JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF YOUR COLON

[Guest guest]

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF YOUR COLON

- Tim O'Shea

 

This chapter has a few specific applications:

 

 

1. for those who have reached that certain crest between self-

loathing and self esteem where they can no longer endure the

condition of their body and are prepared to do whatever it takes to

reverse the tide

 

2. for those who have begun a nutrition or supplement program with

no results, or else may have reached a plateau in their progress.

 

3. for those with long term allergies which years of shots and pills

have not cured

 

4. for those who suspect that they're not eliminating normally

 

5. for those who have been diagnosed with one of the following dead-

end labels:

 

 

 

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Spastic Colon

Crohn's Disease

Chronic Colitis

Leaky Gut Syndrome

Regional Ileitis

Esophageal Reflux

Malabsorption Syndrome

Candida albicans

 

 

 

 

This is not a discussion for the improvement of the above

conditions.

 

We're talking about resolution: the return to normal

operation of the systems.

 

If 1-4 above apply to you, and you grasp the principles cited in the

medical sources at the end of this chapter, your problems may well

be over.

 

Many doctors have noted the pivotal importance of the colon in the

body's health, from the ancients to the moderns. Physicians from

ancient Rome and Greece felt that " death begins in the colon. "

 

(Hippocrates) These healers regarded the colon as a life-center of

the body - one of its most important organs.

 

The colon's importance seems often to be glossed over and patronized

by today's mainstream approach, in which the colon is thought of

simply as the body's sewer, without regard for its many critical,

dynamic biologic functions.

 

Consequently, rates of death from colon cancer are at an all time

high in our country's history.

 

Colon cancer is now the #3 cancer in the U.S.

 

The above list of " diseases " are experienced today in epidemic

proportions, and with standard treatment are almost never cured.

 

The irony is that to return to a normal state is simplicity itself.

 

The biggest obstacle seems to be finding that out.

 

Let's begin with some

BASIC PLUMBING

 

The digestive tract can be thought of as a long tube from one end to

the other. Food goes in one end; waste exits the other. The tube is

divided into sections we know:

 

Mouth

Throat

Esophagus

Stomach

Small intestine

Large intestine

 

The large intestine is also called the colon.

 

That's the whole tube, top to bottom. It's important to remember one

odd fact: the inside of the tube is still considered the outside of

the body. No misprint.

 

The food sitting there in your intestines is still outside the

body. Reason: it hasn't been absorbed into the

bloodstream yet.

 

Let's follow a grape through the tube.

 

You pop the grape into your mouth. Chewing releases the grape's

enzymes, which are going to help break it down into its component

parts.

 

You swallow the chewed grape. It goes down the esophagus and ends up

in the stomach. There the grape gets churned around some more, and

has some of the body's digestive juices break it down further. After

about an hour of this, the stomach spits the chewed grape particles

into the next section of the tube, the small intestine.

 

The small intestine is about 22' long. After more enzymes are added,

this is when the grape particles first get inside the body. Happens

like this:

 

the inside of the small intestine is lined with a velvety

layer of tiny fingerlike projections called microvilli.

 

It's kinda like a microscopic version of one of those pieces of

mattress foam rubber with the bumps on it.

 

The microvilli increase the absorptive surface area of the colon to

the size of a football field.

 

Absorption of the nutrients contained in the grape particles happens

through the microvilli. The nutrients are passing from the inside of

the small intestine through the intestine wall, into the

bloodstream.

 

After several hours of giving the small intestine enough chance to

absorb all nutrients, the undigested waste, whatever's left over of

the grape that wasn't absorbed, gets moved along and propelled into

the final section of the tube:

 

the colon.

 

The colon is a muscular tube about six feet long. All along the

walls are infoldings called haustrae, which mark off sections of the

colon.

 

By the end of adolescence, the passage through the colon should be

about two inches in diameter. Adolescents should have little trouble

eliminating, because the process of undigested layers of waste

sticking to the lining of the colon wall is not that advanced.

 

With an unrestricted diet high in rancid fats and excess protein,

the inside passageway gradually becomes smaller and smaller,

requiring more force to push everything through.

 

Straining at stool is an obvious sign of a blocked colon and is not

normal.

 

Elimination should be effortless, no matter what the person's age.

 

Producing rabbit pellets with great effort is a sign of serious

obstruction, as well as a toxifying lifestyle.

 

Adolescents who are educated to eat lots of raw live foods may never

experience the buildup of sludge layers at all.

 

Here we see the distinction between average and normal.

 

The average American teenager has a bad diet and little dietary

advice, eating about 125 grams of protein a day with only about 25

grams being sufficient. The normal American teenager likely has been

shown what to eat for optimum health, and knows the indigestibility

and absence of nutrients in most foods available in the cafeteria.

 

There are three primary reasons for rotting food persisting in the

digestive tract:

 

1. We kill our friendly bacteria

2. Acidification of the body decreases enzyme production

3. Mucoid plaque in the intestinal lining halts peristalsis

 

Let's do them one at a time.

 

 

1. FRIENDLY BACTERIA

 

Wrongly described as the body's sewer, the colon is actually buzzing

with life activity.

 

Millions of friendly bacteria are hard at work in the colon. Their

job is the final stage of digestion, leaving

only what is absolutely of no use to the body to be eliminated.

 

The friendly bacteria, weighing as much as three pounds in the

normal colon, more than 400 species, also function to keep bad

bacteria in check. (Shahani)

 

It seems that most bacteria in the world and in the body are

actually beneficial to our health. Bacteria are the

janitors of the world, disposing of decaying and diseased cells.

 

Think of a beach with no bacteria. What would happen to all those

dead fish that wash up there? Wouldn't be much of a Club Med spot,

that's certain.

 

How do the friendly bacteria, called probiotics, keep the bad

bacteria in check?

 

Well, think of a crowded theatre. You walk in, and there's no place

to sit; all the seats are taken. So you can't

stay.

 

Same thing with bacteria. There's only a certain number of " seats "

in the colon.

