Home Enemas

Home enemas are a great support for your detox and ongoing digestive health. Your colon is your primary organ of elimination and critical to your digestion. If it isn’t clean, it can become clogged and lined with debris much like a dirty sewage pipe.

Eating a cleaner diet, like the Whole Body Detox Diet, is the best way to maintain a healthy colon. But years of eating processed food and animal products causes undigested and hardened debris to build up.

This built up material blocks your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from the food you eat. This can result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies that lead to low energy, hormone imbalances, and many complex health conditions.

A healthy digestive system is the foundation of a healthy body. It relies on a delicate balance of microorganisms called “intestinal flora.” The overuse of antibiotics and the absence of healthy fermented foods in the modern diet contribute to an imbalance in healthy flora.

This imbalance allows toxic parasites and harmful microbial overgrowth to infest the digestive tract. This unhealthy internal ecosystem may lead to multiple health issues and digestion problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), leaky gut syndrome, food allergies, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease and even colon cancer. ¹

Why Enemas?

Pockets in your colon, called diverticuli, will also begin to empty out. This loosened debris must find a way out. If it stays in your intestines or colon and is reabsorbed, it may cause headaches, fatigue and skin problems.²

Some medical experts warn that people who already suffer from diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, severe or internal hemorrhoids or tumors in the rectum or colon should not use colonic irrigation and should seek their doctor’s advice before using any type of colon hydrotherapy.³

Cleansing the colon will provide much needed relief from detox symptoms. There are several recommended ways to clean the colon which include:

1. taking high fiber, toxin-absorbing supplements like psyllium husk which gel up in the intestines and flush out the waste,
2. ingesting herbal laxatives like Senna leaf which are actually irritants that cause the colon to expel it along with other wastes,
3. receiving professional colonics (colon hydrotherapy), or
4. using a personal enema bag.

Using an enema bag is safe, affordable and very effective when done properly. It is easy on your system and can be combined with other herbal and nutritional therapies. It is much more cost effective than professional colonics. Once you purchase a good bag, it will last a lifetime.

How to Take an Enema

Here are detailed steps:

1. Find a comfortable and convenient location – could be the bathroom floor, in the bathtub or in a sunny, comfortable part of your house, but not too far from the toilet.
2. Close the hose clamp and fill the bag with warm, filtered water. If desired, add essential oils like lavender, peppermint or frankincense to stimulate peristalsis and immune function (1-3 drops). Pure Castile Soap is another option for enhanced cleansing – use up to 1 tablespoon.
3. Hang the bag from the shower rod, the doorknob, an IV stand or other sturdy location that is at least 2 feet above your body.
4. Lubricate the nozzle with a NON-petroleum lubricant such as olive oil, vitamin E, plant-based salve or other water-soluble lubricant.
5. Lie on your right side or back to gently insert the nozzle into your rectum then relax into a comfortable position on your side or back.
6. Slowly release the clamp to allow water to flow into the colon. It is important to control the water flow and take it very SLOW! This allows the colon to relax and not contract too quickly, closing off the water flow. If there is even minor cramping, STOP the flow and relax, take a breath, then resume the flow. It should take 5 to 15 minutes for 1-3 quarts. If you experience any pain, STOP.
7. Massaging the abdomen also helps with relaxation and assisting the flow. Massage from the lower left upward, across the top of the abdomen, and down the right side.
8. When you have taken 1-3 quarts or you experience consistent cramping or fullness, close the hose clamp, remove the nozzle, and sit on the toilet to release your bowels fully.
9. Follow with 1-2 more fills depending on time and comfort. Only take the amount of water that is comfortable, but with each fill you should be able to take in more water, ideally up to 3 quarts.

How Often to Take an Enema

Weekly colon cleansing during a detox program is very effective, but use your own symptoms to guide your need for a cleansing. Colon cleansing can offer immediate relief from many detox symptoms, including irritability! Lightness of body and uplifted mood are a blissful reward for the time and effort it takes. Monthly enemas are a great routine maintenance for lifelong colon and digestive health.

Enema Products

Follow Kristina Amelong’s advice on selecting the best bag for yourself, ideally avoiding petroleum-based rubber products which may cause sensitivity or allergic reaction.

I, Cindy, have the 4-quart clear silicone Flowmaster kit with syringe bulb pump and a ratcheted, multi-position clamp. It came with Kristina’s booklet, instructional DVD and some sample enema supplements. It was a $200 investment, but well worth it when you consider one visit to a colon therapist costs $65 or more! I love my colon cleansing system and will use it for years and years to come.

¹Kristina Amelong, CNC, CT, 10 Days to Optimal Health: A Guide to Nutritional Therapy and Colon Cleansing, www.optimalhealthnetwork.com

²Steve Meyerowitz, Juice Fasting and Detoxification, 6th edition, p. 84, Sproutman Publications, 1999

³Aetna Intelihealth, Natural Standard and the Faculty of Harvard Medical School