Where's My Mucus?

If you have an interest in optimum nutrition and holistic health, chances are you have experimented with colon cleansing, or at least come across the concept of it. You have also probably heard the rumour that, unless you follow an ideal diet and detox regularly, your colon will be coated with a layer of sticky, dark matter sometimes referred to as “mucoid plaque”.

The idea is that with each ‘less than ideal’ meal, a layer of extra mucous is secreted to protect the bowel wall against the ferocious effects of fermenting bacteria. Instead of being swept away by the next meal of fibrous green matter, each subsequent layer of mucus gets overlaid by another, and then another – so the popular wisdom goes – until the inside of your colon is covered, coated and impacted.

Because the colon spends much time drawing out water from the mix, this material become like tyre-rubber. Once truly aged and hard, this grim coating inhibits the uptake of nutrients, slows the passage of material through the bowel, and houses the detrimental bacteria that give off endless waves of toxic materials, stressing the immune system, and giving rise to candida, IBS, and so on.

This explanation so graphically illustrates the symptoms of a congesting diet and failing immune system that it this is still the basic argument behind many of the colon cleansing products available today, and informs much naturopathic lore with regard to food, fasting and detox.

It was around a century ago that geniuses like Dr. Be
ard Jensen and Victor Irons designed a process of putting fibre back into the bowel in a big way, to dramatically reverse this degeneration of the bowel. With great success, they used a combination of powerful digestive enzymes to soften the unwanted material, and indigestible fibre to sweep the contents out. Variations on this theme, along with a juice fast and colonics, are still generally accepted as the fastest and best means of relieving the condition, along with its many symptoms of ill health. And the resulting expelled matter attests to the condition and its resolution.

However, with colonoscopy, which was unavailable to those proposing the above principles, we can now see that the old matter at the root of this theory does not actually exist inside the bowel!

So many now veer in the opposite direction, claiming that if the hardened mucus does not exist, then the process of colon cleansing is pointless and useless. But let’s keep this in context. The failing of this explanation should not overshadow the many thousands of people who have found benefit from the practices. So surely we must arrive at an evolved understanding, which incorporates the new information from colonoscopies with the undeniably amazing results people have achieved through colon cleansing.

Having helped hundreds of colons relieve their troublesome burdens, and being one of the first (it seems) to admit this minor hiccup in our founding premise of colon care, I was determined to get to the bottom of this (pun intended).

I spoke to numerous people in the profession who (in my opinion) “should” know why we see no physical trace of such materials in these semi-invasive medical procedures. My searching for an answer revealed something much worse than a conundrum. It seems that there is a basic denial of the question on both sides.

The medical profession has always denied the existence of such materials because their modern diagnostic techniques do not reveal it (but then, they were denying it before these techniques were developed). They give little heed to the fact that there is something troubling the bowel long before a patient presents a ‘drug-worthy’ symptom to them.

Meanwhile, the alte
ative therapists know there is something wrong with the bowel that affects the whole body, and that it is also reversible. But many are so stuck on Jensen’s old model that they don’t question why the alleged material does not feature in colonoscopy footage.

Either way, the metres of ropey, stinking mess continue to pour from my clients, and all I can offer them is my own hypothesis.

With the creative and enquiring minds of a couple of maverick colonic hydrotherapists, plus my own experiences over the years, it is possible to cobble together a likely explanation. But it is supposition until proven in any way.

We know that food that has had its inherent enzyme content destroyed through cooking, and is then combined in such a way that inhibits the body’s own digestive secretions, will tend to ferment rather than digest. As this benefits detrimental bacteria (more on this in later articles), much toxic waste is produced as they proliferate.

As this toxic load is a regular event, the bowel wall becomes saturated and collects what material it cannot cleanse itself of, as all organs do: In the kidneys and gall bladder this saturation would become stones; acids in the muscle and fat reserves; calcific spurs on bones; tar clusters in lungs; and even the brain is subject to the accumulation of certain metals and toxins.

So, the real situation, it seems, is that there is a heavy toxic load on the bowel, but it is held in between and inside the cells of the bowel wall rather than as a coating on the wall. Because the muscle structures of the bowel wall are very susceptible to tension, and this inhibiting of blood flow aids the toxic build-up, bowel muscles are more prone to this than other muscles. So, a system of colon cleansing must incorporate some components to urge the cells to release their toxic baggage, and then others component to sweep it away.

Jensen’s system uses digestive enzymes, which may well provoke the bowel through mild irritation. Many herbal and “natural” medicines are poisons employed to provoke a response. Some systems use herbs to do the provoking, while others use oxygen processes. To remove these irritants, the bowel sheds extra lubricating mucus, and throws off toxins too in this process. The psyllium husks (ancient India seed husks used by Jensen) then absorb the toxic mucus and carry it from the bowel.

So, many people celebrate their large, dark expulsions during a retreat with me, or at home using their herbal formulas, without recognizing that the bulk of the material leaving them was just the psyllium that went in yesterday! Its darkness is the stuff to be celebrating the release of, not the vehicle in which it sits.

However, for those who got nothing from their previous colonic, there is comfort in the knowledge that if they are continuing to put the psyllium in, then even if their next colonic still produces nothing, the one following that will be an avalanche worthy of photos!

So, under this new paradigm, it is the combined factors of eating only irritants (sorry if that is an unsavoury term, but let’s be real here), and bulk for a week, that ensures that all of the material leaving the bowel is loaded with toxic junk. There was no digestive (absorbing) work to be performed in these ‘meals’ and so all available energy goes in the direction of detoxification (expelling).

If one is eating normally, and there is no provocation to promote additional detox, then surely the material released in a colonic session is just stuff that would come out anyway, regardless of how well-meaning and professional the therapist.

Lastly, whenever the colon is washed in this unnatural way, we lose much of the bacterial content. As most people’s bacterial balance is in favour of detrimental bacteria in the first place (thus the need for colonics), this is no bad thing. However, cleansing the colon really means ridding it of the by-products of detrimental bacteria, and there is a danger that the bacterial vacuum left behind will just get filled with more detrimental bacteria, and leave you exactly where you were.

So, replace the good guys in serious abundance. The diligent use of both prebiotics and probiotics for around a month after a cleanse cannot be stressed highly enough. This is undoubtedly the single most important thing you can do as a follow up.

As a final note on that I would say that the probiotic we all know, acidophilus, is not actually that useful for successful digestive processes. It is simply the easiest and cheapest to produce. Look for a probiotic that has a wide variety of strains. And on the prebiotic front, getting a simple F.O.S. supplement will work wonders for feeding those inhabiting armies of yours. Fructo-Oligo-Saccharides are the sugars that your body effectively spoon-feeds into the bowel to boost the bacteria it likes.

Of course we would be getting a constant top-up of these things from the jungle diet we evolved on. But as we now live and eat so far from the source, we have lost many of the key factors in our health. Replacing a few of the more important ones – even with products sometimes – can make a real difference.

In the next issue we’ll look in greater detail at bacterial balance, and its relationship to energy, the immune system, and dietary choices.