Digestive health centre

Colonic irrigation can be dangerous, doctors warn

By Philip Wilson

BMJ Group News

What do we know already?

Colonic irrigation, also known as colonic cleansing, involves having large amounts of water pumped through your bowel.

The practice became popular in the late 1800s, but fell out of favour after the American Medical Association condemned it in 1919.

With the help of celebrity endorsements, colonic irrigation has staged a comeback in recent years, with practitioners in the UK carrying out nearly 6,000 procedures per month.

Are there any benefits?

Colonic irrigation originally became popular based on the theory that that waste in the bowel could poison the body. However, there’s almost no scientific evidence for this.

Despite the number of people who’ve tried colonic irrigation, there’s little evidence of any benefit. Doctors based at Georgetown University in the US have searched the medical research and found no good-quality studies supporting colonic irrigation.

And the side effects?

There have been two recent cases of people needing hospital treatment after colonic irrigation.

The first was a 31-year-old African-American woman. She was suffering from nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, light-headedness, and dehydration. She also had low levels of potassium in her blood, which can cause muscle weakness and abnormal heart rhythms.

The woman’s symptoms had started within an hour of having colonic irrigation. She suffered from Crohn’s disease, a bowel condition that doctors think could have made her more vulnerable to the side effects of colonic irrigation. The woman recovered after treatment with fluids and potassium supplements.

The second case was a 49-year-old man who developed vomiting, diarrhoea, and stomach pain after having colonic irrigation. He needed several days of hospital treatment for dehydration, low potassium levels, and an inflamed pancreas. His doctors considered surgery for an obstruction in his bowel, although this was not needed in the end.

Other potential side effects of colonic irrigation include dizziness, kidney problems, a ruptured bowel, heart problems, and infections. We only have isolated reports of side effects from colonic irrigation, so we can’t say how many, or how few, people develop these problems.

What do doctors advise?

Doctors say it’s not wise to have colonic irrigation, especially of you’ve had bowel problems in the past such as diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease, colitis, severe haemorrhoids, or if you’ve had surgery on your bowel. You may also be more vulnerable to side effects if you have heart problems or kidney disease.