Colonic Hydrotherapy History
It is difficult to identify the exact time in history
that colon hydrotherapy emerged, but many historians trace it back to the
ancient Egyptians. They’d practice it in its more basic form called “enema”.
Herodotus, a Greek historian at the time wrote: “The Egyptians clear themselves on three
consecutive days, every month, seeking after health by purging and enemas for
they think that all disease comes to man from his food."
The use of enema was also known to be used by the Greeks and Romans, Nigerians and Africans. Some would use it for a diversity of body disorders, to replace the use of laxatives or treat intestinal worms and fevers. From pure water to a various types of enemas including the use of oil and honey, enema evolved to early 12th Century, and at the time of a famous English surgeon, John Arderne, who’s introduced it to the public to relief constipation, it continued to grow strongly and was used extensively in England by women of the day. He recommended that each person constipated or not, should be purged three to four times a year to maintain good health.
Through to the 15th Century, when Louis XI became another adept to this ritual, the apparatus was still very much self-administrated.The 17th Century became as “the age of the enema”. It was fashionable in Parisian society to have as many as three or four enemas a day, believing that those “lavements” were essential to well-being. People then gained access to it for personal use rather than having to go to a Doctor to get it administered. It came in all different make from copper to porcelain or even mother of pearl and silver! Aristocrats at that time wanted to make sure that people knew they owned a large collections of such instruments. The real growth of the enema happened when it became a self-operated system by the middle of the 18th Century.
Edward Jukes developed two types of enemas apparatus units that might have been the precursors for Colon Hydrotherapy equipment today, and Vincent Priessnitz was the individual who finalized the apparatus and made it into a systemic form of therapy. During the late 19th and early 20th Century, the use of Colon Hydrotherapy, and enemas, slowly died away among the medical community as laxatives and other drugs became more commercially available and easier to administer. We’d have to wait until Dr Kellogg practiced into that field so to revitalize the therapy. Some record show in the 1917 Journal of American Medicine, that he had more than 40,000 cases of gastrointestinal diseases and in all but twenty cases, he had used NO surgery for the treatment of gastrointestinal disease in his patients.
Dr Kerr Russell would come up with the term Colonic Irrigation as he liked to make a distinction between the word enema which was a self administered treatment and only reached a limited area in the colon (sigmoid) and the word irrigation which was used for a modern self-operated system to thoroughly cleanse the walls, remove abnormal mucus, and also empty the bowel. The tone of the colonic muscle would improve and the blood supply increase.
One of the original pieces of equipment was first introduced in 1898 which allowed the client to receive the treatment in a reclined position. Another apparatus was introduced where the client would lie down on their back with the legs at a right angle to the torso and knees also bent. Many different systems were then being introduced throughout the years as a progression to easier and more convenient use for the client and therapist at the time, until the 1940’s, when Colon Hydrotherapy equipment were still evolving. By the early 1950’s, the therapy was growing in the United States. The renowned Beverly Boulevard in California was then known as “Colonic Row”.
Unfortunately, towards the mid 1960’s the use of Colon Irrigations slowly died away one more time until the early 1970’s when most Colon Hydrotherapy equipment were removed from hospitals and nursing homes in favor of the Colostomy, Fleet enema and prescriptive laxatives.
For a more developped history on Colonic Hydrotherapy, here is a resume of Colonic Hydrotherapy history with short texts and pictures.
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