 

If they're all taken by friendly bacteria, then there's no chance

for the bad bacteria to set up shop and start to duplicate

themselves.

 

According to most researchers, like Simon Martin, normal probiotics

should be more numerous than the cells of the intestinal lining

itself.

 

Here's why probiotics are so important.

 

Normal people generally have some cancer cells, Candida yeast, HIV,

staphylococcus, strep, and any number of other potentially bad

organisms you can think of in their tract most of the time.

But they don't get any disease.

 

Researchers know, for example, that 50% of men over age 75 actually

have prostate cancer,

found on autopsy, but only 2% die from it.

 

Why? The body encapsulated the cancer: limited and controlled its

growth, walled it off.

 

The discoverer of the HIV virus himself, Dr. Luc Montagnier, said

that HIV alone cannot cause AIDS. (The Coming Plague)

 

Depressed *immune* environment is also necessary.

 

Same with Candida or most other bacteria; normally they'll be held

in check by sufficient friendly bacteria.

E. coli is actually a probiotic when held in check by normal

friendly flora.

 

It's only when the friendly probiotic bacteria get killed off that

the potentially bad organisms get a chance to get a foothold and

take over.

The bad bugs are then called opportunists.

 

 

So probiotics (friendly bacteria) are extremely important. The whole

key is balance.

Problem is, our friendly bacteria are constantly

being killed off. How? Same culprits as cited in the ALLERGIES

chapter:

 

antibiotics we take

 

antibiotics given to the animals whose *meat* we eat

 

*antacids*, like Zantac, Tagamet, Prilosec, etc.

 

*NSAIDs*, like Advil, Tylenol, Excedrin, Motrin, etc.

 

other prescription and over the counter *medications*

 

refined *white* sugar and flour

 

carbonated drinks

 

antihistamines

 

chlorinated water

 

fluoridated water

 

coffee

 

 

Without friendly " probiotics " , the final stage of digestion can't

take place in the colon.

 

Debris *rots* in there.

 

Opportunistic bacteria and Candida albicans start taking over.

Bernard Jensen, on the relation between the bad bacteria and the

undigested food:

 

" ...bacteria and viruses, which are cell scavengers, are not there

for lack of something better to do. They're there because there is

malnourished, enzyme-depleted, diseased, and necrotic tissue.

 

Functioning as nature's biological sanitation department, they must

break down and eliminate the sick tissue to prevent further

poisoning of the body. If you stop their action, you allow

continuous poisoning by the decaying tissue "

- Empty Harvest p 113

 

Jensen makes a point here that should not be missed. He's talking

about rotting food in the colon as well as diseased living cells of

the colon itself, both attracting bacteria. It's an identical

situation in the two separate instances:

 

Undigested food in the colon

 

 

Bacterial infection in a diseased organ of the body (the colon)

 

 

In neither case are the bacteria causing illness. They are trying to

prevent illness by breaking down the dying tissue. Whether it's

rotting yogurt in a blocked colon, a dead coyote in the forest, or

infected liver cells in the body of an alcoholic, bacteria are just

doing what they do best: cleaning up.

 

When the bacteria are " diagnosed " as the cause of the illness,

rather than a sign of the illness, the medical approach is to try

and kill them.

 

But that's like killing the garbagemen.

The garbage remains.

 

Understanding such a simple concept is pivotal in arriving at a

holistic outlook toward health.

 

Chronically undigested food is often present in quantities too great

for any bacteria to scavenge.

The debris then becomes plastered onto the inside lining of the

colon, eventually making it smooth and

shiny, like the inside of a new shotgun barrel. When this happens,

absorption is blocked. (Rogers)

 

 

2. ACIDIFICATION OF THE BODY

 

 

This is a bit technical, so don't feel bad about skipping it. It

involves pH. That means acid/base balance.

 

You know, like soap is basic or alkaline, and oranges are acidic.

 

Now in the body certain places only operate correctly if they're at

exactly the right pH.

 

The stomach lining for example has to be alkaline in order to

counteract the acidic digestive enzymes.

Otherwise we'd constantly be burning holes in the stomach lining.

 

All phases of digestion are totally dependent upon a delicate

acid/base balance.

 

The problem is, most foods in the Standard American Diet - Big Mac,

fries, coke, pizza, etc. are acid-forming.

That means they lower the pH of the body: too acid.

 

The balance is disrupted: many enzymes can't operate. Digestion is

inhibited: food sits there and rots.

 

A sixteen ounce bottle of Coke has a pH around 2. Very acidic.

To bring the pH back up to our normal 7.3, we would have to dilute

the Coke with about ten gallons of water.

But we don't usually drink ten gallons of water after every Coke.

 

So how does it work?

 

The blood must maintain a pH between 7.3 and 7.45. (Guyton). If not,

we die.

 

With all the acid foods we keep eating, the body tries

desperately to keep its pH within the range.

The first things it tries are buffering with bicarbonates in the

blood and lungs.

 

(Guyton, p 392) Next, the body begins to sweep the extra acids into

the tissues, especially muscles and joints.

 

That's what lactic acid buildup comes from.

 

If that's still not enough, as a final effort to keep from

acidifying, the body will actually precipitate acids out

of solution,

in the form of solid crystals and salts.

 

This is the exact mechanism of gallstones, kidneys stones, uric

acid crystals, plaque, and cholesterol crystals.

 

A built-in protection for self preservation. We think of these

stones as major medical problems,

but in reality it's just a sign that the body's systems are

functioning as they should.

 

Otherwise we'd be dead of *acidosis*.

 

So what happens to the colon from an over-acid diet?

 

In a word,enzymes. Or rather, lack of enzymes.

 

Enzymes are necessary to break down and digest food.

 

If the environment is too acid, the enzymes in

the stomach and small intestine don't work very well.

 

By the time it gets to the colon, everything that was supposed to be

digested should have already had it happen. But it hasn't. So the

undigested food gets dumped into the colon.

 

There are no digestive enzymes in the colon.

 

So the food just sits there and rots.

