I this blog entry I will qualify the statement, "colon cleansing works."
So what is colon cleansing? I'm sure you've probably heard something about it these days. There are ads for colon cleansing products everywhere. There's even some funny looking guy on TV that drones on about his baby girl's massive tree trunk like bowel movements. Well good for her.
The main idea behind these colon cleansing products is that as you digest food, especially red meat and processed food, a layer of undigested food builds up along the walls of you colon. To keep your guts lubricated, The body secretes mucus which forms a layer over this supposedly undigested red meat and whatnot, but more undigested food sticks to it, causing the buildup of a 'mucoid plaque.' This 'mucoid plaque' is supposed to harbor putrefaction and release all manner of terrible things into the body.
"OH NO! run for your life! The mucoid plaques of Bowelzia Ten have landed!!!"
But seriously.
People use colon cleansing products, and pass these giant ropes of black, almost tar like, looking gunk. This is supposedly the mucoid plaque that the colon cleansing product removed from their intestines. Now their bowels are squeaky clean and working in tip top shape.
The strange thing is, no one has ever passed this stuff while evacuating for a colonoscopy, nor has any Doctor ever found this stuff during a colonoscopy. Also, no Pathologist has ever cut open someones colon and found pounds and pounds of this stuff, as some claim happened to John Wayne after his death.
This whole 'mucoid plaque' thing is crap. (haha get it?) What people are passing is the colon cleansing product itself. It's making this stuff. Most colon cleansing products contain psyllium, among other things, and psyllium forms a gelatinous blob in the intestines. It makes a great laxative, you might know it by the brand name "Metamucil."
Despite mucoid plaque basically being a bad hoax, colon cleansing has worked wonders for many people. It has cured their allergies. It has cured their acne. It has cured their 'masculine issues' in a way Viagra never could. Okay I made that last one up), but te thing is colon cleansing really does help people. Why?
To answer that we have to look at detoxification. Colon cleansing really does detoxify you, just not why 'they' say it does. T undestand this we have o understand detoxification.
Detoxification is your body getting rid of bad chemicals. So how does you body do this?
One of the major ways we detoxify is through breathing. Carbon dioxide is a toxin. If too much of it builds up, we die. Try not breathing for twenty minutes and see how you feel. You'll probably feel very dead. Breathing also gets rid of several other toxins and even excess chemicals that might not be bad. Think garlic breath.
The next form of detoxification is one people often forget: sweating. All sots of bad chemicals flow out into our sweat, along with some good ones like potassium and sodium. (It's got 'lectrolytes. It's what plants crave!). Yet another reason to get that occasional super intense workout in.
Another way, probably the most well known form of detoxification, is urinating. The old yellow river is full of wastes. The kidneys are basically a super efficient reverse osmosis filter. The best thing to do for them is to drink plenty of water. That will keep the toxins moving out.
There is actually a theory, that the reason women live a little longer than men is because they cry more. The idea is that there are toxins that are only effectively removed by crying, and since women cry more, they are more detoxed.
It is well known that the livers main job is to destroy toxins. Most detoxified byproducts are sent to the kidneys for elimination, and some are present in bile.
So now this leave us to the colon. The colon is a method of detoxification. Basically anything that leaves the body will take unwanted substances with it.
So what do all of these detox paths have in common? An interface with the blood. The lungs have alveolae, little sacks with capillaries to exchange Carbon Dioxide and xygen with the air. The kidneys have nephrons, which are little tufts of capillaries surrounded by the Bowman's capsule. The liver is full of capillaries, and even stores blood.
The inside of the colon is covered with capillaries. One of its main functions is to pull water out of whats left of our food. When fiber is present in the colon, it holds on to some water, and toxins pass from the blood into the stool, and are bound up in the fiber.
Go back and read that last sentence again. THAT is why colon cleansing works. Not because colon cleansing products clean out the colon, but because they have ingredients that absorb toxins from the blood. There are two main ingredients that do this, psyllium, and bentonite clay.
Bentonite clay is a type of clay known as a smectite. On the microscopic level, it made mad up of little tiny plate like particles. On the thin outer edge, the particles are positively charged, but the wide faces of the plates are negatively charged and attract positively charged toxins. (The majority,but not all, of toxins are positively charged) Internally taken clay is a powerful healer. I've used it myself, and highly reccomend it.
I already mentioned psyllium. This is the mucilaginous seed of the psyllium plant. When mixed with water it quickly forms a slimy goo. This goo is fiber, and it will not give up all its water when passing through the gut. It will absorb toxins and the fiber will bind them.
So you see colon cleansing really does work, but it doesn work the way 'they' say it does.
For more reading on healing clays, I suggest you check out Eyton's Earth. Geophagy is something we used to pracice often. Anyone who follows a paleodiet type diet will understand that clay is a surprising missing element of our diet.
Don't forget the power of fiber either. Make sure to get plenty of fiber in your diet. That means lots of greens, another thing paleo diet people will understand.
Now go and cleanse already!!!!
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