The Colon

A Faster Colon

By Casey Adams, Ph.D.

Most of us think of the colon—often referred to as the large intestine—as no more than a pipe: Like an air duct or water main.

Although the colon transports partially digested food-waste though a bending tube-like structure, it functions more like an organ than a pipe. In fact, a malfunctioning colon will disease the entire body, increase fatigue, lower athletic performance and cause various infections.

The gateway between the small intestine and the colon is the ileo-cecal valve. The ileo-cecal valve sits in a chamber called the cecum. The cecum is a drain-trap—like what plumbers build into pipes to trap sediment. To clean out the trap, the cecum is connected to the immune system via the appendix. The appendix is a part of the lymphatic system that supplies antibodies and macrophages to remove toxins and bacteria before they can enter the colon. A healthy cecum is also colonized by probiotics that battle pathogenic bacteria.

A cecum chamber full of pathogenic bacteria can overwhelm the appendix. This can cause the appendix to swell, causing the well-known appendicitis attack. Why, we might ask, is it so important to for the body to keep pathogenic bacteria out of the colon?

The colon is typically about three to six feet long with three bendy sections. The first section ascends the right side of the abdomen. The second section transverses the abdomen. The third section descends the left side of the abdomen to the rectum. A healthy colon houses trillions of probiotic bacteria colonies. These bacteria, primarily of the bifidobacterium family, work to ferment and convert the residual fibers left in our foods to short-chain fatty acids (butyric, acetic, valerate and propionic) and vitamins K, A and B. The colon also releases water and potassium into the bloodstream. Without these important nutrients, the body can become malnourished. For example, a lack of butyric acid has been implicated in cases of colitis and colon cancer.

The colon is an important detoxification organ. The liver dumps various waste metabolites into the colon and, assuming a fast colon, these are dumped out the rectum within hours. One of the more important metabolites the colon absorbs is cholesterol. A healthy colon will thus reduce cholesterol levels—especially dangerous low density lipoproteins (LDL). As long as it moves.

If the colon doesn’t move, it will release various waste products back into the bloodstream. A slow moving colon will release ammonia, histamines, skatoles, indoles, putrescine, cadaverine, hydrogen sulfide, tyramine, phenols, neurone and a number of endotoxins produced by pathogenic bacteria into the bloodstream.

The famous Harvey Kellogg, M.D., an early twentieth century physician and champion of colon cleansing, performed thousands of colon surgeries for colitis, cancer or other intestinal diseases. Dr. Kellog once said, “Of the 22,000 operations that I have personally performed, I have never found a single normal colon, and of the 100,000 that were performed under my jurisdiction, not over 6% were normal.”

A toxic and slow-moving colon is a destructive source of pollution and acids into the bloodstream. These toxins can produce a number of unhealthy symptoms. These include sinusitis, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, allergies, food sensitivities, acidosis, and general toxemia. Histamine, for example, increases the body’s inflammatory activities, often accelerating the pathway of inflammation and swelling. This burdens the weaker areas of our bodies, driving the inflammatory cascade as the body works to remove these toxins.

For an athlete, the health of the colon is directly related to performance. Toxins slow the cell’s metabolic performance because the cells also must work to detoxify, taking their energy away from muscle work. Detoxification also slows oxygenation and the removal of lactic acid. Lactic acid removal is critical in reducing muscle fatigue.

A slow colon diseases itself. For this reason colon cancer is one of the leading forms of cancer. Collitis has reached epidemic levels, and constipation is a common experience for a majority of Americans.

So how do we reverse a toxic colon? Simply increasing the speed of movement and increasing probiotic colonies will slow toxin release into the blood and reduce the number of pathogenic bacteria in the colon.

The clearing of the colon is made difficult by a pervasive mucoid plaque layer built up in the colon in most adults. Years of overeating foods that move slowly through the colon and putrefy—low-fiber processed foods, red meats and fried foods—creates a thick layer of plaque along the walls of the colon. This plaque might be compared to the artery plaque of atherosclerosis. As it builds, it narrows the opening (lumen) of the colon, clogging and slowing movement.

Imagine a three-inch pipe, lined with sediment to the point where the opening is only one-half inch. This is the case for many who eat a modern western diet. Instead of sediment, colon plaque is a thick layer of gooey, bacteria-laden crud: A living layer of gunk. This layer of plaque can weigh up to ten pounds. Pathogenic bacteria thrive within this layer of mucoid plaque.

Cleaning out the colon is easier than we might think. While many supplement manufacturers offer various (and sometimes expensive) colon cleanse products, these typically require many months of use to even make a dent in the mucoid plaque. By far the easiest method of safely removing our mucoid plaque layer is through colon hydrotherapy. This is a process where a colon hydrotherapist inserts a hose hooked to a hydrotherapy machine that gently circulates water through the colon and extracts the plaque and built-up waste. A few treatments of this “flushing” will remove most plaque immediately. Additionally, most colon hydrotherapists now provide a “probiotic insert,” which delivers critical bifidus probiotic bacteria directly into the colon. This “insert” virtually guarantees the colon’s immediate probiotic re-colonization. Colon hydrotherapy centers exist in most cities, and they are typically very reasonably priced—especially when compared to expensive colon surgery or even colon cancer medical treatment.

Clearing out the plaque can turn around a bad case of constipation as well: Especially if we are eating right, and training our colon to eliminate regularly. While some of us wait to defecate when the urge comes on, the best approach is to train the bowel by sitting on the toilet everyday at about the same time—a time when we have a few minutes to relax and preferably in the privacy of our home. This trains our peristalsis movement to defecate at certain times. Once in the morning and once in the evening is ideal. Still we also need to answer the call outside of these times. For many, once a day may be enough. Less than once a day should be considered constipation.

Diet is key to keeping the colon speeded up. By reducing red meat and fried foods and increasing high fiber foods, we can effectively speed things up. While a fiber- and plant-rich meal might take 24-30 hours from meal to defecation, red meat and fried meals will typically take about 48-72 hours. Our diet should consist of at least 40 grams of fiber per day. Increasing roughage will also keep the colon cleaner, and reduce mucoid plaque build-up. Most western meat-heavy diets barely contain 10-15 grams. For this reason, westerners have the highest rates of colon cancers in the world. Good sources of supplemental fiber are psyllium husks, flax, salba and greenfoods. Healthy laxatives include magnesium, rhubarb, aloe, and of course prune juice.

The colon is a complex organ. Like any organ, it must function properly or the body will suffer. Increasing our colon’s health and function will immediately increase our entire body’s vitality and athletic performance.