 

Now, minerals can only be absorbed at a certain pH.

 

And minerals are

a necessary component of enzyme formation. So it's a vicious circle:

 

acidification of the body causes decreased minerals, which cause

decreased enzyme production, which causes the food to rot in the

tract.

 

Which further blocks absorption of water, nutrients, and

minerals. Downward spiral.

 

Absorption. Another critical job of the colon is electrolyte

reabsorption and water reclamation back into the bloodstream, so

we're not constantly losing them.

 

Electrolytes are important minerals, like sodium and potassium which

conduct electrical charge through the body.

 

They are necessary for normal cell function.

 

The idea is for the body to maintain as much water, sodium,

potassium, calcium, and magnesium as possible, for maximum

conservation.

 

 

Remember, we're almost 70% water. The colon is the logical place for

this reabsorption to happen since it's the last portion of the tube.

 

In the sick human, the colon is blocked. Water and electrolytes

don't get reabsorbed. Where do they go? Out.

 

The body loses water, general dehydration, cell death, premature

aging, kidney

destruction, spilling of electrolytes, blood thickening, the whole

enchilada of downward health then follows.

 

Blocked absorption alone is enough to slowly kill you.

 

 

3. MUCOID PLAQUE HALTS PERISTALSIS

 

 

Mucoid plaque is a term used by many doctors and researchers to

describe the uniform rubbery layers of mucous and rotting food which

compact themselves year after year along the entire length of the

digestive tract. (Anderson)

 

Peristalsis is the normal rhythmic muscular action of the intestine

to push food down and outward, out of the body.

 

Mucoid plaque is formed as the intestine keeps producing mucous as a

normal response to an irritant: undigested food. Food is not

supposed to just sit there and rot. We're only supposed to store

three meals (Jensen.)

 

But most Americans store nine, twelve, or even more meals before

one comes out. This increased transit time is

irritating to the intestinal lining.

 

Mucous is not powerful enough to move the toxic, enzymeless sludge

of Taco Supremes and Curlie Fried Onion Rings with ketchup.

 

But the body keeps on valiantly trying, and more and more mucous is

constantly being produced.

 

Eventually the mucous becomes matrixed with the most indigestible

elements, like trans fatty acids from the Barbecue and Sour Cream

chips.

 

And it goes on day after day, week after week, month after

month, etc. And the layers get thicker and harder and the colon

grows in diameter.

 

And we absorb less and less nutrients and we lose more and more

water and minerals.

 

Want to discover your own transit time? Try this simple test: eat

something you usually don't eat that will be easily identifiable

when it comes out.

 

Frozen corn, peanuts, and pistachios are some good examples. Simply

note the time from when you eat the markers to

the time when you see them leaving. That's your transit time, at

least of the matter that is not cemented to the colon walls.

 

The intestinal walls contain long muscles whose job it is to keep

things moving along. These muscles gradually become overstretched

and weakened by the pressure of too much waste pushing against them,

expanding outward, like blowing up a long thin balloon.

 

Thus peristalsis - the normal wavelike muscular motion of the

colon - is further inhibited and blockage is again promoted.

 

Mucoid plaque blocks inflow and outflow, resulting in lack of

nutrient, water, and electrolyte absorption, as well as retention of

toxic putrefaction in balloon-like blocked outpocketings of the

intestine.

 

In addition, pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and Candida

thrive in the mucoid plaque layer and are actually protected by it

from prescription or natural herbal remedies and efforts to remove

them. Researchers refer to the mucoid plaque as a " culture medium "

for these organisms. (Forstner)

 

Mucoid plaque is described as a natural response to an unnatural

stimulus. It is a necessary protection the body produces to try and

shield itself from poisons.

 

Mucoid plaque is a product of the constant production of mucous by

the glycocalyx lining cells,

brought on by the modern American diet of fake, empty, processed,

chemical-laden, hormone-laced, antibiotic-soaked foods.

 

Many doctors have noted that when the plaque can be removed by a

*cleanse*, remission from virtually any disease may result. Simple

cause and effect.

 

Mucoid plaque has been definitely linked to gastric cancer by the

simple mutation of the lining cells - metaplasia. (Sipponen, Filipe)

 

 

No big surprise here - cell damage is caused by inflow/outflow

blockage, and after a certain time, mutation occurs. Another

mechanism is that the constant secretion of mucous captures the

toxins, but since normal transit is blocked, the toxins become

locked in one location, often for years, resulting in irritation and

eventual cell mutation. The cells steep in their own wastes, month

after month.

 

In a lecture in San Jose California on 26 Sep 98, Dr. Richard

Anderson told the story of one of his patients who underwent the

cleanse in Hawaii a few years ago. The patient was passing long

strands of the rubbery mucoid plaque, some over 20 feet in length!

Fascinated, the patient hung the strands over his clothesline in the

back yard. He then took a length of the plaque, and packaged it in a

box to send to the mainland to prove what happened to him. He mailed

the package at the local post office in Hawaii.

 

A few days later, two serious-looking officials in ATF windbreakers

knocked on the patient's door and asked him if he had sent such and

such a package to such and such an address. The patient said yes,

and asked what was the problem. They answered that the post office

has dogs that sniff out all packages mailed off the island, and that

one of them had become very excited about this package.

 

The patient asked what were the dogs trained to detect. Only two

things, came the answer: drugs and explosives. Which dog was it? The

one for explosives.

 

The patient was incredulous, especially when he recalled

that he had worked with munitions some 25 years ago, and his job was

to handle explosives! He explained the detox cleanse to the two

agents and they were satisfied. This story illustrates the power of

a such an intestinal cleanse:

 

the body had retained these strong toxins in the mucoid plaque

lining of the colon, stored in a

concentration powerful enough to be detected by dogs through the

layers of wrapping of a sealed package some 25 years later!

 

Of course it's anecdotal, but Anderson has been doing this for 15

years and has cleansed several thousand patients. He has amassed a

ton of clinical data, but not through double blind studies. (Only

drugs require double blind studies.) The rubbery mucoid plaque layer

seals in toxins and prevents absorption of water and nutrients.

