Colon cleansing is a very popular therapy among people involved in natural health care, but this article isn’t about colon cleansing. Not that I’m opposed to colon cleansing, mind you, but “cleansing” the colon isn’t all one needs to do to have a healthy gastrointestinal tract. One also has to reduce intestinal inflammation and repair the integrity of the intestinal membranes. This therapy could be called intestinal “toning.”

Colon cleansing has always made sense to me and made even more sense after I became a parent and had to change baby’s diapers. If you’ve ever noticed what happens to a baby’s bottom if you don’t change the diaper quickly enough, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The waste material from the colon will turn that nice pink bottom lobster red if it sits there long enough.

The redness, of course, is inflammation. All tissues respond to damage through the process of inflammation. It’s part of our immune system. So, if the material from the colon will inflame the skin if left there too long, don’t you think it will do the same thing to the inside of the colon if left there too long?

It’s a pretty common-sense conclusion that if we aren’t eliminating waste rapidly enough, it’s going to continually irritate and inflame the intestines. Of course, some people have so much “schooling” that they don’t believe in common sense anymore, such as the doctors who tell people that a bowel movement once per week is OK. Fortunately, many herbalists I know understand that improving colon transit time so that toxins and irritants are removed from the GI tract in a more timely manner is a good thing to do. This helps explain why stimulant laxatives  have been top selling herbs for a long time,

A cleanse will get that irritating waste material moving through quicker, so it will cause less irritation. But, that’s just like being more careful to change the baby’s diaper faster. If the babies bottom is red, you’d put something on it to soothe it, wouldn’t you? We need to do a similar thing when working with the intestines. We need to reduce the inflammation and promote healing, which is the focus of this article.

Of course, fiber and water will also decrease colon transit time and at the same time have the added benefit of binding toxins in the gut to reduce inflammation and prevent damage to intestinal mucosa. In fact, the most important thing that most people can do to improve the health of their colon is to increase fiber and water intake.  It is also important to remove parasites, yeast and other harmful microbes from the intestines and create a healthy balance of friendly bacteria using probiotic supplements like acidophilus and bifidophilus.

In Chinese medicine, the intestines are called the “sifters and sorters.” Their job is to selectively absorb nutrients that the body needs, and to reject materials that shouldn’t be absorbed. Inflammation causes fluid and protein to seep into tissue spaces, creating swelling of the tissues. In the intestines, this makes them more porous, and over time, causes them to lose structural integrity or tone.

The result is that the intestines permit large substances that shouldn’t be absorbed, including allergens, microbes and toxins to be absorbed into the blood and lymph. This compromises the integrity of the immune system, reduces our energy level, overburdens and stresses the liver and even affects our mood. This leakage in the gut is part of the biological terrain that contributes to a wide variety of problems. A list of health problems associated with leaky gut is found below. And, by the way, if you can’t seem to “go” without the aid of stimulant laxatives, intestinal inflammation and leaky gut can cause both diarrhea and constipation, so healing the intestinal membranes should help restore normal bowel function.

• Abdominal discomfort
• ADHD
• Allergies
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Autoimmune diseases
• Bloating
• Celiac disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Constipation
• Depression
• Dermatitis
• Diarrhea
• Eczema
• Environmental illness
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Fibromyalgia
• Food allergies
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Memory problems
• Multiple chemical sensitivity
• Pancreatic insufficiency
• Psoriasis
• Rashes
• Sinus problems
• Toxic feelings
• Yeast infections