Colon Cleansers Can Harm
ByGabe Mirkin, M.D.
Colon cleansers are foods and laxatives that
loosen your stool and make you go to the bathroom.
The latest research shows that regular use
of laxatives or colon cleansers can harm you
by blocking the absorption of healthful nutrients
from your colon into your bloodstream.
The bebeficial bacteria in your colon
convert undigested starches into short
chain fatty acids that heal ulcers, prevent
colon cancer and other cancers, reduce
the pain of arthritis, prevent the arterial
damage of arteriosclerosis, lower cholesterol,
and even lower high blood pressure.
100 years ago, Ilya Metchnikoff noticed
that people who lived in the mountains
of Hungary appeared to live to a very
old age. They didn't live longer, but
they had such a hard life that they looked
much older than they were. Metchnikoff
knew that they ate yogurt every day and
that yogurt is loaded with lactobacilli,
bacteria that can grow in your intestinal
tract.
He felt that these good bacteria displaced
bad bacteria that normally live in your
intestines and secrete toxins that shorten
your life. His theory of autointoxication
is that food that is not absorbed in the
upper intestinal tract passes to your
colon, where bad bacteria ferment it to
form poisons that are absorbed into your
bloodstream to shorten your life and even
cause cancer.
At the same time in Battle Creek, Michigan,
John Harvey Kellogg, of cereal fame, was
preaching the same thing. He claimed that
undigested food passes to the colon where
bacteria break it down to form toxic products
that pass into your bloodstream to shorten
your life. He prescribed colonics to wash
out the undigested foods so the toxic
products do not get into your bloodstream.
Of course, this is nonsense. There are
two absorption systems in your body. First
the food that you eat passes into your
stomach and upper intestines, where secretions
from your liver, stomach, intestines and
pancreas break down carbohydrates, fats
and proteins into their building blocks,
which are absorbed into your bloodstream
to keep your body healthy. The food that
is not broken down into basic sugars,
amino acids, fatty acids and glycerol
cannot be absorbed so it passes to your
colon. So far, researchers have identified
more than 500 different types of bacteria
that grow naturally in your colon. Almost
all are harmless and some break down these
unabsorbed carbohydrates to short chain
fatty acids that are necessary for your
health. It is these chemicals absorbed
from your colon that prevent and reduce
inflamation that aggravates arthritis,
and certain cancers, and other fatty acids
lower cholesterol and help prevent heart
attacks.
Using colon cleansers or laxatives reduces
the absorption of these beneficial short
chain fatty acids, and you lose basic
nutrients. People who recommend colonics
and laxatives claim that they remove stool
that gets stuck and rots in your colon.
This also is ridiculous. Undigested waste
products stick together by a physical
process called surface tension. Stool
behind never passes stool ahead, without
first picking up the stool and binding
to it as it passes to the outside. Colonics
and laxatives not only have not been shown
to help you, they can harm you be depriving
you of certain nutrients that are necessary
for health.
Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk
show host for 25 years and practicing
physician for more than 40 years; he is
board certified in four specialties, including
sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds
of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com
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