Toxic sludge promotes proliferation of pathological bacteria and

yeasts, like Candida.

 

Now for the bad news.

 

There's another separate demon at work in the blocked colon. His

name is

 

AUTOINTOXICATION

 

Here's how he works: The sludge that's stopping up the works is

undigested food. Undigested means rotting: putrefying, fermenting,

going rancid.

 

Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, respectively. Want to see what

that looks like? Leave some meat, some french fries, and

some bread out on the counter for a week.

 

A blocked colon can be even worse, because of the time frame

involved: in many people the sludge sits in the colon for weeks or

even longer.

The colon walls are normally very well sealed in order to protect

the body against reabsorbing the waste that is about to be

eliminated. It's a sophisticated design, set up to allow water and

electrolytes back into the body, but no toxic poisons.

 

Stay with me now. In long-term buildup of undigested food in the

colon, eventually a situation

emerges that doctors call Leaky Gut Syndrome.

 

Essentially what's happening is that the sludge has built up so much

blockage that the inner membranes of the colon develop leaks.

 

Some of the toxic debris is forced through the walls of the colon,

along with the water and electrolytes, back into the bloodstream.

 

Hence, the name autointoxication: you're poisoning yourself.

 

Once in the bloodstream, the undigested debris, now a foreign

irritant, can take up residence in any organ or tissue it finds

room.

 

Chronic inflammation begins, and gradually, degeneration of

that organ. Here are some of the diseases that such a sequence can

cause:

 

 

Chronic Allergies

Jaundice

Kidney disease

Acne

Hepatitis

Psoriasis

Blinding headaches

AIDS

Arthritis

Pancreatitis

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Depression

Infections

Fibromyalgia

Septicemia

Multiple Joint Pain Syndrome

Dermatitis

Autoimmune Disorders

Candida albicans

Cancer

 

to name just a few. This list is taken from an article by Leo

Garland, MD who has done extensive research in this area of

hyperpermeability, as illustrated by the list of over 150 references

at the end of the article.

 

It's funny, when people with average intelligence first hear about

Leaky Gut Syndrome, they usually understand it right away because it

seems logical. Very often, it is the nutritionists, dieticians, and

doctors who seem more apt to question the existence of

hyperpermeability, or Leaky Gut Syndrome.

 

Even though there has been years of copious research in the best

medical journals thoroughly

documenting its characteristics and nature, Leaky Gut Syndrome is

not commonly taught as part of the medical curriculum, or the

abbreviated curriculum presented to nutritionists and dieticians.

Many of these people therefore conclude that since they got their

degrees without hearing about hyperpermeability or Leaky Gut

Syndrome, it must not exist! Very curious.

 

Dr. Garland suffers from no such illusion. He traces the physiology

of how large molecules of the " toxic/antigenic load " (undigested

sludge) work their way through the intestinal walls and are first

introduced into the liver before they are available to the

bloodstream.

 

Dr. Garland describes the " high cost " of the liver's detox work:

 

creation of free radicals and other " reactive

intermediaries " which themselves may be passed into the bloodstream

if the toxic burden becomes too great for the liver's defenses.

 

Here we see the particulars of autointoxication, not just some New

Age literary theory. Dr. Garland points out the wide range of

pathological conditions, listed above, which may come about exactly

through this mechanism. Very sophisticated markers have been devised

which can measure the toxins that " leak " into the body. (S. Martin)

 

Jensen has an axiom that the disease is named by where the toxins

finally settle.

 

Candida albicans, the opportunistic yeast, can be both a cause and a

result of Leaky Gut Syndrome.

 

Once Candida gets a foothold in the gut, it puts down " roots "

through the gut wall, causing openings

through which large molecules and toxins can leak. Candida cells can

themselves be introduced into the bloodstream in this same fashion.

(Simon Martin)

 

Sherry Rogers MD, implicates Leaky Gut Syndrome as a *primary* cause

for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid

arthritis and systemic lupus.

 

She says such conditions can be the

result of the

" formation of auto-antibodies due to leaking of body tissue look-

alike antigens... "

 

 

 

TRANSIT TIME

 

 

Let's talk propulsion for a minute. Normal elimination involves

rhythmic contraction of the muscles in the colon wall, to push the

waste outward. Again, this natural, wavelike motion is called

peristalsis.

 

It is normal to eliminate two or more times per day. Transit time:

how much time between food in and waste out. Normal transit time is

less than 24 hours. This means that only two or three meals should

be in transit throughout the digestive tract at a time. Today's

breakfast IN pushes yesterday's breakfast or lunch OUT. Toxic fecal

matter is supposed to totally leave the body in one day, not hang

around to toxify. That's the design. Many people you know have been

brought up to think that it is normal to eliminate only once every

two or three days. Or even longer. That means they are storing NINE

meals or more in the tract at all times. The waste from nine meals

or more is always inside them.

 

Want to track your transit time? Use a marker; corn perhaps. Time

it.

 

The problem is that the longer the food is in the colon, the more it

begins to rot and toxify the body.

 

Modern soft foods and empty junk foods have greatly increased

transit time, for two reasons:

 

1. They are indigestible

2. They lack fiber

 

 

 

The colon thus becomes a breeding ground for pathological bacteria

whose toxic byproducts further add to the totality of biochemical

poisons. All this yuk is then available to be reabsorbed into the

bloodstream, because of Leaky Gut Syndrome. From the chapter on

Allergies (www.thedoctorwithin.com), you'll remember that means

hyperpermeability of the gut wall: stuff gets through into the

bloodstream which shouldn't get through, because of the destruction

of the cells of the colon's lining.

 

Large molecules of rotting fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, which

also may drag along with them the toxic wastes of the pathological

bacteria that have been breeding in the putrid sludge, all this can

leak through into the bloodstream.

 

From there the toxins have access to every cell in the body. Getting

the image?

 

Let's make it worse. Let's hypothesize a lot of indigestible chips

and margarine into the mix.

