The Great Enema Debate

Detoxification is a well-recognized holistic strategy for supporting the body’s ability to heal from Lyme and related chronic infections.

You may also know that the Uprooting Lyme approach emphasizes cleansing practices over cleansing products in order to achieve the most effective results.

One of the most critical components of effective detoxification is colon cleansing. Sorry, there’s no getting around it!

The reason is, a vast majority of waste leaves your body via this eliminative highway. Yes, urination, sweating and deep breathing are important too, but the way that the vast majority of toxic waste matter and disease burden leaves your body is through your bowels.

The idea of getting involved with your own bowel movements makes a lot of people squeamish. Perhaps we’re biologically wired to feel disdain towards our own feces and the process by which it leaves our bodies. And it’s reinforced culturally by our obsession with creating a germ-free world!

Science is evolving towards the conclusion that this is neither possible nor desirable. And the fact that diversity is a hallmark indicator of the health and stability of an ecosystem is indisputable. Even so, we have not yet begun the deep work of breaking the habits of overusing antibiotics, harsh detergents, and stemming the pollution that causes the loss of more species of microbes, plants and animals every day.

As a specialist in the holistic treatment of Lyme disease, I talk about many facets of colon cleansing with people every day because what’s going on with your bowel elimination is THAT important to healing from Lyme and associated diseases.

Sometimes a client comes to me and says, “My doctor said I shouldn’t do enemas – they don’t really matter,” or “A friend told me enemas are dangerous and could make your bowel lose function,” or “Someone on my Lyme forum said you could wash away the good bacteria by doing enemas, is that true?”

These types of concerns and misconceptions about enemas coupled with the deeper human wiring that makes us not want to deal with issues of waste elimination on the individual or global scale has sparked my desire to address some of these concerns for people seeking a full recovery from Lyme disease.

To be clear, colon cleansing is a key component of the Uprooting Lyme approach to cleansing your body to accelerate your healing from Lyme disease. For some, learning to wield the enema hose is one of the most powerful tools – and once you purchase a $15 kit, it’s free!

So here are a few of the most common concerns about enemas.

“Do enemas wash away the good bacteria?”

I hear this concern a lot. It’s useful to understand that a small amount of intestinal bacteria leaves the body with every bowel movement. This is normal. What’s most important is your body’s ability to replenish it. This is where fermented foods, probiotic supplements, a diet that’s right for your body, and treatment of digestive system disease is necessary to secure the on-going thriving of good bacteria in the gut.

Furthermore, when your bowels are chronically sluggish, this works in favor of the disease-causing gut bacteria – Lyme, yeast and parasites included – with on-going stagnation, fermentation (gas), and rotting of poorly digested food.

Conversely, when enemas are used to empty the colon regularly and more fully than your body would with a typical bowel movement, you are encouraging a healthier bowel environment for the good bacteria to thrive. My clinical observations confirm this time and again, meaning that the people who do colon cleansing regularly develop stronger digestive systems much faster than those who do not.

Will I become dependent on them and ultimately have a worse problem with constipation?

This is an understandable assumption, that if your body is not allowed to move its bowels on its own, that you will become dependent upon the enemas to have a bowel movement. But what I’ve witnessed from my decade of personal and clinical experience with hundreds of people, is that, perhaps surprisingly, the opposite is true.

In the beginning with enema use, there can be a “lag time” in the days following the enema because your colon has been emptied and your body is still sluggish in moving things forward to re-fill it for another bowel movement.

But over time as your bowel is consistently emptied (with far more waste removed than you would have from a normal bowel movement), your body becomes accustomed to moving waste forward more efficiently, the diameter of the colon becomes larger as older waste is removed, and your ability to have substantial, regular bowel movements without any type of aid is greatly increased.

This is what’s known as the “bowel retraining” process. It takes time, but does occur for most people, and is part of the overall rejuvenation that is brought about by effective cleansing.

But if I already have a daily bowel movement, why bother with enemas?

If you already have a strong bowel, good for you! But if you’re sick with Lyme, you’re still trapped in a situation where the Lyme is creating toxins and inflammation that you’re body can’t handle or get rid of fast enough.

Because Lyme is protected in part by the accumulation of toxins that we all have inside our bodies, a primary holistic treatment strategy is deep tissue cleansing. Gradual consistent engagement in the holistic cleansing lifestyle accompanied by antimicrobial and other treatment strategies, work together to both eliminate the Lyme infection and recharge the body’s vital energy so it can heal and take back the reigns of body function.

So if the only thing holding you back from using this most effective cleansing tool is feeling squeamish about your body, then I highly recommend – if you’re serious about getting well – to just try it once or twice.

Then you’ll see, it’s not such a big deal. And like many things, the more you do it, the more experience you gain with how your body feels, and the more comfortable you’ll become with it.

Then you’ll be able to tune in and decide how often colon cleansing feels right for your body and you’ll have one more empowering tool that you can use at your discretion to propel your recovery forward.

 

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Ready to learn how to effectively, safely detox – and literally clear the way for healing? Check out Detox For Lyme, our 8-week online course, which teaches you everything you need to know to cleanse and fast, whether you are just learning how or ready to move to an advanced level of cleansing.