Here is an unpleasant, hardly discussed but universal experience for the reader to contemplate: we each carry around several pounds of aging feces and mucus in our digestive tract. We all carry this obnoxious load. The evidence is in the distended bellies we see all around us in the streets, malls or workplace. Every man, woman and child who is not eating a perfect diet is affected yet almost none knows it. How can this be?

We have this waste because we:

* Do not chew our food enough so it can pass through easily

* Eat too much refined, processed, low-fiber food - fiber absorbs water and makes our stools softer and bulkier, reduces pressure in the rectum and makes them easier to expel

* Do not drink enough water and other fluids: the feces becomes harder and more difficult to expel, we suffer from constipation and retention of old feces in the large intestine

* Do not exercise enough - exercise stimulates the digestive system. When I first started weight-lifting in my late thirties, I had to run to the bathroom after the first five minutes of each session to clear out my bowels.

In short, our diet and lifestyle are blocking us up.

If we do not expel feces from the rectum, the feces return to the colon where water is absorbed through the lining, making the feces progressively harder and even more difficult to expel. Some are never expelled unless we use colon hydrotherapy or some other intervention to cleanse the colon.

This is a problem, a big problem, because hardened feces make it harder for the body to eliminate toxins.

Toxins are microbial and man-made chemicals that poison the cells in our bodies.

External toxins, which can be either chemical or microbial, enter the body through water, air, food or physical contact with the skin or mucous membranes.

Internal toxins are created by the decomposition of food in our intestines and other normal metabolic processes. Chronic constipation also breeds bacterial toxins and yeast overgrowth.

The kidneys, liver, lungs, skin and the colon are the organs that eliminate toxins through exhalation, perspiration, urine and feces. White blood cells of the immune system also neutralize microbial toxins. The liver breaks toxins into harmless byproducts, which the body eliminates through the kidneys into the urine or in our feces. So feces are a major vehicle for expelling toxins.

Impacted feces in our large intestine stop the body from cleansing itself and cause toxins to build up. Finally, when the quantity of toxins overwhelm our ability to remove them, they move into cells and tissues.

The body produces inflammation in areas of the toxin accumulation in an effort to rid itself of the problem.

Before I underwent colon hydrotherapy, I experienced cloudy thinking, felt ill and had eczema and sores on my legs. These areas of inflammation are actually signals that the body cannot rid itself of the accumulating toxins.

If the toxins remain, the body eventually deposits them in areas where they will do as little harm as possible under the circumstances. These areas are usually fat cells, cysts, polyps or tumors. After years of storage, in the opinion of some, toxins ultimately trigger degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease.

To the extent that the body is unable to eliminate toxins, they stay in our organs and bloodstream. To make it worse, toxins in the impacted feces reenter our bodies through the walls of the large intestines and add to the accumulation. This is autotoxification (self-poisoning). Impacted feces have other unpleasant effects.

The impacted feces take up space. The bulk of the unexpelled feces explains, to my mind at least, why so many people have pot bellies. I notice that my stomach is smaller after a session of colon hydrotherapy.

The bulk may also physically prevent absorption of nutrients in the intestine. I have noticed that supplements seem to be more effective after several sessions of colon hydrotherapy.

Your body cannot expel all the waste by itself, but you can wash it out with some help from technology. Colon hydrotherapy is a major method of detoxification.

Cleaning out your intestines is one of the most effective measures you can take to improve your health and life. If you believe that, left to itself, and given the right nutrients and cleansing, the body is its own best doctor and can heal itself, then colon hydrotherapy is the fastest and most effective way to help it do just that.

The benefits I have personally noticed are:

* Reduced skin rashes

* Better absorption of nutrients

* More energy - feeling of lightness

* Ability to think more clearly

* Shrinking belly

My therapist told me that she has had patients with a whole variety of health issues such as backache, headache and fatigue. Colon hydrotherapy has helped many of them because it has allowed the body to cleanse itself as it is meant to.

It is actually a benefit for any adult, regardless of age. Some athletes have it done to give them a performance edge. I even read that Princess Diana had it done. To not have it done and maintain an otherwise healthy lifestyle by exercise and nutrition is rather like changing the spark plugs and wires, the coolant and the transmission fluid on your car, but not changing the oil. It is an essential part of maintenance.

It is a life-transforming procedure that is barely known because it has been side-lined for a number of reasons. These reasons may form the subject of another article one day.