No enzymes.

 

Less than one glass of water per day. That's right - we're making

cement here.

 

Solid compacting of unmetabolizable sewage, daily pasted and

encrusted in ever-

thickening layers along the inside folds, the haustrae, of the

colon. Mucoid plaque. Think the inside diameter of that shotgun

barrel is getting bigger, or smaller year by year?

 

SIX FOOT BALLOON

 

 

The colon is fabulously extensible: it can expand up to five times

its normal size when stuffed. Surgeons report expanded colons up to

12 inches in diameter, with a central opening the size of a pencil!

 

(Tissue Cleansing p. 27) Technicians who measure percent body fat on

patients day after day begin to notice an odd fact:

many people with almost normal body fat readings have enormous

abdomens. Pregnant

trucker Santa Clauses with skinny legs.

 

Reason: it's not fat.

 

It's a monster colon, packed with sludge to five times of its normal

size,

expanding outward. (Rich. Anderson) Actually makes sense - if it

were otherwise, many people would be dead in their 20s because the

colon walls would become so layered with sludge that there would be

no passageway left for elimination. The colon would simply close up.

 

Doing sit-ups? Trying to flatten that lower abdomen, and you aren't

really overweight?

 

But it won't get flat, right? It isn't fat.

Most likely it's rotting food in the colon. How's the elimination?

Transit time?

 

In his fascinating book, Cleanse and Purify, Dr. Richard Anderson

cites his encounter with one medical doctor who did not want to be

identified.

 

This doctor, after hearing Anderson's lecture about

mucoid plaque and expanded toxic colons, told the audience:

 

 

" I have spent twelve years working in the field of post-mortem

diagnosis. I have seen many thousands of dissected cadavers. What

Rich is telling you is the absolute truth. Everybody has it in

there. We have a way of attaching a hose to the upper intestines and

with the aid of powerful chemicals, we literally blow the stuff

right out of the intestines.

I have seen the heavy 'beer belly' and so called fat people lose

all that bulk in five minutes. It wasn't

fat. It was the mucoid layer that Rich was talking about. and in

that filthy substance we see all sorts of worms, bacteria, fungi,

and many unidentifiable things. It is almost unbelievable that

people can live with that filth in them.

 

All these people were dead of course, and it wasn't hard to see

why " (Anderson p2-46)

Probably won't read a story like that in any of the popular press.

 

The noted surgeon, Dr. Harvey Kellogg, of the Kellogg Sanitarium in

Battle Creek Michigan, whose experience was with the colons of

living subjects, agreed:

 

 

 

" Of the 22,000 operations that I have personally performed, I have

never found a single normal colon. Of the 100,000 that were

performed under my jurisdiction, not over 6% were normal. "

 

Dr. Kellogg estimated that over 90% of the " diseases of

civilization " were due to a blocked and non-functioning colon.

- cited in Iridology: the Science and Practice p 408

 

If " normal " people can have up to 22 lbs of undigested food in the

colon, how much can the Beef Barbecue Buddhas be carrying? 50 lbs?

100? The imagination reels.

 

A little more plumbing, now. The colon begins in the lower right

abdomen, goes up toward the head about 8 inches or so and then makes

a right angle straight across the upper abdomen over to the left

side. Then it angles downward again, and then out. Trace this path

with your finger. OK. The section of the colon that traverses

straight across from one side to the other is known as the

Transverse Colon.

 

Gastroenterologist researchers now know that in the stuffed and

expanded transverse colon, the horizontal section, the extra weight

is enough to make it prolapse, or fall down, so that it is lying

atop organs that it normally wouldn't be in contact with, like the

bladder, the uterus, the prostate, or the ovaries.

 

Dr. Stephen Chang at the University of California has now shown

that combining the effects of Leaky Gut Syndrome with a collapsed

colon can actually be the mechanism for toxification, infection, and

disease of any organ that is now touching this leaking, sagging

toxic tube. (Ross Anderson)

 

Obviously it would be an ineffective waste of drugs to

treat these new infections in isolation, as long as the process of

autointoxication continues, wouldn't you say?

 

Another common condition is

REFLUX

 

 

Intestinal reflux, gastric reflux, esophageal reflux - who cares?

All the same idea. The pipes are backed up. You start eating and

you're already full.

 

Stomach juices back up and burn the delicate lining of the

esophagus. Heartburn.

 

Classic misdiagnosis: hiatal hernia, which is something rare and

completely different and unrelated. Reflux is much more common and

easily explained, in light of the empty, toxic, indigestible

American diet we teach our children.

 

When the overall pressure can be relieved by a colon cleanse,

transit returns and reflux is no more. Reflux never was the

underlying problem.

Like the rest of them, reflux was just a sign of the problem:

blocked pipes.

 

You're getting a lot of information here, more than most doctors

want to think about.

 

The medical attitude toward the colon generally takes the Sewer

View. Much simpler to deal with: laxatives which force the most

recent contents out by introducing a corrosive

irritant drug into the bowels.

 

But the cemented sludge remains.

 

Some 44 million Americans depend on laxatives for elimination. With

$23 billion a year in antibiotics (Chapter 3) being given to

American

patients,

concern for normal flora repopulation doesn't get much

airplay either.

 

The view of the colon as a living, breathing, active, vital organ is

probably not something you're going to hear about at your next HMO

visit. Corrosive laxatives may bring a day or two of relief, but the

underlying condition persists.

 

Antibiotics may kill all the bacteria for awhile, but why were the

bad bacteria there in the first place?

 

Rotting food. And what about the friendly bacteria also killed off

by the antibiotics?

 

Who's gonna do their job? No one.

 

Then there's the standard drugs most internists use. One of the most

common is Prilosec.

 

As we saw in the chapter on Enzymes ENZYMES

Prilosec is a powerful inhibitor of HCl (hydrochloric acid.)

 

The reasoning goes something like this: the patient has tremendous

burning gut pain and bad digestion and elimination.

 

Must be too much stomach acid.

