“My original training in colon hydrotherapy was when I administered it twenty-five years ago as part of my massage therapy program and that training went a lot deeper when I attended Bastyre University. I was one of several instructors in colon hydrotherapy at that naturopathic college,” says Janet Beaty, N.D., whose practice is in West Concord, Massachusetts. “Now I don’t own the physical facilities for doing it in my office, but I regularly refer patients to a competent nearby colon hydrotherapist.”

“My experience with the treatment is totally positive. I refer people to have it when they are constipated because their colons are not fully emptying and bringing on GI discomforts of some kind. My sense is that the patient must empty out old waste products so that there is no interference with healing modalities,” states Dr. Beaty. “I am using colon hydrotherapy as my beginning treatment for detoxification, particularly for patients with congested bowels. While I focus on the gastrointestinal aspects of colon hydrotherapy, I also prescribe it for the treatment of allergies, arthritis, and other health difficulties.”

“If I had my druthers, I would get all of the patients with any health problems on colon hydrotherapy. Why I don’t is because it entails the payment of cash-out-of-pocket and some people find the concept too ‘kinky’ even to imagine doing it,” Dr. Beaty says. “Yet, probably most patients should receive at least one colon hydrotherapy during the course of taking care of themselves. It is a very helpful tool for nearly any patient in order to get the bowel peristalsis to work. An effective technique for stimulating such peristalsis is to start out with giving colon hydrotherapy using warm water and gradually decreasing the water temperature as treatment continues. This lower temperature tends to stimulate the bowel muscles. The cold temperatures cause good peristaltic action for a retraining of the bowel.”

“The ideal treatment program I follow is that from four to eight weeks the patient receives colon hydrotherapy. This time frame is necessary for unloading a bunch of toxins from the liver. Here is a typical case history: a thirty-six year-old patient, Mrs. Cynthia Mangie, had experienced several ectopic pregnancies which resulted in her having a number of miscarriages and ending with chronic endometriosis. Also, she had her belly sliced into many times. Her caesarian pregnancies left her with too much scar tissue so that now the endometriosis must be managed without further surgery,” says Dr. Janet Beaty. “The solution to my patient’s problem of endometrial pain is to take a colon hydrotherapy one week before her period. The pain is then reduced markedly because her usual premenstrual constipation is prevented. With the bowel clean, Mrs. Mangie has more room in her belly. She currently takes colon hydrotherapy routinely for improving the quality of her life.”