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases, if it is diagnosed at an early stage, before it has had a chance to grow and spread.

The early symptoms for bowel cancer are very similar to other, much less serious problems with the bowel.  It is very important to be aware of what is normal for you, so you can recognise any unusual changes and act quickly to get them investigated.

Your GP will want to see you if you have been experiencing any of these symptoms for 3 weeks or more:

• Bleeding from the bottom (rectal bleeding) without any obvious reason. You may also notice other symptoms such as straining, soreness, lumps and itchiness around the back passage. These can often be caused by piles (haemorrhoids) but this is also a “red flag” symptom for urgent investigation, so it is very important to see your GP, who can take a full history and do an initial examination.
• A persistent change in bowel habit meaning any unexpected or unexplained change to your normal habits of going to the toilet and emptying your bowels. It can sometimes be problems with constipation and feeling that your bowel is not completely empty. It is especially important if you are going to the toilet more often or experiencing looser stools and/or passing lots of clear, “jelly-like” mucus.
• Abdominal pain that is constant or which comes and goes. You should seek help immediately if it becomes severe.
• A lump in your tummy especially on the right hand side.
• Unexplained tiredness, dizziness & breathlessness (signs of anaemia).
• Unexpected and unexplained weight loss.

Please remember that most of these symptoms will not be bowel cancer, but to rule it out you must first visit your GP. Your doctor will take a full history and examine you, and can answer your questions to reassure you. If you need to have more investigations to find out what is causing your symptoms, your doctor will make those referrals for you. Often, once you know what the problem is, you are able to stop worrying about it, and find effective ways to deal with it.

Fatigue, Headaches, Irritability, Anxiety, Nervousness, Flatulence

Nausea and Abdominal Discomfort, Protruding, Tender or Rigid Abdomen,

Bad or Sagging Posture, INSOMNIA, Skin Blemishes, Acne, Sallow Complexion

Dark Circles Under Eyes, Brittle Hair and Nails, BAD BREATH! Bad Breath

Coated Tongue, Body Odours, Cold Hands and Feet, Lower Back Pain,

Menstrual Problems, High or Low Blood Pressure, Swollen Legs, Lack of Sexual Response

Lack of Interest in Work or Life, Loss of Memory, Difficulties Concentrating, Overweight Or Obese,

Underweight, Poor Appetite, Neuritis and Neuralgia (aches and pains throughout the body)

• Infestation is very common and is not due to lack of care or attention.
• All family members should be treated at the same time, even if only one member has the symptoms – the others are likely to have the worms in an early stage with no symptoms. (Please ask for our family discount package).
• Treat family pets for worms at the same time as rest of family. (You will be asked to treat your animals also available for you convenience from the clinic) .
• Fingernails should be cut short as large numbers ofeggs may rest there.
• Hands should be washed and nails brushed after going to the toilet, before preparing or eating food.
• Pyjamas and pants are a good idea during worm infestation to prevent scratching during the night, which may lead to a secondary infection.
• Affected family members should have a bath or shower each morning during treatment to wash away any eggs laid during the night.
• Bed sheets should be changed twice a week.
• A sufferer from worms may be quiet run – down and may benefit from a good multivitamin.