So Prilosec turns off the stomach acid and the burning stops. For

today.

 

But guess what else stops. Digestion. Without HCl, protein doesn't

get broken down, and it sits there and rots, further

contributing to the toxic build-up and cess-pooling. This is called

treating the problem by harming the patient.

 

With reflux, clearing the colon takes the pressure off the lower

part of the GI tract, allowing room for the contents of the small

intestine and the stomach to move downward. No more splashing acids

into the esophagus. It's simple plumbing.

 

But natural cures are always overlooked if they interfere with drug

sales.

 

Another drug - Propulsid - supposedly works by forcing the impacted

food out of the intestines.

 

Unfortunately, so many people have died of heart failure from it,

that is was scheduled to be taken off the

market after 6 months, which would be Aug 2000. (Rubin)

 

[That's standard procedure. Even though the FDA knows people are

dying from

a drug, they keep it on the market for up to a year to allow the

drug companies to recover some of their investment!]

 

In the colon, the layers of compacted inner cement prevent

reabsorption of water and electrolytes, as well as the return of

normal flora activity.

 

Dehydration and indigestion ensue. The toxic debris begins to

irritate and inflame the delicate mucosal cells of

the inner lining.

 

Aspirin, Motrin, and Tylenol further aggravate the lining. (Rogers)

 

Chronic inflammation of the colon's inner lining - colitis - is

epidemic.

 

It is a precursor to cancer.

 

Many patients have found that after detoxing the colon and getting

rid of rotting wastes that have

been in there for weeks or months, suddenly their colitis is

history!

 

COLON CANCER

 

is now the third most common cancer in America. Simple mechanism:

blockage of inflow and outflow by rotting sludgy plaque. Surface

lining cells swim in toxins day in day out, then weeks and months.

Can't get nutrients, can't get rid of wastes. That about covers it

for cell needs.

 

Colon cancer has also long been linked directly to the chlorination

of municipal drinking water. (See Water chapter -

 

www.thedoctorwithin.com) The mechanism is simple:

chlorine sterilizes the colon by killing off the normal friendly

bacteria

which should live there.

 

A 1989 report from Oak Ridge Associated Universities showed

definite correlation between increased cancer

incidence and fifteen years of chlorine in Denver's drinking water.

(Eco-Update)

 

With no flora, sludge builds up and the delicate epithelial cells of

the colon lining become packed with toxic decaying waste. Same

scenario:

the cells can't perform the two necessary functions of

every living cell - nutrition and waste removal. Many cells die, but

other simply mutate.

 

That's what cancer is: altered, or mutated, cells.

 

Sections of the colon can collapse and become very narrow, like

ribbons, easily blocked with hardened waste.

 

This creates a condition called Crohn's Disease, and the narrow

sections are called strictures. Extreme force is then necessary to

propel waste past these blocked narrow passageways. Between the

narrowed sections, outpocketings of toxic poisons can then balloon

out, due to lack of normal transit of wastes. These pockets are very

hospitable

environments for bad bacteria and parasites to set up shop. Imagine

the potency of by-products given off by pathological bacteria who

are themselves feeding off toxic sludge. Autointoxication advances.

 

A desperate reflex to try and expel the mounting poisonous load

commonly results in violent and painful cramping of colon wall

muscles - Spastic Colon.

 

The problem is not with the colon. The problem is with the human who

keeps poisoning himself.

 

Resection, or cutting away a problem length of the colon, is a

common medical recommendation in the persistent " problem colon "

case. Sometimes the impacted waste has become like hard rubber or

even calcified like a cement.

 

Laxatives and drugs just won't do the trick. Standard medical

thinking is, when drugs fail, something has

to be cut out.

 

The Kragen Method: the body is an automobile. Not a

very holistic or long-term outlook, but it pays the bills. And it's

got quite a tradition. Usual result is that the scar tissue which

forms after the surgery can be as much an obstruction as the

original undigested cement load.

 

For colon cancer, resection is routine. Cleansing is not even a

medical option at that point. What they'll never tell you is that

one third of all colon resections for cancer end up in recurrence of

the cancer later on. (Yamada p 1801) Stands to reason: if you don't

remove the cause of the cancer in the first place -

autointoxication - what's to keep the cancer from returning?

 

The connection between Leaky Gut and

 

ALLERGIES

 

 

should now be apparent. Allergy symptoms are one of the signs of

autointoxication. Most allergies are food allergies, and Leaky Gut

Syndrome is one mechanism and one explanation of that entire

process: indigestible food, rotting in gut, leaking into

bloodstream, symptoms of allergy. When the doctors " can't find the

cause " of your allergies, here it is. Read the chapter on allergies:

The Threshold of Reactivity (www.thedoctorwithin.com).

 

Time for a reality check. The colon should be seen as a life center

of the body, in my opinion, not as a sewer. Conserving water and

minerals, creating a hospitable environment for the life-promoting

probiotic bacteria, and providing an unobstructed path for waste

elimination - these are indispensable functions of the colon, and

should be the only goals of any treatment program.

 

Back in the 1920s Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Alexis Carrel began his

famous experiment in which he proved that living cells could be kept

alive indefinitely by simply controlling the nutrients and waste

removal in the surrounding solution.

 

After 28 years, the original chicken liver cells were still alive in

the petri dish, and Dr.

Carrel's point was proven. For living cells, there are two main

requirements: proper nutrients, and unobstructed elimination of

wastes. With a blocked colon, all the body's cells suffer:

autointoxication poisons the entire body, all its tissues, and all

its organs.

 

This can be the cause of practically any disease,

especially those conditions listed in the pathology books as " cause

unknown. " JH Tilden, MD actually went so far as to say that this

type of chronic blood poisoning was the only disease. (Toxemia

Explained)

 

That's a brief overview of how the colon should work. For the

majority of Americans, it doesn't. Death rates from colon cancer

have been increasing since 1971. So the other side of the coin is

that a clean, unblocked colon can dramatically boost the health of

the entire body, allowing the body's natural defenses to start

defending. Disease cannot coexist in a healthy body.

