Do colon cleanses really work?

It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘cleanse’ hype. From guzzling green juice to irrigating your colon, many trends claim to offer enormous health benefits.

But far too often, it’s usually just money that you’re flushing away. Here, we explore the real effects (and the dangers) of colon cleansing.

Sometimes referred to as ‘colonic hydrotherapy’ or ‘colonic irrigation’ (or simply a ‘colonic’), a colon cleanse claims to help remove toxins and waste from your colon (or large bowel) by flushing them out with fluids.

It might not sound glamorous, but advocates believe that cleansing toxins from your gut leads to a range of health benefits, from, supposedly, improving your immune system to giving you more energy.¹

Colon cleansing has been around since ancient times, when it was commonly believed that intestinal waste could poison the body.

It essentially irrigates your colon by flushing it with a large amount of liquid (usually around 50 litres of water, though sometimes herbs or even coffee are added into the mix).

You’ll usually lay on a table and have the liquid pumped through your rectum via a tube, before answering nature’s call (sometimes repeating this process several times).

The trouble, however, is there's no evidence to support that colon cleanses have any real health benefits.² What’s worse, the procedure actually carries a variety of potential risks.

Your liver and digestive system already do a great job of removing toxins and waste from your body (all that time on the toilet isn’t for nothing). So, there's no need for a procedure like a colon cleanse.

Colon cleansing is not only unnecessary, it can also be risky. Side effects may include:

• vomiting
• bloating
• diarrhoea
• cramping
• nausea¹

Colon cleansing can even lead to:

• dehydration
• rectal tears
• electrolyte imbalance.

These complications are especially dangerous if you have kidney or heart disease.

There’s also a significant risk of infection from colon cleansing. An audit of colonic irrigation clinics in New South Wales found that some water tanks used during procedures contained colonies of bacteria at levels that exceeded what’s allowed in public swimming pools.³ This has even prompted calls for more stringent regulation of colonic irrigation clinics in the country.

If you're looking to give your colon and bowel an extra health boost, a simple and effective alternative to cleaning is a high-fibre diet that contains plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains, plus lots of water. That way, you’re flushing your body as nature intended and avoiding any unnecessary risk.