 

Provided with the preceding information, what kind of shape do you

think your colon is in? Impacted? Diagnosed pathology? Pregnant

Buddha? Average functioning, but some cement layers suspected? Even

the healthiest colons can benefit from periodic roto-rootering.

 

SOLUTIONS

 

 

Colon hydrotherapy when performed by a licensed professional is more

than just an enema. My opinion is that its real value is as a

jumpstart to cleansing. To get weekly maintenance colonics may not

allow the normal proliferation of the body's own friendly bacteria,

because they are always getting flushed out. But to get things

moving in the person who has decided to detox and cleanse, colonics

can certainly be effective.

 

Spinal adjustment can have immediate and dramatic effects on colon

pathology, especially with Spastic Colon. The nerve plexus through

which the brain controls the action of the colon, those nerves exit

the spinal cord in between the lumbar vertebrae. The nerves turn the

colon ON and OFF. Any spasm is a blocked reflex arc: the OFF switch

is stuck. Specific adjustment of the involved vertebra can break the

stuck spasm reflex instantaneously, and restore normal function of

the colon. No colon diagnosis should ignore this simple

biomechanical approach.

 

Visceral massage by a trained therapist can certainly be temporarily

beneficial.

 

There are a variety of effective natural colon cleanse programs. You

won't find out about them at Kaiser or your HMO. They don't involve

drugs or surgery; therefore insurance doesn't cover them.

 

Big surprise. There are several effective holistic cleanses, and

most are herbal.

 

The simplest and safest formula that I have tested is an herbal

blend called Experience.No corrosives or irritants, with sufficient

water intake, these herbs seem to unclog

blockages for most people, usually with immediate results.

 

To scrape away all the layers of impacted debris pasted onto the

colon walls

like stucco - that takes weeks or months. But the patients generally

see immediate evidence that they're working toward that goal with

these herbs.

 

Another cleanse was devised by Dr. Richard Anderson of Mt. Shasta,

California, who also has a detox clinic in Mexico. Dr. Anderson's

focus is to remove the Mucoid Plaque, the thin rubbery layer of old

hardened mucus from the entire length of both the small and large

intestines.

 

Mucoid Plaque is well-documented in dozens of medical

citations given throughout Dr. Anderson's book.

 

My view is always towards convenience, simplicity, and working in

complete holistic sync with the body, trying to restore patterns

that have been lost.

 

Build up the flora, begin a cleansing diet, and

restore normal digestion and effortless elimination. No magic

bullets here; for 60 days we need

 

 

THE PROGRAM

 

 

60 DAYS

 

 

1. Affix New West Diet to refrigerator door, with magnet, in a

location of maximum guilt potential

(www.thedoctorwithin.com).

 

2. No dairy: pasteurized milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt, white

dressings, creamy soups, ice cream.

 

3. No white sugar: cookies, donuts, soft drinks, candy, junky

desserts

 

4. Eat a lot, but from the New West Diet. Never be hungry.

 

5. Drink 2 liters of water per day (not tap water).

 

6. Three whole food enzymes caps, three times a day.

(DigestAMeal -- See Enzymes chapter - www.thedoctorwithin.com)

 

7. First month: 2 - 8 herbal cleansing caps per day. Go for max.

(e.g., Experience)

 

8. Two - six flora caps per mealtime (blends, e.g. Total Body Flora,

not single species --see Order Products)

 

9. Consider stopping all drugs unless it is life-threatening to do

so, both prescription and over the counter

 

10. Get the lumbar spine adjusted.

 

 

That's it. A 60-day colon detox. Doing part of it is a waste of

time. It's a unit.

In the unlikely event that this program fails, the next step would

be the Plan B Cleanse:

 

 

 

1. Psyllium cocktails with one tablespoon Hydrolyzed Bentonite, 1-3

per day

2. 5 - 8 herbal caps per day (e.g., Experience caps)

3. 8 - 10 flora caps per day (Total Body Flora)

4. Fruit and vegetable diet for 6 weeks, then one week of juice

fast. Continue until mucoid plaque is passed

 

 

The difficulty with Plan B is that it is a full time occupation for

the two month period.

 

THE HEALING CRISIS

 

 

 

Natural cures are different from drugs; first of all, drugs don't

cure anything, nor is that their intent. The focus of drugs is to

cover up the symptoms.

 

The underlying problem may remain, but so what? There's always one

more drug to try -

 

that's why there's 12,000 of them on the market at any one time.

 

In an actual healing situation, especially one involving detox,

there may be some new unpleasant symptoms that are the result of a

temporary shifting back to normal.

 

These include transient dizziness, disorientation, gas pains, or

skin rashes. Holistic

healers are quite familiar with the healing crisis, and generally

regard it as a good sign that the body is responding and making a

needed change.

 

In the example of colon detox, the body often protects itself from a

toxin - drugs, chemicals, additives, etc - by encapsulating it in

fat cells and mucoid layers.

 

In this way toxins can remain for years in many areas of the body,

including the colon, walled off and

unable to do direct harm to the body. It's a survival mechanism,

well documented.

 

Then when the person begins an herbal cleanse,

these toxins may suddenly be liberated and re-enter the bloodstream

as the protective encapsulations are broken down by the herbs.

Slight dizziness or nausea may occur, but only for a short time.

 

Unless they have been informed, patients unfamiliar with natural

cures may become anxious and think 'something is wrong,' especially

if they have lived their lives conditioned to take a drug for any

and every symptom.

 

The best course of action is to drink several glasses of water in

order to facilitate the cleansing of the blood. Many a morning

hangover could have been avoided by the inebriate having drunk two

glasses of water prior to passing out the night before.

 

It's the dehydration due to the high concentration of the toxic

alcohol that

brings on the " hair of the dog. "

 

Same idea in colon detox. Look for that healing crisis. Don't freak

out. Everybody detoxes at a different rate. Just back off a little

on the herbs for a day or so,

and continue.

 

SBO AND JSH

 

 

The latest in the barrage of supplements which represent the

explosive Junk Science Hustle are flora capsules containing " soil-

based organisms. " Don't be taken in by this scam.

 

One of these SBO flora things boasts 38 strains of good bacteria.

The implication is

that here are 38 strains of normal flora found in the human colon,

but closer examination reveals that only 5 of them have any

possibility of being found in the human tract. The rest are found in

rootlets of plants; ergo, SBOs.

 

Now everyone knows that bacterial organisms are necessary in the

rootlets of plants in order for

mineral absorption from the soil into the plant. But it's the

farthest stretch of unsupported whim to try and equate soil bacteria

with the ones that belong inside the human colon. This is ludicrous!

 

Such bacteria cannot be thought of as probiotic. There are no

legitimate studies whatsoever to support such a notion.

 

Someone is capitalizing by taking an extract of barnyard dirt and

pretending it

has value in the human body. This is Alternative Marketing gone

wild. Don't fall for it.

 

Sometimes you might hear claims of fabulous cures from taking one of

these colon cleanses that contains soil-based organisms. It is

probable that such individuals were so toxic that the body was

desperately craving any herbal triggers for release. Most SBO

products contain some proportion of traditional herbal cleansers; so

they obviously can have some beneficial effect.

 

But such a patient is cleansed in spite of the SBOs, not because of

them. It seems better advised to choose a product that only contains

non-corrosive

herbs, omitting the introduction of foreign microorganisms into the

rarefied environment of the inner colon.

 

LEVELS OF DETOX

 

 

How long should you detox? When will you know if you " got it all " ?

Good question. My opinion is that initially, your goal is just to

get yourself eliminating on a daily basis much more than what you're

accustomed to, but with no real discomfort. At some point, one day

you will experience a catharsis, or major cleansing ejection.

 

A few

people get nervous when this happens and call the doctor, thinking

their " brains have come out " or some other such illusion. Most will

experience a feeling of lightness and clarity they haven't had for

years.

 

That is the beginning of detox. At first I thought that this

catharsis was the final goal of detox. But the more people I talked

to and read about, I learned that there are many levels of detox.

 

The initial catharsis is just the beginning. Like a geologist

digging deeper into the earth to find prehistoric layers of rock,

detoxification can gradually uncover and liberate deeper levels of

preserved toxins within the colon, the fat cells, and elsewhere.

 

Think back to your teenage years and your twenties and all the

trashy foods you ate - years of toxification. If all that poison

came out at once, the result would be death.

 

The body won't allow that to happen; gradual detox is a protective

mechanism.

 

Even people who have extremely clean diets, who may be vegetarian

and eat mostly raw foods,

often go on routine fasts, colon programs,

and liver cleanses and get surprising results.

 

They are going for optimum clean blood - maximum purity of the

biological terrain, just like in Dr. Carrel's petri dish.

 

This is the true objective of any detox program - excavate deep and

bring the old debris out, level by level. Then keep it clean.

 

The rate of detox should be controlled so that extreme fatigue and

prolonged nausea are avoided. What's the hurry? Except for

transient, momentary discomforts, a detox program should bring new

energy and strength, almost immediately.

 

YOU KNOW IT DON'T COME EASY

 

 

For the average American, The Program is very difficult. For those

with a colon problem, it's almost impossible:

 

Candida and other organisms are gonna crave their little milk and

sugar fixes.

 

But it's counterproductive to think you can take some magic bullet

like Experience and all your colon problems will be gone in a week.

 

The only way that's going to happen is when a lifestyle change,

involving all the above steps, allows your body to heal itself.

 

If you actually follow The Program like your life depends upon it,

it will. Such cleanses have been life-transforming, even for people

the most serious conditions. After shaking the monkey, you'll be

free.

 

The healthy body rejects any and all disease conditions. The

body heals itself from the inside out, and yours is no exception.

 

No matter how far gone you think you are, no matter how hopeless

you've been told your condition is, no matter how long you've been

like this, no matter what you've already tried, one fact is on your

side:

you're just flesh and blood.

 

Flesh and blood has to follow immutable biochemical laws. Not that

we know what all these laws are. But your

body knows.

 

Just like in Alexis Carrel's 28-year petri dish

experiment, if you detox your cells, they will live.

 

Major forces are today being marshalled against your right to choose

non-mainstream techniques like colon cleanses.

You can do it; you just can't learn about it.

 

So who's driving the bus here?

 

Who controls the health of your body?

 

 

----------------------Copyright New West 2003

REFERENCES

Garrett, Laurie --- The Coming Plague--- 1996 Penguin New York

 

Parrilli, G--- " Changes in intestinal permeability to lactulose

induced by cytotoxic chemotherapy " ---Cancer Treat Rep 1982Jun;66

(6):1435-1436

 

Haubrich, WS--- " The ebb and flow of gut fluids " --- Gastrointest

Endosc 1980May;26(s Supple):15-25

 

Phillips, S--- " The gut is a membrane, is a vesicle, is a gut! " ---

Gut 1987 Jun;28(6):650-2

 

Dalton, HP--- " Etiology of Bacteremia " --- Va Med Mon 1071 Dec;98

(12):660

 

Carrel, Alexis, MD--- Man, The Unknown--- 1939 MacFadden

Publications NY

 

Oak Ridge Associated Universities--- " Eco-Update " --- Acres USA Apr

1989

 

Jensen, Bernard --- Empty Harvest---Avery, 1990

 

Jensen, Bernard --- Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management 1981

 

Tilden, JH, MD --- Toxemia Explained 1926

 

Guyton, AC, MD ---Textbook of Medical Physiology --- 1996 Saunders

 

Garland, Leo, MD--- " Leaky Gut Syndrome: Breaking the Vicious

Cycle " -- 1995

 

Martin, Simon--- " Intestinal Permeability " -- BioMed Newsletter

no.11, May 95

 

Rogers, Sherry MD--- Townsend Letter for Doctors-- Feb-Mar 1995

 

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_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest